covers: generational shifts make something new

Until Christmas, work is taking over life and reason, and it will do the same after Christmas. And VPN will make sure it follows me home anyway. It is also That Fucking Time of the Month in triplicate and I hate everything ever in life.

This is a good time to focus on music. Two posts the same month! I know! But there's a fair to good chance I'll barely be online for the next two weeks and that is so goddamn depressing I can't even. I do love my work right now; at least now, we're doing something necessary. It just sucks because the importance means it takes everything out of me to get it done and I don't have anything else left for anything. I'm just so tired, and I'm not sure now it's entirely physical either.

Anyway.

Covers are my pet. I like for different groups and singers to take up songs and recreate them in their own imagine. Good or bad or mediocre, they bring something interesting to them, leaving something of themselves behind in the history of the song, and it's always fascinating, even if I hate it. Which I'll be honest, a lot of covers I wouldn't listen to for fun; I listen to them because it's an affirmation, an argument, a discussion, a protestation, and it may not be good, but they're trying to say something and I want to know what it is and why.

Reference: Second Hand Songs, a cover database that steals your life.

I'll pull youtube this time for direct comparison when I can find it. You will want to sample both, but I suggest even if you don't like it, listen straight through. Chosen for what I could find quickly so could be anything in the video.



God's Gonna Cut You Down
Original: Johnny Cash
Cover: Costanza

Johnny Cash is history and legend and reality combined; he shook country music the genre and the philosophy, he lived like a rockstar cliche, and if he didn't do it, it's only because he forgot he did it in an alcoholic haze. Listening to him is an experience, and he's one of the few legends that knowing his real life enhances his music.

The song is an intensely secular man's discussion of God's justice and that is what makes Costanza's remix so complicated for me emotionally. You don't take warnings from God and turn them quite like this without ever losing what they are and what they represent. Genre and aesthetics may have changed, but the meaning is the same, but with a hard twist.

Feminine technopop always fascinates me more than when men do it; a song like this is why. The background, almost bouncy beat, the sweetly female voice, the acoustics, the--everything. It's unsettling and bouncy and kind of danceable and really makes you wonder where she heard it the first time and how it hit her. Johnny Cash was warning the earth; Costanza is celebrating the fates of those who will fall under the flaming sword. It's very different, tired and inevitable and satisfied, too. She'd dance on their graves after, if she could.

Hurt
Original: Nine Inch Nails
Cover: Johnny Cash

If you haven't heard this one, get both now. I am so not kidding.

When Reznor said that he lost the song when Johnny Cash vocalized it, he underestimated himself as an artist, but I get what he meant. NIN doing it is druggingly dark, rich, moody, but the story of a younger man who still has a life to get high enough to forget. Johnny Cash makes a retrospective of it like a man standing at his own grave; unvarnished, stripped of illusions, and every word cuts. He lived that life, and he remembers it all without hope of amendment. NIN does it hopeless with the knowledge time may make it less so; Cash knows there's no time left.

The Cash version's slowly building ending to those last words, quiet and stripped of everything but the harsh, soft, broken, lost, never fails to gut me.

Ms Jackson
Original: OutKast
Cover: The Vines

Talk about a trip. I have researched and googled and wiki'ed and I'm still told this is the correct origin and cover and I still have no idea what to do with it. OutKast's utterly gorgeous, honest, amazing, the difficult exploration of a man's relationship with his ex and ex-inlaws. Rap and R&B are action music for me; I want to move to it, not just listen, and this one combines both nicely.

I have no idea what The Vines were doing here; talk about taking a retrospective, they make it sound like a stripped down cover of a Beatles song, soft and angsty and pleading, begging for understanding. OutKast wasn't apologizing for anything; that's all The Vines are trying to do. I never would have connected them together if I hadn't verified against Secondhand Songs and then wikipedia and then iTunes and Amazon, because holy shit.

I like this. I like how utterly, radically different they are and how they dovetail and then go in utterly opposite emotional directions.

