When Covers Go Wrong
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
When Covers Go Wrong
As a musician of sorts, covering my favorite artistes' songs is quite a common act. In fact, that is probably what most of us do anyway - either because we have little confidence in our own work, or because we simply prefer the songs written and sang by our favorite bands. Whatever the reason for us to cover songs in the comfort of our homes, or on a small stage in the corner of a nice cozy cafe, it is probably due to the admiration with have for these songs, and it usually involves a certain level of respect as well. You are probably not going to cover a song with utter disrespect for it, nor are you going to cover a song even when you hate the band that the song belongs to. I did that before for my Woodstock, all the while hating the band that the song belonged to. I mean seriously, McFly? So every word sort of came out flat, and I was merely there on stage, going through the motion.
We see covers being done everywhere, professionalism aside. On Youtube, people are becoming famous on cyberspace simply because they did a great cover of this artiste or that band. Basically, it is no longer about how well you can write songs or how well you can sing. Even by imitating somebody else, you can become famous too - provided that you do them well of course. Do it bad, and you are going to receive a string bad criticisms and hate mails. At least that is what happens on Youtube, anyway.
So with their cameras or webcams pointed at their guitar or piano, they sing a song that they love, then sharing their renditions with the world. We see these videos being uploaded everyday, hoping that somebody will catch their videos and then discover their talents. At least that is what happened to a girl, who got discovered by Justin Timberlake. Anyway, this is merely on a very public level, and this act of 'covering' songs go all the way up to a professional level. We see artistes covering other artistes' songs as well. And similar to the quality that we produce, there are times when the artistes covering other people's songs should be better off buried six feet under with the whole of their career dumped in after him or her. Because really, there are cases whereby covers are so bad, they are not merely worse than the original. They are just on the other polarized end of the World of Good Music.
Over the years, we have seen our share of good covers. The cover of Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has been covered by a dozen artistes. And I must say that Stevie Ray Vaughan's version not only did the original song justice, but improved on the original song and made it even better. At least that is my own opinion, with the melodious aspect added to the song, making it less raw and has a thicker feel of Blues to it. A whole heap of artistes have covered Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' before. The list includes Rufus Wainwright, Imogen Heap, Bob Dylan and Damien Rice - who did it live. They all did the song justice, adding their own style and favoring to the lyrics and the songs, blending their own personal seasoning to the classic and making it their own. Imogen Heap's version is probably the most haunting of the renditions, and probably the most unique one as compared to the rest.
The list of good covers go on with 'Wonderwall' by Oasis. This is probably the most overplayed song in any guitar shops around the globe. Every guitarist is going to tell you how they started their playing careers learning this song, and must have been covered by a million different people around the globe. However, not a lot of people can capture the style of British Rock Oasis injects into the seemingly monotonous song - it really is quite, if you break it down. However, there has been artistes who took the song and made it their own as well. Cat Power did her own rendition of the song with a simple piano, and it turned out to be a version I could hardly recognize, but great in her own rights and ways. Ryan Adams transformed the song into something entire, and managed to put the listeners into a rather depressive mood at the very end, despite the general optimism in the original version itself.
And let's face it, when you heard Cat Power's version of "I Found A Reason" in the movie V for Vendetta, you probably never guessed that it was originally by Velvet Underground. But seriously, when it comes to covering songs, nobody can do it better than Cat Power. In fact, she has an album called "The Covers Record", entirely dedicated to covering other people's songs. Cat Power is thick on style, on emotions, and simple on the instruments. She usually goes with a single guitar or a piano, and is manage to change the song into her own. Which was probably why when I heard the original "I Found A Reason", I could only recognize the lyrics of the song and not the tune. That is how powerful Cat Power is - and I guess her name says it all.
There are other great covers in the world of music as well. Moon River by Audrey Hepburn has been covered a dozen times. John Mayer's version of Hendrix's Bold as Love is brilliant. Beth Orton has her own great rendition of Mr. Big's classic "Baby It's a Wild World". Chantal Kreviazuk's cover of 'Wild Horses' by The Rolling Stones, Coldplay's cover of Kylie Minogue's 'Can't Get You Out of My Head', Damien Rice's cover of Radiohead's 'Creep', Rufus Wainwright and Fiona Apple's cover of 'Across the Universe' by The Beatles, so on and so forth. I think it is interesting to see how a certain song can be filtered through the voices and the styles of different artistes, to give a new life to a publicly known song. However, there are instances whereby covers can go horribly wrong, here's how.
