Covers vs Original
- Thread starter Shandy
- Start date
mrsix12346
New member
One of my frienRAB is taking a course in music and out of curiosity I looked at his first paper topic and this was it. And I was sorta curious if anyone had any thoughts on it past the banal points he has made in his paper (instrument changes, time signature changes, ect).
The song was the original by postal service and the cover by iron wine
The song was the original by postal service and the cover by iron wine
Gothic rose
New member
Rickenbacker,
I think that is that umteenth time I saw you tell someone a band they like is not good. You should start your own thread where people can post their favorite banRAB in it and you can tell us whether or not you approve of them.
I think that is that umteenth time I saw you tell someone a band they like is not good. You should start your own thread where people can post their favorite banRAB in it and you can tell us whether or not you approve of them.
The Nobodies
New member
[YOUTUBE]DchToF20Vl8[/YOUTUBE]
Sixpence None The Richer's cover song of Crowed House "Don't Dream It's Over." I like both banRAB, Sixpence is noted for doing covers. Very close to the original, one minor difference in this songs is the guitar that is used is a Stratocaster instead of a Rickenbacker.
(I thouhgt I'll start with easy pop-song instead of some punk song I had in mind.)
bearfox_traders
New member
original - takes a minute to kick in
[youtube][/youtube]
cover - does not take a minute to kick in
[youtube][/youtube]
the most prominent characteristic of the original is its ability to channel the raw energy of metal music using only electronic devices in a day when they were rarely used for anything besides generic house beats.
the cover eschew's virutally all electronic devices to recreate the chaos of the original using a typical metal band setup. the vocals are still thoroughly processed.
the original clip here is a video edit, there's no little girl singing around the 3 minute mark on the album, nor is there the extended intro. lyrically they're identical. musically it's pretty spot on as well. this wasn't an exercise in interpretation so much as a test to perform something that most people thought could only be pulled off by machines. pay attention to the drummer in the cover, he is SPOT on.
apparently the original was composed after a 'fan' left a note with what would become the lyrics for aphex twin after a show.
[youtube][/youtube]
cover - does not take a minute to kick in
[youtube][/youtube]
the most prominent characteristic of the original is its ability to channel the raw energy of metal music using only electronic devices in a day when they were rarely used for anything besides generic house beats.
the cover eschew's virutally all electronic devices to recreate the chaos of the original using a typical metal band setup. the vocals are still thoroughly processed.
the original clip here is a video edit, there's no little girl singing around the 3 minute mark on the album, nor is there the extended intro. lyrically they're identical. musically it's pretty spot on as well. this wasn't an exercise in interpretation so much as a test to perform something that most people thought could only be pulled off by machines. pay attention to the drummer in the cover, he is SPOT on.
apparently the original was composed after a 'fan' left a note with what would become the lyrics for aphex twin after a show.
I think that Johnny Cash's version of Hurt is alot more personal then the NIN version. One has to think that he made it right before he died (his last single) and his wife had just died..so it seemed to me to have alot more feeling than the NIN original. The original is very good but Cash's remake seemed to just have a bit more to it than just the melancholy. Cash had lived a long life and it seems to me that that particualar song just encompasses all the regret, sadness, longing he might have felt at that time. But that is just me. Nothing wrong with liking the original more. And I too have never heard anyone saying that the Cash version was the original...
There have been so many remakes it is almost imposssible to count. I never really minded remakes as long as they were done well and perhaps had a new spin on the original (example: "Mad World" - Tears for Fears original, Gary Jules/Micheal Andrews cover). I don't really enjoy when they remake a tune, put it into a complete new genre, and then market it as a dance version of the original (example: Ultravox "Hymn" and Music Instructors version). Dance versions seem to usually destroy what probably was a perfectly good song to begin with. Also, I wished they would admit that it was a remake once in a while rather than just market it as a completly new song (although they do on the cRAB, but it isn't marketed that way). But that is just me.
There have been so many remakes it is almost imposssible to count. I never really minded remakes as long as they were done well and perhaps had a new spin on the original (example: "Mad World" - Tears for Fears original, Gary Jules/Micheal Andrews cover). I don't really enjoy when they remake a tune, put it into a complete new genre, and then market it as a dance version of the original (example: Ultravox "Hymn" and Music Instructors version). Dance versions seem to usually destroy what probably was a perfectly good song to begin with. Also, I wished they would admit that it was a remake once in a while rather than just market it as a completly new song (although they do on the cRAB, but it isn't marketed that way). But that is just me.