Imagine
Original: John Lennon
Cover: A Perfect Circle

As a music lover, I have yet to find anything even close to this in sheer reimagining the original so thoroughly; philosophically, taking Lennon's song adn doing this to it just bothers me. Luckily, I'm not that deep, and also, I get why this one had to go this way, it had to.

Lennon's original, hopeful, deeply political and philosophical and catchy statement about a better world turned backwards into a grim imagining of a world Lennon imagined due to post-apocalyptic destruction. It's not just a different decade, another useless war; the social movement of the sixties and seventies clung to hope in the face of Vietnam, the need to be sure this would never, ever happen again. They were hopeful. Now, we're not, and our political statement don't imagine this better world we can create, we really can, if we just work at it. All we can hope for is that it won't get worse, and we don't believe that, either.

Stripped
Original: Depeche Mode
Cover: Shiny Toy Guns*

[*note: this is a fan made video of the cover. And it's amazing. Watch it.]

Depeche Mode is a band I appreciate more than love. I love dancing to them and listening to them, and I get the power of their work in the genre. Shiny Toy Guns' intensely sexual, techno-pop version however, is something else entirely. The combination of female and male call and response, not talking directly to each other but toward each other, is gorgeous. Depeche Mode didn't emphasize the possession quality of obsession quite like this, and the uncomfortable feeling of not just being observed, but watched, watched constantly, watched with intent. The music is just amazing, the multiple build and slide-down, the brief periods of calm before it hits all over again, for me, just for me, it's all about me, me, me, and the object best remember that.

To be fair, Shiny Toy Guns doesn't exactly fall into my aesthetic; techno and electronica even with pop aren't usually where I find zen, but this is why I buy their albums. That and the fact Chemistry of a Car Crash is still the most-played song I own. I mean, by a healthy margin.

Billie Jean
Original: Michael Jackson
Cover: David Cook

I get David's interpretation is off Chris Cornell's interpretation (which I also like), but David's voice is what makes this work for me. The breathy, almost alcohol-rough rise and fall, less smooth and so much a contrast to Michael's higher, purer voice.

Jackson went at it like an accusation, a defense, almost an attack--it's not mine--and how could this happen? David's approach is--and this is not new with anything made after 2000 and especially 2003, wonder why?--unsurprised, realistic, a little tired. Cook's all defense, all protestations of innocence, with no expectation of being believed. Possibly because unlike the first song, the second is sung like a guilty man.

There's something about what we do to music that unsettles me in general when we cover anything before circa 1990; Michael sang it like someone innocent, who knows he's innocent, and he'll prove it. Cook's--not innocent, not uncertain, knows he's screwed, and is going through the motions of fighting it--which he has to--but it's not like everyone knows it's totally a lie. Interpretation of music through a glass darkly, maybe, or maybe the 00's are about how we don't hope the same way, or with the same intensity. Or with the same expectation of change.

Time After Time
Original: Cyndi Lauper
Cover: Eva Cassidy

I'm sensing a theme.

The eighties were a very bouncy time for pop music. The aesthetic was very--we just don't sing like this unless we're being self-conscious about it. It's a generational shift in how we approach music and how we listen. Even pop isn't this positive or upbeat when it's being positive and upbeat. Mostly, I can't take it seriously now, which is depressing since hey, I was alive in the eighties and remember hearing these songs well before the age of reason.

Eva's wistfulness, stripping away the heady eighties joy and keeping the sweetness is very much a product of how we just as a society do not get bouncing around in a sugar haze. It's not darker, per se, but in line with a lot of eighties interpretation, it's sober, reflective, a little sad, someone who feels they're being left behind but that's okay, they'll try and keep up anyway, as long as they possibly can.

Wonderwall
Original: Oasis
Cover: Ryan Adams

Faster cover turnover on this one, we're talking eight years to take a song that wasn't what I call a joy and celebration and just strip it down to wailing melancholy.

Oasis irritates me; they were good and they should have gotten better and I just can't even deal with what the hell they did. But I still love the Gallagher brothers and so I accept. I loved this song in college; this is the stuff you get high to when you don't feel the seventies aesthetic but you really feel your drugs need a musical soundtrack. Remember, I went to college in a place where I could get away with owning The Cranberries but not anything pre-1990 or the looks I'd get.

