While Cover Wars enjoys the end of its summer vacation, we thought it was fitting that we re-ran a Cover Wars post from September 28, 2010 where we looked at seven covers of Neil Young’s Like a Hurricane. Many Northeast residents are still without power or are dealing with other repercussions of Hurricane Irene. We also want to point you in the direction of Dave Matthews’ cover of Like A Hurricane, which he debuted last Friday night.
Like a Hurricane was released on the 1977 Neil Young album American Stars ‘N Bars. Denise Sullivan over at Crawdaddy Magazine does a good job of compiling a few facts and quotes about the origins of Like a Hurricane. The highlights: It’s written about a female that Neil didn’t get to sleep with and he wrote the tune while really high, in more ways than one.
The Contestants:
Adam Sandler: Last year to celebrate their 50th year as a record label, Warner Bros. put out a tribute album with currently signed artists covering classics from the Warner Bros. catalog. In addition to Sandler, The Black Keys, Stardeath & White Dwarfs, and nine other artists contributed tracks. Source: Covered, A Revolution In Sound: Warner Bros. Records
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The studio cut is good and Sandler did a great job on Letterman as well:
READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
Pattie Boyd man. How could one woman be the inspiration for so many epic rock songs? We’re talking Bell Bottom Blues (Cover Wars), Wonderful Tonight, Something, and believe it or not – a few others as well. Layla was released in 1970 by Derek & The Dominos on their incredible LP Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs. In 1992, Clapton rearranged the tune for MTV Unplugged and took home the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. And it keeps going from there, one of Clapton’s arrangements is just a couple of days old, at the bottom of this Cover Wars you’ll see some videos from April 9th’s performance at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis. And, if you haven’t seen Goodfellas, well. . .
The Contestants:
Duane Allman died less than a year after he lent his legendary slide guitar skills to the original Derek & The Dominos studio take. Thirty-three years after its release, The Allman Brothers Band started covering the song, a nod that some attributed as a tribute to both Duane and the producer of the original record Tom Dowd, who died months before the Allman’s debuted it. Guitarist Warren Haynes handles the vocals. Audio Source: 9-25-2004
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Video from 2003:
READ ON for more covers of Layla from the likes of The Charlie Daniels Band, Derek Trucks, Phish, Umphrey’s McGee and Herbie Mann…
With its five famous verses and a chorus that just begs to be sung along to, The Weight is one of the best known songs by The Band and was released on their 1968 debut album Music From Big Pink. For all the information you ever could possibly want to know, check out this link.
The Contestants:
Artist: Aretha Franklin Album: Soul Folk in Action The Skinny: Leading off this week is definitely one of the best covers of The Weight and the first of this week’s contestants to feature the late Duane Allman on guitar. Also the first of a few really incredible soul/gospel arrangements.
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READ ON for more covers of The Weight by The Band…
Considering this week’s song, Walking the Cow, was first released via a 1983 self recorded cassette tape, made in the home of Daniel Johnston, the covers sound quite different from the original. Johnston’s take from his album Hi, How Are You is a poignantly simple and honest delivery from the Austin, Texas mainstay whose well documented mental illness has both informed and hampered his creative output. His influence on recent artists from the Seattle grunge movement to the current wave of independent bands is undeniable evidenced by two of the contenders coming from tribute albums featuring impressive lineups of inspired musicians. For a true appreciation of the song and the covers start with the original recording by Johnston.
The Contestants:
Artist: fIREHOSE Album: Flyin’ The Flannel The Skinny: Bassist Mike Watt’s snapping notes punctuate this mellowed out version and only cover on their 1991 album. The California band puts just a touch of country twang on the Texan tune.
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READ ON for more covers of Daniel Johnston’s Walking The Cow…
Hey everybody, DaveO here – over the next few weeks I am turning Cover Wars over to some of the other Hidden Track contributors to change things up a bit. Please welcome, Andy Kahn.
Lefty Frizzell first recorded and released this haunting ballad in 1959. Written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin, it’s a first person, from the grave account of a man wrongly sentenced to death for a murder he didn’t commit. However, he’s unable to provide an alibi because that would reveal at the time in question he was sleeping with his best friend’s wife. The wife often goes to the narrator’s gravesite wearing the long black veil and mourning the secret that led to his execution. Since Frizzell’s original release plenty of other artists have tackled this heart-string-pulling ballad. A good lot of them are up for consideration below, but let me know in the comments if I missed your fav.
