Best Covers

[blessingx]

What about Chet Baker doing Elvis Costello's Almost Blue?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alUSx_X_za8

[The Monkey]

I think it counts quite well, and indeed is awesome; wasn't it written and performed originally by Ewan MacColl (Kirsty's father)?

 

I believe that's so.

 

Keeping on with the celtic theme, I also liked the Lick the Tins version of "Can't Help Falling in Love" much more than Elvis's version.

[agile_one]

Yeah, that Hurt cover by Johnny Cash is great.  Johnny was never shy about doing others; music if he liked it, but late in life he seemed to go on a binge.  I love this cover of U2's One ... Johnny seems 100 years old, but was shortly before his death at 71.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8d_8fM6PQc

 

And speaking of All Along The Watchtower, Neil Young loves that song, and has done it a lot.  Here is at Farm Aid 1994 with Willie.  Funny, but first time I heard Neil do it I was like, "Wow, Neil is covering Jimi".  Then, "Noi, even better, Neil covering Jimi covering Dylan" ...

 

[Dusty Chalk]

I know I'm in the minority here, but I don't see that he really did anything with it (other than one lyric change). This always had the feel to me of going thru the motions for a CD to make some bux... As much as I respect Johnny Cash, it just never did anything for me.

Wait, what?  He took out all of Trent Reznor's highly stylized production...er...thingies, he took out that little discordancy or dissonance or whatever you want to call it in the opening riff, he played it straight, but most importantly, he lent his voice to it.  He made it a Johnny Cash song -- even people that had heard of Nine Inch Nails didn't realize it was a Nine Inch Nails song.

 

Oh, and he took out that huge metal climax like a sucker punch and that insanely long trailing drone.

 

I mean, just play the first couple seconds of both versions.

[grawk]

yah, cash's version was definitely not striking out on it's own, but it took a great, powerful song, and made it trascendent

 

[n3rdling]

Cash's version of Hurt is prob my favorite cover ever.

 

That Stairway vid is from the annual 'Kennedy Center Honors...' show, lots of good covers from those.  This one is probably my favorite:

 

 

Paul Simon covering 'Surfer Girls' at Beach Boys tribute:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmjj5Orjnl0

[Dusty Chalk]

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

[Mister X]

Caught this at the end of an episode of Californication and was like WTF.

 

Kinda grows on you though.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iBe53ruE1g

[spritzer]

Watching the show it took me a while to figure out what that song was.  Very good cover...

[douglas]

How about this, Punch Brothers cover Radiohead's Kid A:

 

[screaming oranges]

Not so much a  cover as it is sampling. Anyway, as a huge fan of spaghetti western soundtracks, I really liked this:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhxb00ONI_A

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w

[Dusty Chalk]

Somewhere in the middle of this...~13:55...you should listen to that.

[aardvark baguette]

[aardvark baguette]

[Dusty Chalk]

I don't get the spinning plates one, but that Boxer is just fantastic.

Spot the headphones, electrostatic speakers and amp:

[Grahame]

Wouldn't you want closed headphones for recording a vocal?

[Dusty Chalk]

I just thought they were nice.

 

Maybe he doesn't have any.

[Mister X]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-B8k0n_3cs

 

Been stuck in my head since watching the season 1 finale of The Leftovers.

 

Scene--------->

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8aoB5ylCjI