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

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The discussion centers around the merits of cover songs compared to their originals, exploring which covers are considered better and which should have been avoided. The subjective nature of evaluating music is emphasized, with opinions varying widely based on personal taste. Notable examples include Jimi Hendrix's cover of "All Along the Watchtower," which many argue surpasses Bob Dylan's original, and Johnny Cash's rendition of "Hurt," which evokes deep emotion. Other covers, such as those by Eva Cassidy and the Bare Naked Ladies, are praised for their unique interpretations that enhance the originals. Conversely, some covers are criticized for lacking originality or failing to add anything new, with specific songs mentioned as examples of covers that should have been left alone. The conversation also touches on the broader implications of musical interpretation, the role of the listener in evaluating art, and the complexities of genre classification, particularly in jazz. Overall, the thread highlights the rich landscape of music covers, showcasing both celebrated interpretations and those deemed unnecessary.
  • #51
Burning up Highway Star. Better than the orig I say. Endorsed by Ian Paice. He says they are from Austria.

 
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  • #52
pinball1970 said:
I thought it was Lou Reed! All these years!
Iggy Stooge was class valedictorian at my high school.
 
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  • #53
Hornbein said:
Burning up Highway Star. Better than the orig I say. Endorsed by Ian Paice. He says they are from Austria.


Nice cover, made me think of this for some reason

 
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  • #54
Astronomy Domine

Good original from Pink Floyd:


Better cover from Voivod:

 
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  • #55
Hornbein said:
Burning up Highway Star. Better than the orig I say. Endorsed by Ian Paice. He says they are from Austria.


Ian Paice is a very nice man. However he is wrong , a nice cover but a woman singing Ian Gillan works in terms of range but not timbre.
 
  • #56
jack action said:
Astronomy Domine

Good original from Pink Floyd:


Better cover from Voivod:


another cool PF cover

 
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  • #57
BWV said:
another cool PF cover


Not keen an the Sid years. A few tracks are ok but Floyd kicked in when Gilmore started firing for me. Echoes
 
  • #58
Hornbein said:
Burning up Highway Star. Better than the orig I say. Endorsed by Ian Paice. He says they are from Austria.


Deep purple. Listen to how relaxed his voice is. The try singing it.
He has a go a bouncers who were being rough
 
  • #59
That reminds me, Nick Mason's band Saucerful of Secrets does great Pink Floyd covers.
 
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  • #60
BWV said:
another cool PF cover


Way better than the orig. (Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun.)
 
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  • #61


Here's the original. I can't decide which is better.

 
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  • #62


Zepparella -- When The Levee Breaks
 
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  • #63
Hornbein said:


Zepparella -- When The Levee Breaks

Not as good as Zeppelin’s cover of the song. The original is quite good though

 
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  • #64
A non-cover-band cover of an original Zeppelin tune

 
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  • #65
This is great. No expensive video, just the guys playing. No semi nudity, gyration or lingual protrusion, just great singing.
Beautiful little trills, lovely tone. It is missing those high harmonies which are perfect but the whole package is great.



Original but this is a stripped down live. No harmony.

 
  • #66
pinball1970 said:
This is great. No expensive video, just the guys playing. No semi nudity, gyration or lingual protrusion, just great singing.
Beautiful little trills, lovely tone. It is missing those high harmonies which are perfect but the whole package is great.Original but this is a stripped down live. No harmony.

My favorite version. I don't like Miley very much.

 
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  • #67
Hornbein said:


Here's the original. I can't decide which is better.


The arrangement is pretty much the same so besides his tone and recording, little in it.
 
  • #68
BWV said:
Not as good as Zeppelin’s cover of the song. The original is quite good though


Drums are wrong. Ignoring technique for the minute, the snare sound is flat. More boom required on toms and bass drum too.
Also 5:24? That is the drum moment. The roll before it more obvious (but wrong, goes to rack too soon) but 5:24 is the Bonham moment for me. 2nd and 3rd beat of a triplet on his BD. She misses it out.
 
  • #69
fresh_42 said:
My favorite version. I don't like Miley very much.


Forgetting who she is (Miley) I was shocked how good that actually was. It was also honest music.

Anyway, OLJ you love her even more than Lemmy!
I have never heard this before. Obviously she was a great singer but those little glottal things she does are just beautiful. Almost Yodel like.