The Contestants:
Dave Matthews: Those not steeped in the earlier folk stylings of the song might be most familiar with one of Dave Matthews’ performances. A staple of the Dave Matthews Band repertoire for years now, having first appeared on the 1999 live album Listener Supported, Matthews has also played duets with Warren Haynes, Tim Reynolds and as part of a tribute to Johnny Cash with Emmylou Harris.
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READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
[Originally Published: 7/1/08] In celebration of our Independence Day I have selected the Star Spangled Banner as our cover of choice this week. Those not familiar with the history of our nation’s National Anthem should click the link above and learn how a poem from 1814 was set to the tune of a popular drinking song and became our Nation’s #1 theme song.
I’m not going to have a vote this week (wouldn’t everyone vote for Hendrix?), so I guess this is more of a B List than a Cover Wars. There have been a lot of amazing performances of the Star Spangled Banner and I have compiled a variety of videos selecting some of my favorites (while giving preferential treatment to the artists most frequently covered here on Hidden Track) but also including a few mainstream artists as well.
Marvin Gaye (1983 NBA All Star Game):
READ ON after the jump for many more performances of the Anthem….
Some of the best Cover Wars are Bob Dylan tunes, one of my personal favorites was The Wicked Messenger. Released on the 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home, mystery has always surrounded the identity of Baby Blue. It’s been recorded a lot, we’ll cap it at eight renditions – have a listen.
The Contestants:
Artist: The 13th Floor Elevators Album: Easter Everywhere The Skinny: Leading off this week is the band situated in between 10,000 Maniacs and 10-20s in my iTunes collection and their psychedelic interpretation from a critically acclaimed studio album from 1967.
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READ ON for more covers of Bob Dylan’s It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
Harvest Moon is the title track from a 1992 Neil Young album. Released a full twenty years after Young’s album Harvest, a number of supporting musicians appear on both albums. Many things can influence my choice of songs for Cover Wars each week and one of them is other music blogs.
Snarky Indie Blog Pitchfork had a post last Thursday where they pointed out that both Kevin Barnes and Ben Gibbard had both contributed covers of Harvest Moon for charity releases. P4K theorized…
Neil Young: Having a moment! One possible explanation for the two simultaneous covers: The recent release of Young’s archival live album Dreamin’ Man, which collects live versions of every song from Young’s Harvest Moon album.
Well if they checked YouTube, they would have realized that both artists performed the song 3+ years ago. Pitchfork, I give you a 3.6 for doing your Internet research.
The Contestants:
Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie): As was mentioned in the intro, Gibbard recently contributed a cover of Harvest Moon to GIVE Seattle 2009. Proceeds from this compilation go to Food Banks and Art Corps in Seattle. Gibbard performed this tune frequently on his 2007 solo tour.
Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, off his 1984 album Various Positions, is one of those songs that seems ubiquitous but the original version rarely heard. The song plays out as an epic saga and has a seemingly endless supply of lyrics that never drag on if delivered properly. It’s been covered nearly as many times as there are verses. Countless times it’s appeared on soundtracks to films and television shows as a poignant backdrop to directors’ attempts at tugging on heartstrings. While what follows are each great renditions, I implore you to start with the original done by a maestro and true craftsman of song.
The Contestants:
Jeff Buckley: Buckley’s hauntingly dramatic version from his 1994 debut Grace is the best known cover of Hallelujah. It’s one of the best known covers of any song ever. Many people who love the Buckley version have no idea Cohen was the originator – I know I’ve met more than a few.
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READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
No Quarter appears on the 1973 Led Zeppelin album Houses Of The Holy. Clocking in at 7:00, the title is a reference to showing no clemency or mercy for your opponent.
The Contestants:
Artist: The Brew Live Show: 7-16-2010 The Skinny: Leading off this week is a fantastic recording fro The Brew recorded live at Showcase Live in Foxboro, MA.
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READ ON for more covers of Led Zeppelin’s No Quarter…
We don’t do a lot of Cover Wars features of songs originally sung by female lead singers, we’ll have to change that starting this week with Landslide, a track from the 1975 self-titled Fleetwood Mac album. I’d tell you more about the song, but you should just hear it straight from Stevie Nicks, you’ll get a guest appearance from her in the second video featured in the “Glee” entry.
