So, as music enthusiasts, I'm sure many of you either frequently hear yourselves saying "the original can't be beat" in regards to covers of "older" songs, or you hear this coming from others.
(For reference this thread has less to do with EDM, because I'm fully aware that a remix can often be better than an original production)
Whenever I'm discussing music with friends or friends of friends I more often than not hear people arguing that original versions of pop or rock songs are better than any attempt made by a different artist either soon after the release or decades later.
I don't know what my opinion on this topic is yet, but I was wondering if this is something that you guys discuss with your music loving friends, and if so what do you guys hear most often in regards to "classic" songs being attempted by other artists?
Woony
Classic track or not, I think 8/10 remixes are pointless. I hate the amount of remixes that are being done now thanks to digital project files. People doing records with one original and four remixes. off.
SYSTEM-J
There are plenty of great tracks that are covers of older songs. Far too many to name. It's certainly possible for covers to exceed the originals. Some of the biggest classics in pop music took obscure rough diamonds and became the definitive versions (I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Tainted Love, anything by Led Zeppelin). However, if a track was already a classic then it becomes much harder to match up to it, never mind surpass it. I'm struggling to think of many cover versions of classics that became classics in their own right.
What s me off is deliberately incongruous cover versions - acoustic covers of Will Smith, for example, or those obnoxious easy listening covers of mildly boisterous popular songs. I was in a restaurant at the weekend and they played some smarmy lounge lizard doing a Sinatra-style cover of Mr Brightside by The Killers. Seriously, does anyone actually enjoy that kind of ?
Mr.Mystery
The one cry I never understood about covering old tracks or remaking films/TV shows is "my childhood is RUINED!"
I mean even if the remake sucks, how is it going to take away from the original?
I don't really feel strongly about remakes/updates/new remixes one way or the other. Some are really good and some just cheap cash-ins.
quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
What s me off is deliberately incongruous cover versions - acoustic covers of Will Smith, for example, or those obnoxious easy listening covers of mildly boisterous popular songs. I was in a restaurant at the weekend and they played some smarmy lounge lizard doing a Sinatra-style cover of Mr Brightside by The Killers. Seriously, does anyone actually enjoy that kind of ?
And then there was The Baseballs, who did faux-rockabilly covers of pop songs. me.
Lews
[QUOTE]Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
There are plenty of great tracks that are covers of older songs. Far too many to name. It's certainly possible for covers to exceed the originals. Some of the biggest classics in pop music took obscure rough diamonds and became the definitive versions (I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Tainted Love, anything by Led Zeppelin). However, if a track was already a classic then it becomes much harder to match up to it, never mind surpass it. I'm struggling to think of many cover versions of classics that became classics in their own right./QUOTE]
Happens/Happened a lot in Jazz and that type of lounge-singer pop, but it does seem hard to think of other examples.
Sykonee
quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
There are plenty of great tracks that are covers of older songs. Far too many to name. It's certainly possible for covers to exceed the originals. Some of the biggest classics in pop music took obscure rough diamonds and became the definitive versions (I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Tainted Love, anything by Led Zeppelin). However, if a track was already a classic then it becomes much harder to match up to it, never mind surpass it. I'm struggling to think of many cover versions of classics that became classics in their own right.
Two examples that immediately come to mind:
Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics/Marilyn Manson) Hurt (Nine Inch Nails/Johnny Cash)
SYSTEM-J
Yes, Hurt is a good one. Not sure I'd agree on Sweet Dreams. The one that came to mind immediately was Tainted Love, originally by Gloria Jones and then definitively by Soft Cell (and less definitively by Manson - he loves a synth pop cover, eh?).
I'll get ing crucified for admitting this, but Fall Out Boy's cover of Beat It is indecently enjoyable. Massive guilty pleasure, this one:
SYSTEM-J
Oh, and since I know you're such a Neil Young fanboy Syk', here's a genuinely brilliant one:
Trance-M
In the 90's I liked how Undercover made Baker Street and brought it to the dance floor or for example Pet Shop Boys - Where The Streets Have No Name.
Two examples of great remixes which did well. In the 90's most music enthusiasts of my age thought remixes was the . Some were great, many were awful, even back then.
Alex
Yeah gotta say I enjoy listening to the man in black's version of hurt. In fact a lot of people I know who heard it automatically assumed NiN had made a bad cover of the song, and didn't know it was NiN that wrote, recorded and performed it first.
As much as I like Trent Reznor, I never liked that song and all the sanctimonious Nine Inch Nails fans that I know who cry over it not winning a grammy kind of annoy me.
AlphaStarred
quote:
Originally posted by Mr.Mystery
The one cry I never understood about covering old tracks or remaking films/TV shows is "my childhood is RUINED!"
I mean even if the remake sucks, how is it going to take away from the original?
Never heard anything remotely like that.
Vector A
In the vein of genre changeups, I really like this 2014 country version of the 1987 newwave hit "The Promise."
