On Your Way Down was originally released on Allen Toussaint’s 1972 album Life, Love and Faith. It’s OK if you thought this was written by Little Feat, because a lot of people do. Little Feat recorded their studio version just months after Toussaint and put it on their record Dixie Chicken.

Cover Wars

The Contestants:

Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint: I’m always torn on whether or not to include tracks like this in Cover Wars. That is, covers that also feature the original recording artist. But in this case, Elvis Costello handles the lead vocal duties for the duration of the song, plus it’s an amazing take – so it would be a shame not to include it. If you’re not familiar with this CD/DVD, it’s amazing – would make a good holiday gift. Source: The River In Reverse

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READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

Gov’t Mule: Though it’s only been played live a few times, Gov’t Mule included a version of this cover on their live DVD The Deepest End. There is also video of that performance on YouTube, but the levels are a bit hot.

Video Of 12-29-2003 with Sonny Landreth on additional guitar:

Little Feat: Nice old Little Feat recording, with a cool little introduction to the tune. As I mentioned in the intro, they definitely have the most well-known cover. Source: 7-19-1973

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Phish: Active in the rotation in the early years (1988 & 89), On Your Way Down disappeared from the stage for over ten years before reappearing for three performances in the 1999 Fall Tour. Since then it has been played two additional times: In Camden 2003 and this past weekend in Albany. Keyboardist Page McConnell handles the lead vocal duties. Source: 11-27-2009

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The Radiators: The Radiators are second only to Little Feat for number of versions of this cover on the Live Music Archive. The Radiators have 25 recordings up there to Little Feat’s 59. Source: 8-20-2004

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Widespread Panic: Either it’s one of the bigger coincidences in the history of Live Music, or Widespread Panic was having some fun this past weekend when they debuted their cover of On Your Way Down just ONE day after Phish took it off the shelf. As if that wasn’t strange enough, they also debuted a cover of ZZ Top’s Jesus Just Left Chicago, another long-time cover in the Phish repertoire. Source: 11-28-2009

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There is already video up:

Zero: Guest vocalist Lauren Miller joins the guys in Zero to share the lead vocal duties. Source: 4-10-1999

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I was not expecting to find video of this performance, but when I Google’d Lauren Miller Zero, the video was the first thing that showed up.

Checking in on the most recent version of Cover Wars [two weeks ago], Clare & The Reasons have claimed victory in the Everybody Wants To Rule The World edition. Great band.