Old, obscure or favorite songs you'd like to hear major artists cover

[BurtWorm]

I've been listening to Captain Beefheart lately, and I've been thinking a few songs on his first album, Safe as Milk, would make for great covers today. You probably have to know CB or that album to appreciate this, so I'll try to think of another better known song for someone to cover, too.



Yellow Brick Road: Tom Petty

Zig Zag Wanderer: R.E.M.

Dropout Boogie: Marilyn Manson

Call On Me: Macy Gray

Abba Zaba: Los Lobos




Okay, here's something more people here might be able to appreciate. I'm ripping this off from a previous thread I started a few weeks ago on an imagined Christmas album: Tom Waits sings "O Holy Night."

[everythingsxen]

1. Fried Neckbones

and Some Homefries: GWAR

[BurtWorm]

2. Tie Me Kangaroo Down Mate, covered by the Vines

[Ellen Forradalom]

13. That's the Rolf Harris song, right?

He performs that song on a Wiggles video (!)

3. are you aware of this album?

excellent covers of Beefheart

http://www.beefheart.com/datharp/albums/related/fastnbulbous.htm

[BurtWorm]

8. I was aware of it. Haven't heard it, though.

I'm curious about how Sonic Youth handles Electricity, so to speak. Have you heard it?

9. I've got it on vinyl

Sonic Youth handles electricity quite well. Oh, you meant the song. That too.

XTC's version of Ella Guru is amazing. I'm not sure who's doing the vocals, but they do a spot on imitation of the Captain. You can't tell it's XTC really but you kind of can tell too, if that makes any sense. Kind of like you can't tell but then when you stop to think about it you realize that XTC is one of the few bands that it could be.

[BurtWorm]

10. I think I know what you mean.

:crazy:

[BOSSHOG]

4. "I dont' know why I Love You"

Stevie Wonder, 1966. Love to hear Michael Mcdonald do that one.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. Yes's "Parallels" -- by Madonna!

A great song Yes, for some reason, played in a sucky way in "Going For The One". I think it would kick extreme ass.

Edit: typo

[Loonman]

6. Mr. Greenjeans covers "Thunder Road"

Greenjeans plays Springsteen.

[Loonman]

7. Serious one: Gary Numan covers "Unmarked Helicopters"

By Soul Coughing

[ldoolin]

11. Some good ones...

I've always thought Johnny Cash (RIP) doing a cover of Kansas' "Questions Of My Childhood" would have been cool.

Somebody - anybody - should release an updated cover of Heaven 17's "We Don't Need This Fascist Groove Thang" in time for the 2004 elections.

[Ellen Forradalom]

12. Beware of the Flowers 'Cause I'm Sure They're Gonna Get You Yeah

John Otway tune. Love to hear that one covered.

[leftofthedial]

14. any major artist should cover any song

from my catalog.

If they could do it before Christmas, it would really help me out.

Thanks.

[ThomWV]

15. Pissed on the Pentagon .... Rootboy Slim and the Sex Change Band

Unfortunately deceased.

16. Know Your Rights

by the Clash , performed by that Barbershop Quartet that Ashcroft was a member of.

[geniph]

17. I want Tom Petty to release an album of covers

He does the absolute best versions of classic garage-rock songs - he does a better version of Psychotic Reaction than Count Five.

18. you blaspheme!

[mitchum]

19. Bryan Ferry doing The Manhattans' "Kiss and Say Goodbye"

That would be very good

Ones that would be good in a really horrible way include:
I'd also like to hear Ferry tackle Molly Hatchet's "Flirtin' With Disaster"

Rolling Stones "I'm A Little Teapot"

Lou Reed "Paradise By the Dashboard Light"

Axl Rose "Total Eclipse of the Heart"

[sistersofmercy]

20. Norah Jones do a smoldering jazzy cover of Heart's "Magic Man"

Or any metal band (which I don't listen) do Patsy Cline's "Crazy" would be hilarious.

[rumguy]

21. I'd like to see The White Stripes do a rock version of

any Outkast song, but particularly Ms. Jackson.

[RandomKoolzip]

22. I'd like to hear major artists STOP covering great songs and killing them.

In the last 20 months, quite by accident, I have been overhearring pop radio (definitely not of my own volition!) and have gotten the feeling that the big trendy blockbusters in the music industry are the covers of songs that were fantastic the first time around, and suck city when done by Sixpence None The Richer or whoever.

I have heard useless, needless covers of Dobie Gray's "Drift Away," Joe Jackson's "Is She Really Going Out With Him?," Cat Stevens's "The First Cut is the Deepest," Don HEnley's "The Boys of Summer," Crowded House's "Don't Dream it's Over, " and so on and so on, in the last year or two, and all of them leave me feeling like the only good songs are the old ones....These newer artists don't add anything exciting or surprising to their covers, they just count on an audience grasping at a familiar melody. I wish I wasn't being manipulated. I'd like to think that younger artists are more creative than that.

Okay, having said that, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, a previously average ska-punk band, have put out an AMaZING CD of cover tunes, radically rearranging chestnuts like "Nothing Compares 2u" in fresh ways. But they aren't getting any airplay....Same thing with Cat Power's "Covers Record," which was also pretty damn good.

[BurtWorm]

25. The typical Top 40 cover is of an old Top 40 hit

which is why they're usually so bad. They just want to make money the lazy way. But a good cover is an homage and a take-off. I'd like to see the Captain get a little change for having been such a genius. If a Tom Petty cover of a Beefheart song did well, so would Beefheart. Know what I mean?

[maggrwaggr]

23. Lila Downs singing just about anything

she's fucking awesome

[Susang]

24. Bjork covering "To Sir With Love"

It would be sublime.