Duck and Cover

Last fall my friend Brian Hunt at Wondermore Records penned an article on cover songs for their monthly newsletter. He praised the concept and listed some of the classics, but he also lamented the ever-increasing number of terrible re-makes. I decided to expand upon on that point, and though he posted some of the text in a subsequent publishing, here’s my take on covers in its entirety.


I thought Brian hit the nail on the head with his praise for the more adventuresome covers and his indictment of the all-too-often attempts at sheer mimicry. Uninspired takes at proven classics are aural drudgery, and unfortunately, they are being heard with increasing frequency. It’s as if covering a song has become a tool for the underachieving musician, one who sees the hard part (writing the song) already completed and who realizes the allure of a cover to the fans. How many times has the lineup of artists on a tribute album evoked high hopes of new classics, only to have those hopes dashed by lifeless renditions of great songs? Some of the match-ups of cover artist to cover tune seem brilliant on paper, but the final product just doesn’t take you anywhere new. Whether it’s stripping down a heavy rocker, amping up a slow strummer, changing musical styles, changing tempos, changing lyrics – you’ve gotta do something to raise an eyebrow.

And then, out of nowhere, you come across somebody’s take of somebody else’s tune and it just blows you away, reinventing itself in an innovative form. If only all artists would perceive the challenge of properly covering a song as exactly that – a challenge, wherein the creativity not spent penning lyrics or chords must be channeled toward refreshing something old into something new, then we wouldn’t be forced to sift though dozens of tepid recreations just to find the rare dazzler. To-a-tee duplications take talent and have their place – live shows, especially by bar bands. Too many talented acts take the easy path on cover tunes when a bit more daring could have produced something renowned.

For all of that negativity, I am ever optimistic in pursuit of great cover songs, and they can be found everywhere. In the past few months alone, I have been introduced to enjoyable covers of The Replacements’ “Androgynous” (by Crash Test Dummies), Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” (by the Violent Femmes), and Prince’s “When You Were Mine” (by Brian’s gal Cyndi Lauper). And as ubiquitous as this musical borrowing has become these days, there are enough folks taking cracks at it that there should always be impressive interpretations reaching us. In the meantime, it just takes a little excavation to unearth (blatantly drawing metaphors from Johnny Cash’s fantastic cover-filled box set) some already existent, exceptional, alternate versions of old songs you may or may not have heard before. In some cases, songs that have been played to death over the years, ones you never thought you could stomach again, come back as fresh as ever – a new lease on life for these dead songs. The bottom line on covers is that any song worth its salt should be covered in a fashion that does it the justice it deserves – with all of the creativity, energy, and ingenuity that generated the original. Here’s a long (and yet far from definitive) list of some worthy tributes that do just that.

