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    #51
    Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

    Sam wrote:
    Originally posted by 3 Colours Red
    Originally posted by Sam
    As for this thread, I think having been introduced to Prince's 'Kiss' via the Art of Noise feat. Tom Jones version counts.
    Same here - it's just I didn't include it in my list as I actually prefer the cover. It just makes the original sound a bit thin and insubstantial to my ears.
    Good grief.
    Yeah, I know but that's just how it is, I'm afraid. The original has just never clicked with me even though I usually like Prince.

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      #52
      Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

      MiserableOldGit wrote: I must admit that I wasn't all that keen on much of It'll End In Tears, but it's only now that I've realised it contains a track written by Colin Newman of Wire (one of my favourite bands). I don't know how I missed that.
      'It'll End In Tears' is my favourite album of theirs. As their first one, it felt the most understated (at least it did, later on, after the others). 'Filigree & Shadow' was the 'bombastic' one (though I love it for that) and 'Blood' was the pretentious farewell album. 'Filigree & Shadow' - and TMC - got slaughtered by the music press at the time, which caused the slight hiatus before the release of 'Blood'. Melody Maker were one of the chief culprits, but they at least had the humility to write a piece in the wake of that last album that included the phrase "what have we killed?"and was broadly along those lines. In the latter half of the 80s, dance music, Grunge and - to a far lesser extent - EBM and its variants had numbed popular opinion to such fragile and heartfelt stuff as TMC. However, perhaps aware of this, that final release - 'Blood' - was too self-indulgent for even me. Check out the extreme stereo treatments on 'With Tomorrow' and 'Til I Gain Control Again' for examples of (production) technique over substance. Don't get me wrong - they're beautiful songs. I just feel they could have been dealt with in a slightly more straightforward manner that would have made them slightly more accessible without being patronising.

      The 'revivification' of This Mortal Coil, 'The Hope Blister' were never as successful. This was partly because they'd used up most of the obvious candidates for cover versions (another peril of mining that particular vein) but also because people had moved on slightly, I think. For the last 15 years or more, now, you can barely go two commercial breaks without having some car, financial service or aerosol cheese ad soundtracked by some erstwhile maiden with an acoustic guitar or Chris Martin-wannabee with a limited vocal register and a creaky piano. Perhaps This Mortal Coil were to blame for this? I prefer to think it was 'the second wave' of such stuff - Sigur Ros, Tori Amos or Aqualung (remember them?) who were more culpable for the disembowelling of emotional music. (Having said that, I like Sigur Ros, save for the high-pitched vocals.)

      The Hope Blister had their moments, though, in particular the crushingly beautiful 'strings' version of David Sylvian's 'Let The Happiness In'. (Best watch that quick, before it gets deleted by the copyright Nazis - I just created it, for the purposes of this thread.)

      I also can't let this rant end without repeating myself by mentioning some of the tracks that I would have most loved to hear This Mortal Coil or The Hope Blister cover, but which they didn't. I dunno - perhaps they considered them 'perfectly-formed' already? ...

      The Beach Boys - 'Cuddle Up'

      Black - 'Stephen'

      ...and possibly too late for even The Hope Blister, but...

      Billy MacKenzie - 'Blue It Is'

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        #53
        Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

        3 Colours Red wrote:
        Originally posted by Sam
        Originally posted by 3 Colours Red
        Originally posted by Sam
        As for this thread, I think having been introduced to Prince's 'Kiss' via the Art of Noise feat. Tom Jones version counts.
        Same here - it's just I didn't include it in my list as I actually prefer the cover. It just makes the original sound a bit thin and insubstantial to my ears.
        Good grief.
        Yeah, I know but that's just how it is, I'm afraid. The original has just never clicked with me even though I usually like Prince.
        Blimey!

        I have to assume that none of you have ever heard the Age Of Chance version? That'll blow your cobwebs out, whatever you think of their 'period' attire!

        Comment


          #54
          Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

          Wouter D wrote:
          Originally posted by Vicarious Thrillseeker
          ''All Along The Watchtower'' - XTC anyone?
          The U2 version for me. Definitely fits in here.
          God knows I loved U2 in my time, but they absolutely fucking ruined "Everlasting Love".

          Comment


            #55
            Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

            Seeing the latest update to the Beatles thread reminds me of becoming familiar with Strawberry Fields Forever via the Candy Flip version. This may be why I've never cared for the song much.

            Comment


              #56
              Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

              Lennon himself in hindsight hated the song's production, although he OK'd it at the time. I think if you check out the remixed versions on Youtube you'll find one you like.

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                #57
                Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                irony towers wrote: When I first heard Bowie's Ziggy Stardust at 12 I thought it wasn't a patch on Bauhaus.
                Ditto for me with T Rex's Telegram Sam

                Comment


                  #58
                  Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                  MiserableOldGit wrote: I must admit that I wasn't all that keen on much of It'll End In Tears, but it's only now that I've realised it contains a track written by Colin Newman of Wire (one of my favourite bands). I don't know how I missed that.
                  You may know this already, but as well as 'Not Me' on the first album, they also covered 'Alone' on the second (and well before the original made its appearance in the 'Silence Of The Lambs' movie).

