Covers: Better than the originals

[Various Artist]

That's fascinating Jon. I had to listen to both to understand exactly what it was getting at, but as soon as you hear that three-chord progression at the start of the Kim Carnes version you realise, because it's the dynamo that powers the whole song.

And I use that word advisedly, because it really does have dynamism, in that there's a mini-opera of tension, drama and release within that repeated sequence of seven notes, whereas the rinky-dink bounce of the country version has none.

[anton pulisov]

It also takes a particular genius to realise that Sister Sledge's Lost in Music can be improved by chanting the following in a Mancs accent:

Le monnaie est sur la table!
The palace of excess leads to the palace of access!

[Sam]

Nothing can improve Sister Sledge's 'Lost in Music'. Except perhaps for the 1984 Bernard Edwards & Nile Rodgers Mix.

I love [Prince's] live versions of [Nothing Compares 2 U].

Yes, the live session version they put out a couple of years ago is my favourite.

My standard response to this question is Isaac Hayes, though. In particular his covers of 'Walk on By' and 'Something'. Two (in my opinion) already fine songs which he takes to a different dimension.

I am also reminded that the greatest pop recording ever, Marvin Gaye's 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine', is technically a cover, having been released about a year after Gladys Knight and the Pips' version, although with those Motown hit factory singles I always think 'cover' is a slightly nebulous term.

[Jah Womble]

It also takes a particular genius to realise that Sister Sledge's Lost in Music can be improved by chanting the following in a Mancs accent:

Le monnaie est sur la table!
The palace of excess leads to the palace of access!

It's something even more mangled, like 'il monnaie...', is't not?

[Sits]

I did at least a triple take when that Fall version came up on Spotify, never having heard it.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Natalie Imbruglia's version of Torn was better than Ednaswap's (assuming anyone's heard of Ednaswap).

[Stumpy Pepys]

And Leonard Cohen's original recording of Hallelujah isn't that great.

[Sporting]

I did at least a triple take when that Fall version came up on Spotify, never having heard it.

"This is a dance-influenced cover version; the original was by Sister Sledge, on the Cotillion/Atlantic label, originally released in 1979. MES both eliminates large swathes of the original lyrics and adds a large number of his own. Lines in the Sister Sledge version referring to wanting a join a band are jettisoned and in their place, among other examples, there is some pigeon French, some real French swearing, and a version of a line by William Blake (“The palace of excess leads to the palace of access” echoes “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom” from “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”, composed between 1790 and 1793.)

The composers of the song, Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, were responible for penning and producing most of the Sister Sledge album (and single) We Are Family, as well as their follow-up album , Got To Love Somebody Today.

The single version of the track is a slightly different edit to the one found on The Infotainment Scan. The Lost In Music mixes 3, 7 and 14 on the 2006 reissue of The Infortainment Scan are taken from a circulating bootleg with 14 such mixes; the differences between them are minor.

From The Big Midweek (Steve Hanley and Olivia Pierkarski, Route, 2014; page 314):

“The bass lines are a challenge; the funky runs go straight out but the rest remains intact. Behind it, a backing track of sound effects and a dash of house music. It’s as dancy as The Fall get but, once the vocals are in place, it goes from feeling like the happy disco celebration of the original to something more sinister. Mark’s vocal style, often tending towards the snide, coupled with a savage editing of the original words, results in the emphasis being much more about the trap than the music.”

The song reached no. 19 in John Peel’s Festive Fifty in 1993"

https://thefallliveblog.wordpress.co...lost-in-music/

[3 Colours Red]

Possibly a controversial call but I think the right one: Devo's (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.

[anton pulisov]

It's something even more mangled, like 'il monnaie...', is't not?

nobody knows

[San Bernardhinault]

And Leonard Cohen's original recording of Hallelujah isn't that great.

I understand that I'm an outlier, but I think Cohen's version is better than all the versions that followed.

[Jon]

I am also reminded that the greatest pop recording ever, Marvin Gaye's 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine', is technically a cover, having been released about a year after Gladys Knight and the Pips' version, although with those Motown hit factory singles I always think 'cover' is a slightly nebulous term.

I'm fairly sure that, although it was released later, the Marvin Gaye version was the first to be recorded.

Just heard that Fall version of Lost in Music. It's good but, as Sam says, the original can not be bettered. Props to them for even giving it a go though.

[Satchmo Distel]

Stevie Wonder's cover of We Can Work It Out beats The Beatles' original IMHO.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Fairport Convention's version of Dylan's I'll Keep It With Mine, is the definitive version for me. Certainly preferable to Judy Collins's, which was the first available. Dylan's own bootleg rendering, is... well, on a different plateau.

[Amor de Cosmos]

That's fascinating Jon. I had to listen to both to understand exactly what it was getting at, but as soon as you hear that three-chord progression at the start of the Kim Carnes version you realise, because it's the dynamo that powers the whole song.

