March 14, 2008
Friday music
UPDATE: Three more songs added. Who loves ya, baby?
Today, three artists I quite like cover three songs I'm quite fond of. I've always liked covers. I like to hear a good song interpreted in a way that brings a new meaning to it or that illuminates something about it. I think all three of these do that, each in their own way (one does it by changing nothing).
This song was written from a female perspective. I've long thought that male singers should sing female narratives and vice versa, but Tom Waits doesn't really sell his version so it's good to have Neko Case's version.
Pharoahe Monche covering Public Enemy.
Hip-hop artists covering each other is quite rare (you're more likely to get a novelty like Ben Folds singing Bitches Ain't Shit) but Pharoahe Monche clearly thought this Public Enemy song was still relevant 20 years on.
A band known for hardcore metal tempo & rhythm gymnastics covers an RnB song by a skinny white boy. The Dillinger Escape Plan, meet Justin Timberlake.
If you grab any or all of these, please leave a comment saying whether you liked them or not. Even if it's monosyllabic.
Ruth Copeland was an English soul singer whose main claim to fame is that her backing band was Funkadelic. This is a Rolling Stones cover from her first album.
I've always liked the pairing of a quiet chick voice with a deep dude voice - Nancy & Lee, Nick & Kylie, and here's Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan covering a Hank Williams song.
Sometime in 1987, Warren Zevon & REM (calling themselves Hindu Love Gods) spent an evening jamming some of their favourite blues songs then capped it off with this Prince cover. I like it better than the original.
I don't download these because I use dial-up :/
As for hip-hop covers, part of the problem is how many hip-hop tunes are about self-definition (or self-advertisement). Although that's the reason "The Real Slim Shady" is *begging* to be covered.
The covers I can think of (the real ones, not the ones I'd *like* to see) are political or social commentary numbers (actually, all I can think of are 'Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos' covered by Tricky and 'Children's Story' covered by Black Star, so that's not definitive)
Posted by: Andrew at March 14, 2008 12:45 PMWhere's that Neko Case track from?
A few months back I had Billy look sideways at me when I remarked that "Tom Waits is one of the greatest songwriters currently alive in the US." That Neko Case cover sorta shows my point - that under his grunts, growls and unique instrumentation there's almost always a simple and beautiful song.
Though, truthfully, I'm not sure I'm a great fan of *that* particular cover. I would've liked to have heard a bit more grit, y'know?
But, still, quite nice.
(I haven't listened to the others, though, btw...)
Posted by: Scott A at March 14, 2008 2:06 PMI checked them out, have been doing so each week. Wasn't very excited by any of it, to be honest, but I like the opportunity to hear stuff I wouldn't otherwise, hence downloading...
Really like the opening moments of the solo Dillinger Escape Plan put in place of the Clipse's raps. Sounds like something's broken. Also due doing the track faithfully but not singing very in tune I got a closer approximation of how it might sound as a N*E*R*D song, which is what it basically is...
Was a bit thrown by Monche's choice of cover, cos I associate him firstly with lyrics like "Girls rub on your titties! Yeah I said it: 'Girls rub on your titties!'" and "She had lips like the Rolling Stones logo" (in an ode to the joys of going down on girls, just to be clear). And to be honest I love those songs. :D Of course penning smut and caring about politics aren't contradictory...
About the hip-hop covers thing, I guess the attitude of proving your skills through lyrical prowess is kinda antithetical to covering other people's raps (ignoring how much ghostwriting goes on - Monche himself ghostwrote a bunch of P Diddy's last album). I guess the equivalent to covers within the genre would be versioning beats and so on - adding your lyrical stamp to someone else's music, rather than rearranging the music and keeping the lyrics intact. Fits with all the riffing on tried-and-true verses to take them in a different direction, e.g. the million and one take son those kids in Wildstyle (including on Black Star's album).
Oh yeah, Tricky (as Nearly God) covered 'Children Story' too. Notably, not being part of the hip-hop establishment, they keep the lyrics of both covers they did largely intact while Mos Def's spin on 'Children Story' takes the narrative structure and the flow and shifts the whole thing to a new topic.
Posted by: michael at March 14, 2008 6:39 PMAndrew: Snoop covered "Lodi Dodi" by Slick Rick, which was hardly a socio-political statement. I can't think of any others, though.
Scott: Yeah, Tom Waits is a magnificent songwriter. That track comes from a bootleg of a concert in Toronto. I've got a couple of Neko bootlegs, which I can get to you if you like.
Michael: I liked Like I Love You sung slightly out of tune instead of auto-tune. I like rough edges. I always associate Monche with the lyric "Fuck it, if I'm gonna die at least I shot the mayor!"
I also love smut; I've always loved how black American music is mostly about fucking. (What do you think "rock 'n' roll" originally referred to?)
Ghost-writing is very common in hip-hop. Dr. Dre never wrote his own lyrics, for instance; most of The Chronic's lyrics were written by Snoop & D.O.C. (and there are even some who claim a lot of the production was Dat Nigga Daz).
I'll admit that none of this week's songs is brilliant. Maybe next week I'll post some stuff I think is really first-rate, instead of just slightly obscure stuff. (Last week I posted the wrong Moontrekkers track, btw: it was supposed to be Night of the Vampire, a much better piece. Sorry 'bout that!)
Posted by: Pearce at March 14, 2008 7:06 PMAwesomeness. No linkies for the new ones?
Maybe we (who??) should be doing a group mp3 blog?
Posted by: michael at March 15, 2008 1:09 PMHa ha, oops. Fixed now.
I like the idea of a group mp3 blog. Shouldn't be too hard to set up.
Posted by: Pearce at March 15, 2008 1:20 PM6 word reviews of a tonne of stuff from SXSW. Helpfully with a rating bar.
Bound to be something in there
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/reviews/sixword_reviews_of_763_sxsw_mp3s.php