50 Great Cover Tunes, in no order
[Artist’s Cover Tune (Originally written or popularized by this artist)]

Earth, Wind, & Fire’s “Got to Get You Into My Life” (Beatles)
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Little Wing” (Jimi Hendrix)
Talking Heads’ “Take Me to the River” (Al Green)
Jane’s Addiction’s “Sympathy for the Devil” (Rolling Stones)
Aimee Mann’s “One” (Three Dog Night)
Smashing Pumpkins’ “Never Let Me Down Again” (Depeche Mode)
The Jam’s “David Watts” (Kinks)
Morrissey’s “That’s Entertainment” (The Jam)
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Higher Ground” (Stevie Wonder), “Fire” (Jimi Hendrix), or “Love Rollercoaster” (Ohio Players)
Johnny Cash’s “Rusty Cage” (Soundgarden), “One” (U2), or “Solitary Man” (Neil Diamond)
Eric Clapton’s “I Shot the Sheriff” (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
Cracker’s “White Riot” (Clash)
Rage Against the Machine’s “Renegades of Funk” (Afrika Bambaataa)
Cowboy Junkies’ “Sweet Jane” (Velvet Underground)
Toad the Wet Sprocket’s “Rock and Roll All Night” (KISS)
Grateful Dead’s “Mama Tried” (Merle Haggard)
Hootie & the Blowfish’s “Hey Hey What Can I Do” (Led Zeppelin)
Joan Jett’s “Crimson & Clover” (Tommy James & the Shondells)
Pixies’ “Winterlong” (Neil Young)
Phish’s “Glass Onion” (Beatles)
Tom Jones & The Cardigans’ “Burning Down the House” (Talking Heads)
Nirvana’s “The Man Who Sold the World” (David Bowie)
Bananarama’s “Venus” (Shocking Blue)
English Beat’s “Tears of a Clown” (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)
U2’s “Helter Skelter” (Beatles)
Big Head Todd & the Monster’s “Tangerine” (Led Zeppelin)
Bangles’ “Hazy Shade of Winter” (Simon & Garfunkel)
Urge Overkill’s “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” (Neil Diamond)
R.E.M.’s “Superman” (The Clique)
Cat Stevens’ “Another Saturday Night” (Sam Cooke)
Frente’s “Bizarre Love Triangle” (New Order)
Corsby, Stills, & Nash’s “Blackbird” (Beatles)
Bow Wow Wow’s “I Want Candy” (Strangeloves)
Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “Passionate Kisses” (Lucinda Williams)
Cake’s “I Will Survive” (Gloria Gaynor)
Jack Black’s “Let’s Get It On” (Marvin Gaye)
The Clash’s “Pressure Drop” (Toots & the Maytals) or “English Civil War” (Traditional)
Dead Kennedys’ “I Fought the Law” (Bobby Fuller Four)
Goldfinger’s “Rio” (Duran Duran)
Pearl Jam’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” (Neil Young)
Patti Smith’s “When Doves Cry” (Prince)
Georgia Satellites’ “Don’t Pass Me By” (Beatles)
Pretenders’ “Stop Your Sobbing” (Kinks)
Soul Asylum’s “Sexual Healing” (Marvin Gaye)
Blind Melon’s “Out on the Tiles” (Led Zeppelin)
X’s “Crystal Ship” (Doors)
Connells’ “I Got You” (Split Enz)
Mick Jagger & Lenny Kravitz’s “Use Me” (Bill Withers)
The Presidents of the USA’s “Video Killed the Radio Star” (Buggles)
Camper van Beethoven’s “Pictures of Matchstick Men” (Status Quo), “Photograph” (Ringo Starr/George Harrison), “Interstellar Overdrive” (Pink Floyd), “O Death” (Traditional), or “Tusk” [the entire album] (Fleetwood Mac)

10 Covers That Were Just Crazy Enough That They Might Work (And Did):

Garth Brooks’s “Hard Luck Woman” (KISS)
Devo’s “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (Rolling Stones)
Duran Duran’s “White Lines” (Grandmaster Flash)
Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” (Nine Inch Nails)
Gwyneth Paltrow’s “Bette Davis Eyes” (Kim Carnes)
Faith No More’s “Easy” (Commodores)
Aztec Camera’s “Jump” (Van Halen)
Dynamite Hack’s “Boyz-N-the-Hood” (Eazy-E / N.W.A.)
Tom Jones & The Art of Noise’s “Kiss” (Prince)
Tori Amos’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (Nirvana)

5 Artists Who Benefited Greatly From Covering Songs (and a few of the many songs)

Joe Cocker (“With a Little Help from My Friends,” “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window,” “The Letter,” “You Can Leave Your Hat On”)
Tom Jones (“What’s New Pussycat?”, “Kiss,” “Burning Down the House,” “Little Green Bag”)
Linda Ronstadt (“That'll Be the Day,” “Heat Wave,” “When Will I Be Loved?”, “It's So Easy,” “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me”)
Van Halen (“You Really Got Me,” “You’re No Good,” “Where Have All the Good Times Gone?”, “Oh, Pretty Woman,” “Dancing in the Street”)
UB40 [“Red Red Wine,” “I Got You Babe,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)]
Honorable Mention: Jerry Lee Lewis, Smash Mouth, and Johnny Cash’s last decade

5 Artists Among Those Who Spawned the Most Covers

The Beatles
Neil Diamond
Chuck Berry
Bruce Springsteen
The Kinks

Honorable Mention: Prince, though some weren’t covers, just songs he gave away. Weird little guy; great songwriter.

Three Decent Tribute Albums

[Tribute albums are invariably uneven, and most are downright crummy. I could only come up with three solid ones, plus one that isn’t even real . . .]

