Cover me in adulation

There has always been a pretty big argument in music about the merits of singing , or performing someone else's song. This has gone on since the dawn of Rock n Roll. Elvis didn't ever write a song. Every song by Elvis is someone else actually speaking. On a less revered note, same thing for The Monkees. In fact throughout music history I would estimate that more than half of the music you hear is actually written by someone other than the person, people you hear performing it.

This is strange no? People have devout followings which is based on their work, but some of it isn't their work. This was not a big thing in the 50s and 60s. It was accepted. Well , up until the age of the hippies and flower power and sticking it to the man, then it became seriously uncool to cover other peoples music. This is perhaps a reflection of the desire to appear real, and authentic. No matter that you were doing this through massive corporations, but that is perhaps a matter for another time.

There is the case though when a cover song takes over from the original. It takes the words and the music and makes it something quite different. Does this mean that it then becomes the message of the person performing it?

I came across a music download which is called, The 500 Greatest cover tracks of all time, which was published by Rolling Stone magazine. Now, whether or not Rolling Stone are even qualified to publish this is perhaps a discussion for a different day. Seriously, who reads this magazine and thinks, hey , that band U2, they're great apparently . . .As I said, perhaps this rant is for another day.

There are some seriously great songs on the list. For example there is this. The most covered song of all time and as I have said on many occasions, such as here, the best version of it.

It did get me to thinking what is it that blurs the lines between an artist or band singing someone else's song and what makes it a song that the performer(s) then make their own version? To make my point I thought about this version of Nothing compares to you, written by Prince, made famous by Sinead O'Conner and sung here by the Stereophonics

To me that is the Stereophonics covering a Sinead O'Conner track because she made the song her own. The reality of course is that it is the Sterophonics covering a Prince tune that was also done by Sinead O'Conner. Is it because it was originally made famous, i.e. sold more copies, in the SOC (got tired of writing the whole thing) version? is it because that is the version that I heard first? or is it as simple as the fact that SOC version is the best version?

I must admit to having a sneaky love of cover tracks, which is perhaps why I have written about it before.

i like the idea of someone whose original music I like taking another track and doing it in their own style. For example here is the Cowboy Junkies version of Sweet Jane, by the Velvet Underground originally.

I like that version more than I like the original. Actually whilst we are sort of on the topic, The Velvet Underground. Where do we stand? I have the box set of the three albums. it is a good box set I have to say. Lots of cool photos and the like. The music though. There are some extremely good songs there. But they are horribly inconsistent. i guess though that the point of the band was to be different than the music of the time. Something they achieved with amazing success. Are they the beginning of punk? or No Wave? Discuss in 250 words or less please.

Back the post. Cover versions. it is clear that some of the covers supercede and replace the original in our psyche. Take for example, Hurt by Johnny Cash. Everyone remembers that version and remembers that it is the cover of the Nine Inch Nails track. But how many people then sit through the NIN track? Not a lot I think. It is a different audience.

That is the point. It is not about The Flaming Lips covering Radiohead, this is more a mutual appreciation society. It is about people like Heather Nova covering a Neil Young song, like this.

It brings a great song to a new audience and there can not be much better than that. I am often asked how I come by so much music. Where I go to find it. Well, apart from talking to the likes of you, it is through this. I look up the song I like and either see that it is an original, and then explore the band. Or I find that it is a cover and go back to try to find the original. Then explore some of the music that that person produced. As you will remember I think that it is all new music if you haven't heard it before.

Anyway, there isn't really an overriding point to this. Just that it is worth listening to cover tracks as much as others because sometimes you undercover a real gem.

Like this

Spin the black circle

So, I am back, been a way for quite a while. I lost a bit of motivation to write to be honest. Not so much that I didn't have anything to say, but it seemed that it might not be so relevant to write it down. Or maybe I am just getting a bit lazy. It is nice to see that people are still calling me opinionated over my emotional reaction to the death of Amy Winehouse.

