From the 2006 MOJO sampler The Modern Genius of Ray Davies, please enjoy World's Greatest Living Power Pop Band Fountains of Wayne and their absolutely astonishing cover of The Kinks' deliberately retro 1981 single "Better Things."
Apparently, FOW recorded this for a 2002 Ray Davies tribute album, which I also missed somehow. In any case, as much as I love the Kinks original, I have to concede this improves on it, if only in terms of the energy level.
And in any case, a coveted PowerPop No-Prize will be awarded to the first reader who gleans the track's relevance to the theme of tomorrow's Weekend Listomania.
16 comments:
Great version! Wikipedia says the tribute thing was put out by Mojo - maybe as part of the magazine?
BTW, my favorite tune off that "Give the People What They Want" elpee is "Yo Yo" - just don't hear it enough!
Sorry about the Mojo thing - got that from the Dept. of Redundancy Dept...
Cover versions better then the original.
Sorry Steve, in my opinion the original is more then a bit better. More energy doesn't necessarily equate to better quality. I just don't feel the FOW version.
ROTP(lumber)
Have to second ROTP. How I love FOW, but was crushed when I first heard this cover, which feels like the band had never heard the song before recording it. Though it is worlds ahead of the Ray and Bruce duet, which should have been amazing.
My guess, if "Better Things" is the clue:
"Songs About The Past"
No, no, no, and no.
But who's counting?
:-)
Favorite Adam Schlesinger-involved tunes that are *not* Fountains of Wayne tunes?
(Admittedly, I can only think of "that thing you do", the *great* song on the few-years-back America album and his great work with IVY, but there are probably others out there...)
FOW does a killer version of the Moody's "Story in Your Eyes."
Songs that would make great TV themes?
I got nothin
Songs about things?
Tasty! I can understand the critique as Chris takes some time to get his vocal up to speed to my ears.
But on to the task:
Best songs you did not know about for at least a decade before you heard them.
Trey - who does not care how convoluted and impractical his guess is
Songs that are deliberately retro?
i saw a one-off show last month in philly combining jim boggia with pete donnelly and terry adams of NRBQ and they did this song
Good, better, or best in the song title?
I thought of potential TV themes, too. Short of that, I'm going to go with Best or Worst Covers of Pop Classics.
So wait. You're telling us that all these years you've been making up the answer AFTER we submit suggestions? Like Schroddingers Cat for Pop Blogs?
I like both versions, but I have to give a slight nod to FOW (even though I'm not a huge FOW fan).
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