The words do not work though, "Your beauty is beyond compare..."
Yeah right. You're Olivia Newton John! I spent the first few bars just staring at the image of her. Stunning.
 
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  • #70
I hated prince when he came out. Everything I detested about the 80s in one artist.
When I found out he wrote this I was gob smacked. Everything you want to tell someone you love in one song (after you have split that is!)
Anyway, I am not keen on the original but I totally appreciate the writing. Words and music. Brilliant.

 
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  • #71
I thought the Roberta Flak was the original but it was this.

 
  • #72
I always thought this was chromatic enough to be 1960s.

 
  • #73
pinball1970 said:
Anyway, OLJ you love her even more than Lemmy!
I have a weakness for sopranos, preferably coloraturo soprano.
 
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  • #74
fresh_42 said:
I have a weakness for sopranos, preferably coloraturo soprano.
I had to look that up, I thought you meant contralto! I know you do not like Miley Sirus but she actually displays some coloraturo features in that performance. Trills, range tone... Surprising.
 
  • #75


Kanade Sato plays Spain w/ anonymous government officials.
 
  • #76
Japanese fusion version of Earth Wind and Fire's In The Stone.

 
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  • #77
Tokyo plays Tower of Power's The Oakland Stroke. Well, it's an extended version that includes that bass riff and drum beat.

When I lived in Tokyo there were about a dozen musicians whom I saw every chance I got. Three of them are in this band.

 
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  • #78
Turn Your Love Around (George Benson) I remember George from before he started to sing.

 
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  • #79
Hornbein said:
Turn Your Love Around (George Benson) I remember George from before he started to sing.


Thanks for these @Hornbein I will definitely check them out
 
  • #80


Everlasting Love was a hit when I was a kid. It appears they extracted the vocal then had session men copy the original parts exactly. Sounds a lot better. So...is it a cover?
 
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  • #81
The distinction does not work for Jazz as the definition of ‘original’ does not really work. Like most stuff about music it presupposes everyone is talking about rock and rock and pop.

what is the best ‘cover’ of this original?

 
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  • #82
@BWV, you gave a video example of Stella By Starlight, as being of Jazz, but my senses tell me that the example given is something other than Jazz - but what category, I am not sure. Your example seems like nice smooth mostly unexcited music; the kind of music that one would have expected as filler music played in a movie theatre in the 1960's and 1970's just a few minutes before the featured movie was to be started.
 
  • #83
symbolipoint said:
@BWV, you gave a video example of Stella By Starlight, as being of Jazz, but my senses tell me that the example given is something other than Jazz - but what category, I am not sure. Your example seems like nice smooth mostly unexcited music; the kind of music that one would have expected as filler music played in a movie theatre in the 1960's and 1970's just a few minutes before the featured movie was to be started.
Stella by Starlight was from the 40s and is one of the most played jazz standards, most of which are Tim pan alley tunes of the 20s -40s

 
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  • #84
symbolipoint said:
@BWV, you gave a video example of Stella By Starlight, as being of Jazz, but my senses tell me that the example given is something other than Jazz - but what category, I am not sure. Your example seems like nice smooth mostly unexcited music; the kind of music that one would have expected as filler music played in a movie theatre in the 1960's and 1970's just a few minutes before the featured movie was to be started.
Many of today's jazz standards were originally famous popular tunes. This made it easier for the audience to relate to. Heck, John Coltrane and Miles Davis played Disney tunes. Now the originals are forgotten while the jazz versions live on. Very common also was to write a new melody over the chords of a popular tune. All this went out of style with modern jazz. However Japanese jazzers still often play the popular tunes of today. Not coincidentally jazz is a lot more popular in Japan than in the USA.

There are so many versions of Stella by Starlight -- thousands? -- that I'll just pick a trusted one. I went to this gig but showed up late, was given a seat by the drummer, couldn't hear a thing, got my money back and left.



Her command of harmony is wonderful.
 
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  • #85
symbolipoint said:
@BWV, you gave a video example of Stella By Starlight, as being of Jazz, but my senses tell me that the example given is something other than Jazz - but what category, I am not sure. Your example seems like nice smooth mostly unexcited music; the kind of music that one would have expected as filler music played in a movie theatre in the 1960's and 1970's just a few minutes before the featured movie was to be started.
A beautiful and dramatic piece that well deserves its immortality. The European style is now no longer popular but remains preserved in "classical" music. There's a reason people have gone to so much trouble to keep it going. It's called love.
 
