May 242010
FUN BOY THREE LOSES BELT TO MANDY MOORE (SEE COMMENTS)!
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Fun Boy Three covering “The End” challenges all comers to a Battle Royale!
Can you name one cover song more unexpected than Fun Boy Three covering this Doors classic? You may try, but proceed at your own caution. Note how there is not the slightest hint of irony in the band’s performance. This is the real deal, baby, and it’s chilling in its unexpectedness!
Dolly Parton doing Stairway to Heaven.
Not a bad first contender, but with all that plastic surgery and the wig Parton is inherently tongue-in-cheek and unpredictable.
Next challenger!
BTW, Fun Boy Three was hoping to immediately overtake Parton by learning that this cover was dictated by someone like Rick Rubin (I don’t think it was). The band did come across this HIGHLY AMUSING COMMENTARY on her choice in covers:
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/CCM/dolly_parton-exposed.htm
Back ca. 2002 Dylan went a little cover crazy–not that he hasn’t always done covers but usually they are by older artists, not his contemporaries and still less often by younger writers. Hence, hearing him do Neil Young’s Old Man was a surprise, hearing him do several Warren Zevon songs (Mutineer, Boom Boom Mancini, and above all Accidentally Like a Martyr) was shocking but explicable due to Zevon’s illness, and hearing him do Don Henley’s The End of the Innocence was just disturbing. Yet effective. Also there was a rousing cover of Brown Sugar done several times during this period. All of these seem to have been removed from youtube, so you’ll have to trust me on these.
“We’ve come to expect the unexpected from Dylan!” says Lynval, as he tosses Bob from the ring.
I don’t know that I was expecting an old chestnut like “The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea” when I got the last George Harrison album. Seemed more like a Paulie type number, but I didn’t realize George loved ukeleles so much.
George spent a lot of time sitting in his garden. It was only a matter of time before he picked up a uke.
Neville is taunting the crowd!
Didn’t Pat Boone do a Metallica song not so long ago?
Boone did a whole album of metal covers as an obvious goof. What I find so unexpected about Fun Boy Three covering “The End” is that the performance shows no signs of goofing around. They mean it, mannnnnn! Or at least they mean to mean it.
Well sure, but he kept saying he liked metal and that it was not inconsistent with his beliefs.
David Byrne doing Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-liFDbtt5w
Celine Dion doing “You Shook Me All Night Long.” Yes, it’s as awful as you think it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULmC8JTTVy0
Thanks for reminding me of the God-awfulness of that Celine Dion clip. It’s just vomit-inducing.
I’ma big fan of the Ben Folds version of Dre’s classic, “Bitches Ain’t Shit.” when I saw Brother Ben a couple of months ago in Atlanta, he did this song and there a was a small female voice behind me singing every filthy, disgusting lyric. It came out of her mouth as fluently as breathing. It was GREAT moment.
TB
Celine’s “You Shook Me…” is bizarre, but she’s a joke. Terry Hall took her out with a suplex.
The Byrne cover of Whitney Houston put up a fierce battle, but again, we’re talking David Byrne, an artist I admired greatly but, these days, also a AAA radio-approved, know-it-all, coffee table-rocker on par with Richard Thompson and other NPR go-to artists.
Things got tough there, for a while, but then Neville Staple pulled the lariat on Byrne and put an end to the match.
NEXT CHALLENGER!
Oh why bother… but here are The Cardigans with “Ironman.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzgZJEpLuw0
That’s a good one, cher, but points off for your defeatist attitude.
Fun Boy Three is parading around the ring, holding the belt over Terry’s pouffy hairdo!
Remember, Townspeeps, this isn’t a Last Man Standing, in which every vote counts; this is a Battle Royale. There can only be one winner, and Fun Boy Three’s sincere cover of “The (Fucking) End” is off the charts unexpected, no? It’s not like they’re doing a Fun Boy Three take on the song – they’re actually trying to build the drama of the original. WHEN DID THE WORLD EVER CALL FOR FUN BOY THREE TO UNIRONICALLY COVER “THE END?” That’s the level to which I’m holding this ultimate challenge. Don’t stop believin’, RTH, there’s surely a cover that can slap Fun Boy Three into a shocking and wholly unexpected disadvantage.
NYC no wave band DNA ended their farewell concert with “Whole Lotta Love”
Sneaking into the ring with a shiv and cleaning house – Marilyn Manson covering “Sweet Dreams (are made of this)”
Look into his eyes and feel his alienation
Good challenge from DNA, but it was about time they played a real song, wasn’t it? 🙂
Marilyn Manson = Attention-Starved Child. Hear him cry, No mas!
Fun Boy Three covering “Summertime”, which, given the 15,000 other versions of this song, is both superfluous and completely inappropriate for a pasty faced Englishman. Also, take notice of the care which goes into this rendition: strings, horns, backing choir. No expense is spared. Besides, all Fun Boy Three had to do was look at the success of Echo and the Bunnymen had using the Doors as a touchstone. Their cover of “The End” just smacks of jumping someone else’s train, and, apparently, attempting to be the blonde Robert Smith.