I think it's probable that Cash thought the song spoke to him, so I too think it's personal (like Reznor's original version obviously is as well).
The Devil Went Down to Georgia by Charlie Daniels Band is a great song. It's about a boy named Johnny who has a fiddle-playing duel against the devil. He bets his soul against a fiddle made of gold (rhyme, see). The original is from 1979.
[youtube]cDm_ZHyYTrg[/youtube]
Primus made a rather awful cover which was memorable for it's claymation video and little else, at least in my opinion.
[youtube]3FRtkek-Et4[/youtube]
Wacky and zany punk-band Toy Dolls actually did a better job when they made a punked up version that replaced Georgia with Scunthorpe (title: The Devil Went Down to Scunthorpe) and changed the fiddle for a guitar. Here it is - although whoever upped it shamelessly stole the vid from the Primus version, effectively corabining the best features of both covers
:
[youtube]ujcaq5K_cjk[/youtube]
The Devil Went Down to Georgia by Charlie Daniels Band is a great song. It's about a boy named Johnny who has a fiddle-playing duel against the devil. He bets his soul against a fiddle made of gold (rhyme, see). The original is from 1979.
[youtube]cDm_ZHyYTrg[/youtube]
Primus made a rather awful cover which was memorable for it's claymation video and little else, at least in my opinion.
[youtube]3FRtkek-Et4[/youtube]
Wacky and zany punk-band Toy Dolls actually did a better job when they made a punked up version that replaced Georgia with Scunthorpe (title: The Devil Went Down to Scunthorpe) and changed the fiddle for a guitar. Here it is - although whoever upped it shamelessly stole the vid from the Primus version, effectively corabining the best features of both covers
:[youtube]ujcaq5K_cjk[/youtube]
another night, another pair.
[youtube][/youtube]
and the cover...
[youtube][/youtube]
the original stanRAB as one of the most recognizable riRAB in metal history. musically it captures the rage and destruction of the beast after a lifetime of being looked down upon and ostracized by society.
the cover is turns the original into a lounge pop lament, musically the ultra-riff is replaced with a hard panning keyboard loop. i find the cover does a better job of making the listener feel the sadness and depression of the beast prior to the eventual retaliation against the world.
ultimately the song draws significantly from the Frankenstein story and that doesn't change in the cover. then again i've never heard a cover that had significant lyrical changes. in fact the lyrics are BY FAR the most significant connection to the original, which just goes to show how far the group was willing to go in interpreting the original to their own style.
[youtube][/youtube]
and the cover...
[youtube][/youtube]
the original stanRAB as one of the most recognizable riRAB in metal history. musically it captures the rage and destruction of the beast after a lifetime of being looked down upon and ostracized by society.
the cover is turns the original into a lounge pop lament, musically the ultra-riff is replaced with a hard panning keyboard loop. i find the cover does a better job of making the listener feel the sadness and depression of the beast prior to the eventual retaliation against the world.
ultimately the song draws significantly from the Frankenstein story and that doesn't change in the cover. then again i've never heard a cover that had significant lyrical changes. in fact the lyrics are BY FAR the most significant connection to the original, which just goes to show how far the group was willing to go in interpreting the original to their own style.
stfuxitsxnano
New member
Neko Case covers Aretha Franklin's Running Out of Fools
Aretha's version is kind of an upbeat jazzy nuraber, standard to the early 60s. the way she sings it, you feel as if she's shrugging off the fact that she's refusing the advances of a former lover. very cool, and subtle. maybe subtle to the point that you might not even listen to the worRAB. the song is uptempo, giving the listener the impression that she's having a bit of flirty fun with the idea of virtually telling this guy to talk to the hand.
Neko Case's version is a reverberated, slightly slowed down indie rockabilly take produced in the early 2000s. it's very remeniscent of an Everly Brothers production, but with strong female vocals that give the listener the impression that she's a force with intellect who could probably drink you under the table. in her version, the emphasis on the title is sung with bitterness. she's angry that his perception of her is that she's just another fool. she refuses to be one more notch in his belt. and she laments over the fact that she was ever a fool for him in the first place.
Aretha's version is kind of an upbeat jazzy nuraber, standard to the early 60s. the way she sings it, you feel as if she's shrugging off the fact that she's refusing the advances of a former lover. very cool, and subtle. maybe subtle to the point that you might not even listen to the worRAB. the song is uptempo, giving the listener the impression that she's having a bit of flirty fun with the idea of virtually telling this guy to talk to the hand.
