Cover of a Cover Song

[JustJon]

I was thinking about a song and how it was a cover of someone else's version of a song and was wondering if other people could come up with other examples.

The one I thought of:
Gary Neuman (famous for the song "Cars") did a song called "Down in the Park" that Marilyn Manson covered as a b-side. Manson changed the lyric "I was in a plane crash or was it the war" to "I was in a car crash or was it the war."

The Foo Fighters later covered and released "Down In The Park" as a single, but used the car lyric, hence covering Manson's version.

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[Freakshow]

I have something that's not quite the same thing, but is similar. I was over in Australia in '99. There was a crappy cover band at a pub we used to visit just about every week. The band would play all the crap that was popular at that time (KoRn, Blink182, The Offspring). The band would also played Tainted Love, which just didn't fit with everything else they played. I temporarily had respect for the band until I found out The Living End (an awesome Aussie punkabilly band, btw) covered Soft Cell's version and the band was actually covering that.

Of course I did some research a while ago and discovered that Tainted Love was actually a song from the sixties, and that Soft Cell was doing a cover of it.



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[Alice S. Fuzzybutt]

Last week I saw commercials for a tribute show for Johnny Cash. There were clips of various artists covering Johnny Cash tunes. I thought it was kind of odd that Sheryl Crow covered, "Hurt" considering it's a cover.

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This message was edited by Alice S. Fuzzybutt on 11-19-03 @ 4:01 PM

[Wormwood]

The one I thought of:
Gary Neuman (famous for the song "Cars") did a song called "Down in the Park" that Marilyn Manson covered as a b-side. Manson changed the lyric "I was in a plane crash or was it the war" to "I was in a car crash or was it the war."


I think your wrong. Gary Numan's original lyric was "I was in a car crash or was it the war", he got the line from a William S. Burroughs book called "The Exterminator"


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This message was edited by Wormwood on 11-19-03 @ 4:03 PM

[DarkHippie]

Off the top of my head I can think of one artist doing this twice:

Steve Earle recorded a cover of "dead flowers", but he covered the Townes van Zant version.

He aslo covered "What's so funny bout peace love and understanding" by Nick Lowe, but he did it in the Elvis Costello style.

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[Wormwood]

Now that I think about it, maybe Burroughs wrote I was in a plane crash or was it the war"

I know for sure though that on my Gary Numan "Remodulate" CD he clearly says 'car'

Either way its cool to meet somone who appreciates the other songs he wrote.

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[high fly]

Then there was the Cowboy Junkies version of "Sweet Jane".
It was not a cover of the more familiar versions on Loaded or Rock and Roll Animal, but the one on 1969 Live Velvet Underground With Lou Reed, which is actually the original version of the song.
Reed wrote the song during that tour and played it live before getting to the studio and recording it for Loaded.
1969 Live came out about 4 years later and didn't sell well. It has different lyrics and the Cowboy Junkies covered it note for note.

" and they ask me why I drink"

This message was edited by high fly on 11-19-03 @ 5:43 PM

[TheGameHHH]

I'm not sure if this fits into the mold you're looking for Jon but I know one of the song's that Dave Matthews loves to play is "All Along the Watchtower" (and for all intents and purposes its a well played song by them) but I know that both Hendrix and Dylan did the song before Dave. Does that count?


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[shamus mcfitzy]

i guess this technically counts. NOFX covered Don McClean's "Vincent", but did a version that cut out a verse that was done by another puck band of which i forget the name.

[mikeyboy]

The December issue of Uncut magazine features 2 CDs of bands covering Clash songs. One of the songs covered is "I Fought the Law" (can't remember the name of the group covering it).

The Clash actually covered that song, and the original version (or at least best known "older" version) is by the Bobby Fuller 4. The band on the Clash cover CD is clearly coveing the Clash version.

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[The Chairman]

Great topic.

I guess we can go a lot of ways here. You can look at it as what songs do we know that we think of the cover version before the original? Or how an artist took a cover and made it their own? Or perhaps covers which might be more known than the original version?

I can think of a lot but I'm not going to bum rush. So I'll throw in a few that immediately come to mind before posting what I think is the best example in answer to Jon's query.

I Shot The Sheriff (Marley, Clapton)
Get Ready (Temptations, Rare Earth)
Knockin' On Heaven's Door (lots)
Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen/Jeff Buckley)
Because the Night (Bruce/Patti Smith)
Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics, Marilyn Manson, Nas)
Tambourine Man (Dylan, Byrds)
Louie Louie (Kingsmen, Black Flag)

that's all for now....





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[Alice S. Fuzzybutt]

Because the Night (Bruce/Patti Smith)


And Natalie Merchant. Thanks for reminding me!

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[A.J.]

I'm not sure if this fits into the mold you're looking for Jon but I know one of the song's that Dave Matthews loves to play is "All Along the Watchtower" (and for all intents and purposes its a well played song by them) but I know that both Hendrix and Dylan did the song before Dave.


And so did U2.

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[Freakshow]

How about the song Summertime Blues by Eddie Cochrane?

Besides the original, there is the version by the Who, and the version by Blue Cheer which may have preceded the Who's version (this was 10 years before I was born, so i'm not exactly sure). Allmusic.com also lists versions by the Beach Boys, Alex Chilton, Joan Jett, Brian Setzer (and also the Stray Cats), T-Rex, Van Halen and many, many others.



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[JustJon]

guess we can go a lot of ways here. You can look at it as what songs do we know that we think of the cover version before the original? Or how an artist took a cover and made it their own? Or perhaps covers which might be more known than the original version?

I was going with a band doing a cover of a song that was previously covered, but the 2nd cover is obviously based off the 1st cover because of something that the 1st cover did that is copied in the 2nd cover that isn't in the original song.

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[The Chairman]

I was going with a band doing a cover of a song that was previously covered, but the 2nd cover is obviously based off the 1st cover because of something that the 1st cover did that is copied in the 2nd cover that isn't in the original song.

Dude, is this what it's like to read my posts?



So like would this be an example?

GnR "Used to Love Her" covered by L7 who changed it to "Used to Love Him", covered subsequently by the Lunachicks who used "Used to Love Him", but also added..."but I had to kill Him as well as a few other people" and then covered by the handcore band The Green River Killers who used the line "them..but I had to kill many many of them" which was just covered by 50 Cent who's cover says "but I had to kill all dem bitches and ho's"?


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[JustJon]

yeah, that would work, Chairman. But don't worry, because if you had written the post, it would have been a page instead of a paragraph.

Was the Numan/Manson/Foo example too dense?

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