Townsman Tvox, while necessarily donning the Pince Nez for a correction in a recent thread, made this interesting admission regarding a cool cover his old band used to feature:
The Wishniaks used to cover Peter Laughner‘s “Sylvia Plath”. Only we covered the version done by Philly locals The Johnsons. To this day, I don’t think I’ve heard the Laughner version.
I was reminded of how many years passed before I finally heard the original version of “Louie Louie” or even “Twist and Shout”. I did hear the originals eventually, but I’m sure there are still songs I know well in a cover form without ever having heard the original. I’ve got to think about this. How about you? Have you ever had an experience like the one Tvox expressed, whether you’d covered the cover version or not?
I’ve only heard the Talking Head’s ‘Take Me To The River’, never Al Green’s.
I’d only heard the Herman’s Hermits cover of ‘I’m Into Something Good’ until about a week ago. The Earl-Jean original has a real loose, earthy sexuality to it that’s far superior. The Hermit’s are *dorks* by comparrison.
ball of confusion by love and rockets
i once heard the original by whoever that is drive by on a car radio doing the doppler thing.
i have also heard a cover of the L&R version by some college band!?!
“Someone’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight” was made famous by both The Rezillos and Rubber City Rebels.
Most people don’t know that it was originally written and recorded by an pre-Buckingham/Nicks version of Fleetwood Mac.
Speaking of early Fleetwood Mac, I’ve never heard their “Black Magic Woman.” I only know Santana’s version.
I had no idea “I’m Into Something Good” was a cover! Put me down for that one too. Homefront, you better hope Epluribusgergely doesn’t reappear anytime soon and see your Herman’s Hermits dig. The man has been known to go to the mats for them. I’d guess they’re part of his Holy Trinity of Rock – I’d guess Herman’s Hermits, Hank Williams, and Major Lance. Let’s hope he reads this and gets back to trying to give me hell here in the Halls of Rock.
I’d never heard Fleetwood Mac’s “Black Magic Woman” until a few years ago. Good one, Oats.
The first one that came to mind was Boy George’s version of the theme song to the movie The Crying Game, but there are too many to list here.
A bunch of Bob Dylan covers, like When Did You Leave Heaven, which is on Down in the Grove. Just the other day I found on a blog a recording of Hank Snow doing I Don’t Hurt Anymore, which I had previously only heard on The Genuine Basement Tapes.
I’ve probably heard the originals of very few of the folk/blues/etc songs on those early Ry Cooder albums that meant so much to me on the 70s.
How many of you have heard the original of Mr. Moonlight? Not me. A Taste of Honey?
I was pretty stunned the first time I heard Nina Simone’s “Wild Is the Wind”, having only heard Bowie’s. I don’t know who wrote it.
Also, my brother was coming out of a Kinks show decades ago in Harrisburg, and heard two chippies ahead of him discussing how they had “ruined a perfectly great Van Halen song!”
Also, trivia passed on by my brother today: Thin Lizzy was supposed to be “Tin Lizzy” based on some photo of Eric Clapton reading a comic book or some such, but for their first real gig, the person booking supposedly chalked it up to Lynott’s Dublin accent, “T’in Lizzy.” If it’s apocryphal, it’d pass on Hollywood Squares!
Good ones, BigSteve. I have NOT heard those early Beatles’ covers in any earlier, original form.
By the way, HFR, Al Green’s “Take Me to the River” was disappointing the day I tracked it down and heard it. I like a lot of Al Green and knew a few of his albums well since childhood, but Talking Heads did him a big favor in covering that song with some style and drama.
Mr Mod:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoRI53s1Szk
‘…Something Good’ is a Goffin / King song. I have a feeling my holy trinities involve songwriting partnerships rather than artists, and they’re one of the major ones for me.
I wasn’t actually having a dig at Herman’s Hermits, (they’re lightweight fun, in much the same manner as the Monkees), but they sound like uptight dorks compared to that version.
Earl-Jean really sells the song, with a sexy, playful performance over the laid back Sunday Morning vibe of the backing. She really sounds like she did more than ‘held his hand’, and knows it. The song sounds like more about what she’s coyly keeping from the listener than what she’s telling. Love those playful bass swoops her voice does too.
I’m listening to Flamin’ Groovies Now right now, and hearing my favorite song from that album, “Up’s and Down’s”, just reminded me of another song that fit this bill until just a couple of months ago, when a Townsperson posted the Paul Revere and the Raiders’ version (I assume the original). I had no idea who did that song before the Groovies.
I didn’t think the Pogues wrote “Dirty Old Town” necessarily, though I never checked the credits, and they make it sound like it’s theirs, but I was surprised this evening when it turned up on yet another 4.99 Rod Stewart CD from the drugstore. This one is The Rod Stewart Album, from 1969. His first under his name. I know he gets a lot of well deserved crap, but maybe it’s because he was such a figure of utter mockery and derision when I was in high school (late 70s.0 But now I find myself liking these first few records. Go CVS!
True dat. It’s by Ewan MacColl. The same is true of Eric Bogle’s And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda which ends that same album. I’ve never heard the original, but MacGowan just owns that song while he’s singing it.
Those first few Rod Stewart albums are pretty great, as was his work with Faces. If we could get over how bad he got so quickly, we’d be comfortable recognizing him as a near great. I think.
Amen, Mr. Mod. I never looked into the early solo Rod Stewart records because by the time I’d heard of him, and long before I knew much about rock and roll at all, he was considered anathema by almost everyone I knew while his worst songs were everywhere.
To this day, and now that I have some of that music, I can shock people by saying “Well, early Rod Stewart was actually really good,” and then proving it. It leaves people speechless sometimes, and if that ain’t part of the fun of having a good record collection, I don’t know what is.
Eric Bogle is Australian, ‘And the band…” was a hit in 1972, and it’s been covered many times, including one by Midnight Oil.
Between that and ‘Bound for South Australia’ I originally assumed the Pogues were Australian, before I really heard them.
The Futureheads cover “Hounds of Love,”:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=amh8V-MopUI&feature=related
originally by Kate Bush:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QFMqV2FfPNk&feature=related
I waited till after posting this to listen to the original so that I’m not cheating on the premise of this string.
Wow, that’s a pretty weird song for the Futureheads to have covered, Mac – and being the age that I am I’m slightly suprised you’d never heard the Kate Bush version. Pretty cool approach on the cover version. That Kate Bush album was the beginning of the end for the brief thing I had for her following The Dreaming.
I lived a somewhat sheltered (although not repressive) music life (Beach Boys, Carpenters, Anita Kerr, and quite a few Christian bands) and didn’t have free range of buying music until close to the end in high school. So my formative rock years don’t really start until 93/94, almost 10 years after she put out that album. I’m slowly, but surely filling in the 80’s gaps.
I am still a big fan of the song “In My Own Time” by The Three O’Clock from the mid-80’s, and it was only in the last few years that I finally heard the Bee Gees’ original version of it (circa 1967 or so). Now I like them both!