A lot of this song comes off a post-breakup anger, but not without the eventual hope that they'll get back together. Ryan Adams more reflective, softer, quieter, much more personally smug interpretation is chiding, amused, because hey, they broke up but the object of affections was oh so wrong, and now they have to live with it, but I don't believe anyone feels the way I do about you now, a little mocking, emphasized, this is the reason they should get back together, who else would want you? beneath it. The chorus feels so secondary to that certainty that the mistake was all on the object.

Tainted Love
Original: Gloria Jones
Cover 1: Soft Cell
Cover 2: Marilyn Manson
Cover 3: Coil

So I listened to Gloria for the first time just now because I'd never heard the original. Oh man, does that put some things in perspective. Sixties feminism blows off the fucker holding her back goes through a journey to get to metal-brutal glee.

I'm trying to think of what to do with this one. There's an aesthetic change and definitely an interpretation change, moreso from Gloria to Soft Cell, but Marilyn's celebration of fucked up relationships takes it one step further. Soft Cell, unlike Gloria, never gave the impression they really thought they would get away or even wanted to, more that they should. Marilyn just wants to see how bad it can get because fucked up is the fun part.

Coil's blackly depressed, excruciatingly slow, miserable, utterly wrecking version is possibly closer to Gloria's than any of them, and it's still a one-eighty from the positive vibe--no one's getting away in Coil's song. They just wish to God they could, please.

Let's all thank minim_calibre for telling me to find Coil's version. My God.



Okay, that's about--okay, that didn't even put a dent in my covers playlist, but I'm getting uncomfortable with how many times a perky song becomes a heroin addict's anthem of pain and loss. IDEK. I'm not entirely comfortable saying the 00's were clinically depressed for music, but I'm not sure I can argue against it, either.

In the last entry in comments, I mentioned I have a mental Do Not Cover list too (it's very short and clung to with almost religious fevor); one of them is Let It Be by the Beatles, because I've never heard anyone do it and even capture a tenth of the strength and the gorgeousness, much less remix it into their own. Now I wonder if there are any that don't make me grit my teeth. It's not that I think anyone is untouchable, more that the song is simple and the meaning is everything and anything but. Anyone heard a good one?

I also wouldn't mind cover recs. Just not Hallelujah--I just downloaded a new one and I have to wait between them or I hate the new cover too much to listen to it fairly. I think I officially have a Hallelujah playlist.

Comments

[silentcs]

That cover of Stripped is amazing; I needed that, thank you.

If you don't mind, which Hallelujah covers do you have? My friend was trying to find a good one the other week but didn't get very far.

[seperis]

Hmm.

Active, Rufus Wainwright, Jeff Buckley, kd lang, and somewhere Melissa Etheridge. I have Leonard Cohen of course. Damien Rice. All of them are very good, though Rufus' cover works best for me so far.

I'm looking at Brandi Carlisle or Jason Castro next; I like both, but I can only get one at a time or I get really weird and cant' appreciate it enough on it's own and try to compare, which never ends well.

Second Hand Song's List - it's not exhaustive; I've found some on youtube that were interesting. No one's really taken it for a hard spin a while, though, so I'm hoping for it to happen eventually. Youtube tends to have the really revolutionary ones first, so checking there if none of these work is a good place to start.

[silentcs]

! I'd completely blanked on the Rufus Wainwright cover even though I own it, heh. Thank you for the handy links; I shall pass them along. =D

[seperis]

Wainwright is the first I heard and fell in love with to a stupid degree.

[ineptshieldmaid]

Have you got She Will Have Her Way? There are some truly SPECTACULAR covers on that album. Missy Higgins' 'Stuff and Nonsense' is beautiful; Holly Throsby's 'Not the girl you think you are' breaks my heart every time; and Little Birdy's rendition of Six Months In A Leaky Boat is incredibly good fun.

