Worthwhile Covers

I'll keep updating I guess in bigger batches but forgot these ones:

Donald Byrd - Where Are We Going?
Kevin Morby - I Only Have Eyes for You

oh wow, didn't realize moon duo had done planet caravan. i like DARKSIDE's version

i could go quite some while on just sabbath songs:

maschina - war pigs
the januaries - paranoid
dokaka - electric funeral
add n to (x) - iron man
the butthole surfers - sweat loaf (yes it counts)
flower travellin' band - hiroshima (yes this also counts)
bloodgasm - into the void
1000 homo djs - supernaut
mirthkon - fairies wear boots
ondatropica - i ron man

Rose McDowall of Strawberry Switchblade’s take on “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” is astonishing

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym6cv6WnskU

Sandie Shaw’s cover of Patti Smith’s “Frederick” shouldn’t work, but I’m obsessed with it:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-YNO0u-KhWA

Jessica Lea Mayfield made the best Nirvana cover ever:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8jhMGd34nd8

Kate: Yes that Moon Duo cover is actually from a Sacred Bones compilation, they released earlier this year a full Sabbath covers album:

https://sacredbonesrecords.bandcamp.com/album/what-is-this-that-stands-before-me

Speaking of Sabbath covers I've always liked the lounge thing that The Cardigans did with Iron Man and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

been really into this recently

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-jNRoheRH8
johnny adams - salt of the earth

Love the Kelly Lee Owens cover of “More Than A Woman” that popped up in my play queue some time ago for whatever reason.
It finally revealed the song to me. I had always experienced the Aaliyah/Timbaland original as “generically great”, if such a thing exists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdOUuq5HLWs

Despite loving Jeff Buckley's Grace and Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk since they came out, I admit that I never really investigated the other posthumous releases or even read up a whole lot on how his career launched, and didn't know until last night that he'd primarily been doing covers in NYC before getting signed and writing Grace. Finally gave You & I a listen, which is his first demo recording at a studio after being signed, and it's full of what I feel are completely amazing covers, including these two:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5a708EqfuE

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh-PMHmd00o

i'm so old that i still think of "more than a woman" as a bee gees song. the kelly lee owens song isn't a cover of the song i was thinking of but it's great!

I love Rinder & Lewis’s cover of “willie and the hand jive”

Btw any worthwhile covers of Talking Heads? I don’t think I’ve heard one that I’d rather listen to instead of the original. I know there’s like s trillion covers of Naive Melody and most of them are good but they don’t really do anything different.

I’m aware some of the covers I posted upthread kind of do the same thing as the originals. So, just recommend me any Talking Heads covers you like.

Oh also any The Fall covers that are worthwhile? Mark E Smith’s voice is a bit of an acquired taste so maybe in cover form I can finally convince some of my friends that The Fall are in fact a really good band.

Anyone else thinks Dennis Brown’s Black Magic Woman cover is perhaps better than the Santana one? Maybe I’be just heard the Santana one so many times in my life that I don’t really like it that much anymore.

Also, every Horace Andy cover by Massive Attack (spying glass, man next door - aware this is actually a john holt cover - girl i love you, see a man’s face) is better than the original... but I don’t know if these are actually considered covers, specially considering Horace Andy himself is the one revisiting them.

ouch totally wrong re:”spying glass”, that’s an absolute classic. I don’t like massive attack, though.

Btw any worthwhile covers of Talking Heads? I don’t think I’ve heard one that I’d rather listen to instead of the original. I know there’s like s trillion covers of Naive Melody and most of them are good but they don’t really do anything different.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka)

well, angelique kidjo did the entire "remain in light" album, that's really good
the staple singers' version of "slippery people" is fantastic
i _love_ the version of "burning down the house" by Yasuyuki Okamura on the "fine time tribute to new wave" record. it's one of those language things where he's clearly singing it phonetically and the way he renders what are already completely nonsensical lyrics really adds an extra layer of appreciation to the song for me, in a similar but different way from the way i love love love love the raincoats' cover of "lola" (weird okamura just said "raincoat" as i typed their name)
on a completely different tip i adore the Psycho Killer cover by jimmy punk band The Coneheads

that's all i can think off the top of my head!

i really enjoy talking heads' cover of "1-2-3 red light" incidentally

<3 "canadian cone"

Thank you Kate I’ll check those out! I also love that raincoats’ cover of lola.

Brimstead: well, yeah I take that partially back: spying glass is the one where I could pick Horace Andy’s version instead. But Man Next Door and Girl I Love You are some of the highlights in those MA records and I think they’re more interesting than the HA versions which are also good but don’t really stand out to my ears in their production or arrangements.

living color did a hard-charging version of ‘memories can’t wait’ on vivid

oh hell of course i know living colour's memories can't wait, idk how i forgot that one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHSEJpsquis

Luna did a great cover of Talking Heads' "Thank You For Sending Me an Angel."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAOEXZKGCSc

I'm not sure I've ever seen a promise/threat like this, but in the wiki entry for TH's "Heaven" it actually states that "Tropical Fuck Storm will cover the song as the B-side to their "Legal Ghost" 7" single, when it is released in September 2020."

what about that absolutely batshit cover of Burning Down the House by Tom Jones and the Cardigans... a guilty pleasure

this mortal coil did a version of drugs, not a great cover tbh

good catch on tropical fuck storm, the 7" is out and about now

cover's not as ace as their "stayin' alive" cover but it's good!

I had no idea RED HOT+ had a 59 song tribute to Grateful Dead (!!) No way I'm listening to all of these but any brave soul who has heard it before care to point me out to the highlights in here?

Ugh why did Mumford and Sons got to pick my favorite GD song? I'm sure they ruin it by clapping at it or something.

Well color me surprised they don't clap in it! It's terribly boring though.