Completely Remade Songs
Guzzo
8,611 Posts
The only real reason to do a remake of a classic track is to completely make it over. Name some of your favorites. Heres a few of mine
Rotary Connection[/b] "Respect"
Rotary Connection[/b] "Sunshine Of Your Love"
Cat Power[/b] Sea of Love"
Tennessee Ernie Ford[/b] "Work Song"
Rotary Connection[/b] "Respect"
Rotary Connection[/b] "Sunshine Of Your Love"
Cat Power[/b] Sea of Love"
Tennessee Ernie Ford[/b] "Work Song"
Comments
its like reading retard writing all day here on soul strut.
i wouldnt want to judge (decipher?) a spelling contest between you and kingmoist
the last bag was nice but this one isnt so much. some strains of herb make me mean and nasty... like right now im feeling very unsocial... though being here is social and writing back to you is definitely being social... anyway...
i was trying to be funny but it was written badly...
ill go away now...
Johnny Cash - Mercy Seat
Julie Driscoll - Light My Fire
Archie Shepp - Naima and The Girl from Ipanema
Sonics - "Louie Louie"
Bobby Womack - "Nobody Wants You When You're Down & Out"
Ray Charles - "You Are My Sunshine"
some obvious ones:
Coltrane - My Favorite Things
Deodato - Also Sprach Zarathustra
Donny Hathaway - What's Going On (maybe not really a "remake" though)
some personal favorites:
Gary Bartz/Andy Bey - Black Maybe
Roberta Flack - Compared to What
Quincy Jones - Summer in the City
David T Walker - Lay Lady Lay
Jose Feliciano - a whole bunch
not to mention about 100 jazz/pop standards that lent themselves to a wide range of "remakes."
whats so onfusing about that/ why redo a song just to make it sound completely similar to the original? ain't too much different from remaking a film
Dap-kings - What Have You Done Fer Me Lately Biatch?
Mike Flowers Pops - Wonderwall. Pulled the curtain up on the whole wussy strumming Britpop nonsense.
There's others I can't think of right now.... plus some good reggae covers of Shaft etc.
Oh yeah, I dig the version by Cecil Holmes Soulful Sounds.
Also - Lou Donaldson - Say It Loud, I'm Black & I'm Proud, and I'm also a bit more laid back.
This Land Is Your Land
Jadell - Compared to What
These ones fit the 'completely' aspect to the fullest. Really digging both these tracks right now. Adding vocals to Red Clay was a nice touch. Highly underrated album.
DJ Ferrari
my confusion is why you would need to completely make it over? i can think of a pretty much endless list of standards, hits, and other popular covers that have been done in essentially the exact same form as the original and are every bit as valid, good, and necessary. it's a form of paying respect, providing background context on who your influences are and proving your chops. its a long standing tradition in american music. should sarah vaughn have not done the gershwin songbook cuz ella already killed that shit? should ella have not gone there because shit was already played out? it doesn't have to be a crunk version of summertime for me to respect the remake.
I was talking about this last night with a friend:
Scissor Sisters "Comfortably Numb"[/b] is for me a great cover/remake, but my friend can't listen to it without thinking of how far off the Pink Flloyd version it is... which is exactly what I like about it. When
Necessary??? yes they are good sometimes but I don't know about neccasary. I mean why remake a song note for note? youre not really doing anything interesting. If the original was great then why make a carbon copy of it? your only going to pale in comparison to the OG. If an artist has a different take on the song it makes the track newly compelling. Now your paying homage and not being a mimic.
-"What the World Needs Now"-The Chambers Brothers.
-"Feel for You"-Chaka Khan (sort of).
-"Theme from the Electric Surfboard" and "Hey Jude"-Clarence Wheeler & the Enforcers.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Pretty much the best reason to cover a song I would have thought. Although I like 60's-70's covers of "It's Your Thing" to still sound funky.
i guess my confusion lies in where you draw the line between "completely make it over" and "a different take". lots of grey area in there.
but yes, necessary. i can think of plenty of remakes that are very true to the original and very necessary. i love to hear both billie holiday and nina simone sing ohh child. if nina's version is "pale in comparison to the og" then i guess i dont get music cuz to me that is necessary.
youre right there is a whole lot of gray area invovled with this discussion. I also don't really consider a lot of american songbook/ standards to be remakes. WC Handy, Gershwin, Rogers & Hammerstein, etc. didn't sing these songs they wrote them and left it up to the singers to interpret any way they wanted.
remakes of more contemporary songs (IMO) are only good if they are at least slightly different from the song they are covering. I really don't want to hear someone not only do an unoriginal song but do it in an unoriginal style. If anyone is going to take the time to record a track for the world to hear they may as well make it their own in some way.
Not completely remodeled - but Joy Division's version of Sister Ray makes me feel like this
and this
with a bit of wanting to break shit thrown in for good measure.
The VU version already swings and rocks and drives like a m***rf***r and Joy Divison somehow manage to do it, too.
...
now your coming around. you've got a propensity for making sweeping generalizations i dont think you necessarily mean.
well I still think a completely reconstructed cover is more interesting than a direct remake. Hearing Rotary Connections freaked versin of respect always gets me much more than hearing someone like Tom Jones do it.
There is also somethng to be said for how an artist uses their voice as an instrument. If they are putting thier own interesting vocal spin on the track well the nthey have changed it and made it more compelling. If they are just hitting the same notes as the original artist they ain't really doing much more than glorified kareoke (sp?)
You go out every night as a single
But you dont really know what to do
You see someone that youd like to mingle
And imagine that she is waiting for you
Chorus: Any love that you feel
Is real
Any time that you use love
You lose love
There is no certain crowd that you run with
But your passions they never run thin
You say hi, they say hi and its done with
Still you dont really love from deep within
Chorus
Batted eyes and bitter tears
Price you pay for all the years
Of holding back whats deep inside
And living with a hell of a lot of lies
Chorus