And I use that word advisedly, because it really does have dynamism, in that there's a mini-opera of tension, drama and release within that repeated sequence of seven notes, whereas the rinky-dink bounce of the country version has none.

Hang on. Jackie DeShannon should never be described as "rinky-dink," even in passing. She certainly has more of a track record as a writer and recording artist than Kim Carnes will ever have (When You Walk In The Room, Put a Little Love in Your Heart, Come Stay With Me, Don't Turn Your Back on Me.) She co-wrote Bette Davis Eyes with Donna Weiss who took the song to Carnes, or her producer, and sang background vocals on it. Weiss and DeShannon both regard Carnes version as superior, and are on record as saying so.

[Sam]

I'm fairly sure that, although it was released later, the Marvin Gaye version was the first to be recorded.

Just checked Wiki and you're right in that Marvin recorded it before Gladys Knight and the Pips. But the first recording of all was by the Miracles apparently (although there are claims of a never-subsequently found Isley Brothers version that predated even that one). At any rate, this sort of messing around is why I always feel it's not quite right to use the word 'cover' to describe versions of the same song by Motown artists.

[G-Man]

The timeline of the song is a little confusing. Written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, several Motown stars — including Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers — tested for the song before Gladys Knight’s version was approved for release. It was Smokey who recorded it first, with The Miracles, on 16 August 1966. His version stayed in the vaults until after Knight had her hit with it, as did that recorded by Marvin Gaye, whom Whitfield had in mind when he wrote the song. He had to bug Gordy until the owner relented and had the Gladys Knight version released.

A year later Smokey’s version was released as an LP track, on the Special Occasion LP. On the very same day, on 26 August 1968, Gaye’s version was issued, as track 4 on his In The Groove album (later retitled after Grapevine). Having been recorded in February 1967 (before Gladys did her take), it was not supposed to be a single. But radio DJs picked it up and created the demand which forced Motown to issue it on single, on 30 October 1968.

More originals of Motown hits here.

[Stumpy Pepys]

I much prefer Primal Scream's cover of Slip Inside This House to the 13th Floor Elevators' original.

[kokamoa]

I understand that I'm an outlier, but I think Cohen's version is better than all the versions that followed.

Agreed, especially since it’s now been transformed into a vocal-masturbation X-Factor style standard. Jeff Buckley’s version was good but even that suffered from a surfeit of “Feel the sincerity” in its performance. I could never get on with the Gary Jules cover of Mad World for precisely the same reason.

[Sam]

The timeline of the song is a little confusing. Written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, several Motown stars — including Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers — tested for the song before Gladys Knight’s version was approved for release. It was Smokey who recorded it first, with The Miracles, on 16 August 1966. His version stayed in the vaults until after Knight had her hit with it, as did that recorded by Marvin Gaye, whom Whitfield had in mind when he wrote the song. He had to bug Gordy until the owner relented and had the Gladys Knight version released.

A year later Smokey’s version was released as an LP track, on the Special Occasion LP. On the very same day, on 26 August 1968, Gaye’s version was issued, as track 4 on his In The Groove album (later retitled after Grapevine). Having been recorded in February 1967 (before Gladys did her take), it was not supposed to be a single. But radio DJs picked it up and created the demand which forced Motown to issue it on single, on 30 October 1968.

More originals of Motown hits here.

Cheers, G. Do you know anything about this Isley Brothers version, beyond it having supposedly been recorded? This is one of those topics (probably because of the obsessiveness of collectors) that I find Wikipedia's normally quite good on, and the way the Wiki article is worded it doesn't even seem absolutely certain they definitely recorded it.

[Lang Spoon]

Agreed, especially since it’s now been transformed into a vocal-masturbation X-Factor style standard. Jeff Buckley’s version was good but even that suffered from a surfeit of “Feel the sincerity” in its performance. I could never get on with the Gary Jules cover of Mad World for precisely the same reason.

Isn't the overplayed Buckley version pretty much a copy of John Cale's reworking of the way too overlong original?

[Lang Spoon]

Possibly a controversial call but I think the right one: Devo's (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.

Oh yeah, the jittery white funkless funk is perfect.

[Lang Spoon]

I like the Creedence version of Grapevine best.

[Sits]

I like Rufus Wainwright’s version of Hallelujah. Not too melodramatic IIRC. And I like his voice anyway.

[G-Man]

Cheers, G. Do you know anything about this Isley Brothers version, beyond it having supposedly been recorded? This is one of those topics (probably because of the obsessiveness of collectors) that I find Wikipedia's normally quite good on, and the way the Wiki article is worded it doesn't even seem absolutely certain they definitely recorded it.

It's a bit of a mystery. Ron Isley said they had, and the story that they had recorded it has had legs. But there is no surviving recording of it, which may be because it was incomplete, and/or because it was wiped.