I remember watching a video of a live performance by Avril Lavigne once. And please do not question me why I was watching her videos, because I forgot the reason. But whatever the reason was, I stumbled upon her cover of Goo Goo Dolls' 'Iris'. Now, 'Iris' is one of my all-time favorite songs, and you are not going to take Johnny Rzeznik's song and attempt it because you like it - at least not everybody has the ability to hit the high note in the chorus anyway. So Avril Lavigne did her rendition away, and by the time she went into the second verse, I was already on the floor with a puddle of blood spreading slowly around me into a small pool. It was so bad I had to turn off the window and listen to the original version of the song about four times to get over the horror. And the list of bad covers doesn't just end here.
We mentioned Voodoo Child by Jimi Hendrix a few paragraphs ago. A bunch of people have tried to cover that song, and few have made it to a respectable level before. Despite being a John Mayer fan, I didn't even like his version of the song at all. It was too dragged out, and I felt that it lost a little bit of Voodoo Child's energy towards the middle. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that even in the hands of the so-called 'masters', things can go horribly wrong as well. You shouldn't expect every legend to be able to cover a song and make it sound great. After all, not everybody can be as good as Stevie Ray Vaughan. Even in the hands of the three greats - Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen - things can become utterly repulsive as well.
I saw their joined tour in Tokyo I think, and they called themselves the G3. There is nothing wrong with metal, because it is probably one of the hardest genre to play out there. However, no matter how good you are, you don't turn a song like Voodoo Child into a metal song, because that's just not going to work at all. If you think that by putting a song like that into these boys' hands, the only end result possible is a good one. At least that is what I thought of when I allowed to video to load on my window. But of course, that thought was thoroughly shattered when Malmsteen started shredding the guitar - as usual - to the tune of Voodoo Child, with the other two G3 members joining in after the first chorus. If you want to know how one of the greatest musical classics in the world can turn into pure noise and utter trash, look for that video on YouTube. I turned the video off after about two minutes, and proceeded onto listening to the original version about four times over as well.
Despite everything, there is something evident here. The amount of respect these people have for the band or singer they are covering cannot be denied. After all, nobody can stand out and say that "Oh Jimi Hendrix was just a drug-addict who choked on his own vomit and died" Because nobody can deny his contributions to the genre of Blues/Rock. I'm sure when the G3 started out, listing that song into their setpiece, they just wanted to have fun with the song and see how it turns out to sound like. Respect is definitely in the minds of these three metal guitarist players, but not for the following band that covered Jimi Hendrix's 'Foxy Lady'. They - ruined - the song, and everything that Hendrix stood for.
I've never liked Simple Plan, or Good Charlotte, or any band that feeds off teenage angst and make money out of it. Especially when you are making music which sounds worse than the sound of nails over your porcelain basin, it is better to go back to the drawing board and see what went wrong halfway down the road. Or if you are too bad a musician to figure it out, quit. Stop polluting the airwaves with your horrendous music, and certainly not the awful renditions of other people's music. Sometimes, ambition can take you too far and over the top. This is when people no longer see your afford being placed into the song, but rather how big a fool and idiot you've made yourself out to be.
Simple Plan did a rendition of the song 'Foxy Lady' during one of their concerts. Seeing the title itself was enough for me to tear my hair out. However, when I watched the video by myself, with the screaming fans in the audience and the lead singer standing on the amplifier and doing provocative actions at the ladies, I just wanted to shove the bass guitar up his ass and have him crawl back to Canada with a whole bunch of Jimi Hendrix fans chasing after him. Nothing against artistes from Canada really, I happen to love Feist - really. But you guys are probably the epitome of bad music in Canada, and Simple Plan very simply - sucks.
Below is the rendition of Foxy Lady by Simple Plan, and Stevie Ray Vaughan's rendition of Voodoo Child. Watch them, and see the differences yourself. The latter is what covers should sound like, while the former is what happens when covers go wrong. Terribly wrong.
