The Bridge once again had a strong showing and walked away as the sole victors of last week’s edition when we looked at eight covers of Them Changes. The Bridge should be thankful for their energetic fans on their message board that helped drive up the number as the week went on to push past 2nd place PBS. The Bridge hits the road again on October 14.
Moving on to this week, we’re going to take a look at the first track on Paul Simon’s legendary 1986 release Graceland. We’ve got a wide variety of performances this week: Solo acoustic, bluegrass, bands that have covered the whole album, studio renditions by punk-rock legends, the works!
As always, be sure to register/login to IMEEM before starting the playlist below to ensure you are listening to full-length clips.
I’m going to go ahead and declare a tie from our edition two weeks ago with The Bridge and Mr. Blotto refusing to quit as the votes go higher and higher - so we’ll call them both winners from when we looked at covers of Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys. Last week’s however has a clear winner, no big surprise here as Jerry Garcia & David Grisman received the majority of votes when we examined covers of Sitting In Limbo.
This week, we look at the title track off of a Buddy Miles album from 1970: Them Changes. While not as well known as the version on Band Of Gypsies, the studio cut features a funky groove with a horn section whereas the live Hendrix cut is more of your straight power-trio rocker. What’s great about this week’s Cover Wars is that we’ve got some bands with horns that play the lines from the studio recording and some guitar bands that are a little closer to the version most people know. Lots of good guitar work this week.
As always, please register/login to IMEEM to listen to full-length clips in the playlist below.
We do not as of now have a winner to report from last week when we looked at six covers of Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys. At the time of publishing this post, The Bridge & Mr. Blotto are literally tied, so if you haven’t already: Go listen and place your vote.
This week’s song, originally by Jimmy Cliff, first appeared on the 1971 album Another Cycle but is more well known for its inclusion on the 1972 The Harder They Come soundtrack which was produced and compiled by Cliff.
Be sure to register/login to IMEEM so the playlist below loads full-length tracks.
We’re happy that the winners of Cover Wars are continuing to diversify. For a while, a few usual suspects were consistently walking away victorious from this weekly feature. But we saw Martin Sexton earn the most votes two weeks ago when we looked at covers of Wind Cries Mary, and the winner of last week’s Doobie Brothers Edition is none other than Dolly Parton!
Traffic - Santa Monica, CA (1972):
This week we are taking a look at the title track of Traffic’s 1971 album Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys. The song structure and shear length of the tune makes it quite conducive for an interesting Cover Wars.
As always, be sure to register/login to imeem to ensure that you will be hearing full-length tracks and not snippets.
I’m happy to report we have a first-time winner (actually it was his first entry too) to last week’s edition when we looked at nine covers of Wind Cries Mary. The winning artist: Martin Sexton.
Moving on to this week, we’re doing an artist’s version of Cover Wars where we take a look at multiple songs by the same artist, and this week we’re tackling the Doobie’s. Happened to be a fantastic coincidence that Wade just today alerted me that the folks that created Yacht Rock will be posting up in New York this Sunday. If you’re not familiar with Yacht Rock, here is episode #1:
As always, be sure to register/login to IMEEM before starting the playlist below to ensure that you are streaming full-length tracks.
READ ON after the jump to vote for which doobiest cover be grooviest…
Last week’s Radiohead Cover Wars was one of the most popular to date. Eleven of the 16 artists received votes, but Gov’t Mule by a large margin received the most for their renditions of Lucky and Creep. In 2nd place was the Benevento Russo Duo and their four contributions. It was a fun one to put together.
This week, I take a look at another Jimi Hendrix classic that has been performed by an interesting collection of artists. I believe this edition features more pop artists than any of my prior pieces. A few solo performances and a couple of very original arrangements of this 1967 single from Jimi are below.
As always, be sure to register/login to IMEEM so the playlist below loads full-length clips and not 30-second snippets.
READ ON for the tale of the tape on this week’s competitors…
Checking on last week’s edition, we had two popular choices for covers of Bell Bottom Blues. Once the votes were counted, Trey Anastasio had a slight edge over Umphrey’s McGee - so Trey takes home his first Cover Wars trophy sans Phish.
This week we’re taking on one of the most ambitious Cover Wars to date. We’ve compiled the most entries we’ve ever had as we take a look at covers of Radiohead’s catalog. Musicians in the 21st century seem to be more reluctant to cover other modern artists than bands were say 30-50 years ago. However, a few artists can be influential enough that bands just can’t help themselves. We saw a little bit of this in the Nirvana Cover Wars as jambands, jazz acts and pop artists paid tribute to the grunge era. We have a similar cross-section of artists this week as well, the contemporary jazz guys love Radiohead.
As always, be sure to register/login to IMEEM so the playlist below loads full-length tracks.
Be sure to READ ON after the jump as some of the best covers this week are embedded via video clips and are not included in the playlist above.
Looking back at last week’s Spanish Moon edition, Gov’t Mule has walked away with a narrow victory over Robert Palmer. In what was surely a coincidence: A day after last week’s Cover Wars, Mike Gordon welcomed one of last week’s contenders The Bridge to the stage during his encore at The Highline Ballroom for - you guessed it, Spanish Moon. Thanks for reading Cover Wars, Cactus!
This week, I have selected a track off of Derek & The Dominos 1970 release Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. If you don’t already know about Eric Clapton in the early 70’s, let’s just say it’s safe to assume the original recording was probably captured while Slowhand lay on the ground really high on heroin…and trying to steal away George Harrison’s wife.
As always, be sure to register/login to IMEEM so you hear entire songs and not just 30-second clips.
READ ON after the jump for the voting, some videos and more…
Normally, Phish has no problem winning an edition of Cover Wars regardless of their performance of the song in question. But the hardcore fans of Bonerama (can I call you people Boneheads?) made their virtual voices heard and their band has walked away victorious from last week’s Frankenstein Cover Wars.
This week’s selection was inspired by flipping through my RSS feed of shows added to bt.etree.org on Monday. I saw two sources of the Gov’t Mule’s show from 8-8-2008 get posted and I thought - hey, Spanish Moon could be a great Cover Wars to throw together. Written by Lowell George, Spanish Moon was first released on Little Feat’s fourth studio album Feats Don’t Fail Me Now. It would appear again four years later on the band’s first live recording Waiting For Columbus. Both recordings feature the Tower Of Power Horn Section.
We use imeem to embed these playlists, so be sure to register or login to hear the tracks in their entirety.
READ ON after the jump to see your options and cast your vote…
If you’re paying really close attention, you know I had a good weekend when Cover Wars doesn’t make it onto the blog on Tuesday. Well yeah, my car may still smell like wet festival, but the trip that brought me to two ports (Newport for the Folk Festival and Bridgeport for Gathering Of The Vibes) was totally worth it. Following up from last week, PBS has walked away as the clear winner of the Spanish Castle Magic edition.
“Everyone knows rock n’ roll attained perfection in 1974; It’s a scientific fact”. This is according to Homer Simpson in the episode Homerpalooza, where he is questioning the need for “new bands” as he has realized he is out of touch with the music of the young people. Frankenstein was actually released in 1973, though Homer may have been referring to a specific experience WITH the song and not just the song’s release. The song titled originally titled “Double Drum Solo”, the Edgar Winter Group renamed the tune Frankenstein in reference to the fact that it had been spliced together from numerous separate recordings. The result? One of the most bad-ass rock instrumentals ever written.
You gotta register/login to IMEEM to listen to the songs below in their entirety:
READ ON after the jump for some versions not included in the playlist, voting, info on each version and much much more of the original Cover Wars…
