Friday, March 14, 2014

Weekend Listomania Retro: Special This One is Worth Recycling! Edition

[I originally posted this in 2007 -- don't get me started -- but I think it would be fun to give you guys another go at it. I've made a couple of small changes (it turns out that Emmylou Harris actually DID cover Richard Thompson's "Dimming of the Day"), but basically I still think my choices were pretty much on the money.

In any case, enjoy.
]

THE GREATEST COVERS THAT NEVER WERE!!!!!!
You know -- some really fabulous song you'd really like to hear some favorite artiste -- solo or group -- perform or record, but so far they haven't gotten around to it (the bastards!!!).

Okay, my totally off the top of my head Top Ten:

10. The Hold Steady -- The Boys Are Back in Town [Thin Lizzy]
They've probably jammed on it a thousand times -- it's about time they go public for gosh sakes.



9. The Posies -- Carrie-Ann [The Hollies]
They already proved they were genetically bred to do Hollies songs with their version of "King Midas in Reverse" -- just think what they would bring to the sunniest of the Clarke-Hicks-Nash classics.



8. The Pretenders -- Every Little Bit Hurts [Brenda Holloway]
My fave 60s soul ballad/torch song would be a natural for Chrissie Hynde, I suspect.



7. Neko Case -- The First Cut Is The Deepest [Cat Stevens]
Because she'd do it better than Sheryl Crow, duh.



6. Steve Earle -- Street Fighting Man [The Rolling Stones]
C'mon -- this is the job he was born for.



5. Bob Mould -- Calvary Cross [Richard Thompson]
On the 1994 Thompson tribute album Beat the Retreat, Mould turned the rockabilly tinged "Turning of the Tide" into a killer piece of buzz-saw punk. I swoon to imagine what he could do with Thompson's most intensely doom-haunted song....



4. Emmylou Harris -- Withered and Died [Richard and Linda Thompson]
I'm not sure we would survive the hearing of this, actually.



3. Elvis Costello and the Attractions -- Sooner or Later (One of Us Must Know) [Bob Dylan]
If anybody is going to do the most majestic "Blonde On Blonde" song it should be these guys.



2. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers -- 19th Nervous Breakdown [The Rolling Stones]
Jagger's snarl would morph into Petty's sly drawl pretty good, doncha think?



And the number one cover I'd love to hear is....

1. Led Zeppelin -- Bits and Pieces [Dave Clark Five]
For obvious reasons.....



Okay -- what would be your picks?

[h/t FeralLiberal]

25 comments:

Sal Nunziato said...

I had what I thought was a genius idea that would get Robert Palmer back on the charts after his string of failed records post-MTV--a cover of Sade's "Sweetest Taboo."

He always a knack for taking something camp and making it cool and that pairing to me seemed ideal.


And more to the style of this blog, I still want to hear John Waite or Jason Falkner cover Bananarama's "I Heard A Rumour." That song would kill with chunky guitars, heavy drums and 3-part harmonies.

J. Loslo said...

I'd listen to a whole album of Tom Petty covering The Byrds. One example I think would work: She Don't Care About Time. I'm half-expecting someone to tell me he's done that already. I was going to add Feel A Whole Lot Better, but then I remembered... he's done that already.

Anonymous said...

Hello all...no, please remain seated,

Another Richard Thompson entry, but with a twist. I would pay cash money to hear Thompson cover Tom Wait's "Innocent When You Dream". In my mind's ears, this would be killer with RT's "medieval plague" vocal delivery and the Lowden guitar.

RichD

cthulhu said...

I'd love to hear Richard Thompson cover Aimee Mann's Goodbye Caroline (from her "The Forgotten Arm" outing, it's written from a man's viewpoint); it's just begging for RT's patented vocal snap and snarl.

And after hearing RT's Electric Trio bring down the house with a blistering Hey Joe last year, I'd love to hear his take on the Winwood/Capaldi classic Dear Mr Fantasy. Can you say "epic solo"?

IMHO, the Who tend to be uncoverable (memorable exception is, once again, RT doing acoustic covers of early Who songs in various shows), but what about Jack White doing Substitute?

Feral said...

And I'm still here!

