On Mon, 5 Oct 1998, Robert McTaggart wrote:
The only good reasons for doing cover versions are to do something completely different (some of us are already working on our Gabba version of "Fox in the Snow"), to cover something Godlike, but relatively unknown and bringing it to a wider public (like Mick Harvey's Gainsbourg tributes), or to "take a shite song and make it better", like Saint Etienne did with "Kiss and ma..."....why are you all looking at me funny?
I'd agree that there's no point just copying a song - Placebo's version of 20th Century Boy springs to mind as being identical to the original, why bother? But I think so long as it is noticeably different (and as such quite unexpected) it can work well. Watching the Divine Comedy last night playing Radioactivity by Kraftwerk was great, and although I don't think it was as good as the original it was different enough and suprising enough to be worthwhile. So if you're planning a techno remix of I Could Be Dreaming, or a "Vic Reeves, Pub Singer" rendition of Sleep The Clock Around, it would be worth the effort (even if it turns out rubbish). The only other reason I can think of to cover a song is if you love it and none else knows it, as seems to have been the case with Poupee de Son (or whatever it's called); but surely everyone here already knows all the B&S songs backwards? Oh well, each to their own I guess... Big Stu +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". For list archives and searching, list rules, FAQ, poor jokes etc, see http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +---+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" +---+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+