some might say âimitation is the highest form of flatteryâ but most of the time i say itâs from lack of originality and wanting to get bank off of nostalgia.
They key to a good cover song is to put your own stamp on it. The closer they are to the original version, the less of a point there is to listen to it. The Beau Brummels did my favorite cover version of âBootsâ on their Beau Brummels '66 album, they gave the song a kind of menacing, off-kilter vibe.
You keep saming when you oughtâa be changin!
Would this count as a bootloader?
And if your cover is popular enough, people may not find out that you didnât write it because itâs rare to hear the original, e.g. Jimi Hendrixâs cover of All Along the Watchtower.
A popular song and not the first time its been covered:
Every ten or twelve years some handsome fella cracks open the Great American Songbook and makes a zillion dollars: Harry Connick, Jr., Michael Buble, Bruno Mars? Someone else recently, I forget. What gets me is that they still use the big bad sound, everything the same. And folks go out and buy those records. But why? In this day and age when I can press a button and listen to Nat King Cole or Frank Sinatra sing the shit out of a song, why would I listen to your hipster ass? The real thing, as it were, costs the same or less, and usually sounds better.
If you arenât changing anything with your coverâwhy bother?
You know how Orgy covered Blue Monday? Iâve often thought they could have done the same with These Boots⌠Maybe get in a female vocalist, like the one off the later Prodigy albums⌠Sounds good in my head anywayâŚ
For comparison, an actual classic from 1966:
First song I learned after I bought a bass guitar and joined a cheezy garage band.
âImitation is the sincerest form of being a thieving bastardâ â Victor Lewis-Smith
I always thought Lenny Kravitz cover of âAmerican Womanâ was completely pointless and added nothing to the song.
This is outstanding. Thank you, Tim!
Agree completely. See also: Dixie Chicks Landslide.
If youâre going to cover, do something.
And then there was this vanity project. âŚ
I donât get the point of getting out there to promote a new recording⌠getting press⌠getting clicks, and when clicker tries to play video⌠georestricted in Canada.
I canât even be bothered to start the vpnâŚ
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