Is it so wrong for me to like Beck's Record Club recording of Oar better than Alex ""Skip"" Spence's original cult classic? Well, I'm not willing to make that declaration, and even though that's not entirely because of the (lack of) merit in liking a cover better, it made me wonder, should it be? In this instance, Spence's original is just so heavy. Without the additional weight felt through his background story and vocals, a lighter rendition is a much easier listen—comparing the versions of ""Weighted Down"" is like discussing the merits of ""Mean Girls"" versus ""Precious."" Much like the way an electric, Figure 8-era Elliott Smith is much easier to find yourself listening to even though it's not his ""best"" material, so too is this set of covers, which infuses contemporary sounds and tempered beats into the mix of intriguing conventions on the original.
But that realization got my mind wandering...
Covers are an integral part of the music world, whether or not you are willing to give them credit. Within the industry they are a sign of harmony—after all, imitation is the best form of flattery, and Beck's Record Club was designed to spread the word on some of his favorite inspirations—while the layman is quick to look down on a tune, or at least lump it in some type of ""simply for fun"" category, once they find out it's just a cover. But what about Aretha Franklin's ""Respect"" makes it more than just a cover? It was culturally significant as a platform off which Franklin would not only belt her gender frustrations, but also launch her career from the base of an Otis Redding tune, and I have to think that it can be at least partially credited to the fact that covers were no sort of cop-out back then. They were commonplace. In fact, they were so common that there are several others out there that, like ""Respect,"" overtook the original.
Aside from Franklin, no artist has definitively recreated a song the way Jimi Hendrix supercharged Bob Dylan's ""All Along the Watchtower,"" which even Dylan agrees is better. Recent success came from Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' ""Hurt,"" which Cash's heavy vocals brought to painful life more than the shoegaze fuzz of NIN. Some other interesting finds are the Doors' ""Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar),"" which is probably the most distinct effort on their eponymous debut, lifted from an opera tune from 1930. A fairly unknown, but great, result of the emergence of the Civil Rights movement's sprouting in the '60s soul and R&B scenes was Otis Redding's version of the Rolling Stone's ""Satisfaction."" And two other starkly different renditions that crossed racial barriers were Eric Clapton's ""I Shot the Sheriff,"" which is an entirely different beast than Bob Marley's original. Similarly, the Talking Heads' ""Take Me to the Water"" is shocking when played back-to-back with its Al Green predecessor. But naturally, there are some awesome duds out there to fill out the opposite side of the spectrum.
Limp Bizkit's ""Behind Blue Eyes"" and Lenny Kravitz's ""American Woman"" will never hold a candle to their originals. But the one that hurts most is used for evil. If I have to hear the Counting Crows' cover of Joni Mitchell's ""Big Yellow Taxi"" one more time while walking through a department or grocery store, I'm going to start nicely by throwing those five-gallon tubs of cheese balls at the employees until they turn it off. And if they try to stop me first, I'll bunker down in the soda aisle where there are plenty of cans, glass bottles and two-liters to lob over aisles to ward them off. It just needs to stop.
This is why, while there are many surprises and successes vindicating cover songs, today's pop pleasers create the perception that covers must be unoriginal (Anyone know how to play ""Wonderwall""? Oh wait, that's right, everybody and their favorite cheesy '90s romantic montages does). But based on history's use of the cover—add the Beatles (at least half of Please Please Me), Manfred Mann (""Blinded by the Light""), Santana (""Black Magic Woman"") and countless other classic rock/pop artists to the handful already mentioned—this is unfair. The only distinction you have to use to separate crap covers from worthy ones is the same criteria you should use on every other record: Does it create its own personality effectively enough to warrant visits beyond that first impression? And as the Record Club's Oar proves, that doesn't mean it has to create a better, more important persona, just one with enough independent merit to warrant listening.
Think cover songs are a waste of time? Explain why to Justin at jstephani@wisc.edu.