The promo version of Summertime is just jawdropping in its missing of the point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3sfn8dbRHg
The live version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX-04z0buiQ&feature=related
Mmm…so you’re trying to shoot me with my own gun, bostonhistorian. Well played. I see what you mean about jumping Echo’s train, but isn’t a British band covering “Summertime” the jumping of a longer-running train, dating back to British Invasion bands that felt compelled to cover this tune? I don’t know. Maybe the ref needs to turn his back while the two tunes duke it out a little longer.
Townspeople, what do you say regarding this face-off?
I think the overplayed nature of “Summertime” nullifies the notion of something being “unexpected.” Who covers, “The End?” Nobody. Well, almost nobody.
cher wrote:
THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN! Fun Boy Three’s version of “The End” retains the belt…for now!
Speaking of missing the point… Here is The Specials (ok, the reunited non-Specials) playing one of the most uptight numbers of all time, “Take 5.”
Note that they are playing it in a duple meter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsKYSi36Fuo
So I guess there’s no point in reminding you of Richard Thompson’s covers of Britney’s Oops I Did It Again and Prince’s Kiss.
I dunno. I figured the use of “The End” in Apocalypse Now made a cover version inevitable, and FB3 is clearly channeling the version remixed for the film. If The Clash could write a song “Charlie Don’t Surf”, a cover of “The End” wasn’t far away.
Correct, BigSteve. I mean, think about the thought process that goes into any artist’s gimmick album. If the artist has it in him or her to make a gimmick concept album, what could possibly be unexpected? Thompson’s always been a sly artist, open to messing with folk conventions a little bit. Compare this with Fun Boy Three, a band composed of three lead guys in The Specials who felt Jerry Dammers was taking the band down too much of a “serious” road, so they start this goofy pop band after The Specials break up…only to cover “The End,” of all Doors songs. And Terry Hall even straps on an ax, which I’ve never seen him play in 30 other videos I’ve seen of him!
Tell me if I’m wrong, People. I’m not trying to make this Battle harder than it needs to be. I think this cover version is a once-in-a-generation Battle Royale participant.
As for cover versions of “The End,” sure, why wouldn’t some bands cover it. I heard a snippet of Nirvana covering it, for instance. That makes a lot of sense. I could see any number of doom-and-gloom bands covering it, from Bauhaus to Metallica, but Fun Boy Three? Only a sincere cover of that song by Bananarama would be more unexpected.
Soul Asylum covered “To Sir With Love”
Sonic Youth covered “Within You Without You.”
Wow, Soul Asylum did something other than ape The Replacements – or then again The Replacements already covered cheesy ’60s pop songs.
What is even remotely surprising about Sonic Youth covering an Eastern-drone Beatles song? It’s not like they covered “This Boy.”
NEXT CHALLENGERS!
Devo, “Satisfaction”
I think you’re letting the group’s name influence your (doors of) perception. If this cover had been by Echo and the Bunnymen would you consider it unexpected? Fun Boy Three is often very dour in their lyrical outlook, and one need only listen to their version of “Our Lips Are Sealed” to get a feel for their music. Fun Boy Three are depressing.
William Hung (of American Idol fame) doing “I Believe I can Fly”. Maybe Hung’s management was ironic but I doubt Hung himself was. I had to listen to nearly the whole album once while waiting for a haircut.
Yeah, I know there’s a “depressing” angle to Fun Boy Three, especially in light of Hall’s (thankfully) unsuccessful suicide attempt, but they seem like such a trifle a band to cover such an overblown, overwrought epic as “The End.” No, Echo and the Bunnymen covering that song would not have been unexpected. Not even Billy Idol would have been that unexpected, even if he hadn’t done “LA Woman.”
Meanwhile…BREAKING NEWS:
dr john submitted the following:
Uhmph! Hall, Neville, and the third guy, whose name currently escapes me, are reeling! 1…2…3… Devo’s “Satisfaction” has taken the belt!
Lynval Golding. And Devo doing Satisfaction? Fun Boy Three doing “The End” tops that. The consumer society lyrics of Satisfaction are right up Devo’s alley.
My question, really, is when did the knowing, wink-wink, so-sincere-that-we-are-ironic-but-really-in-a-sincere-way cover become a touchstone of cool? When, in short, did post-modernism become a rock affliction?
Is bostonhistorian speaking for The People when he suggests this decision be overturned?
Good question, misterioso! I’m thinking Ben Folds helped dot some of the final i’s, but I’m sure it started long before him. Could it trace back to The Ramones, Joey in particular?
As a historian, I’m all about context. Devo was covering Secret Agent Man almost from the outset of the band. And if you’re going to pick an icon of sixties rock to cover, well, Satisfaction is one of the high points.
The last thing we want to do is mess with history. The judges have overturned their initial decision. Fun Boy Three has been called back into the ring to raise the belt over Terry’s pouff of hair!
Sorry, Devo’s cover of “Satisfaction.” We thought you won fair and square.
