Cover song poll

[yendi]

LJ poll behind the cut. And yes, I know I left off a ton of great covers. LJ limits polls to fifteen questions, and there have been about a zillion cover songs in the last sixty years. And yes, I also know I left Alan Jackson out of the "Summertime Blues" question. That's because, in spite of the fact that art is subjective, his cover objectively sucked rancid donkey ass, and he needs to be kneecapped on principal for producing such a travesty. But there are no wrong answers in the poll. Really.

Also, I left out all Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan covers, because there are too many of them, and almost all of them are better than the originals (let's face it, neither of them has a lovely voice).




[Poll #177677]

Comments

[gmslegion.livejournal.com]

What an incredibly neat idea! I may have to do it myself, if you don't mind somebody copying you.

[yendi]

Have at it!

[bheansidhe.livejournal.com]

I didn't answer where I hadn't heard the song (which was about a third of these, I admit).

What do you MEAN, you think Leonard Cohen can't sing?? Dude. You've got, like, major wax in the ears.

[yendi]

I love the man, but his voice is just not that good. It only works on his own songs because you can hear the emotion behind the music. But almost anytime I hear a song of his covered, that version blows me away.

[murnkay.livejournal.com]

He also prolly doesn't admit that Tom Waits is amazing either.

We can't save them all. *grin*

Racked Up Like a Deuce, Another Runner In the Night

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

Some of my responses were on principle too. F'rinstance, I don't think I know the song "Wild Night," but I could never choose John Mellencamp over Van Morrison for any reason.

Re: Racked Up Like a Deuce, Another Runner In the Night

[yendi]

I actually consider Mellencamp to be pretty solidly underrated, Morrison is still a legend.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Further questions:

"It's the End of the World As We Know It" - REM or Gream Big Sea
"Run Runaway" - original (forget name - exhausted) or Great Big Sea or Off Kilter or every other Celtic rock band out there....

Seriously lack of GBS answers. :) And yeah, I had to vote for the original "When I'm Up I Can't Get Down" simply because I heard Oysterband's version first and imprinted on it, so to speak; that's not to say I don't love GBS's version!

[yendi]

Yeah, lack of GBS was noticeable. I thought about Run Runaway, but GBS really doesn't compare to Slade's original, imho. And I ran out of room before I could do ItEotWaWKI.

[podling]

You know, it's odd. Because while I'd like to be a purist, there are very few songs I most definitely prefer in the original versions. Similarly, I almost always like live versions better than studio. Oh, and any cover by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is better than the original, it doesn't matter what it is. Okay, maybe it's just good, not better, but it's still fabulous...

[yendi]

I adore Me First, but given their all-cover nature (as well as the punk covers trend recently), I'm going more for "regular" covers.

[olliesmama.livejournal.com]

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is a great cover group...everything from Anne Murray's "Danny's Song" to John Denver's "Country Roads". What do you think of them?

[yendi]

Oh, I adore them, but for the most part, I left off punk covers, as there are just a ton of 'em.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

I refuse to participate, seeing as you don't have "Video Killed the Radio Star" on it. :)

[yendi]

Much as I love the Presidents, I don't think their version compares. And I don't know of any other covers.

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

As far as "Kiss" is concerned, I'd take Richard Thompson's version over both of 'em.

[yendi]

I'm not surprised. :-)

[bardiphouka.livejournal.com]

great..now you have me thinking..far too tired for that I am.

[aussie-nyc.livejournal.com]

I'm working on a mix CD consisting entirely of Elvis covers. Man, but there's some beautiful covers of his stuff out there, especially considering I don't much like his versions.

mmm.. Elvis covers...

[gev.livejournal.com]

The Residents - The King & Eye (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70309081213&sql=A1u6fmps39f5o) kicks ass.
AMG only gives it 2 stars. bah!

This may just be a part of my weirdness...

[justanotherg33k.livejournal.com]

...but a good cover tends to increase my esteem for the original song.

My favorite cover ever is probably 7 Seconds' rendition of 99 red balloons, although for sheer strangeness, I like the Don Ho cover of Shock the Monkey.

Re: This may just be a part of my weirdness...

[rhiannonstone.livejournal.com]

I love 7 Seconds' version of "99 Red Balloons!" I actually tend to like good punk covers of classic songs. One of my favorites is a really hardcore version of The Rolling Stones' "As Tears Go By." I don't keep up with punk and don't know who did it, but it's really good.

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I don't know many of the songs in the poll. hmm. Maybe I'll do a metal version of the poll.

[rhiannonstone.livejournal.com]

Does "Blinded by the Light" really count as a cover? I know Springsteen wrote the song, but I'm not aware of him actually recording it.

(Just surfin' by through my friendsfriends page, but I couldn't resist a cover song poll!)

[yendi]

Yup -- it was the first track on Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ.

[mermaidblue.livejournal.com]

I went with whichever version started playing in my head since in most cases i'd heard and liked them both fairly well...though my fav cover right now is couting crows of the joni mitchel song bog yellow taxi.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Do you happen to have that on mp3?

[tenn-crichton.livejournal.com]

Your right, there are a ton of cover songs and way too many to list in a poll. One you should check out, if you haven't already, is The Gourd's version of "Gin and Juice".

[dangerdean.livejournal.com]

That one rocks, as does Dynimite Hak's cover of "Boyz 'n the Hood."

Speaking of cover fun...

[gev.livejournal.com]

Fun fact: Mick Jagger prefers DEVO's cover of Satisfaction.
At least, I've never seen that disputed.

Re: Speaking of cover fun...

[yendi]

Wouldn't surprise me. It also yielded a great video.

[bouncepogo.livejournal.com]

The Judds actually did a pretty good cover of Don't Be Cruel.

[yendi]

Well, they had to do something good sometime.

Re: Cover songs

[wolfieboy.livejournal.com]

Sarah McLachlan did an excellent cover of Dear God that not enough people know about.

Re: Cover songs

[yendi]

I adore that cover. Only the fact that I was also trying to avoid covers from tribute albums kept it off this survey.

[mister-wolf.livejournal.com]

I kind'a like Leonard Cohen's voice, actually...

[pharminatrix.livejournal.com]

Yeah! That last sentence was blasphemy.

[hockeyrules88.livejournal.com]

There are a couple more that come to mind. Knockin' on Heaven's Door and Live and Let Die. Yes, GnR is the main band I am thinking about in these cases, but I love the covers they do!