There's also a follow-up, He Will Have His Way, which I haven't got hold of yet. To me half of the spectacularness of the She Will Have Her Way covers is that so many of Tim and Neil Finn's songs are insightful but not necessarily *kind* character commentaries on women; sung *by* women, they interpret completely differently.

I'm also personally very fond of Standing on the Outside: not everything on that album is great (I hate Paul Kelly's Khe Sanh, for some reason), but Sarah Blasko's Flame Trees is a lovely, wistful rendition of the song; and The Living End's version of The Rising Sun picks up on the loud/fast/angry original and makes it... louder and faster, but somehow a little less angry.

Something I have a handful of covers of and am always looking for more of is Fields of Gold - I first met it through an instrumental version by Tommy Emmanuel, but my favourite at the moment is Vienna Teng's live version.

[seperis]

Oh Fields of Gold--I have Sting and then Eva's cover of it just broke me. Going to listen to Vienna's--I love her work.

[yasaman]

Oooh, thank you for that link to the cover of Stripped! I love Depeche Mode, and that song is one of my favorites. I love the call and response of it, it adds a whole new level to the song.

Now if only there were a male/female call and response cover of Tim Buckley's Song to the Siren. I occasionally mourn the fact that Jeff Buckley and Elizabeth Fraser never did a cover of it together, they sounded so absolutely lovely together in All Flowers in Time.

[seperis]

A lot of songs could use a double pov cover, especially the ones with that edge of confrontation and/or observation in them. A really interesting song for that is Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan doing I Remember; it's two parts and not just a mood but meaning change in transition between her part and then his.

It's actually one of the more intensely obsessive songs I've ever heard, wistful post-breakup to utter rage, and that song totally keeps you at wistful forever before face-slamming commences. I know this song backward and forward and it still comes out of nowhere.

And is still so melodic and singer-songwritery. Gah. That song.

[xenakis]

Oh God, that Imagine cover. It is seriously the best illustration of the power of Major mode vs. Minor mode ever.

[seperis]

It's haunted me since the first time I heard it. I can't even playlist it very often, it's just so--something.

[jenna_thorn]

Tori Amos covered both the Stone's Angie and Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, and while I tend to gravitate to Mick and the boys, her Spirit is more like my teen years were - less throwing things and shouting, more sitting in a dark room, completely overwhelmed and stumbling forward while aware that every other teen, both of my age and generations before and after, was equally at a loss.

You have a playlist of Hallelujah covers, I'm working on a playlist of It's a Man's World, though my favorite is still Concrete Blonde's.

Thank you for linking to the website, though. I'll have to play with it at home; I can tell without clicking that it's going to be an epic time-sink.

[seperis]

I'll have to play with it at home; I can tell without clicking that it's going to be an epic time-sink.

Have youtube open before you start for convenience sake; there's a surprising number that either never make it to iTunes or amazon or aren't easily searchable--Bruce Springsteine's cover of War, for example. It was there, but I had to track by album to find it instead of a flat search.

[scy]

*nods* Tori Amos has some great covers (as I'm sure you know) and Cat Powers too.

*scrolls through playlist*

And I still love 'Gold Dust Woman' as covered by Hole

[oaktree]

Awesome. I love collecting covers; I might do my own version of this post! I love the Vines, and their cover is fantastic. Hadn't heard it before, thanks for sharing!

And that God's Gonna Cut You Down... amazing. I like the original better, but the cover's also good.

[seperis]

*nods* I wish there was a remix of both together; Cash's voice smack up against hers when I playlist them are fabulous. I can't imagine how to reconcile the music, but I'd love someone to try.

[kiki_eng]

*wanders in from delicious*

I Will Survive
Gloria Gaynor
Cake

Paint it Black
The Rolling Stones
The Tea Party

Across the Universe:
Dear Prudence
The Beatles
Dana Fuchs Band/Evan Rachel Wood/Jim Sturgess/T.V. Carpio
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
The Beatles
Eddie Izzard

St. James Infirmary
Louis Armstrong
The White Stripes

[ranalore]

I have an Over the Rhine cover of "Let It Be" that I like okay, but it's definitely not anything other than a tribute, really.