                  Comment


                    #59
                    Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                    evilC wrote: You may know this already, but as well as 'Not Me' on the first album, they also covered 'Alone' on the second (and well before the original made its appearance in the 'Silence Of The Lambs' movie).
                    I do now, but I'd never heard any of his solo tracks before and didn't even know that Alone was in Silence of the Lambs. Well I wouldn't really because I wouldn't have recognised it.

                    Comment


                      #60
                      Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                      evilC wrote:
                      Originally posted by 3 Colours Red
                      Originally posted by Sam
                      Originally posted by 3 Colours Red
                      Originally posted by Sam
                      As for this thread, I think having been introduced to Prince's 'Kiss' via the Art of Noise feat. Tom Jones version counts.
                      Same here - it's just I didn't include it in my list as I actually prefer the cover. It just makes the original sound a bit thin and insubstantial to my ears.
                      Good grief.
                      Yeah, I know but that's just how it is, I'm afraid. The original has just never clicked with me even though I usually like Prince.
                      Blimey!

                      I have to assume that none of you have ever heard the Age Of Chance version? That'll blow your cobwebs out, whatever you think of their 'period' attire!
                      I had not heard that before. It's very enjoyable, that (nice trainers, too).

                      Arguably the most important version of 'Kiss' is the one by Mazarati. After deciding he didn't fancy the song (which originally sounded like this in his demo of it) for himself, Prince gave them the song, and their producer reworked it into something Prince liked so much he decided he could have a go at doing a proper version of it himself after all. If some of the vocals in the Mazarati version sound familiar, it's because Prince left them as they were as (credited) backing vocals on his own version. If it hadn't been for that 'cover' (I'm never sure about calling it a cover when it's been given to the artist by the writer), we wouldn't be having this conversation.

                      Comment


                        #61
                        Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                        In harvesting the links for the above post, I came across this video, which I'm pretty sure wouldn't be on YouTube if Prince were still alive. Safe for work unless you're as easily amused as I am, in which case your giggles might raise a few suspicions from office superiors.

                        Comment


                          #62
                          Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                          It saddens me that some people think the Toy Dolls wrote Nellie The Elephant.

                          Comment


                            #63
                            Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                            Got introduced to Cats in the Cradle courtesy of California skate rockers Ugly Kid Joe.

                            Chalk me up for another one who prefers the Art of Noise version of "Kiss", for precisely the same reasons.

                            Comment


                              #64
                              Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                              Then there's shout, by Lulu, originally written and performed by the Isley Brothers.

                              Virtually anything by Cilla Black.

                              Comment


                                #65
                                Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                                I recall a girl I fancied a bit decades ago refusing to accept that Robert Palmer's Mercy Mercy Me wasn't as good as Marvin Gaye's.

                                This helped quell any attraction.

                                Comment


                                  #66
                                  Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                                  MiserableOldGit wrote: Virtually anything by Cilla Black.
                                  Didn't Andrew Loog Oldham take out a full-page advert in the NME imploring people not to buy her version of You've Lost That Loving Feeling?

                                  Comment


                                    #67
                                    Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                                    "Baby, please don't go" by Gary Glitter - surely the wrongest person ever.

                                    "(I'm not your) Steppin' Stone" by the Sex Pistols but it was only when we rehearsed a cover of it recently that I found out that the Monkees had actually covered the Paul Revere & the Raiders original version.

                                    Comment


                                      #68
                                      Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                                      'Steppin Stone' is one of those (rare?) songs that, though widely recorded, is without a truly definitive version. Actually that might be a thread topic.

                                      Comment


                                        #69
                                        Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                                        Amor de Cosmos wrote: 'Steppin Stone' is one of those (rare?) songs that, though widely recorded, is without a truly definitive version. Actually that might be a thread topic.
                                        No definitive version? Here's your definitive version.

                                        Comment


                                          #70
                                          Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                                          I knew what that link was going to go to without even needing to look, TG – that was my introduction to the song too! I remember at the time Ant & Dec charted with it, it was described as a "Sex Pistols cover" – something that puzzled me then and most of the time since, because a.) it just didn't sound like a Sex Pistols song, and b.) I'd not heard of, and still have never heard, the Pistols' version to check the veracity of this assumption. Learning that theirs wasn't original either makes a lot more sense.

                                          Comment


                                            #71
                                            Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                                            To be fair, my first exposure to it was the Monkees', and it remains my favourite.

                                            My recollection of the PJ and Duncan effort was one of mild horror, IIRC. My girlfriend of the time liked it, although she was an arsehole in lots of ways so we shouldn't be surprised at her terrible taste in music.

                                            Comment


                                              #72
                                              Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                                              The Monkees one is the definitive one, you mentalists.

                                              The Pistols one is fascinating as it is almost a completely different song. It is gets rid of part of the chorus and a bridge, adds an extra riff and a solo and repeats a verse making it twice as long as the original even though it is twice as fast.

                                              Comment


                                                #73
                                                Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                                                I'm starting to wonder if "choosing not to see the deliberate joke / lie" is a family trait.

                                                Comment


                                                  #74
                                                  Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                                                  It was AdC's assertion I was challenging, you pillock.

                                                  What's my brother been up to now?

                                                  Comment


                                                    #75
                                                    Hearing classics for the first time - by the wrong people

                                                    Ah. As you were, then.

                                                    He was being a berk* for comic effect. It may or may not surprise you to know.

                                                    *Not really

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