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[AugustWest]

REM are not a band to cover.

Why not?

 

But since I was a kid, I always thought REM were pretty boring.  Maybe they were just overplayed on the radio.  I remember going on car trips, half hour each way, and hearing REM three times in the day.

Weird.  I can pretty much pinpoint the first time I heard "Radio Free Europe" and it was pretty obscure and esoteric at the time.  They were cutting edge when I was 17.  So it's hard for me to think of them as boring.

But you're absolutely right -- REM became the band of the 90's.  Losing My Religion?  Shining Happy People? Great songs, no doubt, but not obscure or esoteric in any way shape or form.

Hell, people say The Beatles are boring these days.  The kids don't appreciate JS Bach anymore.  What are you gonna do?

[robot_god]

Why not?

Hm.  Well I guess the interesting thing, to me, about covering a song is deconstructing it, make it more ambiguous, add a little garnish.  All the REM I'm familiar with is already pretty deconstructed.  There isn't much you can do with the songs without making them new songs

Hell, people say The Beatles are boring these days.

.

Oh, now you're just talkin' crazy.  No kids in this town say any of that.  Plus, the data collected by Facebook claims that of my university's favorite music, the Beatles are in the top two most often listed.  Possibly number one, I can't remember.

If anything, the decreased attention span of the internet generation has made the Beatles more popular.

[Doc]

It was ok, I probably would have liked it more if they'd played up the banjo (I think it was  banjo) sound a bit more, I always dig bluegrass style covers of pop songs. There's a good version of 'I don't feel like dancing' floating around somewhere.
Edit: Apparently I'm referring to 'Hayseed dixie' and bluegrass pop appears to be their thing. It may be I'm the only person who was not aware of this.

On a tangent: looking at all the people listed in the making of it reminded me how much I like screen names. I'm fairly sure as more and more people go online actual names will eventually become more common than pseudonyms and it kind of depresses me, I like the idea that the internet still allows one to be whoever you want.

[V-Adore]

The thing about REM is that it's like a lot of bands -- the really interesting stuff doesn't hit the singles. I like "Losing My Religion" as much as anyone, and I'm even prepared to defend "Shiny Happy People," but the real gems are stuff that's buried on the albums. I need to get off my ass and actually make my two-disc all-REM no-single mix.

[KeithHernandez]

Yeah, I am meh on the song.

The cover example though, The Clash- Police and Thieves or (only because it is R.E.M.) R.E.M.- King of The Road.

Also, very pro R.E.M., the ony albums I can listen to all the way through are the first two though.  After that they have some very good songs (orange crush, what's the frequency Kenneth, etc.) and some not so great but passable songs.

[CortJstr]

A year or two a go a guy named Matthew Taylor released a bunch of Pixies covers that he'd recording as other bands. So it's him imitating Sinatra doing Monkey Gone to Heaven. Or Tina Turner doing River Euphrates. They're actually pretty entertaining. And since he only did like 6 of them the concept didn't get too old.

[Carlos del Vaca]

My first band (the one that lasted about four months, not the one I really consider "my band from college" that stayed together three years) covered "Orange Crush."

I sang "Peanut Buuuu-huuutter" during the chorus, because really who knows what the hell Stipe is saying there.

[jay-ell]

Best covers ever:

Johnny Cash: Personal Jesus
Nina Gordon: Straight Outta Compton MP3 HERE
Sheryl Crow: Sweet Child O' Mine

[V-Adore]

Also, Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt." As far as I'm concerned, that's the only version of the song there ever was.

[jaydub]

Nina Gordon: Straight Outta Compton MP3 HERE

I head that one on the Brewing Network the other night and it had me howling.  Such a sweet voice - such a raw song.  I thought it was Jewel at the time - the mental image of her all gangsta was probably the best part.  I'll have to find a pic of Nina Gordon to update my impression.

Sheryl Crow: Sweet Child O' Mine

I liked that one too, but I like a lot of her stuff.  I was a big GNR fan, and the contrast of her melodic voice vs Axl Rose's scratchier howl is amusing.  Also, its always intriguing when women sing love songs that have other women as the subject.

It would be even hotter if she had covered Anything Goes.

[AlohaDawg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltjbnyvq_SI

Best cover of Baby Got Back ever.

[AugustWest]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltjbnyvq_SI

Best cover of Baby Got Back ever.

I liked this one too.

[Lister]

I don't remember when the music industry changed from "Lots of people singing the same songs" to "covers," but I think it happened in the early seventies.

So by that standard, Wilson Pickett's "Land of a thousand dances" doesn't count as a cover, but it is still awesome.  I also enjoy his version of "Hey Jude."

The Bangles' "Hazy Shade of Winter" is a great cover that few people know is a cover.

Snoop Dogg's cover of "We will rock you" is horrible, but still interesting in a train wreck kind of way.  Queen is a band that shouldn't be covered, in my opinion... but their version of "Crazy little thing called love" is pretty good.  I guess Muse has the chops to cover Queen.  Have they?

Man, someday I'm gonna make that all-covers mix disc.  Right after I get over the fact that I can't make a perfect mix disc (what with levels and bit rate and correct tags and such).

[theinevitable]

The Bangles' "Hazy Shade of Winter" is a great cover that few people know is a cover.

really? Hazy Shade of Winter is fantastic, I love that song. I have not heard their version, though.

[Nabubrush]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltjbnyvq_SI

Best cover of Baby Got Back ever.

I liked this one too.

Or this.