I'm kind of a sucker for cover songs. There are songs I hate in their original version, that I love as a cover song - and of course, there are approximately four hundred million examples of the reverse, because, you know, bar bands. Wedding bands. Bad tribute bands. Shit, GOOD tribute bands. I'm just saying.
But still, I'm a sucker, like I said. So here is a totally bizarre collection of some of my favorite cover songs, from the "Just Covers" playlist on my iPod. I mean, this is just the tip of the iceberg, and I haven't actually refined this into a top ten or anything. I did skip multiple tracks by the same artist, but otherwise this is the first ten I got when I shuffled the covers playlist.
Ten Random Cover Songs from my iPod:
1.
Gloria by Patti Smith
She is as a god to me. This is why. Well, this and all her other music. But seriously... what she does with this song is almost impossible, and quite possibly illegal in South Dakota. "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine."
2.
Where the Streets Have No Name/Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You by the Pet Shop Boys
OK, so.... the Pet Shop Boys' "You Were Always On My Mind" routinely makes it onto "Ten Best Covers of all Time" lists, and it's good, it's really good. But I like this one better, a strange electro-dance version of the U2 classic mixed up with the old 60s pop hit. I've heard Bono really liked this, and so do I.
3.
Lola by The Raincoats
Genderfuck to the nth degree. You can take the girl out of punk but you can never really get the punk out of the girl.
4.
Sisters of Mercy by Sting and the Chieftans
This is from a tribute to Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen called
Tower of Song. This, and Peter Gabriel's cover of "Suzanne," are the standout tracks, but it's all good.
5.
Helpless by kd lang
It was this or her cover of "What's New, Pussycat," but I went with this even though it was a big hit and you probably already heard it. But covers don't get any better than this, a great Neil Young original, a great cover, and one of the greatest voices ever. Her entire album of covers of songs by Canadian artists,
Hymns of the 49th Parallel, is the only kd lang album I really like. Although if I weren't doing this randomly, but had been able to go in and pick and choose, Roxy Music's version of Young's "Like a Hurricane" would have been here instead.
6.
Take Me to the River by Talking Heads
I've seen this once or twice on "Top Ten Cover Songs" lists and I don't know why it's not on all of them. It's scorching.
7.
Hurt by Johnny Cash
I don't know, I was scarred for life by his cover of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus," although I love the Marilyn Manson version, but this cover of Nine Inch Nail's "Hurt" is devastating. In a good, someone please just leave me here in a darkened room in a fetal position sucking my thumb kind of way.
8.
I Fought the Law and the Law Won by the Clash
Yeah, here's that 80s thing again. I can't help when I was born. I can't help loving the Clash. I can't help it that I ummmm kind of put this song on continuous replay while I clean the house sometimes.
9.
Man in Black by Marc Almond
This is on a UK compilation for an AIDS organization called the Terrence Higgins Trust. It's a tribute album to Johnny Cash called
'Til Things Are Brighter, and it features a huge number of really good and really strange things, of which in my opinion, this is the best. If you can find it on Ebay or somewhere, you should get it. Other artists include Michelle Shocked singing "One Piece at a Time," Cathal Coughlan doing a kick-ass cover of "Ring of Fire," the Mekons' version of "Folsom Prison Blues," Tracey and Melissa Beehive's deadpan "Five Feet High and Risin'," and I don't know, it just gets better and weirder all the time.
10.
Everytime We Say Goodbye by Annie Lennox
From the original
Red, Hot, and Blue compilation, a tribute to the songs of Cole Porter and also an AIDS benefit album and video. (It was recently re-released on CD and DVD.) It's full of good stuff ... the video for Debbie Harry and Iggy Pop's version of "Well, Did You Evah!" is worth the price of admission alone ... but Annie Lennox's "Everytime We Say Goodbye" is particularly gripping. The video for this track was supposed to be directed by British filmmaker Derek Jarman, who was at the last minute unable to do it because he was dying of AIDS. Lennox chose to film it standing in front of a blank screen with home movies of Jarman's childhood being projected on her face. "Every time we say goodbye, I die a little."
Someone better post some thrashy hard assed cover songs now, because I am such a fucking girl sometimes.