Led Zeppelin: Encomium
Grateful Dead: Deadicated
Red Hot Chili Peppers: Under the Covers
Bruce Springsteen: the one you make yourself combining songs from the – count ‘em – 10 Bruce tribute albums:

Cover Me: Songs by Springsteen [1984]
Bruce Springsteen Songbook [1996]
One Step Up/Two Steps Back: The Songs of Bruce Springsteen [1997]
Pickin' on Springsteen [1999]
Songs of Bruce Springsteen [2000]
Badlands: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska [2000]
Bruce Springsteen Tribute: Made in the U.S.A. [2001]
String Quartet Tribute to Bruce Springsteen: Home Town [2002]
Tribute to Bruce Springsteen [2003]
Light of Day: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen [2003]

Others worth at least a partial listen include The Kinks: This Is Where I Belong, Neil Young: The Bridge, and the Stones: Cover You. Most of the rest that come to mind are, in some ways, . . . terrible.

The Cover Song Starter Kit, or 10 Tracks Among Those Covered the Most Often
(and who wrote or popularized it, and just some of the artists who covered it)

“House of the Rising Sun” (Traditional/Josh White): Animals, Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, Bob Dylan, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams Jr., Bon Jovi
“Can’t Help Falling in Love” (Elvis Presley): UB40, Perry Como, Kenny Rogers, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Erasure, Corey Hart, Brian Setzer, Bono, Pearl Jam
“I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (Marvin Gaye): Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ike & Tina Turner, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Cocker, Ronnie Milsap, Rare Earth, The Slits
“Yesterday” (The Beatles): Ray Charles, Merle Haggard, Marvin Gaye, Tom Jones, Supremes, Placido Domingo, Michael Bolton, Boyz II Men, En Vogue, Liberace, Zamfir, Don Ho, Elvis Presley
“Stand By Me” (Ben E. King): John Lennon, Drifters, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Lee Lewis, Taj Mahal, Meat Loaf, Sonny & Cher, T. Rex, U2, Muhammad Ali
“Dancing in the Street” (Martha & the Vandellas): Van Halen, Mick Jagger & David Bowie, Neil Diamond, Grateful Dead, Kinks, The Who, Carpenters, Everly Brothers, Michael Bolton, Mamas & the Papas, California Raisins
“Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” (Bob Dylan): Eric Clapton, Jerry Garcia, Warren Zevon, Elvis Costello, Guns N’ Roses, Wyclef Jean, Random Idiots, Television, Avril Lavigne, John Daly
“Many Rivers to Cross” (Jimmy Cliff): UB40, Elvis Costello, Animals, Joe Cocker, Bill Withers, Linda Ronstadt, Cher, Harry Nilsson, Tom Tom Club
“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (Rolling Stones): Devo, Otis Redding, Buddy Guy, Aretha Franklin, Jose Feliciano, Tom Jones, Manfred Mann, Sam & Dave, Sly & Robbie, Mountain, Samantha Fox, Justine Bateman, Britney Spears

and the king of them all (i.e., if your band is looking to cover a song, start here) . . .

“Johnny B. Goode” (Chuck Berry): Beatles, Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, John Denver, Grateful Dead, Elton John, Carpenters, Johnny Winter, George Thorogood, Buck Owens, Sex Pistols, Leif Garrett, Phish, Peter Tosh, Santana, Judas Priest, Twisted Sister, Green Bay Packers, Marty McFly, and many, many more . . .

10 of My Favorite All-Time Cover Songs (as of right now)

Uncle Tupelo’s “I Wanna Be Your Dog” (The Stooges)
The alt-country version of the proto-punk (enjoy the rock snob vernacular) tune takes it places it was never intended to go, with brilliant results.

Fiona Apple’s “Across the Universe” (Beatles)
I’m not even a huge fan of Fiona Apple’s, but it’s like this song was written for her.

Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “If You Want Me to Stay” (Sly & the Family Stone)
Funk rock band doing old funk rock song (with funk rock guru producing) isn’t a huge leap, but of all the Chilis’ covers, this one’s really . . . funky.

Devo’s “Working in a Coalmine” (Lee Dorsey)
God bless Devo. They oscillate between the ridiculous and the ludicrous. Now, if you really worked in a coalmine, do you think you’d be just sad like Lee Dorsey or completely insane like Devo?

