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

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and....

 
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Not really a cover, more of different versions since it is the same singer (maybe also the same musicians).

The original has a more mystical sound. The arrangements are more complex with a lot of fine details to listen to.

​


The second version was done for the movie Rock Star where they gave it a more hard rock sound. The drums are more prominent and the guitar solos are more hardcore. It seems to have a slightly faster tempo too.

​


Very subtle differences but I still like the movie version better. How about you?
 
jack action said:
Not really a cover, more of different versions since it is the same singer (maybe also the same musicians).

The original has a more mystical sound. The arrangements are more complex with a lot of fine details to listen to.

​


The second version was done for the movie Rock Star where they gave it a more hard rock sound. The drums are more prominent and the guitar solos are more hardcore. It seems to have a slightly faster tempo too.

​


Very subtle differences but I still like the movie version better. How about you?

So in two minds about Neil Young. I do not mean I am trying to decide, I mean I am in two minds.

I never liked his nasal voice, I hated it in fact, until I saw a 1970s one man performance by him.
Very impressive, just his voice, piano guitar and harmonica.
I still do not like that quality in his voice, I did not like in "Deja vu," even though the album is brilliant.
I heard"After the gold rush" by prelude and was blown away, I still am. No idea he wrote it! I didn't like his version.
He is Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen to me. Admire his talents, prefer the covers!
 
Orig.

You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond - Blind Willie Johnson​


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsYtT8owyJ0

Worthy cover



Some say Blind Willie Johnson invented this style.

It was pretty late in life that I learned the Mississippi Delta was actually a huge river bottom and not a delta. I guess that's because it's more similar to the original delta of the Nile than is the actual Mississippi delta, which is more like an iota.
 
Another nice one.



I thought it meant you would need someone to pay the bail bondsman to get you out of jail but it seems more abstract than that.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groove_Is_in_the_Heart (August 1990)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deee-Lite

(May 1990) Deee-Lite "Groove Is In the Heart" Live May 1990 NYC

Deee-Lite - Groove Is In The Heart (Official Video)
DEEE-LITE-RARE- Arsenio (9/4/1990) 4K HD-BEST COPY!



Mandrakke - Groove Is In The Heart (Deee Lite cover) [with a little Blurred Lines]


Groove is in the Heart (Country Version) - Deee-Lite | HonkyTonk Party Band Cover

@mikerogers9660 - 2 years ago
Having recorded and mixed the original version of this record, none of the covers really did it for me. But this cheeky country version is really charming. Hats off to you all for having fun with an already fun record.

'Groove Is In The Heart' Acoustic, Megan Reece wit


Groove Is In The Heart- Soul Chic Cover ( Deee-Lite) - Georgia Byrne


Groove Is In The Heart (metal cover by Leo Moracchioli - Frog Leap) - one of many videos of metal covers
 
The original Confirmation. Written by Charlie Parker, performed by Dizzy Gillespie and Milt Jackson.



Charlie's version is pretty sloppy. He must have been high. So instead let's go with Saori Yano.

 
John Scofield covers The Grateful Dead's Uncle John's Band. Not crazy about the weird improv but the head is great.

 
This girl is crazy. How did a young lass get into Kate Bush? This album is 40 years old and she has covered two tracks.
Both amazing.

 
The orig. Covered by The Rolling Stones.

(And he clearly doesn't sing "gotta".)

 
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"Far Beyond the Sun" (1984)
is track 2 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Force
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yngwie_Malmsteen

Yngwie J Malmsteen - Far Beyond The Sun Live 1985 (HQ)


https://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/yngwie-malmsteen-far-beyond-the-sun-tab-s13478


(2021) Y. Malmsteen - Far Beyond The Sun - Flute Cover - Sailens Flute

(also has a nice cover of Steve Vai - For The Love Of God - Flute Cover ,
which could be added to #1118 For the Love of God )

(2008) 三味線 ROCK! Shamisen 80s Heavy Metal, Yngwie cover! Far beyond the sun! - shamisendemon


(2017) Netta Skog - Far Beyond The Sun (Yngwie Malmsteen cover) - accordion
&t=35s


(2017) Yngwie Malmsteen - FAR BEYOND THE SUN piano cover - John Yang


(2007) Yngwie Malmsteen Far beyond the Sun by Violin ( Jimmy Kim )

(see #1151 Summer Song )


and some covers by artists featured earlier
 
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pinball1970 said:
This girl is crazy. How did a young lass get into Kate Bush? This album is 40 years old and she has covered two tracks.
Both amazing.


This is the original.