  • #86


Voivod -- Astronomy Domine
 
  • #87
Hornbein and BWV,
I am not too knowledgeable about Jazz, although I have heard some. Some forms or types I do not know how to recognize. Some pieces, I might miscategorize as something else.
 
  • #88
symbolipoint said:
Hornbein and BWV,
I am not too knowledgeable about Jazz, although I have heard some. Some forms or types I do not know how to recognize. Some pieces, I might miscategorize as something else.
I don't worry about genres. Either I like something or I don't.
 
  • #89
symbolipoint said:
@BWV, you gave a video example of Stella By Starlight, as being of Jazz, but my senses tell me that the example given is something other than Jazz - but what category, I am not sure. Your example seems like nice smooth mostly unexcited music; the kind of music that one would have expected as filler music played in a movie theatre in the 1960's and 1970's just a few minutes before the featured movie was to be started.
When someone says Jazz it has connotations to it but really it is like saying "classical"
There is a world of difference between Stravinsky and Mozart. They both use an orchestra.

Jazz for me is Piano, bass, drums with or with out brass, vibes, flute or voice.
Virtuoso playing, often with complex chord structure/key changes/time signature but that is fast and loose.

I learned from TV because I grew up in the late 1960s and early 1970s. So films from the late 40s-60s had jazz themes it was great. Even the cartoons, listen to "Spiderman" arrangement, lots of brass stabs and vocal chord at the end. (Vocal Chord ha ha!- sound like a name for an acapella group)

I will check out the above.

There some nutty jazz versions of rock tracks used for a series called "sugar rush" I will dig a few out.
 
  • #90
Speaking of jazz....

 
  • #91
pinball1970 said:
Speaking of jazz....


Kids these days don't know what real entertainment is.
 
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  • #92


Josephine Alexandra -- Sweet Child of Mine
 
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  • #93
Hornbein said:


Josephine Alexandra -- Sweet Child of Mine

That goes right into the "better than original" category. Brilliant.
 
  • #94
Y'all seem to be searching for a definition of jazz. This is as close as I can come. Count Basie Big Band with Arthur Prysock.



I used to hang out in the Usenet jazz guitar group. It included some famous players. They were a very tough audience, extremely critical. Jazz guitarists have a hard life. I claimed this was the ultimate in swing and defied them all to exceed it. No one even tried.

The band said the key to their swing was Freddy Green, the almost inaudible guitar player.
 
  • #95
 
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  • #96
Hornbein said:
Y'all seem to be searching for a definition of jazz. This is as close as I can come. Count Basie Big Band with Arthur Prysock.



I used to hang out in the Usenet jazz guitar group. It included some famous players. They were a very tough audience, extremely critical. Jazz guitarists have a hard life. I claimed this was the ultimate in swing and defied them all to exceed it. No one even tried.

The band said the key to their swing was Freddy Green, the almost inaudible guitar player.


Everything in Jazz flows from Pops

 
  • #97
White people can make great jazz too.



But swing like Basie? Nah...

Clint Eastwood was asked if he intended to learn to play sax like Charlie Parker. Clint replied, "a man's got to know his limitations."
 
  • #98
Hornbein said:
White people can make great jazz too.



But swing like Basie? Nah...

Clint Eastwood was asked if he intended to learn to play sax like Charlie Parker. Clint replied, "a man's got to know his limitations."

A myth. Buddy Rich, Stephan Grappelli, Joe Pass, Jaco Pastorius and Glen miller one of the fathers of swing all the absolute all time greats.
Charlie Parker, Duke, Charlie Parker, Dizzy, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis all icons..... however..
You have posted good links on Asian jazz and fusion players.
 
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  • #99
pinball1970 said:
When someone says Jazz it has connotations to it but really it is like saying "classical"
There is a world of difference between Stravinsky and Mozart. They both use an orchest
Ok, it is no cover, but after all these discussions about Jazz, I have to post it:



And more "jazzy" in its modern interpretation

 
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  • #100
pinball1970 said:
Speaking of jazz....


It's good, but I find myself distracted trying to work out if the lead singer is convincing CGI or a real person with enough hairspray to sink a battleship.
 
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