IIRC one of the original wishes I had was to hear Buddy Guy (in his prime) covering CCR's "Penthouse Pauper" - he'd tear that one up.

More Tom Petty - George Harrison's "Wah Wah", or maybe Fountains of Wayne's "Someone to Love"



pete said...

Little Feat doing "Well, I'll be John Brown." Otis Redding doing "Absolutely Sweet Marie." (for me the "most majestic" tune on BOB is"Visions of Johanna.") Neil Young doing "Shoot Out the Lights." (I loved his "Oh Susannah"). and of course I would love to hear ANYONE covering ANY of my songs.

steve simels said...

I would KILL to hear Neil Young doing "Shoot Out the Lights."


Speaking of which, I heard R&L's "Did She Jump or Was She Pushed" on the soundtrack to some teevee show last week, and now I can't remember what it was.

Possibly "Revolution."

steve simels said...

Hey Pete --

I'm thinking of covering that song of yours that Glen "Bob" produced the demo of. My chums the Weasels have a pretty sophisticaed home studio, and if I can get the right drum track I think I could do a pretty coo version.

What's that called again? I'm not at my home computer abd its not on BG's ITunes.

"Everybody Danced?"

virgotex said...

How about Neko and New Pornos covering White Rabbit? Giillian Welch and Dave Rawlings kill it in their own auteur fashion but Neko's vocal chops doing Grace Slick would be killer. Plus Kurt Dahle on drums and Todd Fancey on guitar? Killer.

pete said...

That's right: Everybody Danced. Needless to say I would be thrilled to bits. By utter coincidence I'm set to record/video the tune tonight with a trio. I'll be posting the vids on FB. The current arrangement is slower and funkier (there's a horn chart but I'm not doing that today) than the guitar workout you've heard. Do you have the CD "1896" with the hand-drawn cover? There's a solo version on there that might be easier to decipher.

pete said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
steve simels said...

I have the demo Glenn produced as well as 1896.

pete said...

Just found this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dWzSPf0Y30

Ray Charles doing "Sail on, Sailor."

edward said...

Still holding out for a Tom Waits Christmas Album;>

And also the soundtrack to The Sound of Music.

Anonymous said...

Plant (Led Zep by extension) DID cover "Bits & Pieces" with Plant's version of Kenny Dino's "Your Maw Said You Cried in Your Sleep Last Night," which the DC5 essentially rewrote as Bits and Pieces."

He did it on 1990's "Manic Nirvana" album.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I always wanted The Hounds/Divoons do "Nowhere to Run.

Allan R.

buzzbabyjesus said...

If the Rolling Stones were still a band, and had a sense of humor, I'd like to hear this song by Slim Dunlap:

http://alanwalkerart.com/audio/not_yet_aint_no_fair.mp3

Or if Bryan Ferry was still relevant, or got Roxy Music together, his take on this obscure Rosco Gordon tune:

http://alanwalkerart.com/audio/rosco_gordon_little_bit_of_magic.mp3

buzzbabyjesus said...

But since The Rolling Stones can't laugh at themselves, at least they could maybe pull this obscure song by the equally obscure artist Kyf Brewer. It's a terrific pastiche of everything they did right when the rocked. This could be on "Exile".

http://alanwalkerart.com/audio/kyf_brewer_soul_jerky.mp3

Brooklyn Girl said...

I'd like to hear Bruce cover "Dock of the Bay" ---

Anonymous said...

I also caught that appearance of R&L's "Did She Jump...", but it wasn't Revolution, as I don't watch that. I'm thinking maybe it was True Detective, when Hart's wife comes into the bar to see Cohle.

steve simels said...

Yes. True Detective.

Anonymous said...

Tom Jones needs to cover "Dazed and Confused". That is all. Even now he'd kill it, but back in his prime... Of course, Page could play guitar on it...


--nosmo king

Remonster said...

At night when everyone is asleep and only the cat is looking at me, a message, no, a vision not of this world speaks to me. In a voice borrowed from God himself I hear Tiny Time singing The Lemon Song from Led Zeppelin.

Anonymous said...

Don't know why, but for years, every once in awhile, the theme from Green Acres plays in my head, as sung by John Lydon.