The Dixie Chicks recorded this cover in 2002 on their album Home and the deluxe edition also features a Sheryl Crow remix.
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READ ON for more covers of Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide…
I was watching Allen Toussaint’s recording of Austin City Limits and before playing Get Out My Life Woman, Toussaint says,
“This song coming up is a song that I wrote for brother Lee Dorsey many years ago but it was really made popular by another great person, but it’s my most covered song of all songs I’ve written – I’m not sure why…..because ten minutes after I wrote it, I was quite confused.”
And I…I just don’t know what cover he is referring to. It’s been covered by so many major artists, as you’re about to see. I normally like to cap Cover Wars at ten renditions but somehow we ended up with 12 this time around, and that was excluding some legendary takes from the likes of Joe Williams and Jimi Hendrix.
The Contestants:
Artist: Ant Trip Ceremony Album: 24 Hours The Skinny: Chances are, if you aren’t familiar with a lot of random psychedelic bands from the 1960′s, you may not have heard of Ant Trip Ceremony, a band formed at Oberlin College with just this one album. In addition to the originals on their 1968 release are this cover and one of Hey Joe.
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READ ON for more covers of Allen Toussaint’s Get Out My Life Woman…
Two weeks ago we announced on Twitter – and also right here on HT – that we were taking suggestions for future editions of Cover Wars. Last week, we took the lead from ChefRobD’s suggestion and examined five covers of The Crunge by Led Zeppelin. This week, we took the request of DrewPeiner and are looking at covers of Fame by David Bowie. Written by Bowie with a little help from John Lennon, it was released on the 1975 album Young Americans.
The Contestants:
Artist: Addison Groove Project Album: 4-24-2004 The Skinny: Leading off this week’s edition is a cover of Fame from Addison Groove Project, a band that is unfortunately no longer on the road. This recording is from their first-ever trip to San Francisco back in 2004.
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Well you asked for it. Last week we announced on Twitter – and also right here on HT – that we were taking suggestions for this weeks Cover Wars and we are men and women of our words. We went with ChefRobD’s suggestion to take a look at covers of The Crunge by Led Zeppelin.
The Crunge was released in 1973 on Houses Of The Holy and combines odd-time signatures with a James Brown-esque funk riff, a pairing that as it turns out is a match made in heaven.
For those of you who sent in suggestions that were not selected, hang tight because we are already working on next week’s edition which also was a suggestion gathered from Twitter feedback.
The Contestants:
Artist: Bustle In Your Hedgerow Live Show: 2009-01-17 The Skinny: Marco Benevento and Joe Russo of the Benevento/Russo Duo plus Dave Dreiwitz of Ween and Scott Metzger of Rana make up this instrumental Led Zeppelin tribute band. This performance of Crunge is lifted out of a three song medley from this 2009 show where Crunge was sandwiched between Trampled Under Foot and How Many More Times. I’ve left a little of the audio of both of the songs in for context, but to hear the entire segment you should click on over to the full show at the Live Music Archive.
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READ ON for more covers of The Crunge from the likes of Gov’t Mule…
There have been a number of legendary singer/songwriters that have covered Neil Young’s Heart of Gold over the years such as Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, but it’s pretty safe to say we’ll never see Bob Dylan taking a pass at it. In a 1985 interview with Spin Magazine Dylan explained his annoyance with Heart of Gold…
The only time it bothered me that someone sounded like me was when I was living in Phoenix, Arizona, in about ’72 and the big song at the time was “Heart of Gold.” I used to hate it when it came on the radio. I always liked Neil Young, but it bothered me every time I listened to “Heart of Gold.” I think it was up at number one for a long time, and I’d say, “Shit, that’s me. If it sounds like me, it should as well be me.”
Honestly, I don’t hear it all that much. Does Bob Dylan have a trademark on acoustic guitar and harmonica or something? Anyways, we have a diverse set of covers this week, some from the world of soul music while others are more straight ahead. Have a listen and don’t forget to vote for your favorite.
The Contestants:
While not officially released on an album, The Bad Plus have a fantastic arrangement of Heart of Gold that they play live. Audio Source: 7-26-2009
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