A recent conversation I was involved in turned its attention to cover versions of songs. Specifically, cover versions which are better than the original. This category turned out, unsurprisingly, to be very small. We could all agree, for instance, that Gary Jules' version of Mad World is better than the original by Tears for Fears. Yes, all agreed, Eminem's Ice Ice Baby is indeed superior to the original by Vanilla Ice1. Things got a little more strained over whether or not Hendrix's version of All Along the Watchtower beats Dylan's (it does, damn you)..... but where things always get a little hairy (for me) is when we get onto Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. It's not that I think the original is, well, a good arrangement per se (dear god that awful eighties backing) .... it's just that Jeff Buckley gives me the shits. In point of fact, I would submit that no-one has yet covered this song properly2. It's a great song. It sounds to me a little like a drunk finding god in a pool of his own vomit (in a good way, though .... honest).... but when I hear Buckley doing it, well, I find myself saying (unfortunately, and as far as social decorum is concerned) "oh for fucks sake why don't you just shoot yourself already". Matters inevitably take a hairy turn from this point onwards. It was lucky, then, that I was able to produce the following video. However we may differ as human beings, I offer, we can all agree that Avril Lavigne must never, ever be allowed to sing3 Coldplay's The Scientist ever again.
Ladies and gentlemen, live and off-key I give you perhaps the greatest piece of butchery ever performed by a diminutive Canadian pop singer on the work of a contemporary British band:
1Of course, this is true in a rather trivial sense. It really doesn't matter how good or bad you think Eminem's version is .... what's good about it is the simple knowledge that Eminem is covering Vanilla ice. If just knowing that such a thing exists in the world isn't enough to make you smile, well, I guess you're one of those people who didn't cry when Bambi's mother died.
2Which actually adds to its charm. If the version you end up hearing never quite matches up to the version in your head, well I mean, .... listen to the lyrics. This is .... appropriate.
3It was very, very tempting to stop typing on that word.....
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25 comments:
I have a version of Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright, which I quite like. It's got plenty of room for improvement, such as that his voice is a bit annoying, and all the verses sound the same (in a song where you have the exact same simple chord structure and tune in each verse, verse after verse after verse, this is an easy trap to fall into), but the music's nice and I do prefer it to the LC's version.
Of course, the best version I heard was when our college choir sang it. We transposed the last verse up by a minor third, and the acoustics in the church were amazing.
I do agree that the best thing about the song is that you know ideally it's much better than what you're listening to. I have the same feeling about You Belong to Me, at least once I heard it as a jazz song.
Oh My Freaking God what a terrible experience that clip was once I got around to listening to it.
OH MY GOD nobody but Leonard Cohen can do justice to ‘Hallelujah’, dammit. I am with you on shooting Jeff Buckley. Even though that wasn’t what you actually said. But nonetheless.
This blog entry evokes a strange feeling of déjà vu...
I can't decide which is worse, that clip or Sam, Geoff, Anita, and me doing Throw Your Arms Around Me.
Rufus Wainwright.... his voice is a bit annoying Yes, yes it is.
Oh My Freaking God what a terrible experience that clip was once I got around to listening to it.
It's not just that it's a bad attempt .... it literally hurts your ears. You realise just how much Avril depends upon studio magic to sound like anything other than some adolescent girl who rang in to a radio station to attempt to sing some song she likes.
OH MY GOD nobody but Leonard Cohen can do justice to ‘Hallelujah’, dammit.
Look, I'm with you in as much as Leonard had the best general idea as to how it should be performed. I don't even mind that he hasn't got the best singing voice, since a certain degree of imperfection actually helps. But there's definite room for improvement there - the obvious candidate being the awful eighties synth in the background.
I am with you on shooting Jeff Buckley. Even though that wasn’t what you actually said. But nonetheless.
Look, if anyones up for exhuming him just to shoot him, hey, I'm up for it. His fans probably wouldn't even object that much if you could dress it up with some kind of masturbatory emo significance.
This blog entry evokes a strange feeling of déjà vu...
:)
I can't decide which is worse, that clip or Sam, Geoff, Anita, and me doing Throw Your Arms Around Me.
This reminds me of a curious story. Post trivia a few weeks back the three semi-permanent Ethel the Froggers were drunkenly staggering home. There had been a Hunters and Collectors question and the following conversation occurred.
Frogger 1 Who the fuck are they?
Frogger 2An Australian band. They're pretty forgettable..... but they did do that Holy Grail song.
Me And Throw Your Arms Around Me
Froggers 1 & 2 Never heard of it
Me Of course you have. I sing a bit.
Froggers 1 & 2 blank stares
Me Oh come ON!!! I sing some more.
Froggers 1 & 2 Blank stares.
