Does that make them cool by association?

A while ago in my post on Punk I posted this video clip

Which is by Terry Jacks, as it says. I posted it because it was the highest selling song of that period where music was all a bit strange. Punk was about to break, and the hippy age was definitely dead. The main players where either dead or so lost in drugs that they weren't really doing anything that good.

i looked it up a bit subsequently, and it seems it was one of Kurt Cobain favorite songs.Now Kurt Cobain was cool. More than a little messed up, and committing suicide when you have a young kid is selfish. None-the-less he was cool. So he if he liked that song does that make the song cool? Does it make Terry Jacks cool?

Here is the Kurt Cobain version

So does that mean because someone cool covered a song it makes the original cool?

There is actually a huge amount of this. Lots of people , cool people cover songs from bands or people that are perhaps considered not so cool. Not that I can pretend to understand what is cool. I mean it is completely subjective.

But hey,that said, my place, my rules, Sonic Youth are cool. End of it. Here is the mighty Kool Thing, with Chuck -D , another cool person

So Sonic youth are massive fans of The Carpenters , I know, The Carpenters. So much so that when a Carpenters tribute album was touted, they were one of the main instigators of getting everyone involved.

Off the same album as Kool Thing they did Tunic song for Karen. Listen to some of the lyrics in this.

That is a great song about a very messed up subject. Girls eat for god's sake eat. Size zero makes you look like boys, no one wants that.

Here is there song on the tribute album, Which is a little messed up also

None the less, it brings their cool to The Carpenters. OK, now brace yourself. This is actually a good album. I realise I am talking about The Carpenters here, but it has Grant lee Buffalo, Cracker, to name but two of my favourite lost bands. It also has the mighty Shonen Knife on it. Just for fun here is their song

Who knew three secretaries from Osaka could be so cool? Check out some of their other videos. That is pop punk at it's finest.

Is anyone else creeped out a bit by the Carpenters? I have watched some of their videos writing this, that is a very strange dynamic.

Back to the point. There are so many versions of covers that seem to change the meaning of the song. For example the cover of Hurt by Johnny Cash. It is a Nine Inch Nails song about heroin addiction, but watch this and ask yourself are you thinking about a heroin junkie?

Now, that is an amazing song, made much more cool by association with Mr Cash. Most people who like that song are not really going to be into NIN. Not that NIN are not cool. Frankly they are, in a downward spiral kind of way . .boom boom.

One more that i have always found a little strange. Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel did Running up that Hill, Placebo did a cover. Now i am a big fan of Placebo. But I am not sure if they make this song and the writers cool by association, or it is just completely warped into something so different.

Is that cool? It is certainly what i would describe as strung out. A person at the edge of something a little bit worrying. The film clip is cool though.

It interestingly doesn't work the other way. You can not become cool by covering something done previously by someone who was cool. Boy bands , teen idol or Pop idol or whatever it is called please take note. Just because it was a great song done by cool people doesn't mean you can leach off some of that cool. In fact quite the bloody opposite. You ruin the original for all of us.

Sorry, I never liked those guys. I tell you what's up kids, your music was not cool enough to cover Zeppelin.

So does it make the original people cool by association? Well yes I think it does in a certain way. I am not saying that Terry Jacks is cool. No, but actually when the music is given new life by someone who is able to see something in it then it does make the original people that much cooler. because they wrote it. That is the beauty of music really isn't it.