Rock & ROFL
Last winter, the TV show Wedding Band was my favourite guilty pleasure. It centres around the lives and escapades of a wedding band that plays covers and themes as the clients wish, and features personal drama, ridiculous costumes and scenarios, a rival band, and of course, lots and lots of covers of songs by other bands. It's funny and well-paced, and it has a solid cast and good production values, if you care about that sort of thing in your TV shows.
I was thinking about this show when I put Beat the Band on our music booklist for this summer because often, books about music are fairly serious and this? Is not. This is more School of Rock than rockumentary. It's about a school battle of the bands, and a group of guys who get pushed into entering semi-against their wills by a friend, and about discovering that people aren't always what you thought they were. It's also about how guys mess around, and while it's not always … tasteful … it IS always extremely funny. This is, after all, the followup up to the equally hilarious Swim the Fly.
But back to the show I was talking about – one of my favourite things is the songs, and seeing how they are going to treat them. Any time one group covers a song by another, they have some decisions to make. Are they going to try to replicate it, spoof it, or take it apart and make it over in their own style? It's a pretty interesting thing to track covers of some songs that have been done over and over, because they can sounds startlingly different in the hands of different musicians. Let's look at a few…
One really famous example of a cover sounding totally different – and being even bigger than the original – in the hands of someone else is Hurt. This was a Nine Inch Nails song, all angst and noise, until Johnny Cash got his hands and his whisky- and age-roughened voice on it, and made it far more famous than Trent Reznor ever had. Take a listen to the two of them, if you've got a moment.
I've also been loving checking out all the different takes on Cyndi Lauper's song Time After Time, which has been covered way more than you might expect. If you're curious, follow the links to see it performed by your favourite among all these artists: Matchbox Twenty ; Raya Yarbrough ; Pink ; Ashley Tisdale ; Quietdrive ; Everything But The Girl ; Tegan & Sara ; Saosin ; and a dance mix by Novaspace. The interesting thing is, most of these stay fairly true to the original – though I am finding myself pretty amused by this lounge-style rendition by Paul Anka, which is a little different take. And, of course, the one I love best is Cyndi's own version.
Want to hunt for more covers, from the gorgeous to the totally insane? Check out this amazing searchable database of covers. I know where I'll be for the rest of the summer now…
How do you feel about covers – are there covers you like better than the original? Do you find them interesting? Or do you just wish they'd leave the poor song alone like the artist meant it to be?
7 thoughts on “Rock & ROFL”
Don’t forget about LeBron’s version!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WuK_9-UhnQ
Hey Alice…great post. However I would argue with this statement. “This was a Nine Inch Nails song, all angst and noise, until Johnny Cash got his hands and his whisky- and age-roughened voice on it, and made it far more famous than Trent Reznor ever had.”
I’m not sure Johnny’s version made it far more famous…isn’t the whole reason it was an interesting cover is because the original was so famous in an entirely different way?? BTW Wedding Band was cancelled. I think you and I were the only ones who were watching!
I think I would argue that while the original was a big song and well known within a certain audience, the Johnny Cash version reached far wider, which is what I meant by more famous. It is definitely true that what made it so interesting was that the mood and sound were so very different, though – exactly why it leapt to mind as such a strong example! (and I know, I was totally sad about Wedding Band!)
That Paul Anka version of “Time After Time” is FUN!
Ha, had not seen that ad! He is… perhaps not the best vocalist I’ve ever heard. Let’s just say.
It does make me smile, too!
I know this is irrelevant, but Swim the Fly actually comes before Beat the Band. Both are surprisingly good reads.
Yep, hence calling this a followup – and yes, they are both hilarious. I love how the author switched the narrator from one boy in the group for another, and got a different story and feel out of it, even though it’s the same characters.