Check out the fretless bass work, everyone was using them in the early 1980s and it was annoying as hell like synth drums but somehow Kate Bush always made it sound great and not contrived.

Even for Kate Bush this album was very weird at the time, with no "pop" or commercial hits but for me it her best out of the first 5 albums.
 
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The original. OK but not much, eh?



Sweet and Hoffs explore undiscovered potential. Sweet's low harmony part is what makes it. Those electronics he's using on the eguitar is pretty slick too.

 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smells_Like_Teen_Spirit (1991)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(band)

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Live At The Paramount, Seattle / 1991)

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Official Music Video)




(2022) Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana (LIVE Cover by. Jewel Box)

(see #493 YYZ , #500 Welcome to the Jungle, #538 Back in Black )

(2020) Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (cover by Sershen&Zaritskaya feat. Kim and Shturmak)

(see #539 Back in Black)

(2023) Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (cover) by Jazz Overhaul


(2021) Smells Like Teen Spirit - The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain



(reference in #850 to Weird Al's parody cover "Smells Like Nirvana")
 
pinball1970 said:
Check out the fretless bass work, everyone was using them in the early 1980s and it was annoying as hell like synth drums but somehow Kate Bush always made it sound great and not contrived.
Please have some respect for the tragedy that was Jaco.

The only synth drums I ever liked were the Bush version. She used them to command a feeling of oppression.

A work of genius. Warning : it is meant to be disturbing. Very disturbing.



Pop music comes and pop music goes, but The Ninth Wave will live as long as ... as long as it does.

pinball1970 said:
Even for Kate Bush this album was very weird at the time, with no "pop" or commercial hits but for me it her best out of the first 5 albums.
She said that this was her "I'm going mad" album. She later wrote "The Red Shoes" which is about that very topic. Having myself gone completely insane and committed to an asylum, I can attest her view is very accurate. So accurate I feel certain she went through the same. I felt I was doing the right thing. It was insidious.



To avoid ending on a bummer,



She later married the eguitar player. He's pretty good.
 
Hornbein said:
The orig. Covered by The Rolling Stones.

(And he clearly doesn't sing "gotta".)
Just now listened to both. I hear "gotta" being pronounced in both.
 
robphy said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smells_Like_Teen_Spirit (1991)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(band)

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Live At The Paramount, Seattle / 1991)

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Official Music Video)




(2022) Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana (LIVE Cover by. Jewel Box)

(see #493 YYZ , #500 Welcome to the Jungle, #538 Back in Black )

(2020) Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (cover by Sershen&Zaritskaya feat. Kim and Shturmak)

(see #539 Back in Black)

(2023) Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (cover) by Jazz Overhaul


(2021) Smells Like Teen Spirit - The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain



(reference in #850 to Weird Al's parody cover "Smells Like Nirvana")


Like everybody of my generation, I love that song that was meant to be a call to arms: "The generation's apathy is getting out of hand. [I'm] pleading to the kids, 'Wake up!'" The inspiration for the song was a quote written on his apartment's wall by a friend of his then-girlfriend: "Kurt smells like Teen Spirit". This guy who has felt unloved, ridiculed, and persecuted for the major part of his life took that as a suggestion that he was an inspirational figure.

The sad side of this story is that after he wrote and recorded the song, he learned that the meaning of his friend's quote was meant to laugh at him. Because he was so in love with his girlfriend and followed her everywhere, trying to spend every minute with her, the quote actually states that the scent of his girlfriend's deodorant (of the Teen Spirit brand) rubbed off on him. Too late to do anything about it.

Worst, once the song became popular, the manufacturer of Teen Spirit asked permission to use the song to sell their product which, of course, was refused.

Once you learn the guy committed suicide not long after, most likely because of self-esteem issues, the song takes a whole new meaning that saddens me every time.
 
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The Beatles' All You Need Is Love



Nowadays the Royal Liverpool Symphony Orchestra performs a more upbeat version of All You Need Is Love as an encore.

It took me over a month to put two and two together. The Beatles, Liverpool.... The orchestra was honoring their homeboys.
 


I went to a "popular music" concert at Suntory. This was played as an encore. Takamitsu is the most honored Japanese composer. He also wrote orchestral works and so forth. Too "modern" for me.

 
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jack action said:
Like everybody of my generation, I love that song that was meant to be a call to arms: "The generation's apathy is getting out of hand. [I'm] pleading to the kids, 'Wake up!'" The inspiration for the song was a quote written on his apartment's wall by a friend of his then-girlfriend: "Kurt smells like Teen Spirit". This guy who has felt unloved, ridiculed, and persecuted for the major part of his life took that as a suggestion that he was an inspirational figure.

