Respect For Your Predecessors

I am all about cover songs.  Cover songs are my jam.  I live for them!  I think I might get more excited about a good cover than I do about just a good song.  Covering a song is a skill.  A lot of bands and artists do it and you just want to ask them, “Why didn’t you leave well enough alone.”  I’m talking to you, Britney.  Then there are other artists that do a cover song and you are like, “This is everything I ever wanted in life!”

There are two pieces that make a cover, a great one:

First, the cover needs to be unique in some way.  If the song is performed exactly like its original version, then you might as well just listen to the original.  Marilyn Manson, thou I am biased, is the King of Covers, having accomplished at least 5 successful covers that I know of: “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” “Personal Jesus,” “Tainted Love,” “This is Halloween,” and “You’re So Vain.”  “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” is his best and such a great example of a cover song totally changing the vibe and a style of a song to make it unique.  This song went from a new wave, 80s rhythmic beat to a creepy, listless, Goth anthem. 

Secondly, what makes a great cover is that the cover needs to inspire you to listen to the original.  It needs to respect the version that made it available to be covered in the first place.   Yes, the cover needs to stand on its own, but it also needs to keep enough of the key components to make you want to enjoy the original version.  Disturbed did this really well recently with “Sound of Silence.”  I had their version and the Simon & Garfunkel version on the same playlist for many months, enjoying both and what each brought to the musical table.

I really respect artists that cover songs well because they are branching out of their comfort zone and also asking their fans to do the same.  Hell, my mom loves Marilyn Manson’s version of “Tainted Love.” Who knew!?  Covers bridge the gap between genres, between eras.  Covers are the treaties of the music world; amiability amidst vast differences.

This past week I was in a yoga class, just laying there in Shavasana (you know, the position where the person next to you usually starts snoring), and “Stand By Me” by Florence and the Machine was playing.  It took me a minute to catch on that I knew the lyrics, just not this version, and I couldn’t help but sway a little bit back and forth (but not too much—didn’t want to wake the woman next to me who had indeed, fallen asleep).  This cover rocks and when you get your hands on a really good cover, you kind of wonder how you have been existing all these years NOT listening to it. 

I hope you enjoy this playlist of some of my truly favorite covers.