One of my favorite covers-as-response-and-reinterpretation is Frida Snell's version of The Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet With Butterfly Wings." I think the two songs work as good illustrations of the differences between socially acceptable expressions of male anger and female anger.

I collect covers of "She Moved Through the Fair" and "Song to the Siren," but the first is in the tradition of anonymous balladry and I'm not sure would count, and the second is arguably moving in that direction. Then there's the Moulin Rouge soundtrack, but a lot of those are mashups of various songs, and may rely too much on a particular context.

[ekaterina]

i am now totally addicted to the costanza cover of cash--it's dangerous, sexy madness (spouse came home, cocked his head to one side and listened for a moment, and then said, "are you sure that's not, you know, *sacrilege*? hot sacrilege, but still." poor thing, he doesn't understand how songs get under my skin and then i play them for DAYS while he tries to have a normal life)--so thank you so much for posting about it; i would literally never have even considered countenancing such a thing without a rec. awesome danse macabre song is awesome. makes me think of Luther's Alice and her strange fish-hook smile of evil.

[seperis]

Ooh yeah, Costanza's cover is addictive.

[judas_river]

I absolutely adore Nick Cave, and he happens to've covered "Let It Be." It may not be a good idea to suggest an artist I love covering a song you hate to hear covered, but I'm going to do it anyway. Do let me know what you think, even if you don't like it.

As for cover recs, I particularly love Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright's version of "Careless Whisper." Rufus is one of my favorite artists, and the song makes the slash fan in me squee every time I hear it.


I checked the links to make sure the songs are right, but I disregarded the actual videos, so they could be anything.

[sphynxle.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite covers is of the song '39, originally sung by Queen. The cover I enjoy is by Ingram Hill. Really, it just comes down to voice. Ingram Hill's version is a little more country, but I just enjoy it more.

I prefer Nancy Sinatra's version of "Tammy" to Debbie Reynolds. (Again, voice)

[edana-ni-emer.livejournal.com]

How can you possibly have forgotten "Sympathy For The Devil"? ;-)

Original by the Stones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfopuBaHQeI

Cover by Guns and Roses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmHZLruBSMs

Personally (blasphemy though it might be), I like the GnR version better. Axl Rose just sounds so much more sinister than Jagger did, which seemed to fit.

[edana-ni-emer.livejournal.com]

And because I just found this for the first time like two minutes ago:

Ozzy Osbourne's cover.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2jEfPRYEVE

Which I don't think I care for. Somehow it sounds like Ozzy singing a version that was written for Van Halen.

[nrrrdy-grrrl.livejournal.com]

Word Up (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0lsBdPjUME)
Willis

Dancing Days (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQRPM8Mm6RQ)
Stone Temple Pilots
(Original: Led Zeppelin)

Come On Feel the Noize (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAsmIWq9vEI)
Bran Van 3000
(Original: Slade)

Take Me to the River (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXYB-1KTeh4)
Talking Heads
(Original: Al Green)

Magic Carpet Ride (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoGOOBA6Pfg)
Fatboy Slim
(Original: Steppenwolf)

Hit Me Baby One More Time (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiArBJ_Rzzs)
Travis
(Original: Britney Spears)

Love Buzz (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLthJDXbq6Y)
Nirvana
(Original: The Shocking Blue)

Working in a Coalmine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF-ofT4wAO8)
Devo
(Original: Lee Dorsey)

Hurting Each Other (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_A9kn8JzVk)
Johnette Napalitano & Marc Moreland
(Original: The Carpenters)

Stairway to Heaven (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNc5o9TU0t0)
Rodrigo y Gabriela
(Original: Led Zeppelin)

I Can't Get Enough of You Baby (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN2_psVlgnQ)
Smashmouth
(Original: ? and the Mysterians)

Everlasting Love (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=481XQAOA_6s)
U2
(Robert Knight)

[huzzlewhat.livejournal.com]

I'm getting uncomfortable with how many times a perky song becomes a heroin addict's anthem of pain and loss.