.... and so on. Yeah, it turns out New Zealanders all know Holy Grail, but NOT Throw your Arms Around Me. Weird.
... So anyways, on the badness scale I'd put 1) Avril, 2) My incident, 3) Your incident.
Oh shit ..... I forgot about The Gaussian Eliminators doing the Sarah Silverman song live in a sing-off tie-break in the Red Room.......
That video doesn't seem to load (it says that it's no longer available). I wonder if it's a UQ thing.
I listened to another Avril Lavigne Scientist video. It was OK, because it had a piano in it.
Dave, Dave, Dave......
Just as scissors cut paper, and paper wraps stone, Hendrix beats Dylan.
I like Dylan, I really do, but after listening to >= 5 songs, I get an urge to punch that harmonica down his throat.
Andrew, I understand your angst regarding the 80s synth. Having said that, I LOVE Leonard Cohen. And how can you say that he hasn't got the best singing voice? Don't you know that he was born with the gift of a golden voice? ;P
Anyway.... Did anyone watch the show on Cohen on SBS last Saturday? And if so, did you, like myself, cringe during the song with Cohen and U2? Why did Bono feel the urge to sing?
Just as scissors cut paper, and paper wraps stone, Hendrix beats Dylan.
I come from an obscure school of thought that holds that paper shouldn't beat stone, myself. Being wrapped in paper doesn't really hurt the stone, whereas throwing the stone at the paper, or just rubbing it hard against it will really FUCK THAT PAPER UP. So while others may accept that analogy, well, I have reservations.
And how can you say that he hasn't got the best singing voice? Don't you know that he was born with the gift of a golden voice?
Did he sell it for some golden beans ? ;)
Why did Bono feel the urge to sing? Speaking as an oftentimes apologist for U2, well, not knowing when to shut the fuck up has long been the man's major character flaw..... The man's ego is kind of a force of nature.
Lastly, Dave: can you at least admit that it would have been better with only the piano?
Oh wait ... you said wraps, not beats. My dufus.
Dave: can you at least admit that it would have been better with only the piano?
I don't know, I'd have to listen to it again, and I can't be bothered doing so.
Always go rock. It's the safest option.
Except when you're playing against Dave. Then go paper.
But ..... paper doesn't beat anything. Except maybe "fly", and then only if it's "newspaper".
If you wrapped the scissors tightly enough in paper, they wouldn't be able to cut anything.
I feel that Rock Paper Scissors is predicated upon the belief that neither of those three parties are conscious. Thus the psychological damage inflicted upon the scissors by removing their ability to cut stuff (and thus taking away their their raison d'etre, if you will) doesn't count. You have to physically damage the fuckers more than they damage you. So saying "I provide the scissors with so much paper to cut they go blunt" doesn't count either. The only way the wrapping ploy works is if the paper is holding the scissors down so that rock can beat them up more easily.
Do we all agree that rock beats folk and that paper sometimes cuts fingers?
I think that's fair, Mary.
Isn't paper a bit like rope? You can combine lots of little bits to make one big mofo entity. Get that wood pulp and create that 500kg piece of paper. That would do some damage to those 50gram scissors.
(I understand that with the same argument you could say that 'rock' is really...Mars and 'scissors' are some kind of Cyclops laser eye scissors that cut through all kinds of penis.)
If that argument doesn't work, then isn't the plural and singular of paper the same word? So saying paper beats rock, could be saying one shitload of paper stomps that rock to dust.
Well, your second argument at least won't fly, since you can use rock as a collective term too. There's a hell of a lot more rock in the universe than paper (probably). So rock just completely overwhelms paper however it chooses to aggregate.
The collective term trick doesn't really work with scissors, though. Hmmm.... yes, I think you raise a valid point. A rock, paper scissors game in which paper beats scissors does make sense. Rock still always wins, though.
Paper is easier to write on than rock is. :)
Sometimes, Helena, I get the feeling that people aren't taking this issue as seriously as I am.....
Greetings Fitz. I have to say that your blog is now back to its best. I should make myself clear though, your blog is not by any objective measure 'good'. In fact if I had to find an adjective for you blog I think it would be 'another'.
I say that your blog is back to its best not because of the quality of the post by rather the ensuing comments. Hitherto I thought the only place I could get such a thorough rumination on the psychology of rock, paper, scissors, was my own head.
The only thing lacking in the comments thread was large, colourful pieces of text in bold.
Also, I thought that the Bambi's mother remark at the end of the first footnote could itself have been a footnote within the footnote. You are missing an opportunity to take your blog to the next level.
Thanks, Geoff.
I've always appreciated your constructive abuse.
An update:
The original post should include Faith no More's easy,
this Folk version of Baby Got Back (thanks to
Ben .... I've linked to a live version) and this interesting take on Coldplay's
Rambo.
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