A Good Cover is Hard to Find

Most cover songs are dull. Most cover songs emulate the original, both in content and in style. Often, bands covering a song by another artist are very similar in sound in relation to that band already, so their doing a cover of one of the other band's songs is not sensational in any sense. A band influenced by The Smiths covers "There is a light that never goes out". Daredevilry!

Quite a few bands have chosen another approach towards covers. An interesting, by now classic, example is Cat Power's version of Satisfaction. The chorus is never sung. Instead of a cocky (sorry) expression of insatiable sexual desire, Cat Power plays the song in a way that conveys insecurity and world-weariness. The emphasis is on the lines: "When I'm ridin' around the globe/And I'm doin' this and I'm signin that..."

The most ingenious covers make the real meaning of the lyrics of the song visible. Some artists have the dubious skill of creating songs where almost anything, in terms of sexism etc., seems normal. Then there are covers like Mark Kozelek's. His interpretations of AC/DC songs are deceivingly deadpan. But this only strengthens the effect of bringing the content of the lyrics to the fore. By radically changing the atmosphere of the song he makes it come alive in a very strange way.

A campier example of this is Travis' cover of "Hit me baby". After hearing this version, I was really amazed how the line "hit me baby..." slips by so uncontroversially in the Spears' version. But my English skills are not perfect. Perhaps there are many connotations of "hitting".

Anyways: here are some other cover gems:

Anna Ternheim: Shoreline
Susanna & the magic orchestra: Crazy, crazy nights
Nouvelle Vauge: Too drunk to fuck
White stripes: Jolene
Xiu Xiu: Fast car
Blackeyed Susans: State trooper
Hederos & Hellberg: Pale blue eyes
Nick Cave: In the ghetto
Tori Amos: Strange fruit
Red house painters: Shock me
Midnight choir: Spiritual
Cowboy junkies: I'm so lonesome I could cry
16 horsepower: Bad moon risin'
Patricia Barber: My girl
Shannon Wright: I started a joke
Magnet: I walk the line