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    Pointless cover versions.

    I thought we had done this but I can't find it. My take on cover versions is that there is no point in covering a song where the original sounds like the cover. Covers are worthwhile where the song is given a fresh and original twist - Big Black doing "The Model", The Leather Nun doing "Gimme, gimme a man after midnight", Frankie Goes to Hollywood doing "Born To Run", The Jam doing "Heatwave" etc.

    However, there are cover versions where a band takes an original that is very similar to their own music and changes not much. To start the ball rolling, I give you (and it is a song I actually like) "Ziggy Stardust" by Bauhaus.

    #2
    Pointless cover versions.

    I'm going to say this because I just remembered it and it made me cross again. So that knobcheese off of out of x factor or whatever did a "Light my fire" cover, and people ACTUALLY SAID IT WAS NEW AND DIFFERENT. Fucking idiots.

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      #3
      Pointless cover versions.

      Most cover versions are pointless.

      But was it pointless for The Jackson to cover Mick Jackson's "Blame It On The Boogie". They didn't really change much, but their version is vastly superior.

      I'd also say that it's legit for a band to cover a mostly forgotten song. Sticking with the 1970s, I see nothing wrong with the Darts version of The Wren's "Come Back My Love", for example, or, earlier, The Hollies covering Albert Hammond's "The Air That I Breathe".

      And there's something to be said for exceptional singers covering hit songs. I wouldn't say that Nina Simone reworked Here Comes The Sun as though she was Isaac Hayes on a psychedelic trip, but it is nonetheless pointful.

      One pointless cover version I hate in particular is Ronan Keating's "When You Say Nothing At All". The original by the late Keith Whitley was great, and Alison Krauss' 1995 version was also very good. But everybody now associates a fine song with Keating's really, really bad interpretation. Why couldn't the soundtrack producers for that film not just use Krauss' beautiful version?

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        #4
        Pointless cover versions.

        I don’t know how famous the song is outside of German-speaking countries, but I’ve heard quite a few cover versions of Rio Reiser’s König von Deutschland, and they've all been pretty ropey.

        It’s probably down to the shout-along chorus. You can’t do it properly if it’s quiet or slow. You just have to yell your head off.

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          #5
          Pointless cover versions.

          80% of Beatles covers.

          The Beatles just don't cover well.

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            #6
            Pointless cover versions.

            I disagree with you fundamentally. As a bit of a collector of Beatles covers, I find that the genius of most Beatles songs is their adaptability. Very few covers are necessarily better, but there are many reinterpretations that are quite excellent.

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              #7
              Pointless cover versions.

              It's fairly obvious that pretty much all covers by nineties boy bands - or noughties TV karaoke acts - are going to be artistically pointless and therefore outside of constructive debate. I agree with G-Man about the frustration in a decent song then being associated with such a performer, of course.

              I've never personally been much of a fan of covers per se, since their use generally suggests that an artist has run out of original ideas. (For example, one can pretty much trace Rod Stewart's 'decline' from when he started issuing little else.) There are, of course, new versions of old tunes that add something special - or, in very unusual cases, completely reinvent the original: Nazareth's take on Joni Mitchell's This Flight Tonight comes to mind, as does This Mortal Coil's version of Tim Buckley's Song to the Siren. These are rare as hen's teeth, however, and more often than not one'll be left gnashing one's own at efforts such as No Doubt's ghastly abortion of It's My Life.

              But we've done cover versions many times, no?

              (NB There was nothing worthwhile about FGTH's version of Born To Run, as far as I could see. Nor indeed any of the filler on that largely-forgettable album.)

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                #8
                Pointless cover versions.

                Lily Allen's version of Somewhere Only We Know.

                How can you dilute something that's already wet enough as it is?
                How can you make a saccharine song even more sickly sweet?
                How can you turn up the blandness on a tune so insipid?

                Also, covers with the original performer as a featured artist.
                Early 2000s boy bands seemed keen on this - Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Queen amongst others lining up with a bunch of manufactured no-marks just to fatten their already hefty bank accounts.

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                  #9
                  Pointless cover versions.

                  Jah Womble wrote: (NB There was nothing worthwhile about FGTH's version of Born To Run, as far as I could see. Nor indeed any of the filler on that largely-forgettable album.)
                  This is why I say Liverpool is a better album than Pleasuredome (FIVE covers, two remixes and a hidden song on a 13-track album? Fuck off). Their version of War ain't much cop either if you ask me.

                  Don't get me wrong, I like the hits from the first album but Rage Hard was a better song than any of them.

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                    #10
                    Pointless cover versions.

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEtpxzQ-KxI

                    You'll just have to click the link for its full pointlessness.

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                      #11
                      Pointless cover versions.

                      G-Man wrote: I'd also say that it's legit for a band to cover a mostly forgotten song.
                      Yes, I would go with that.

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                        #12
                        Pointless cover versions.

                        No can do.

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                          #13
                          Pointless cover versions.

                          Serge Gainsbourg wrote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEtpxzQ-KxI

                          You'll just have to click the link for its full pointlessness.
                          Kasabian's was shit as well but at least they tried to do something a little different with it.

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                            #14
                            Pointless cover versions.

                            Bored of Education wrote: The Jam doing "Heatwave"
                            I like it, but isn't that in itself a fairly straight cover of the Who's version, rather than of Martha and the Vandellas'?

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                              #15
                              Pointless cover versions.

                              Could be. I haven't heard the Who's version.

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                                #16
                                Pointless cover versions.

                                Here you go.

                                It's sort of half-way in between, but you can definitely tell that it's the version the Jam had been listening to.

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                                  #17
                                  Pointless cover versions.

                                  The Jam's version is punchier and adds sax, but otherwise super close to The Who's cover.

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                                    #18
                                    Pointless cover versions.

                                    The give away CD with "Mojo" has often been certain albums or artists 'revisited'. Often the Beatles. They are all curates eggs but there are gems to be found there.

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                                      #19
                                      Pointless cover versions.

                                      Do you reckon that Kenny West blokes version of BR at Glastonbury will get a release?

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                                        #20
                                        Pointless cover versions.

                                        Can anything be worse than Elton John covering Candle In The Wind?

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                                          #21
                                          Pointless cover versions.

                                          Yes. Madonna doing American Pie.

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                                            #22
                                            Pointless cover versions.

                                            Or Blondie covering "Once I had a Love"?

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                                              #23
                                              Pointless cover versions.

                                              But back on thread, there was the "non-cover" Andrew Sachs did of "Shadappaya Face" - he'd heard it in Aus or some such, got his people to speak to Joe Dolce's people and say "I'd like to do a version of this"

                                              "Fine". Came the reply.

                                              And before it was pressed, guess who'd put out the original version in Blighty?

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                                                #24
                                                Pointless cover versions.

                                                Given Transvision Vamp got a long mention here the other week, it's only fair to mention that Baby I Don't Care was covered in an attempt to give Jennifer Ellison a singing career.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Pointless cover versions.

                                                  adams house cat wrote: The give away CD with "Mojo" has often been certain albums or artists 'revisited'. Often the Beatles. They are all curates eggs but there are gems to be found there.
                                                  You'll find a few more decent Beatles covers here.

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