Pointless Covers

[Farmer Reil]

It occured to me earlier how some covers, while not bad or anything, are just really pointless. As in, why did Band X decide Song Y needed to be covered in a rock/jazz/blues/death metal style in the first place?

Sometimes, of course, weird covers work really well. Like Avantasia covering Lay All Your Love On Me. They gave it an awesome bassline and made it different, and far better, than the original. Sometimes you get a band covering a song just because it'd be funny to see what it sounds like (Ten Masked Men spring to mind).

But sometimes you hear a cover and you just think "what? Couldn't you think of anything better to do?"

The song that spurred this thread was this. Firewind, a perfectly reasonable power metal/rock band. Covering Maniac from Flashdance. It's not a bad cover (in fact, it's infinitely better than the original, but that's like saying pissing your pants is better than shitting your pants), but just... why? Who wakes up one day and thinks "Hey, on our next album we're going to cover Maniac by Michael Sembello!".

The Greeks have too much sun. It's starting to effect them in a negative way.

[K]

Anything Fallout Boy touch, and most people who touch the Misfits.

[Gabriel]

I love cover songs.

It's usually just a way to wear your influences on your sleeve, or to record something when you're not ready to record anything new of your own.

There are some really shit Misfits covers, but for the most part, I enjoy a lot of them.

[TMM]

If someone is going to do a cover, it needs to have something different than the original. I mean, Oasis' cover of My Generation is awful because they try and do it exactly the same as the Who. But Alien Ant Farm's cover of Smooth Criminal is brilliant.

[Tarheels.]

Agreed on A.A.F's Smooth Criminal. When people try to make it an identical cover it usually turns out terrible (emphasize the point of usually, there are a few that break that rule.) However, I recently heard Nightwish's cover of "Phantom Of The Opera" and I'm in love with it.

[New Damage]

Chris Cornell's "Billie Jean". You all know, I love the guy (except solo and especially ft. Timbaland ), but whilst I respect him trying to do it differently, it's just... boring. I mean on paper you hear "Chris Cornell" + " covers Michael Jackon's 'Billie Jean'", and you get ready to expect awesome. It's not that it's bad, jsut boring.

[Gabriel]

If someone is going to do a cover, it needs to have something different than the original. I mean, Oasis' cover of My Generation is awful because they try and do it exactly the same as the Who. But Alien Ant Farm's cover of Smooth Criminal is brilliant.

Making it different for the sake of making it different usually ends up either making it much better than the original, or making it complete garbage.

I don't see anything wrong with straight up covers of songs that the artists like... especially when, in a lot of cases, people learn how to play an instrument strictly so that they can play songs by a band.

I can't even count the number of musicians in the horrorpunk or related scenes who have said that they started learning to play so that they could play Misfits songs.

[TheRyno]

Joss Stone's "Fell In Love With A Girl"...mostly because she couldn't wait until the original wasn't being played anymore. Seriously, there should be a statute of limitations regarding covering songs, like a 4-5 year waiting period or something. Otherwise, the song quickly becomes redundant.

Edited September 16, 2008 by TheRyno

[Cactus Drags]

Anything Fallout Boy touch, and most people who touch the Misfits.

I quite like their cover of Roxanne. And, on a police kick, Underoath's take on Wrapped Around Your Finger actually made me like the original a bit more (I'm a Police fan, but the original sucks balls >_>).

What annoys me is when a band covers a song and plays it exactly like the original, so the only real difference you get is the singer's voice.

[METALMAN]

It's quite funny to read this considering that I went to see Hayseed Dixie tonight. Talk about pointless covers...

Good fun though.

[TheFireChrisCage]

The Ataris - Boys of Summer

This song got really popular back 5 years or so ago, yet it sounds EXACTLY like the original, the only difference is that the guitars sound a bit more distorted.

[apsham]

EXACTLY is kind of pushing it there.

But let's say any pop princess covering any song. I mean come on, Edge Of Seventeen by Lohan made me want to tear my ears off. And when Spears was covering shit.. ugh... Avril too.

[GhostMachine]

Agreed on A.A.F's Smooth Criminal. When people try to make it an identical cover it usually turns out terrible (emphasize the point of usually, there are a few that break that rule.) However, I recently heard Nightwish's cover of "Phantom Of The Opera" and I'm in love with it.

Nightwish's version of "Phantom Of The Opera" is awesome.

Look up their version of Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction" sometime; its pretty good.

Note: If anyone has a problem with Bowling For Soup's covers, please go soak your head.