Neko Case's version is a reverberated, slightly slowed down indie rockabilly take produced in the early 2000s. it's very remeniscent of an Everly Brothers production, but with strong female vocals that give the listener the impression that she's a force with intellect who could probably drink you under the table. in her version, the emphasis on the title is sung with bitterness. she's angry that his perception of her is that she's just another fool. she refuses to be one more notch in his belt. and she laments over the fact that she was ever a fool for him in the first place.
crazygirl_519
New member
She looks remarkably healthy in the video for a dead person.
Actually I always thought that was one of his daughters in the video. Horrible, my bad, sorry and thank you for the corrections Urban Hatemonger and Wayfarer. Guess I did what some do, read in the feeling after the death.
I guess I was just trying to say that I thought he sang it more emotionally then Trent Reznor did. Both versions are equally good in their own way. Johnny Cash had a hard life..I just thought his singing of that tune captured it well.
Another cover "Over the Hills and Far Away":
Original by Gary Moore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyJEytBlp1I
Nightwish Cover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UztEfwHt14&feature=related
I honestly can't say which one I like better.
I guess I was just trying to say that I thought he sang it more emotionally then Trent Reznor did. Both versions are equally good in their own way. Johnny Cash had a hard life..I just thought his singing of that tune captured it well.
Another cover "Over the Hills and Far Away":
Original by Gary Moore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyJEytBlp1I
Nightwish Cover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UztEfwHt14&feature=related
I honestly can't say which one I like better.
The original: Nine Inch Nails
[youtube]iFx2TmQfM-o[/youtube]
The cover: Johnny Cash
[youtube]o22eIJDtKho[/youtube]
Two interesting things about this original/cover corabination. First, the videos. Second, that a lot of people seem to think that the Cash version is the original. I see that as a tribute to just how accomplished and assured the cover is. It's not that different to the original, really, but Cash still somehow owns the song while he's singing it.
[youtube]iFx2TmQfM-o[/youtube]
The cover: Johnny Cash
[youtube]o22eIJDtKho[/youtube]
Two interesting things about this original/cover corabination. First, the videos. Second, that a lot of people seem to think that the Cash version is the original. I see that as a tribute to just how accomplished and assured the cover is. It's not that different to the original, really, but Cash still somehow owns the song while he's singing it.
I have to say I've never understood why so many people like the Cash version better. I like Johnny Cash a lot and he has a lot of great covers in his back catalogue but "Hurt" isn't one of them. He and Rick Rubin basically removed everything that was interesting and good about the original and turned it into an incredibly bland folk song. Give me the Reznor version any day of the week.
I totally disagree. And I think Cash's vocal delivery and the way that version is recorded only serve to highlight the fact that the lyrics are kind of weak. Reznor knows he's not much of a lyricist so he makes the sonic texture and the percussion the things you focus on in the original, which I think is a much better choice.
Ugh, believing a cover to be the original .. such sillyness must be ridiculed. And that A-Ha cover was goRABdamnedawfulyargh!
Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) is a kind of a warning song against the use of LSD and was first recorded in 1967 by Jerry Lee Lewis. However, it became famous with the band First Edition with none other than Kenny Rogers doing the singing. I think it's a brilliant song.
[youtube]yZ8k6fVe25k[/youtube]
And Supergrass did a lovely cover which is a B-Side on their Alright/Time single from their 1995 debut which was recorded when the lead singer was still a bitty teenager. It's pretty much in line with the old one, just rocked/speeded up slightly and with a touch of youthful energy added.
[youtube]FqF46bQxnnE[/youtube]
Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) is a kind of a warning song against the use of LSD and was first recorded in 1967 by Jerry Lee Lewis. However, it became famous with the band First Edition with none other than Kenny Rogers doing the singing. I think it's a brilliant song.
[youtube]yZ8k6fVe25k[/youtube]
And Supergrass did a lovely cover which is a B-Side on their Alright/Time single from their 1995 debut which was recorded when the lead singer was still a bitty teenager. It's pretty much in line with the old one, just rocked/speeded up slightly and with a touch of youthful energy added.
[youtube]FqF46bQxnnE[/youtube]
Carolynn L
New member
It's completly personal how powerful a song is and how much you think it speaks to you. "Hurt" is a good example of this. In my opinion, The Cash version is more personal in the way it was sung..but I don't mind agreeing to disagree.