Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/25/some-guys.html
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“covers that sound exactly like the originals”
WHY? He’s so talented. Why not take the opportunity to render the well written songs into a less wussy format?
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Not the song selection I would pick, definitely not the album cover aesthetic I would pick, and why would anyone want versions that sound just like the original when… you could just listen to the original.
Not the 70s soft rock revival I’ve been waiting for.
already on board this love boat. can’t wait.
if you have to ask “why exactly the same,” you should watch his video on the kickstarter page. it explains everything. i salute him.
5 Likes
My thought exactly. I wouldn’t even call that a cover, just… an imitation? A true cover should radically reinterpret a song. Like this:
Those who have insinuated that Coulton devoted his life to writing a contemporary Muskrat Love besmirch his illustrious memory. Jonathan Coulton did not want to write another Muskrat Love, which surely is easy enough - he wanted to compose the Muskrat Love.
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“You won’t find any confusing or upsetting versions of these classic hits. Instead, each song has been gently, lovingly handcrafted by Jonathan Coulton himself to sound exactly like the original recording. Admittedly, it is a weird project. But it is literally the only thing Jonathan Coulton could think to do.” - Jonathan Coulton
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I’ve spent my life trying to avoid all of that crap. Punk saved me.
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I’m currently writing a play revolving around '70s soft rock sung by women (Anne Murray, Judy Collins, Debby Boone, Rita Coolidge), and even I think this Coulton project sounds terrible.
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For what it’s worth, I love a concept album, and appreciate that Jonathan Coulton’s tongue is firmly planted in cheek for this. Looking forward to it, especially his version of Everybody’s Talkin’.
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If you juxtapose them with female rockabilly singers of the same era I’m in!
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Why? Because it’s what he wants to do, and why not? It’s basically a case of doing something for himself and then letting us all have a chance to enjoy it as well, if we want to.
And this comes at just the time when I am wallowing in my childhood nostalgia for this stuff, as I too grew up in the 1970’s. And am also feeling a deep nostalgia for the late 1970’s celebration of the sensitive guys, before Reagan and Rambo.
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If that’s what Coulton wants to do, I wouldn’t try to talk him out of it. But I value his original stuff far more than any cover.
I hope it’s better than the last Weezer’s album full of bland pop songs covers.
$100 fucking thousand?!?!? Is he planning to go through as much cocaine as these took to record in the first place?
The kickstarter video alone is worth a contribution, a dead ringer for the late night commercials for compilation albums, interspersed with a pretty good explanation of the project. I"m still on the fence about contributing, but I’m fond of just about all of these songs, having grown up on 70s pop and rock radio. I’m a little surprised that this has found as large an audience as it has, but man, the packaging of the vinyl set really takes me back.
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FWIW, soft rock was no more or no less than it claimed to be, and still edgier than Christian Rock. Gordon Lightfoot’s biggest hits are kind of dark, for example. I always thought that Punk Rock was more the antidote to the over-corporate stuff that was masquerading as hard rock, and also an antidote to Prog.
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Track listing:
- Sister Golden Hair - America
- On and On - Stephen Bishop
- Alone Again (Naturally) - Gilbert O’Sullivan
- The Things We Do For Love - 10cc
- Make It with You - Bread
- New Kid In Town - Eagles
- Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty
- How Deep Is Your Love - Bee Gees
- Easy - Commodores
- Wildfire - Michael Murphey
- Everybody’s Talkin’ - Harry Nilsson
- If You Could Read My Mind - Gordon Lightfoot
- Crazy Love - Poco
- Same Old Lang Syne - Dan Fogelberg
