![]() ![]() So, why don’t all of the best bands and performers do more cover songs today? The sad reality is that money got in the way. To prove the point that great songwriting and kick-ass song styling tends to always be worth your while musically, check out the boys doing a cover Queen’s “Stone Cold Crazy.” Not to be outdone, Metallica also did an entire cover record that highlighted their early and mainly U.K.-based influenced. Hell, Van Halen filled nearly half of their fifth studio albumwith covers, highlighted a riff on Roy Orbison classic “Pretty Woman” that is 1000 percent Van Halen. Perhaps the most epic cover of a classic rock song comes from Van Halen, who start their version of The Kink’s “You Really Got Me” with Eddie Van Halen’s all-time-great guitar showcase “ Eruption.” By the time Eddie is done with “Eruption,” Dave is gyrating disturbingly and vocally spouting off as only Diamond Dave can. Check out this insider’s look at the making of Hendrix’s “Day Tripper” here. The Beatles’ version of the tune is excellent, but the Jimi version is even more groovy and stylish. Hendrix’s more obscure cover of The Beatles “Day Tripper” is arguably even better in terms of performance and song-styling as a cover track. Jimi Hendrix’s version of Bob Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower”from Electric Ladyland is a vast upgrade over the original Dylan performance. Outside of the scope of death metal, there is a longstanding legacy of the best rock bands and acts doing cover songs. I wonder if Gaga ever envisioned this type of interpretation of her music back at Juilliard? I doubt it. Here is an uncredited cover of Lady Gaga’s hit pop song “Poker Face.” The performance is pretty much totally absurd, but the catchy hook eventually cuts through despite the silliness of the track. These metal acts aren’t tone deaf (OK, let me finish the sentence…) to new music. ![]() They add a new energy to the classic track and use it as a vehicle to show just how hard they can shred. You know the melody like the back of your hand, and perhaps you hang around a little longer than you might have because of it?įor those of us who love progressive rock–and God knows new-school, death metal bands sure do–here is a look at one of the most sacred anthems from the genre, King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man” done by Canadian metal act Voivod. Because of its melodic familiarity, it is somewhat easier to musically digest than you might expect from its caustic genre. Like all covers, it is a bit faster than the original. ![]() Here’s a Liquid Metal band favorite, Type O Negative, doing a cover of the Neil Young classic “Cinnamon Girl.” I think it was Dick Clark who famously said, “If it ain’t in the grooves, it ain’t in the grooves,” and with these crazy cover tracks, the goodness is actually in the grooves–even if the grooves are about to spontaneously combust. Perhaps it’s helped by the band’s God-given ability to shred, but not always. Why is the Corridor of Covers so compelling? It is thanks to a familiar melody. But with that said, these tracks can sometimes suck you in for not just one song, but often a rabbit-hole listening session of the cover versus the original or a cover pitted against yet another cover. They often cover really off-beat stuff, which can catch even the most astute music fan/student a little off-kilter. From time to time they do a concept called “The Corridor of Covers.” It turns out that death metal bands love to do cover songs. What death metal can teach us, though, comes in the form of an interesting bit of radio programming by the guys over at Sirius XM. When left to their own devices, death metal songs tend to be about silly topics and devolve into a lot of double bass drum work and guttural screams. The songs are almost always fast paced, but like audiophile music, they can be quite excellent in terms of performance yet lacking in humanity. The singers almost always sound like they’ve just taken a mighty puff from a crusty old meth pipe followed by a Clorox chaser. It’s fun to contrast that with death metal, which revolves around its own sort of hate most of the time. It’s the type of music that makes normal people want to jump off of a roof. Songs that are either too esoteric or downright banal. ![]() Technically-perfect-but-emotionally-uninspired performances. But once you get past the recording quality, most audiophile music can be pretty lame. Your system will never sound better than when firing up a cut from any number of audiophile publishers. Without question, the recordings sound stunning as a rule–open, dynamic, gleaming. Twitter Facebook Email Print LinkedIn Pinterest SMS WhatsApp ![]()
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