No big surprise last week that our top two candidates were Phish and Neil Young. Over the weekend Phish pulled ahead as the winner of last week’s edition when we looked at covers of The Beatles’ A Day In The Life.

Check your pulse if this video doesn’t make you smile:

This week we look at Hey Bulldog off The Beatles’ 1969 release, Yellow Submarine. Yes, that’s right, we’re doing Beatles’ tunes in back-to-back weeks. Wanna fight about it? Lennon once described this song as a “good sounding record that means nothing.” While this may be true for parts of the verses, I’ve always loved the line, “Some kind of happiness is measured out in miles. What make you think you’re something special when you smile?” I think it’s funny and a little harsh. Also, one of the best basslines ever. For a boat load of fun info check out the song’s entry at The Beatles Bible.

We’ve got a nice mix of artists this round and I’ll say I was surprised at how many versions of this are out there. Once again, I have left off a number of them that I had found.

As always, be sure to register/login to Imeem before starting the playlist below to ensure you stream full-length clips.

READ ON after the jump for the details on this week’s competitors…

Alice Cooper: Well the album says it’s butchering, but I think it’s pretty damn good. I especially dig their slight re-working of the turnaround involving the line, “If you’re lonely you can talk to me”. Source: Butchering the Beatles: A Headbashing Tribute

Brain Damaged Eggmen: This Umphrey’s McGee/The Disco Biscuits collaboration was the inspiration for this week’s selection. For the group’s fourth ever gig at this month’s Caribbean Holidaze, they continued to put in the extra effort by adding some new tunes from both The Beatles’ and Pink Floyd’s catalog. In addition to this song, the group also played Glass Onion, Mother and Time for the first time. Source: 12-14-2008

Dave Matthews & Friends: Love him or hate him, this tour had some great covers. Though the video below is short, I think it’s great that Dave knows when two guitars (Tim Reynolds and Trey Anastasio) is enough and thus doesn’t even touch his acoustic in the outro. Source: Live at Bonnaroo (6-11-2004)

Caribbean Cruise 2/4/2006

Elvis Costello: I wish I knew where the audio was from but it’s one of these tracks I just found on Imeem and it doesn’t list a date. Anyway, I think Costello’s unique voice lends itself quite well to the lead vocals here. I don’t know about that keyboard interlude…

I’d love to embed a great video of Costello with The Fab Faux, but the user that uploaded it to YouTube has disabled that feature. Click here to launch the video in a new window.

Fanny: Badass. An all-girl band (one of the first really) with a great arrangement from 1972. They change the meanings of a few lines…They sing “I know just what it’s like to listen to my fears” which is in direct contradiction with the original line. They also seem to have written their own third verse and snuck it in there. Source: Fanny Hill

Manfred Mann’s Earth Band: While I don’t think this cover is particularly inspired or interesting, it’s very different and I have included it for diversity. Source: Criminal Tango

Tea Lead Green: It wouldn’t be Cover Wars without a jamband stretching a three-minute tune to eight minutes, right? This is from a performance just a month ago in Stroudsburg, PA. Kids these days… so spoiled with the prompt recordings posted on The Internet I tell ‘ya. Source: 11-14-2008

The conclusion of their encore from 2-16-2008:

Toad The Wet Sprocket: Much like the Elvis Costello version, I think this one is great because lead singer Glen Phillips’ unique sound instantly makes this song their own…well, after a brief false start. Source: 10-6-1997

Ween: As far as I can tell, this is the only recording of Ween playing Hey Bulldog out there. I had to leave a torrent open on The Brown Tracker for two straight days before I could start downloading from the only seeder. Source: 7-26-2006

Luckily, there’s video of the same show (7-26-2006)

And that’s what we’ve got this week. I’ll leave you with the the video clip from Yellow Sumarine:

DaveO

David Onigman is a recent transplant from Boston to San Francisco. In addition to behind the scenes work and the occasional post, DaveO contributes the (almost) weekly Cover Wars column, though he's always looking for guest authors for it.

Website - More Posts