On his Abraham Martin & John album, Dion (not Celine) covered Purple Haze. This was the album when he was trying to break out of his teen idol/dooowop image, but Purple Haze? The orchestral folk arrangement he gives it has to be heard to be believed.
REM covered “Radar Love”
I’m a big “fan” of William Shatner’s “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”
And I think that the Cardigan’s version of “Ironman” is inspired…
Townspeeps, your rulings so far have been inspired. Do any of these recent contestants top Fun Boy Three’s “The End?” I’ll have to admit, I own that Dion album, and his straightforward folk-whatever version of “Purple Haze” may be as unexpected and disorienting.
For those who don’t know it, here’s Dion doing “Purple Haze”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCi3t7Ufa2s
And to all of you dissing Fun Boy Three, harrumph! I will go in to the ring fighting to defend Terry et al. FB3 was part of an important movement in British pop/rock. The 2-Tone bands, including the Specials and then FB3 were instrumental in at least musically addressing some integration in a very racist society. Were some of their choices bizarre? Mais bien sur! And “The End” is awful, but I will put my money on William Shatner as being even worse.
How about Joe Jackson covering… Fleetwood Mac!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AgnYVLJnMw
I love The Specials, ladymisskirroyale, but Fun Boy Three gets too ’80s for my tastes. They had a couple of good songs, but they get too ’80s for me. I don’t know what got into the water in the mid-’80s, but thankfully I never drank the stuff.
THAT is an unexpected cover, cher!
Ok – I’m mixing genres here, but a string quartet of Nirvana:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in5YVn5o52E
Or AC-DC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX7WN6JWtsw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vh3cnWLHaI
The Flying Lizards doing their cover of James Brown’s Sex Machine. The antithesis of JB. Although they both seem to be wearing similar levels of makeup.
Teen pop star Mandy Moore singing Sense Working Over Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CBitiaTkdY
gimme the belt!
Wow. I’m voting for Mandy Moore.
Mandy Moore brings a bruising submission hold to the ring. I think she may walk out with the belt.
WTF?!
How about Devo covering “Ohio”?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70WWqy0iSC8
That’s more unlikely than Satisfaction.
Jerry Casale of Devo was present at the Kent State shootings.
Good for Mandy Moore. Really. Wish she did the song well, but sometimes (often? usually?) the idea outstrips the execution with clever covers.
Mandy Moore is Mrs. Ryan Adams, if I’m not mistaken.
@bostonhistorian – Thanks for that info. I had no idea. I’m not much of a Devo expert (but I do like them).
Laurie Anderson doing “1983… (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)” kicks all ya’ll’s asses!
I’m sorry, Mr. Moderator, but I just can’t let this rest. I was thinking about your Specials vs. Fun Boy Three comments and decided to re-listen to some Specials. Imagine my horror when I re-acquainted myself with their beyond the pale rendition of Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm.” I would love to know why Jerry et. al chose to cover THAT song! At least you could say that FB3’s terrible version of “The End” is thematically related to their doom-gloom view of Thatcher’s Britain. But why, oh why, did the Specials cover a song about refusing to plant some stuff on some agrarian locale?
I thought they did “Maggie’s Farm” as a protest against Margaret Thatcher, no? Wasn’t that also being covered at Farm Aid shows around that time?
Ministry doing Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” deserves an honourable mention….
Nearly forgot… Tom Waits doing “Papa’s Got A Band New Bag”, and U2 doing ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”….mind you this last one was at a live performance in Stockholm, so in context its a bit more understandable.
Apologies up front, Ill stop flooding this thread after this. Promise.
After reading Lady Miss Kier’s post on the flying lizards doing James Brown, I thought I’d check it out for a laugh…and found this: Flying Lizards’ version of Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne”. Sinister and brooding, with hints of Cabaret Voltaire/Propoganda. Ooooh…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDs6H6OaUBo
Ministry doing “Lay Lady Lay” definitely merits consideration.
No need to apologize for catching up on past threads. We keep an extensive archive to ensure that the record of rock discourse remains open for updates.
I remember I was pretty shocked when Madonna and the Thompson Twins played “Revolution” at Live Aid.
Oh, Mr. Moderator, all I can say is “duh” about M. Thatcher. Good one.
And yes, beenreepin, I agree that the EFL’s “Suzanne” is pretty weird.
Man, the compilation that that Devo version of “Ohio” is on is a one-stop compendium of surprising covers. Don Ho’s “Shock The Monkey?”
Contextwise I want to suggest The Records doing “1984” on an early EP, but personally I’m gonna throw out Oingo Boingo’s “You Really Got Me.”
Hi, sorry to chime in late on an already-settled Battle Royale (or is it?) but I felt this was really the best place to share a discovery I made today.
Townsmen and Townswomen, I give you Simply Red covering Neil Young. And not outwardly pretty-sounding Neil Young: not “Heart of Gold” or “Harvest Moon” or “Comes a Time.” Nope, here they are covering his tortured stoned-and-soused classic “Mellow My Mind,” from Tonight’s the Night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSkf0fHu_iQ
You’re welcome.
Can I have the belt please?