5 Songs / Covers of Classic Songs That Rival the Original
5 Songs is a weekly series where we point out the strange, the grand, and the unique connections between our favorite songs. Let’s get weird.
Words by Chris
A great cover in my opinion is one that alters the meaning of the song via the covering-band’s performance. A really great cover is one that takes the place of the original in your mind. There are more than 5 examples of this for sure. Below are the 5 that I think about the most (ahem, the 5 that I have the most to run my mouth about). If you can think of any (you will), I’d love to hear what you think in the comments section. Go team!
“Warning Sign” / Local Natives (Talking Heads)
Not easy to take control of a Talking Heads tune and claim it. Talking Heads have a bizarre, singular sound, and David Byrne’s vocal technique is also really strange and all his own. I swear Talking Heads invented a new song structure with every song they recorded. Not only do Local Natives incorporate their awesome multi-vocalizing and make the song even more fun, but they also play in their way, not trying to step on anyone’s toes. In doing so, they draw a line from the original band directly to themselves. Well done.
“I’m on Fire” / Bat for Lashes /// “I’m on Fire” / Shakey Graves (Bruce Springsteen)
Both of these songs do the song brilliant service and both come from completely different directions to do it. Natasha Khan’s intimate, bruising version of the Boss’s classic about forbidden love goes the piano-recital route, which outlines the underlying ache. As the song goes on, the emotion rises and levels off, giving it a haunting bit of loneliness.
Alejandro Rose-Garcia’s version puts a freakish backwoods spin on the material, contrasting Bat for Lashes’ drama and solitude with his own youthful spirit. I especially like the vocal accompaniment that Rose-Garcia has with himself, singing alongside a handful of his own demons.
Elbow / Running to Stand Still
“Running to Stand Still” / Elbow (U2)
Elbow is a band that delivers on the daily. They have an incredible sense of composition, song structure, and emotional texture; they have a good live presence and house one of the great front-men in music: Guy Garvey. This song, originally a slide guitar ode about heroin addiction at the end of the flawless Side A of The Joshua Tree, is captured here poignantly for one of the War Child benefit compilations (thus altering the song’s meaning). Elbow does the original service while putting its trademark percussion and piano textures overtop of the last, cinematic verse to great dramatic effect: “She runs through the streets, with eyes painted red”
“Long, Long, Long” / Yim Yames (The Beatles)
When George Harrison passed away in 2001, Jim James recorded a handful of his songs, sat on them for 8 years, and then released them as his first solo record in 2008. There’s a lot of love on these songs for sure, and each song is hardly more than James, his guitar, and his voice. This one, a haunting rendition of the song from The White Album, is all exposed heart-string, just like the original. But there’s something about James’ performance in the context of playing for his hero that broadens the song’s meaning to fit an entire life. Amazing stuff.
“Heartbeat” / Callers (Wire)
Wire is an enigmatic band, and a rewarding one. In three years in the midst of the first London punk scene, they recorded three completely different albums, often turning punk sounds on their head, as they were happening. This one, a masterful demonstration of emotional restraint from their second record, Chairs Missing, relies on minimal tones and downplaying the idea of desire. Callers takes the idea of restraint into the realm of soul, and come out with one of their best recordings. Sara Lucas could sing you the ingredients on a shampoo bottle and it would be dangerous and hot, and she lets herself explore the implied energy in the lyric, and kills it.
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My absolute favorite cover is The Be Good Tanya’s covering Prince’s “When Doves Cry”. These are all excellent choices as well.