Writer's Block: Cover me

[tabular_rasa]

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Generally I am critical of remakes, because I think you've already lost some credit if you can't even be creative enough to write your own song, but I can understand that many otherwise creative artists want to pay tribute to the greats they admire-- or, conversely, bring something good out of a piece that otherwise kind of sucked.



Anya Marina covers TI's Whatever You Like. (And yes, like pretty much everyone else who has heard this song I did discover it from that hot three-way scene in Gossip Girl). This is sultry and sexy. TI's version is just blast and swagger. Whose offer for "whatever I want" do you think I'm going to take up?

"FIRST OF THE YEAR (EQUINOX) - SKRILLEX" (Watch on YouTube)

Amy Lee covers Korn's Thoughtless. I don't hate the Korn version, but I find the song resonates with me more in the female voice. And I just <3 Amy Lee.

Gary Jules covers Tears for Fears Mad World. I don't mind the original, but I find the cover to be much more emotional, with the music and beat better suited to the lyrics.

"Sublime - Wrong Way" (Watch on YouTube)

Lisa Scrinta (random person I found on YouTube) covers Ke$ha's Blah Blah Blah. I think I would like a symphony of nails running down a chalkboard more than Ke$ha singing that song, but this girl not only makes the song tolerable but actually quite good.

And not really a cover, I guess, since it's not re-sung, but while I have a soft spot for Metallica (do those two ideas go together?) I find the Until It Sleeps cover by Apocalyptica to be ridiculously gorgeous and applicable to more of my moods than the original. You would almost never realize it was formerly metal.

And, hell, might as well just go the full nine yards into instrumental. Ralph Vaughn Williams' reinterpretation of Tallis's Third Mode Melody is one of my favorite pieces of music ever written:

Comments

[sidheblessed.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree with you on Mad World. The Gary Jules version is deep and cutting. It's profound. The Tears for Fears version is weird and not in a good way. I think the different is that the original tries to sound too wacky, whereas the cover emphasises how nuts our world is without even having to try to make it so.

The other thing is that with Gary's cover, you get a sense of unity. The way he sings the lyrics makes you feel his pain but also recognises that everyone in the world has similar pain. It's a "we're all in this together" thing. The simplicity helps make you feel part of it.

Meanwhile, I find the weirdness of the Tears of Fears version to be alienating.

[tabular-rasa.livejournal.com]

I think that's the perfect way of putting it: the Tears for Fears version is alienating.

And I think it's telling the way Gary Jules says "the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had" makes you focus on the dying and how distressing that is, where in the other it just sounds like a run-of-the-mill psychopathic thought. You empathize more with Gary.

[firesoulbird.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you on Mad World. In fact, I prefer any cover I've heard to the original on that song. I just would never have cared about hearing that song again if it were just the Tears for Fears original.

[eternitat.livejournal.com]

I did not even know Gary Jules was covering mad world- I thought he was the first person to sing it.

And I love Apocalyptica and hope to see them live later this month!

[tabular-rasa.livejournal.com]

I didn't uncover the original until long after I had heard the cover. And then I was kind of like, meh, I could live without that one.

Awesome! I'm jealous. That's a band I'd to see in concert. Plus I am familiar with enough of their discography I would likely know most of the lineup, which I prefer when I attend concerts.

[gingitsune3.livejournal.com]

I prefer TI's version, none of this white-girl stuff.
But that could be the gangsta in me.

[tabular-rasa.livejournal.com]

I probably just like hers better because it's all dark and minor key-ish. Plus TI's video makes me sad. Poor girl and her dreams.