Foxy Lady by Simple Plan
Voodoo Child by Stevie Ray Vaughan
As a musician of sorts, covering my favorite artistes' songs is quite a common act. In fact, that is probably what most of us do anyway - either because we have little confidence in our own work, or because we simply prefer the songs written and sang by our favorite bands. Whatever the reason for us to cover songs in the comfort of our homes, or on a small stage in the corner of a nice cozy cafe, it is probably due to the admiration with have for these songs, and it usually involves a certain level of respect as well. You are probably not going to cover a song with utter disrespect for it, nor are you going to cover a song even when you hate the band that the song belongs to. I did that before for my Woodstock, all the while hating the band that the song belonged to. I mean seriously, McFly? So every word sort of came out flat, and I was merely there on stage, going through the motion.
We see covers being done everywhere, professionalism aside. On Youtube, people are becoming famous on cyberspace simply because they did a great cover of this artiste or that band. Basically, it is no longer about how well you can write songs or how well you can sing. Even by imitating somebody else, you can become famous too - provided that you do them well of course. Do it bad, and you are going to receive a string bad criticisms and hate mails. At least that is what happens on Youtube, anyway.
So with their cameras or webcams pointed at their guitar or piano, they sing a song that they love, then sharing their renditions with the world. We see these videos being uploaded everyday, hoping that somebody will catch their videos and then discover their talents. At least that is what happened to a girl, who got discovered by Justin Timberlake. Anyway, this is merely on a very public level, and this act of 'covering' songs go all the way up to a professional level. We see artistes covering other artistes' songs as well. And similar to the quality that we produce, there are times when the artistes covering other people's songs should be better off buried six feet under with the whole of their career dumped in after him or her. Because really, there are cases whereby covers are so bad, they are not merely worse than the original. They are just on the other polarized end of the World of Good Music.
Over the years, we have seen our share of good covers. The cover of Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has been covered by a dozen artistes. And I must say that Stevie Ray Vaughan's version not only did the original song justice, but improved on the original song and made it even better. At least that is my own opinion, with the melodious aspect added to the song, making it less raw and has a thicker feel of Blues to it. A whole heap of artistes have covered Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' before. The list includes Rufus Wainwright, Imogen Heap, Bob Dylan and Damien Rice - who did it live. They all did the song justice, adding their own style and favoring to the lyrics and the songs, blending their own personal seasoning to the classic and making it their own. Imogen Heap's version is probably the most haunting of the renditions, and probably the most unique one as compared to the rest.
The list of good covers go on with 'Wonderwall' by Oasis. This is probably the most overplayed song in any guitar shops around the globe. Every guitarist is going to tell you how they started their playing careers learning this song, and must have been covered by a million different people around the globe. However, not a lot of people can capture the style of British Rock Oasis injects into the seemingly monotonous song - it really is quite, if you break it down. However, there has been artistes who took the song and made it their own as well. Cat Power did her own rendition of the song with a simple piano, and it turned out to be a version I could hardly recognize, but great in her own rights and ways. Ryan Adams transformed the song into something entire, and managed to put the listeners into a rather depressive mood at the very end, despite the general optimism in the original version itself.
And let's face it, when you heard Cat Power's version of "I Found A Reason" in the movie V for Vendetta, you probably never guessed that it was originally by Velvet Underground. But seriously, when it comes to covering songs, nobody can do it better than Cat Power. In fact, she has an album called "The Covers Record", entirely dedicated to covering other people's songs. Cat Power is thick on style, on emotions, and simple on the instruments. She usually goes with a single guitar or a piano, and is manage to change the song into her own. Which was probably why when I heard the original "I Found A Reason", I could only recognize the lyrics of the song and not the tune. That is how powerful Cat Power is - and I guess her name says it all.
There are other great covers in the world of music as well. Moon River by Audrey Hepburn has been covered a dozen times. John Mayer's version of Hendrix's Bold as Love is brilliant. Beth Orton has her own great rendition of Mr. Big's classic "Baby It's a Wild World". Chantal Kreviazuk's cover of 'Wild Horses' by The Rolling Stones, Coldplay's cover of Kylie Minogue's 'Can't Get You Out of My Head', Damien Rice's cover of Radiohead's 'Creep', Rufus Wainwright and Fiona Apple's cover of 'Across the Universe' by The Beatles, so on and so forth. I think it is interesting to see how a certain song can be filtered through the voices and the styles of different artistes, to give a new life to a publicly known song. However, there are instances whereby covers can go horribly wrong, here's how.
