Why do bands do nearly identical cover versions?

I always wondered the same thing.
When a band do a cover I like to be suprised.

One of those suprised is the Iron Man cover from the Cardigans.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=SzgZJEpLuw0&fmt=18

 

For two covers that totally change the whole vibe and even meaning and feel of the originals, check out:

Garage Mahal doing 'Material Girl'...fantastic slow R&B groove instrumental.

Greg Laswell covering 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun'. This is really stunning. It turns a chirpy little pop tune into a dark, brooding sort of ballad.

Very cool stuff!

K

 

I personally always preferred covers as close to the original as possible. FNM's Easy Like Sunday Morning and Ugly Kid Joe's Cat's in the Cradle are great examples, IMO. While it's not super close, I also love Disturbed's Land of Confusion.

That Midlife Crisis cover shows that David Draiman should not try and cover Mike Patton!

 

I always thought of it as a band playing a song they liked, makes more sense when its released as a song on a live album though, I do agree its strange to record a near carbon copy of the original for a cd.

 

Lol, I far preferred Disturbeds version!


But then I'm a longtime fan of Disturbed.

 

I liked that version, and I'm a big Disturbed and FNM fan. I also love Draiman's voice... I just don't think he does a good Patton. I don't think many people could!

 

Haha, I've not actually listened to FNM before, mabye I should! Their voices are indeed very different.

 

Simple enough. It's fun. Music, despite what you read here or on any forum, is not about the money. It's not always about "art." It's fun. It's joy. Even the "professionals" who play for a living would probably still be playing at home even if they weren't getting paid for playing. Just because you're a world reknown "artist" doesn't mean you lose that joy of hearing a song you like and want to emulate that.

Pretensiousness...

The irony of a Grateful Dead sticker on a Cadillac is that 20 years before Henley recorded BOS, most fans of the Grateful Dead would not have wanted any sort of job that would lend them the financial means to own a new Cadillac. The Cadillac being a symbol of wealth. For the same reason, 20 years before the Ataris released BOS, someone who was a Black Flag fan would not have wanted a job that would have given them the financial means to own a new Cadillac. These days, Boomers are the wealthy- the Gen X kids that grew up on Black Flag and the Circle Jerks are now 40-ish and are becoming the wealthy.

 

Dude, pick up a copy of The Real Thing and Angel Dust. Their best work, IMO. Very experimental and borders on bizarre at points, but great, great albums.

Never heard that. I need to go track it down...

 

I will, as soon as possible.

 

Speaking of taking a "chirpy little pop tune" and turning it into a dark, brooding ballad, has anyone heard Type O Negative's cover of Summer Breeze? It was on the I Know What You Did Last Summer soundtrack.

 

I prefer when a band makes a cover their own. Why would I want to hear someone play a song exactly the same way as the original, when I can just listen to the original instead? For better or worse, if you're going to cover someone else's music, make it your own. At least then I have two different versions to choose from. As a huge Maiden fan, I fell in love with Sign's version of Run to the Hills.

By the way, I love those covers by The Cardigans. Especially Burning Down the House.

 

I did not even know they ever covered this. I'm embarrassed for them!!! It's a close remake, but LB has no business covering a Who tune!

 

Why not? If it came out good, why not?

John Lennon did a whole album of cover stuff (granted the impetus of the album was to avoid a lawsuit) and his version of "Stand By Me" is one of those lasting songs that come out of his solo work.

When I was a kid, my first 45 we put out was one of our songs b/w the Three Dog Night song "One." We originally started doing the song because for whatever reason, those lyrics meant something to me at the time. We were high on doing it and decided to put it out on the record. Nothing more.

They most certainly could have grown up listening to Black Flag (and probably did). And they most certainly could have seen what those very same anti-establishment folks were doing 20 years after they were scrawling anarchy logos on their school desks. The idea of Rollins doing Gap ads is as surreal as Jerry Garcia selling neck ties. Fact is, those old punk rock bands are bigger now than they were "back in the day." I think I could count on one hand how many kids would have had a Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys, DRI, JFA or any other "punk rock" shirt or something when I was in high school. How many do you see kids wearing these days?

As far as referencing Black Flag... You understand the point, do you understand the target audience? For someone who's going to be into the Ataris, that person is generally have grown up with former Grateful Dead fans as the "establishment." In other words, the irony is lessened. For all we know- it may have even been a record company decision to change the lyric to have kids identify with it...