Best Covers

[morphsci]

So I just came across a great cover of Stairway to Heaven

If it makes Robert Plant Cry it can't be half bad.

[spritzer]

That was excellent. 

 

Here is one that took me minute to figure out the first time I heard it on the TV:

 

[Dusty Chalk]

That Stairway to Heaven was outstanding, the reveals were really well done, and added just that little bit of majesty to the song that it deserved. 

 

I love covers.  I'm not going to be able to match that one, so I'll post good ones later, but for now I just wanted to pipe in and agree, that was excellent.

[blessingx]

It's still pisses me off Juno used this, 'cause it's always been my pick for perfect cover... so much both the bands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y21VecIIdBI

Edited June 9, 2013 by blessingx

[robm321]

That Stairway to Heaven was kick ass.

[Grahame]

Best Cover, that redefined the original (Bob Dylan's) in many peoples eyes?

Jimi Hendrix - All Along the watchtower.

In the spirit of that, I'll leave you with a (meta) cover by the Hamsters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akuiv4udoqw

[robm321]

^ Good call. So good I regularly forget it's a Bob Dylan song.

[guzziguy]

Far and away the best cover ever.

[Dusty Chalk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR3lCY_oIuU

 

They do a couple of Black Sabbath songs, and the treatment is always the same -- typical Cardigans arrangement, with Nina Persson's vocals front and center and sounding so precise in her pronunciation that she sounds more British than Ozzy, even though she's less.  Much less.  She isn't, he is, that much less.

 

But this one has always been my favourite.  Mostly because they replace "You bastards" with that little disco-y thing.  But also because "Iron Man" is so much more played out.

[Dusty Chalk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yO7mNNkkOA

 

My first Amanda Palmer cover, but mostly because of his drumming.  When I saw them play it, he was spot on for every single hit.  I mean, it could have been a tape, it was that accurate.  It actually woke me up to the fact that it's such a drummer's song.

[Mister X]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrDwWTg2Dg0

[Dusty Chalk]

"Well I'll be damned, here comes your ghost again...

but that's not unusual, it's just that the moon is full,

and you've decided to call..."

 

Such a great song, you can be Judas fucking Priest and play it as a straight metal song, and it'd be fucking awesome.

 

Well, that and Green Manalishi.

[morphsci]

Best Cover, that redefined the original (Bob Dylan's) in many peoples eyes?

Jimi Hendrix - All Along the watchtower.

Just to be clear I meant the best cover of a particular song not the best cover ever. NTTAWWT.

[guzziguy]

I'm the one who said best cover ever.  It is.  Of course, since music appreciation is personal, my statement only applies to me.

[The Monkey]

I have to say that the Cowboy Junkies cover of "Sweet Jane" is, to me, the better version.  And I love them both.  Margo Timmins wins it in the end.

[Torpedo]

My favorite cover of Over the Rainbow

 

http://youtu.be/4RDmXsGeiF8

[grawk]

I have to say that the Cowboy Junkies cover of "Sweet Jane" is, to me, the better version. And I love them both. Margo Timmins wins it in the end.

I agree completely.

[morphsci]

^^ absolutely! Not even close.

[The Monkey]

Another one that's a closer call for me is Duran Duran's surprisingly adept cover of "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed.

[skullguise]

Nothing will ever beat this:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lul-Y8vSr0I

 

 

[CarlSeibert]

Funny thing. The Junkies cover of Thunder Road came up in conversation this weekend. Gives me chills, despite a certain weirdness factor. ... Margo Timmons singing Springsteen's part.

Sweet Jane - agreed.

And I like their version of Powderfinger, though some consider it a blasphemy.

[Dusty Chalk]

Totally "+1" on the Eva Cassidy and Cowboy Junkies covers.  Even though that's not even the only cover on Trinity Session, it's an obvious standout and veritable centerpiece of the album (even though it's not in the center of the album, that's not what I mean).

 

But sorry, neither one of them "make it their own" the way Jimi makes "All Along the Watchtower" his own -- it stopped being a Dylan tune when he did it.

 

I also really adore weird covers.  Devo's "Satisfaction" comes to mind, as does Oingo Boingo's "You Really Got Me" (left as an exercise for the reader to look them up and hear them).

 

I also really like Type O Negative's (RIP, Peter Steele) approach to covers.  Their "Paranoid" and "Summer Breeze" come to mind:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxzGbyjnAl4

 

I also really like the Dickies and Me First & The Gimme Gimmes punkish approach to covers.  I mean, for Pete's sake, Stan Lee played the entire orchestral break of "Nights in White Satin" as a guitar solo!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI0d-kOxb4A

 

But one of my favourites is the Temptations cover of Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine".  They turn it into this extended 7 minute epic.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfMHtkKN1Ss

[Dusty Chalk]

Oh, and how the fuck can we leave Tori out of this.  "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is what caught my attention of her, but her cover of Slayer is just plain epiphanical:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCpOAXIgF9U

[Wmcmanus]

So I just came across a great cover of Stairway to Heaven

If it makes Robert Plant Cry it can't be half bad.

 

Actually, the entire tribute to Zep was outstanding, from Jack Black's video documentary to the Foo Fighters (rock and roll, aka been a long time), Kid Rock (ramble on) and Lenny Kravits (whole lotta love):  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBoXYCJ3MRQ

[blessingx]

All the Zep talk and no mention of Dread Zeppelin? Sadly the dogs on the album are not present here. One year in the late 80s when I hated everything and working at a record store (hating seemed a requirement) Dreads album nicely pissed off lots of customers. Plant though loved them.

But a taste...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZHWy6W00oM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNSSpXapks0

Edited June 10, 2013 by blessingx