So, I'm guessing you've heard Red House Painters' cover of Silly Love Songs? :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJU_qjdShgc

[naughtyoldlady.livejournal.com]

"Hurt," yes. You have seen the K/S video for this song, haven't you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeX-cXtmxAs

[droolfangrrl.livejournal.com]

I love the various takings for Pirate Jenny. One of the interesting things about that song is that the part is generally taken by a woman too young and vocally immature to do the song justice. My favorite version is the one done by Nina Simon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCcKBc4gwAQ

[droolfangrrl.livejournal.com]

and the original http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec0clERjQ5A

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

One of the forums I frequent has a pretty good covers rec thread (http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=8970&page=1). Johnny Cash doing Hurt is amazing! these (http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=8970&page=3#Item_7) few videos I posted there remain among my favourites. Fifties version Umbrella!

[daemonicangel.livejournal.com]

haha, wellll... the opinions are probably pretty biased in terms of liking it 'cause i'm around fans (fans who also love the beatles, but still fans nonetheless so judgement can get a tiny bit clouded at times), but kris did a cover of let it be (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRA3DIUDsD0). (he loooves the beatles; he's also covered yesterday, come together, and hey jude).

but cover recs... these are only live versions -- but hmm, i enjoyed adam's 20th century boy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joT55mqZH3U) (original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylww2dOW7fg)). and i'll always like this version of baby one more time (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNFvIlWOYzs) (original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-u5WLJ9Yk4)) by kris, but you might have to ignore the fact he doesn't do the whole song (i don't think he ever has).

i have more covers that i like, but these are off the top of my head, which may be why a few are a bit cheesy (and maybe a bit wtf as well), but i've always had an odd soft spot for them:

snow patrol - crazy in love (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnO_gP0r7WY) (original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViwtNLUqkMY))
far - pony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmiPFF3E_4I) (original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVMKQP0K3a0))
muse - can't take my eyes off you (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrBNfXIBqu4) (original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGFToiLtXro))
roy orbison - unchained melody (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSIJUz11-FE) (original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU7vQh7BFPQ)), love hurts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ICnk-gWx8A) (original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5iJMfwwheY))
the decemberists - human behavior (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7YMkscKInA) (original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGdO5DVh78Q))
keane - with or without you (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlJzLqlNft8) (original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmSdTa9kaiQ))
the fugees - killing me softly with his song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YAEWrnOtrY) (original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGlGJp3IarQ), but this one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpNdMIAnKko) is probably more well known)

and this isn't really something i'd rec seriously, buuut, if you want maybe a laugh - kris covering gangsta's paradise (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AUB_3hZM0Q) (original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUTJgk0HFqw))

[lexstar29.livejournal.com]

When you do want a new cover of Hallelujah let me know. One of the musicians I work with recorded a fabulous one last year. I honestly think it's one of the best I've heard.

Other than that if you like covers you should check out the Radio One Live Lounge CD series. The CD's are a mix of the artists doing the song and covers done by artists you wouldn't expect to cover the song, most of which work brilliantly well. There's a Version of Hey Ya but Outkast done by Will young that is so different you wouldn't believe, but it's stunning. In fact here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60oondKs6ck Will Young Hey Ya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wl6R8u6Zus Hey ya Outkast original (the song starts about a minute into the video).

(Apologies for ugly links!)

[stentoriansista.livejournal.com]

Wow, I had some sort of vague notion of who David Cook was, mostly that he was on American Idol at some point, but his voice was way better than I expected. That cover is *fantastic*. You can definitely hear the Chris Cornell influence, but I agree with you about his voice fitting better than Cornell's.

