Monday, October 04, 2010

Words Fail Me (An Occasional Series)

From 1984, please enjoy Warren Zevon and R.E.M. (minus the bald singer) doing business as The Hindu Love Gods. With a very loose, but surprisingly effective, cover of....The Easybeats' unbelievably great "Gonna Have a Good Time Tonight."





I mean -- say what?

Seriously, I had not only never heard this before, I was not heretofore aware it even existed. One assumes Zevon is playing piano somewhere deep within the murk of the mix; one also assumes that Peter Buck is doing the vocals.

Oh, and I wrote about the Easybeats original not so long ago; you can listen to it here if you missed it.

8 comments:

cthulhu said...

Great disc, done around the same time as Zevon's Sentimental Hygiene. Love the Prince Raspberry Beret cover too...

steve simels said...

Actually, I think this was done considerably earlier than Hygiene.

Anonymous said...

You can hear little piano glissandos way in the background on the stop parts. The only signs of life.

TMink said...

Even folks with great talent can hit to their weakness. I liked the Hindu Love Gods in general, but I see why this did not make the cut.

Trey

Anonymous said...

i just heard the Easybeats version on Little Steven the other night and every time i hear it I think, "a fabulous song just waiting to be produced correctly."

this ain't it either.

TJWood said...

This was indeed done a few years before Sentimental Hygiene. It is Zevon on piano, but the singer is Bryan Cook, a local singer with a couple of Athens bands of much less renown than R.E.M. About as off-the-cuff as was probably intended. INXS with Jimmy Barnes did a somewhat more competent version for The Lost Boys soundtrack in about 1987.

steve simels said...

I remember the LOST BOYS version. Shocking Blue did a cover of it as well. Both pretty good, if not great.

Anonymous notwithstanding, though, I think the original is as perfect a rock record as has ever been made...

MBowen said...

Yeah, this single came out three years before they even met Zevon, let alone before they recycled the fake band name for the WZ collaboration (the release of which pissed off Zevon to no end). Peter Buck is a demon for being in as many bands as possible - right now he's a member of R.E.M., The Minus 5, Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3, and Tired Pony.