Social Distortion’s “Ring of Fire” (Johnny Cash)
Country and punk are sonically distant but sentimentally intertwined, so it’s no surprise that this works.

Sarah McLachlan’s “Dear God” (XTC)
I’m impressed that as much as I love the original, I may enjoy this cover more.

Gipsy Kings’ “Hotel California” (Eagles)
One of the stylistic changes I didn’t mention: changing languages. If you’re weary of the original, this is for you.

Fabulous Thunderbirds’ “Wrap It Up” (Sam & Dave)
Guilty pleasure. Sorry.

Buckwheat Zydeco’s “Beast of Burden” (Rolling Stones)
If you’ve seen Buckwheat live, you know: This is his tune now.

Bruce Springsteen’s “Trapped” (Jimmy Cliff)
How many Springsteen fans coughed up $18 for the lame USA for Africa: We Are the World CD just for one fantastic song? All of them. From 1985 until 2003, the only place you could find this fantastic cover was on that album. This has to be his greatest contribution to social causes, salvaging an otherwise crummy record and single-handedly raising millions for starving people. Alas, now with the inclusion of “Trapped” on The Essential Bruce Springsteen, they’ll go hungry once again.

And 5 of the Worst (not counting William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and the rest of the crew)

Ugly Kid Joe’s “Cat’s In the Cradle” (Harry Chapin)
Big Mountain’s “Baby I Love Your Way” (Peter Frampton)
Foo Fighters’ “Darling Nikki” (Prince)
Limp Bizkit’s “Behind Blue Eyes” (The Who)
Keith Moon’s “In My Life” (Beatles) [without drums?!]

And here’s the all-time worst . . . but semi-intentionally, so it’s pretty funny:
Sid Vicious’s “My Way” (Frank Sinatra)

The Cover Game

If you’ve ever played The Kevin Bacon Game for the world of cinema, you’ll see some parallels, but here’s how The Cover Game works. You have to get from Point A to Point B via covers, where instead of the links between artists being movies they’ve been in together, it’s songs they’ve both performed.

Here’s a quick example. To get from Paul McCartney to The Flaming Lips, you go:

Paul McCartney & Wings did “Live and Let Die” which was covered by
Guns N' Roses whose “Sweet Child O' Mine” was covered by
Sheryl Crow who also covered “Behind Blue Eyes” by
The Who whose “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere” was covered by
Flaming Lips

There are instant ones, like getting to Tom Waits from . . . Tom Waits:

Tom Waits did “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” which was covered by
The Ramones whose “The Return of Jackie and Judy” was covered by
Tom Waits

And then there are marathon ones, like getting from Louis Armstrong to Louis Armstrong using Bruce Springsteen three times and a pair of other artists twice (only fudging it once):

Louis Armstrong did “Wonderful World” which was covered by
Sam Cooke whose “Another Saturday Night” was covered by
Cat Stevens whose “Wild World” was covered by
Jimmy Cliff whose “Trapped” was covered by
Bruce Springsteen whose “Born to Run” was covered by
Frankie Goes to Hollywood whose “Relax” was covered by
The Dandy Warhols who also covered “Call Me” by
Blondie who covered “Heroes” by
David Bowie whose “The Man Who Sold the World” was covered by
Nirvana whose “Breed” was covered by
Steve Earle whose “Devil’s Right Hand” was covered by
Johnny Cash who also covered “Solitary Man” by
Neil Diamond whose “Red Red Wine” was covered by
UB40 who also covered “Cherry Oh Baby” which was also covered by
The Rolling Stones whose “Honky Tonk Women” was covered by
The Pogues who also covered “Dirty Old Town” which was covered by
Rod Stewart who also covered “Downtown Train” by
Tom Waits whose “Jersey Girl” was covered by
Bruce Springsteen whose “Johnny 99” was covered by
Johnny Cash who also covered “Father and Son” by
Cat Stevens whose “Peace Train” was covered by
10,000 Maniacs who also covered “Because the Night” by
Bruce Springsteen whose “Hungry Heart” was originally written for
The Ramones who covered “Wonderful World” by
Louis Armstrong

Enjoy.