Blog
Song Discovery 1: 09.12.03
Written by The Saturday Morning Canasta Club
We’ll post ‘song picks’ and at end of year we’ll post the Abubilla Music Top 10 based on all the nominations. So Enjoy.
1. Nomination for best cover. Game, set, match. We know it is Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo’Ole ‘IZ’ . And being a hopeless sucker for ROMCOM, I love how it was used in 50 First Dates. Its where I first heard IZ’s version, rushed to buy soundtrack only to find it wasn’t on it … and the rest of soundtrack isn’t great. I also nominate Michael Hedges for Come Together and All Along the Watchtower. This is followed by Joe Cocker’s ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ at Woodstock. Not a bad version, but cultural impact was huge. [For completists — this version was subject of great John Belushi version, and raises the notion of the third deriative below. Also, Joe Cocker did Billy Preston’s You Are so Beautiful cover, and Billy is only other musician ever credited on Beatles album for Get Back Piano – so we’ve come full circle. But I digress. Also, while digressing, check out this list of best and worst covers ever]. Now, both With a Little Help from My friends and Hedge’s version of All Along the Watchtower raises an interesting list issue. When is a cover actually a cover of a cover? Is Michael covering Dylan’s version or Jimi Hendrix’s version? I think Dylan’s. But, let’s look at Over the Rainbow. Here’s Judy’s version. And here’s Eva Cassady’s. And here’s Leona’s. Leona is covering Eva’s Cover — so what is that called? [I hated that folks thought this was Leona’s original intepretation.] But, she is bloody good and did it at the audition. Now, this leads to the big question. Was Connie Talbot doing a cover of Leona’s cover of Eva’s cover of Judy? Here it is — let the debate begin. If so, this is the long sought after 4th derivative and I challenge folks to find another example of a 4th derivative cover. My other challenger would be Hallieluhah which I can get to a 4th deriative if allow X factor to be viewed as legitimate source of music. So here goes: We start with Cohen follwed by Buckley’s radical remake, which is definitely the source for Rufus Wainwright’s version. This must be a confirmed 3rd Derivative. So then we have Alexandra Burke, who in my view is covering Rufus’s version, which would confirm a 4th Derivative. So, readers, can you find a 4th Derivative? [More digression: Now, while we’re on the subject of covers, there’s some funny stuff about Something. First, and I can’t find the version, but when Sinatra first covered it, he introduced it as his favourite Lennon & McCartney tune. Poor George. In this version, which I DO NOT ENDORSE, he got it right. But the reason I’m raising, is that part of inspiration for Something, was that George had heard James Taylor (one of the first artist for Apple Records) do ‘Something in the Way She Moves’ and built song off that. Are there other examples of this? And while we’re on covers, one final point, didn’t George do a great job of covering He’s So Fine? The Chiffon’s version. His version. Yikes.] Now, the other interesting spin off discussion that occurs here is X factor, which is for all intents and purposes, a ‘covers’ show. I’ve watched most of the UK and just a couple of the US shows, so am on thin ice here, but I will put forward that there have been only two decent original (vs. derivative) covers done on X factor/American idol. These are: David Cook doing Billie Jean, and Diane Vickers doing Smile, if you can ignore her hands. Not bad. You could put a couple others of her’s in here, but I’ll go with Smile.
2. Nominations for best little gems of well known bands or groups. I always start with I’ve Just Seen A Face by the Beatles that few folks listen to and remains one of my favourites, followed by Writing (used to be Tiny Dancer until Almost Famous made it famous) by Elton John, followed by Traffic Jam by James Taylor for no particular reason. I love Rolling Stones Spider to the Fly. [Since I’ve used Beatles and Stones in same paragraph, worth giving a little bit of trivia. We used to hold Beatles vs. Stones dinner parties, where couples were given a list of 10 ‘pairings’ of best Stones vs. best Beatles songs thru different categories. At beginning of evening they were asked to predict which group would win, then go song by song and at end of evening give the winner. In every instance, at beginning of evening the couples voted about 80% for Beatles and at end of evening actually scored 80% for Stones. And I love the Beatles so was doin’ best I could to get Beatles in a good light. But the fact is that the Stones hits are in no way representative of how good they were – there is more depth in other songs than hits. And the Beatles are the hits — so the Stones surpise. At some point I’ll post the context and let you decide] [Jimmy]