Some covers I dig: The White Stripes' Jolene (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE3-q-aoFZI/) (original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGEubdH8m0s/)). I love Dolly Parton with a fiery and fervent passion (don't judge), so I'm usually pretty defensive when people try to cover her stuff, but I love this one.
Adele's cover of Dylan's To Make You Feel My Love (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0put0_a--Ng/). This song has been covered to *death* (clearly, since I can't seem to find the original on youtube in the sea of covers), but her voice is so soulful and a little lost and I love it anyway.
Florence + The Machine's covers of Wham's Last Christmas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hAJIPn4ldY/) (original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8gmARGvPlI/)) and Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycrhIpd4ZWU/) (original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcATvu5f9vE/)). I caught the former on the radio last year; it was the first I'd heard of them and I just loved her voice. The latter I'm including mostly b/c my fiancee loves it, but I do really like the fuzz on the vocals, and how she sounds a bit sinister.

Thanks for starting this, I'm loving the ones coming up in the comments too!

[ceitie.livejournal.com]

I think that the version of Let It Be from Across the Universe is gorgeous and powerful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4bib4PBqGA

[stillane.livejournal.com]

I really like the Noisettes' cover of When You Were Young (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj3hlQkBO4M&feature=related). I have a tiny, guilty addiction to the Killers to begin with, but the cover just makes the song into this playful, warm thing. It's as wise and knowing as the original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff0oWESdmH0), but with less world-weariness. I'm kind of fascinated by the change.

top 10 covers

[evawhimsy.livejournal.com]

10. Johnny Cash's cover of "In My Life"

9. Mutya Buena's cover of "Fast Car"

8. Sugababes (or just one girl from that group)'s cover of "Hey There Delilah"

7. Butch Walker's cover of "You Belong With Me"

6. Viking Moses' cover of "I Will Always Love You"

5. Taken by Trees' cover of "Sweet Child o'Mine"

4. The Script's cover of "Lose Yourself"

3. The Gossip's cover of "Careless Whisper"

2. Jason Wade's cover of "You Belong to Me" (Dylan)

1. Someone's cover of "Kids" (MGMT) - I have no idea where I got this or who it's by, but it's stripped down and acoustic and it's my absolute favorite cover of the moment.



I'm willing to upload for anyone who asks!

Re: top 10 covers

[evawhimsy.livejournal.com]

Oh, and honorary mention:

Ingrid Michaelson's cover of "Can't Help Falling in Love"

Re: top 10 covers

[chickpea.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, do you mind uploading the cover of "Fast Care"? I love, love that song. Thank you!

Re: top 10 covers

[evawhimsy.livejournal.com]

Of course!

http://db.tt/ArxQjpM

Right click, save. Enjoy!

Re: top 10 covers

[chickpea.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It's so beautiful and spare!

[kitsunec4.livejournal.com]

Would like to put forth for consideration, Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus and its covers. :)

Depeche Mode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1xrNaTO1bI

Johnny Cash: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQcNiD0Z3MU

Marilyn Manson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl6fyhZ0G5E

...and in many ways, Depeche Mode kind of covers their own song, Personal Jesus is an amazingly different beast live at a concert.

From live in Barcelona: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9f2BmlDB4w

(ohmygod, I own this concert DVD in delicious blu-ray and I could watch it forever.....)

[greyhat.livejournal.com]

favorite Oasis cover:
Ben Folds Five - Champagne Supernova (Oasis Cover)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzIDY9-a4cA

Youtube links to several other covers that Ben Folds Five did on tour. They're really fun.

[randomeliza.livejournal.com]

This post is pretty much my crack - I am a cover song obsessive. My current favorite (for a while, actually) is Paolo Nutini's cover of Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" - simple and different (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-PRyB_B2Kc), so suited to his voice, recognizably the same message, but with such a wistful tone that the original didn't really have, that note of remembrance rather than pathos. I love love LOVE both versions of the songs, but Paolo Nutini is adorable and Scottish and totally gets it, in my opinion.

Also, the acoustic group the Duke's Men of Yale cover the Barenaked Ladies song "What A Good Boy" in the most fantastic way - you can watch a live version here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YswKl0730t8), or download it from their website for free here (http://dukesmen.com/assets/files/album_tracks/WhatAGoodBoy.m4a), with a different soloist who is unfortunately not Sam Tsui (the pocket-sized soloist in the live video) but still awesome. I loved this song from when I heard it played around a campfire at age 13. And I love this version possibly more than any other.