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Covers Good and Bad


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Not at all sorry if this has already been posted. Lake Street Dive's latest EP is their second "covers" album (here's the first).
This is a song that's always been in my head... it's really hard to top the Cranberries (and Dolores O'Riordan!), but damn if Rachael Price's voice doesn't just resonate for me like no other.
So excited to see them on Sunday night...
 

Her cover of Can’t Find My Way Home is…damn…all time great song and she manages to make it meltingly sexy and powerful:

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On 7/19/2023 at 10:29 PM, boilerhorn said:

This one was shared by @jimmyjazz in the "cmt pulls aldean video" thread on "Daily Texan".  Might as well share it here.

 

 

Jeez, what an abomination of a cover.  When it comes on the radio I can't change the channel fast enough, except half the time on shitty Austin radio its playing on at least one other station at the same time.  The dude broke the cover song honor code and didn't even try to change up his version, even a little.  It's generic and soulless.  Could you at least have made the song "Fast Truck", or sung it from the perspective of the other character (presumably the boyfriend) in the song?  Nope - instead we get to hear a country bumpkin twangin' on about being a homeless woman with an out of work boyfriend, desperately dreaming of a better life.  The whole thing just isn't plausible - I mean, redneck dudes don't live in shelters, work in convenience stores, have partners (girlfriends/boyfriends?) who put their arm around their shoulder while driving fast cars.  He even kept the line about how he's gonna work in the market as a checkout girl.  It's the same as if I learned to mimic 99 Luftballons so I could do a killer karaoke performance - yep, I could do it, but I wouldn't have a damn clue about the words I was singing.  The only silver lining of this atrocity is that it put a black female songwriter on the top of the country charts for the first time, and I can only imagine she's laughing at this cracker all the way to the bank.

 

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@Iowa Horn - perhaps.  But there is some backstory to this song for Combs.  His dad played it for him and it influenced his musical passions.  As Combs was starting out, he played it in his sets.  Very few folks go to small bars for local new artists aspiring to see innovative renditions of 15+ year old songs.  "Hey, Jim, he sucks.  It sounds nothing like the original."  It's similar to the reason stud rock guitar players play the exact solo from the records.

On the upside (as you reference), there are estimates that this recording has earned Tracy Chapman in excess of $500k from writing and publishing royalties.  Given how shitty initial record deals at the time were (1988), I suspect she's totally fine w/ it.  Plus, it will move more copies of what is one of the best recordings of the late 80s.

I do not disagree about him breaking the cover honor code, but he's not a pioneer on that, esp. these days.

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2 hours ago, Iowa Horn said:

 

Jeez, what an abomination of a cover.  When it comes on the radio I can't change the channel fast enough, except half the time on shitty Austin radio its playing on at least one other station at the same time.  The dude broke the cover song honor code and didn't even try to change up his version, even a little.  It's generic and soulless.  Could you at least have made the song "Fast Truck", or sung it from the perspective of the other character (presumably the boyfriend) in the song?  Nope - instead we get to hear a country bumpkin twangin' on about being a homeless woman with an out of work boyfriend, desperately dreaming of a better life.  The whole thing just isn't plausible - I mean, redneck dudes don't live in shelters, work in convenience stores, have partners (girlfriends/boyfriends?) who put their arm around their shoulder while driving fast cars.  

 

A couple of details:  Tracy is gay, even if she hasn't said it.  Her lovers (like Alice Walker) have   So, the song is referring to a girlfriend, which amplifies the twist when a guy sings it.  It still works.

Beyond that, this "code" is fucking silly.  I mean, I get the basic idea, don't be an ACTUAL mimic of the song, but he's a long way from that.  It's a tip of the cap more than a new twist.  I think it's fine.

"Fast Truck" is absolutely the dumbest thing I've heard this month, and I've heard and read a whole bunch of dumb things this month.  You should feel shame.

Edited by jimmyjazz
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1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

"Fast Truck" is absolutely the dumbest thing I've heard this month, and I've heard and read a whole bunch of dumb things this month.  You should feel shame.

Haha, so true - Fast Truck would be horrible, that idea.  It was intended as a dig on formulaic country songs, not as a way to make it better, but pointing out how he missed a golden opportunity to kill two birds with one stone (make the cover his own, and check the "truck" box for the song). 

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