I remember watching a video of a live performance by Avril Lavigne once. And please do not question me why I was watching her videos, because I forgot the reason. But whatever the reason was, I stumbled upon her cover of Goo Goo Dolls' 'Iris'. Now, 'Iris' is one of my all-time favorite songs, and you are not going to take Johnny Rzeznik's song and attempt it because you like it - at least not everybody has the ability to hit the high note in the chorus anyway. So Avril Lavigne did her rendition away, and by the time she went into the second verse, I was already on the floor with a puddle of blood spreading slowly around me into a small pool. It was so bad I had to turn off the window and listen to the original version of the song about four times to get over the horror. And the list of bad covers doesn't just end here.
We mentioned Voodoo Child by Jimi Hendrix a few paragraphs ago. A bunch of people have tried to cover that song, and few have made it to a respectable level before. Despite being a John Mayer fan, I didn't even like his version of the song at all. It was too dragged out, and I felt that it lost a little bit of Voodoo Child's energy towards the middle. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that even in the hands of the so-called 'masters', things can go horribly wrong as well. You shouldn't expect every legend to be able to cover a song and make it sound great. After all, not everybody can be as good as Stevie Ray Vaughan. Even in the hands of the three greats - Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen - things can become utterly repulsive as well.
I saw their joined tour in Tokyo I think, and they called themselves the G3. There is nothing wrong with metal, because it is probably one of the hardest genre to play out there. However, no matter how good you are, you don't turn a song like Voodoo Child into a metal song, because that's just not going to work at all. If you think that by putting a song like that into these boys' hands, the only end result possible is a good one. At least that is what I thought of when I allowed to video to load on my window. But of course, that thought was thoroughly shattered when Malmsteen started shredding the guitar - as usual - to the tune of Voodoo Child, with the other two G3 members joining in after the first chorus. If you want to know how one of the greatest musical classics in the world can turn into pure noise and utter trash, look for that video on YouTube. I turned the video off after about two minutes, and proceeded onto listening to the original version about four times over as well.
Despite everything, there is something evident here. The amount of respect these people have for the band or singer they are covering cannot be denied. After all, nobody can stand out and say that "Oh Jimi Hendrix was just a drug-addict who choked on his own vomit and died" Because nobody can deny his contributions to the genre of Blues/Rock. I'm sure when the G3 started out, listing that song into their setpiece, they just wanted to have fun with the song and see how it turns out to sound like. Respect is definitely in the minds of these three metal guitarist players, but not for the following band that covered Jimi Hendrix's 'Foxy Lady'. They - ruined - the song, and everything that Hendrix stood for.
I've never liked Simple Plan, or Good Charlotte, or any band that feeds off teenage angst and make money out of it. Especially when you are making music which sounds worse than the sound of nails over your porcelain basin, it is better to go back to the drawing board and see what went wrong halfway down the road. Or if you are too bad a musician to figure it out, quit. Stop polluting the airwaves with your horrendous music, and certainly not the awful renditions of other people's music. Sometimes, ambition can take you too far and over the top. This is when people no longer see your afford being placed into the song, but rather how big a fool and idiot you've made yourself out to be.
Simple Plan did a rendition of the song 'Foxy Lady' during one of their concerts. Seeing the title itself was enough for me to tear my hair out. However, when I watched the video by myself, with the screaming fans in the audience and the lead singer standing on the amplifier and doing provocative actions at the ladies, I just wanted to shove the bass guitar up his ass and have him crawl back to Canada with a whole bunch of Jimi Hendrix fans chasing after him. Nothing against artistes from Canada really, I happen to love Feist - really. But you guys are probably the epitome of bad music in Canada, and Simple Plan very simply - sucks.
Below is the rendition of Foxy Lady by Simple Plan, and Stevie Ray Vaughan's rendition of Voodoo Child. Watch them, and see the differences yourself. The latter is what covers should sound like, while the former is what happens when covers go wrong. Terribly wrong.
Foxy Lady by Simple Plan
Voodoo Child by Stevie Ray Vaughan
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on Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 5:53 PM.
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