Cover songs versus the original track, which ones are better?

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Grace Bowers

 
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Hornbein said:
"The jazzman plays a thousand chords for three people. The rock band plays three chords for a thousand people."
I'm one of the three!

With a qualifier, I like rock but three chord stuff bores me.
 
pinball1970 said:
I'm one of the three!

With a qualifier, I like rock but three chord stuff bores me.
I used to like it. I've listened to a hell of lot of music since then. You get tired of the same old thing.
 
pinball1970 said:
Red Spandex outfit was never going to end well! Started out ok, she is playing a Ricky which is always cool.
Three cool dudes at the back however.....roller skater fella just killed me! That was a thing in the 70s, roller disco!
Wonderfully awful :)
 
Hornbein said:
Grace Bowers


You can't play Hendrix on an SG is she crazy!?

Loved it actually. Here is one with bass and drums.

 
The much-neglected art of dynamics.

 
That guitar solo is quite something. It's a family band.



Their other stuff is just as good. Average age : 12.

 
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This song is very famous in Japan. There must be hundreds of covers.

My that's a pretty face and voice. It hardly seems real.



Does she trim those bangs every day?

Symphony orchestra.



Other notable efforts by jazz groups, the Glory Gospel Singers, marching bands, and on numerous silly instruments.



Imagine the amount of work that went into that. The Frank Sinatra version is pretty good too.

How on 49 guitars?

 
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Midnight Cruiser - Cover of Steely Dan by Foxes and Fossils​


 
Ska - Watermelon Man .
Byron Lee & The Dragonaires. Sure glad I got this retro FM radio and getting: 'Top News Radio .93.5 FM in Pattaya* with this Brit DJ playing stuff never heard before. The station says it is an international music platform? Not sure how this works: Is music streaming online all over the world, and then channeled to local venues?
 
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Becker
https://jasonbecker.com/
AIMM Archives - Jason Becker (1989) [he was 20 years old here]

1986 - He (at age 16) and Marty Friedman (at age 24) formed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacophony_(band)

1989 - He had just joined David Lee Roth's band ...
recorded Roth's 3rd album https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Little_Ain't_Enough (1990)
[ David Lee Roth (with Jason Becker) A Little Ain't Enough (audio playlist) ]
but never got to tour with him because he began to suffer from ALS.


COVERS


Jason Becker - Perpetual Burn Live (rare audio) - [ Jeff Loomis- Perpetual Burn (Jason Becker Cover) ]


Cacophony Ninja lost footage 1989 [studio version (audio): Cacophony - The Ninja ]


Cacophony - Black Cat live in Japan 1989 [studio version (audio): Cacophony - Black Cat ]

... more videos of Cacophony
 
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Maybe I've posted this one in the previous favorite songs thread (which sadly seems to have disappeared), I don't remember...

...but this is actually a cover which I like at least as much as the original, perhaps even more:

Laura Branigan - Gloria


The sound is outdated and definitely 80s, but it still is a splendid song.
Why do I like this song so much?

1) It's wonderfully composed, everything is great, melodies, verse, bridge, chorus...
2) Laura Branigan sings like a darn goddess on it ❤️
3) It's a tricky song, upbeat and happy sounding, but dark lyrics (I like those)
4) The lyrics are very thoughtful and poignant (the line "if everybody wants you, why isn't anybody calling?", gosh, what a perfect line...

The original is Italian, and here it is:

Umberto Tozzi - Gloria


Another interesting thing is that the original has a different meaning of the lyrics (less somber), but I really, really like the rewrite in Branigans cover.

Original lyrical content : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_(Umberto_Tozzi_song)#Lyrical_content
Cover lyrics content: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_(Umberto_Tozzi_song)#Laura_Branigan_version
 
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Oh, by the way, I heard this cover yesterday... U2 covers ABBA:s SOS :smile::



I like the cover, very emotional, and I am a fan of U2, but sorry, the original is still the best:



(it's a weird song, perfectly composed but done in a strange and special style, like it's a mix of baroque/pop/rock, and a killer bridge after the chorus which (to me) sounds like it's influenced by The Beatles, but I don't know if it is.)

Song Impact:

I've heard that John Lennon really liked this song (but maybe it's only a rumour).
I've heard that Pete Townshend of The Who liked it very much.

And, very weird and unexcepted, it was an inspiration for the Sex Pistols punk song "Pretty Vacant". :oldlaugh:

Wikipedia said:
According to bassist Glen Matlock, the song's main riff was inspired by hearing "SOS" by ABBA.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Vacant

And here's another cover, where U2, Björn and Benny (of ABBA) perform "Dancing Queen" live together on a U2 concert in Stockholm, Sweden in 1992 (U2 Zoo TV tour). And I actually was on that very concert! (it was one of the best concerts I've been to)

(another fun fact is that we happened to stumble upon U2:s bassist walking around alone in Stockholm, and since we were fans, we asked for a photo and an autograph, which we got)

U2 ft. Björn & Benny ABBA : Dancing Queen (1992) & Satellite of Love
 
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great music and memories, thanks!
The British music invasion of the U.S. was fully ongoing still and highly successful always by the early '70s.
Aretha Franklin covered 4 Beatles songs. This one along with "Eleanor Rigby", "Fool on a Hill", and "Let It Be."


She also covered Elton John.



And Lulu.

 
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Tory Slusher. Take On Me.
 
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morrobay said:
Ska - Watermelon Man .
Byron Lee & The Dragonaires. Sure glad I got this retro FM radio and getting: 'Top News Radio .93.5 FM in Pattaya* with this Brit DJ playing stuff never heard before. The station says it is an international music platform? Not sure how this works: Is music streaming online all over the world, and then channeled to local venues?

Here's another international music platform in case you can use it. https://kpfa.org/schedule/
Lots of different, 3-hour music genre broadcasts. I like the "Blues by the Bay" and "Across the Great Divide", Sat. and Sun. at 11am, PDT. Should be coming up in a few hours in Bangkok live. Still Friday afternoon here.
 
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pinball1970 said:
This is not very good, it is out of her range, her tone is weird in places (probably due to the range) and the guitar solo is awful. Did he not learn vibrato? Could he have not changed to a strat for this?
You need the harmony too and she cuts it short.
(I only noticed this post just now.) I agree, it's not very good, (meaning: not up to MC's usual standard).

I listened (briefly) to some other attempted covers of Comfortably Numb but I get the feeling most who attempt it are basing themselves on the original studio version, instead of the Pulse concert which (imho) is vastly better than the original album(s).

pinball1970 said:
[...] This is my second MC, the first being Jolene.
Yeah I like MC's version of Jolene too -- in part because her accent fits the song. Did you see the video where she surprises a NY city subway audience by suddenly appearing there in disguise with Jimmy Fallon (also in disguise)?

Anyway, I still love MC's calmer song "Malibu" the best out of (that part of) her repertoire (that I've heard). :oldsmile:
 
I've recently discovered that I quite like Clamavi de Profundis. Here's their cover of the Misty Mountains song from The Hobbit. I really like their deeper harmonies and slightly modified way they move between certain chords.

This is the 8min version. There's also a 20min(!) version.

On the Clamavi de Profundis youtube channel there's also a number of others that I quite like, including a version of (Galadriel's) "Namarie" (which many aspirants have trouble with, imho).
 
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Some really nice surprises researching this. Foxes and Fossils just unbelievable, the bunch of students (in the house/park) doing the Beatles stuff brilliant.
This Russian gal and her mate in this post really sums up what covers is all about. The best music, to you, you have to have a go at. Listening is one thing but playing it yourself is something else.

Anyway.

 
Things like this. Just great.