I have recently been on holiday, yay me, and went to a number of smaller towns around the French Spain border. A very cool part of the world if you like things like, food, wine, nice weather, gentle countryside. . . and if you don't like those sort of things then there are lots of Gothic towers and monuments to places were people were really truly terrible to each other. I like to think of it as a kind of Opeth album. Beauty interspersed with savagery.

One of the unusual things about a number of these towns was the preponderance of Album record shops. Not HMV or that kind of commercial CD / Game store. But actual second hand record stores, run by those odd guys who know every album ever made. The type you love to stumble across. The kind where hours can be lost and fortunes spent. The kind where you might actually like to work in. A song for you to keep you amused

I love these places and I know that I am not alone. The fact that there are so few of them left makes them a real treat to come across. Especially when you don't have anywhere to be except an old Church type thing that has been there since the 14th century and really, really isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

There is that great moment when you walk in and see a category like 'metal' or '60's psyecdelica' and you know your next hour is very fully booked.

One of the particularly interesting things about these stores that many of the editions they had where the French and Spanish editions of the albums. I am not sure what it is about the foreign language writing on the albums, but it somehow seems to make it that much more exotic and collectible. I guess if you are from one of those countries the English edition would have the same appeal.

But here is the thing. I didn't buy a single one. Not one. I know that some of you are having to re-read that line to make sure it actually is what I wrote. But I didn't make a single purchase. I spent about 4 hours in the stores in total I guess. Maybe a bit more, bit less. But, walked away empty handed. It is a complicated thing that breaks down into a few different parts.

Firstly, where do you stop? Do you set yourself a total price limit? Do you say I am not going to spend more than 100 or 200? Most of the albums came in at 10 euros, and some of the better ones at 25 and a couple at 50. So do you get 4 50 euros albums and walk away happy? Take 20 10 euros albums and get the quantity?  The thing about this is you may not necessarily agree with the price scale. Why is the French original edition of a Joy Division's closer 50 euros? It isn't a rare vinyl album that I am aware of. Why is Black Sabbath Vol 4 more expensive than Kiss ms Kiss me Kiss me (which is a gate fold album)

Secondly, there is the transport. Buying 20 albums and then taking them back home is not as easy as it should be. Especially when the trip is made up of car and plane travel. Vinyl albums in the back of a car all day. . . that is a recipe for disaster of the worst kind. Not to mention having to put them into bag in such a way that they would not then get further damaged by the guy on a cut price airline.

Thirdly, well, I got past the first and the second points. But the underlying issue reared up and it became apparent that I was buying a massively inferior musical format. I was buying them to own them, not to play them.

Most of the albums that I had chosen, I already own on either CD or digitally. The ones I do not have I have a mental list of and will get digitally. I am not set up to listen to vinyl any more. The records would have been bought and left in a pile. Which I could then look at. I am not sure I see the point in that. Why not have the music, great or not, coming out of a music system of far better quality then the record player, with the ability to pause, rewind and anything else that I might like to do. I know people talk about the warmer sound. But really? Warmer, what does that mean when you are listening to music? I concede, that the little bumps and whoofs etc do sometimes add to the music. I can live without for the most part.

So, my trip marked a mile stone in my music life. It marked the point where I finally gave up on records. Like an ex-girlfriend that you are not really over for a long time, one day you wake up and you just don't need them in you life anymore. It was great, it really was, and my life is richer for it. But, I just don't need them anymore.

Thanks, it was real, but it is over for good now.

I want to write a farewell note to the format. But there is so much to say and so much of it is rubbish. Because the music hasn't left me, it is just siting in a different guise. In a better guise. No more the issue of making sure needles are clean and have the right pick up. No more worrying about how I am storeing the albums and if they are in fact being damaged. I have the internet of the artwork and I have found that I can load it to the MP3 files and if played back through the Surround sound, I get it up on screen in digital quality. The best of both worlds. . .