[Colly]

Joss Stone's "Fell In Love With A Girl"...mostly because she couldn't wait until the original wasn't being played anymore. Seriously, there should be a statute of limitations regarding covering songs, like a 4-5 year waiting period or something. Otherwise, the song quickly becomes redundant.

Someone should fax this post to Mark Ronson. And quickly.

[Dingle]

Well, in his defense, there was a 20 year gap between his cover of Stop Me and the original.

[New Damage]

Joss Stone's "Fell In Love With A Girl"...mostly because she couldn't wait until the original wasn't being played anymore. Seriously, there should be a statute of limitations regarding covering songs, like a 4-5 year waiting period or something. Otherwise, the song quickly becomes redundant.

Someone should fax this post to Mark Ronson. And quickly.

And include some anthrax. And not the band.

[Cactus Drags]

Ronson should BIH for his "contributions" to music. Dick.

[Skummy]

Carnival In Coal do the only version of Maniac worth hearing anyway.

Most "ironic" covers of pop songs by metal bands are fucking dreadful, especially because the metal fans will be the first to get up in arms when the opposite occurs.

I love a good cover version, but I'm definitely of the belief that if you're not going to do anything original with it, or if you're just going to do it for the sake of making a song "different" without genuinely subverting it - pop-punk bands are invariably guilty of this in the most dreadful way.

There are two main arguments that come up with cover versions all the time - the first is that people shouldn't just sing other people's songs, because it's impossible to inject the same soul into them - this is usually a criticism levelled at "pop" stars and covers band, and conveniently ignored when an alternative band releases a cover version. It's also utter bullshit. Trying to say Elvis doesn't have soul? That countless hundreds of blues and folk singers didn't have soul, that ANY classical musician doesn't have soul? Hell, some of the most soulful moments music have ever produced happen every day when kids sing their favourite songs in front of the mirror in their bedroom, that's fucking soul, and sometimes there's more of that in singing someone else's words than your own. There's nowt wrong with playing covers if it's not just for a quick buck.

Although that kind of brings me to Gabe's point, which is the opposite argument;

I don't see anything wrong with straight up covers of songs that the artists like... especially when, in a lot of cases, people learn how to play an instrument strictly so that they can play songs by a band.

I can't even count the number of musicians in the horrorpunk or related scenes who have said that they started learning to play so that they could play Misfits songs.

True, undoubtedly. Unless your parents pressured you into learning an instrument, chances are you learned one so you could play your favourite songs, or emulate your favourite guitarist/drummer/saxophonist/timpani player. I was definitely that way - bought a guitar to play Clash songs in my bedroom - but that's the thing; those Clash songs never left my bedroom. There's a difference between the desire to play songs and the desire to play songs to an audience - and the latter is infinitely more egotistical, if nothing else - it assumes that you have something to offer people, that people will in some way benefit from what you have to say to them, and in that respect I would say that playing straight covers doesn't always cut it, because you haven't got anything to say.

To use your example, there are plenty of horrorpunk bands out there and every single one of them owes a huge debt to The Misfits. If I buy a Calabrese album, I know full well I'm getting an album that will sound very much like The Misfits...but why would I buy a Calabrese version of Die Die My Darling or Saturday Night, knowing full well that it'll sound just like The Misfits version? Wanting to play your favourite songs is one thing, but wanting other people to hear you play them is something different.

I realise I just contradicted myself massively, as all my points about music invariably do, but obviously the answer is in the middle ground - you need to inject your own feeling, your own emotions, into a song for a cover to work - don't play it straight, because you may as well release a card saying "buy the original" and not bother releasing your own version, but by the same token don't muck around with a song just for the sake of it - subversion can be a very powerful tool used sparingly - see any early Sex Pistols covers material, or any scathing Dead Kennedys covers - but not when the only point you're making is "lol isn't it funny that we're a metal band playing Britney".

Edited September 17, 2008 by Woody Skumrie

[Cabral_]

Most covers are pointless really...that being said there arn't many i dislike as they bring something different to the song. Two i just come about that i like are Korns cover of Another Brick in the Wall and Judas Priests Johnny Be Goode. You've probably heard them though heh

[Gene Kiniski]

The Ataris - Boys of Summer

This song got really popular back 5 years or so ago, yet it sounds EXACTLY like the original, the only difference is that the guitars sound a bit more distorted.

I still really like the Ataris - Boys of Summer cover. It just has a modern sound and the slight lyrics change (just a few words, mainly the "Black Flagg") make it a good coming of age cover.