The sad side of this story is that after he wrote and recorded the song, he learned that the meaning of his friend's quote was meant to laugh at him. Because he was so in love with his girlfriend and followed her everywhere, trying to spend every minute with her, the quote actually states that the scent of his girlfriend's deodorant (of the Teen Spirit brand) rubbed off on him. Too late to do anything about it.
I dunno, that he loves his girlfriend so much her perfume rubbed off on him, that's romantic, touching. Nothing to be ashamed of. Maybe he could have had a more positive attitude towards such things. And life in general. But did he listen to me? Nah...
 
robphy said:
#1187

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smells_Like_Teen_Spirit (1991)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(band)

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Live At The Paramount, Seattle / 1991)

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Official Music Video)

(covers in #1187 )


Here's another cover...

by the drummer Yoyoka and, later, with her family
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoyoka_Soma

(2018) Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit / Drum Cover by Yoyoka, 9 year old

( #592 Yoyoka )

(2021) Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit / Covered by YOYOKA family (KANEAIYOYOKA) at Home
The singer is Yoyoka's brother Shido , who is also a drummer and guitarist.

(see Yoyoka and her mom in #673 Killing in the Name)
 
I met a man who was such a fan of Yoyoka he had dinner with her and her family in Los Angeles. They moved there from Hokkaido to further her career. She transformed him into a Japanese female fusion addict, away from his former alligiance to AC/DC and KISS. Not only did he attend every Jazz Avengers gig in the big island of Honshu, he was going to every individual show of the eight bandmembers. His goal was to get something signed by each one.

Another man walked up who resembled guitarist Etsuji Ogawa. It was close enough that I wondered whether it really was Etsuji but he wouldn't be hanging out in the audience. This man had gone to see the Jazz Avengers all the way up in Hokkaido so he was perhaps even more of a fan. I didn't have that sort of dedication but had been following some of the individual members for years before the JA even existed so that gave me senior status.

Etsuji Ogawa.jpg

Etsuji Ogawa​
 
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"Speed Metal Symphony" is the last track on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_Metal_Symphony (1987)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacophony_(band)

( #767 on Marty Friedman ; #760 Tornado of Souls )
( #891 on Jason Becker who began suffering from ALS a few years after this video below )

(live, 1989) Cacophony - Speed Metal Symphony (Marty Friedman and Jason Becker) - Becker is about 19 here
&t=1m00s

(Speed Metal Symphony studio version 9m32s)

- Marty Friedman on Jason Becker and Cacophony (2011 interview)
- Story Behind The Song - Cacophony's Speed Metal Symphony (2002)
SPEED METAL SYMPHONY
This makes me think of Jason and me practicing on the rooftop of my downtown apartment on Taylor St. in San Francisco. Like 'Concerto', we could sleep through this one. There is a slow passage in this that Jason plays that is so gorgeous that it was the one sole deciding factor that made me want to start a band with him. Varney (executive producer) hated the dissonant ending of this song and quite appropriately referred to it as a trainwreck. Jason and I fought hard to keep it on the record. I can see Varney's point but there was something in the randomness and 'cacophony' of all that noise that attracted me and Jason to it.
- more videos are on pages of Jason Becker and of (drummer) Atma Anur and of (drummer) Ken Stavropoulos

- https://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/cacophony-speed-metal-symphony-tab-s3807t1


(2018) Speed Metal Symphony - Cacophony cover (Gabriel Guardian) - solo excerpt


(2021) Cacophony | Speed Metal Symphony | Piano/ Guitar arrangement ( Alessandro Marino / Edoardo Taddei)


(live, 2015) Luís Kalil: Speed Metal Symphony Laney Booth 2015 - Luís Kalil is 15 years old here

(2014) Luís Kalil - Speed Metal Symphony (Cacophony)

(2020) Speed Metal Symphony - Cacophony (Tribute The Jason Becker and Marty Friedman) - Henrique Guitar Player
 
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout_(Yes_song) (1971)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_(band)

(1972) YesSongs #7: YES - Roundabout




(2020) The Band Geeks play Roundabout (Quarantine Edition) - Richie Castellano (Band Geek and Blue Oyster Cult)


(2023) Yes - Roundabout / Drum Covered by Shido

(see also #1194 Yoyoka's family cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit )

(2019) JOJO的奇妙冒險 | Roundabout | YES | Fingerstyle Guitar cover - Feifei Du


(2014) ROUNDABOUT full cover- One man band - FridayNightLullaby


(2019) Pretty lovely maid girl plays bass(Yes Roundabout cover) - H.J.Freaks