The Current Music Blog
< Live Blogging 01/16/08 | Main | The Stream 01/17/08 >

"My 3 Songs" for Wednesday

Posted at 12:19 PM on January 16, 2008 by Steve Seel (2 Comments)

Purely coincidentally (really), today's set dovetails with a conversation that Mark Wheat already started about the art of cover songs, which you can join in on when you click that link. Harry LeBlanc of Mpls writes, "I thought it would be interesting to highlight the mysterious art of cool cover tunes. All three of these tunes are about various kinds of agony (I'll say, Harry), and so I think they hang together as a set. It was difficult to choose, as there are so many cool covers; the list could go on -- someone should have a show, or a feature, that was an hour of cool covers."

1) Johnny Cash, "Hurt" (originally by Nine Inch Nails)
2) The White Stripes, "Jolene" (made famous by Dolly Parton)
3) Gary Jules, "Mad World" (originally by Tears for Fears)

Harry also notes, "Other songs I considered are The Police's 'Walking on the Moon' done by Doug Wamble; Brian Eno's 'Third Uncle' done by Bauhaus; Patti Smith's 'Because the Night' done by 10,000 Maniacs; and the Beatles 'Dear Prudence' done by Siouxsie and the Banshees."

Comments (2)

Boy, that Gary Jules cover is creepy sad. A very effective cover.

I also like the Cash NIN cover, even though Cash's voice was getting kind of weak toward the end of his career. He brings a lot of poignancy to the tune.

Posted by Auntie | January 16, 2008 9:34 PM

bauhaus' version of "third uncle" - i had forgotten about that - that cover just rawks! (i can't believe i just wrote that!) what i mean, tho, is its so propulsive - it just doesn't stop - it makes me tired just listening to it. its definitely one of the great covers of the '80's.

another great overlooked "rocking" '80's cover would be Peter Murphy's version of Pere Ubu's "Final Solution". i always loved the several seconds of silence right after the line "guitar's gonna sound like nuclear destruction." Amen.

Posted by david | January 17, 2008 9:19 AM

January 2008
S M T W T F S
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31    


Master Archive
Recent Entries
Tools
Categories
Services
Become a Sponsor