nickc - Member
"Northwind, I've noticed you seem to take huge offense at a lot of my posts, you seem almost to go out of your way sometimes."
You're having a laugh right? I made a general post that just happened to be after one of yours, but wasn't aimed at yours at all, then you had a go at me. I still have no idea why.
Awesome original (actually not the original, but an early cover - oops!).
Incredible cover (Thanks Issac!).
Right. So that's two great covers then. Dammit.
On that basis, valid
There's nothing at all wrong with doing a cover, except when someone makes a career out of it. Up until the Beatles and Buddy Holly, [i]everyone[/i] did covers, it's what Tin Pan Alley and the Brill Building were all about; Goffin and King, Holland Dozier Holland, etc. Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, all did cover versions. Anyone like to call them second rate Karaoke singers? A [i]good[/i] songwriter will think nothing of doing covers of another good songwriter's work. Shawn Colvin, a multi-Grammy winning singer/songwriter, released an album, her second, called [i]Cover Girl[/i], with songs by the likes of Talking Heads and Mary Chapin Carpenter. She also regularly does live covers, like Gnarls Berkeley's [i]Crazy[/i], when I saw her in London a couple of years or so ago, before anyone else covered it. Breathtaking version, it showed how good that song actually is. Tori Amos made a habit of releasing limited edition versions of her singles with three extra cover versions, and everyone was excellent:
A Case Of You (Joni Mitchell)
Strange Fruit (Billy Holiday)
If 6 Was 9 (Jimi Hendrix)
Angie (Rolling Stones)
Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)
Thank You (Led Zeppelin)
That's What I Like Mick (Chas and Dave)
And no, I didn't make the last one up.
I absolutely love it when someone puts their spin on a great song by another good songwriter, it's showing appreciation for another artists work. And it earns them some money, something the karaoke crowd forget.
The guy who wrote [i]Somethin' Stupid[/i] never had to work again. Gerry Rafferty earns £80k/year just from [i]Baker Street[/i]!
Interesting post. Every example cited is of a legitimate artistic interpretation, not a 'cover'.
'Covers' were a marketing ploy used by the record companies to exploit regional differences around the world.
The original songwriter was the one to gain, supposedly!