Cover Versions - Your Source for Insanity

[angelophile]

I was stuck at work today and kicked up Spotify to mix up my background music again. I'd forgotten until then about the playlist of cover versions that I contributed to that Torchwood writer James Moran had set up on there. It made for fun listening while I was working.

I love cover versions. From the bonkers to the brilliant, there's just something about hearing an artist take someone else's work and mix it up a little. I can't bear the cover versions that are pretty much chord for chord identical to the original. I want insanity or uniqueness.

So, I present a collection of some of my favourites. From the sublime to the ridiculous.

Under the cut, unique takes on Pulp, Queens of the Stone Age, The Beatles, The Killers, The Smiths, Nirvana and others…


First up:

The Fall: Lost in Music (Sister Sledge cover)

John Peel's favorite band, The Fall, take on this disco anthem and turn it into a drunken, staggering, Mancunian gem of pure brilliant oddity.

Divine Comedy - No-one Knows (Queens of the Stone Age cover)

I love Neil Hannon. If Bertolt Brecht and Noel Coward had got drunk one night and conceived a love child, it would be him. As demonstrated here.

Nick Cave - Disco 2000 (Pulp cover)

Nick Cave's first appearance on this list and the first of two Pulp covers. Here he does something strange and unnatural to Disco 2000.

Paul Anka - Mr. Brightside (The Killers cover)

When I first heard this track by The Killers, I just knew it was crying out to be turned into a big band number by a classic crooner. Oh yes.

The Gourds - Gin and Juice (Snoop Doggy Dogg cover)

It's a bluegrass version of Snoop Dogg. Need I say more?

Carter USM - Panic (The Smiths cover)

The "punk Pet Shop Boys" dig out the drum machine and the punk sensibilities for one of many covers they did for their B-sides.

Ben Folds - Bitches Ain't Shit (Dr Dre)

Ben Folds turns Dr. Dre's obscenity laden rap into something strangely touching. Somehow. It's still offensive though.

Sex Pistols - No Fun (The Stooges)

Only Johnny Rotten could take Iggy and The Stooges snarling, strutting classic and make it sound even more furious and hate-filled. Sublime.

Jake Shimabukuro – While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles cover)

Re-titled "While My Ukulele Gently Weeps". For obvious reasons.

Tori Amos - Raining Blood (Slayer cover)

A thrash metal anthem and… I don't even know what happens here.

David Bowie - Baal's Hymn (Bertolt Brecht cover)

From a 1982 BBC production of German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht's first play comes David Bowie's version. Suitably odd.

Lily Allen - Straight to Hell (The Clash cover)

Joe Strummer's goddaughter Lily Allen teams up with Mick Jones to take the Clash's seminal track and turn it into something rather poppy and jolly.

William Shatner and Joe Jackson – Common People (Pulp cover)

No list of cover versions would be complete without Shatner popping up somewhere, would it? And this is a genuinely surreal cover version.

Muse – Feeling Good (Nina Simone cover)

Gloriously overblown. Every bugger who thinks they have a powerful voice has had a go at this at some point or another and on paper, this version from Radiohead-lite Muse shouldn't work. But it does.

Marillion – Toxic (Britney Spears cover)

Pretentious Scottish prog-rockers cover Britney Spears. Film at eleven.

Johnny Cash – Heart of Gold (Neil Young cover)

Johnny did a bunch of covers in his last few years and this is one of the most overlooked. His vocals are hugely different from Young's, but, somehow, for me it works.

Manic Street Preachers – Umbrella (Rhianna cover)

I imagine somewhere Richey's rapidly spinning in his grave. If he's dead, of course.

The Flying Pickets – Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana cover)

It's the a cappella version of the grunge classic. Sometimes something's so obviously mad as to be genius. This is one of those times.

Polyphonic Spree - Lithium (Nirvana cover)

And another Nirvana track. With bonus sock puppets.

(The actual official video is wonderfully bonkers too. Featuring Jesus for the harp solo.

The Apples – Killing In The Name Of (Rage Against The Machine cover)

You know what the original Rage song needed? A horn section. Thankfully this cover version rectifies that oversight.

Nick Cave – Tower of Song (Leonard Cohen cover)

And finally, the mother of them all. Nick Cave covers Leonard Cohen's Tower of Song. For half an hour. Yeah, it's a 30 minutes freeform Leonard Cohen cover version jam, folks. Insane.