"My 3 Songs" for Thursday

Drew Brosi of New Richmon WI writes today, "These are three of my favorite cover songs. I picked these because they are so completely different from the originals. The artists have taken these songs and made them their own. Anybody can cover a song, it takes finesse and talent to do what these three artists have done with these songs."

1) Johnny Cash, "Rusty Cage"
2) Halloween, Alaska, "I Can't Live Without My Radio"
3) Jeff Buckley, "Hallelujah"

Great choices, Drew!

Johnny Cash certainly got into a mode of recording unexpected covers toward the end of his career, in the Rick Rubin-produced years; Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" easily being the most noted, but I appreciate your choice of the Soundgarden cover, being not quite as overplayed it seems to me. As for Halloween, Alaska, let's not forget how they turned Springteen's "State Trooper" into something sounding like The Blue Nile; and as I mentioned, Jeff Buckley now practically owns "Hallelujah." If you cover that song, it's hard not to cover Jeff Buckley's version.

But while we're on the subject of artists turning covers into their own songs, I gotta put in a plug for this guy.

I was explaining to a friend just yesterday how Sun Kil Moon's new album is pretty good; he didn't care for Tiny Cities, which led to a conversation about covers and re-interpretations.

I think the dividing line on Tiny Cities is whether or not you were already emotionally committed to the originals. Coming at that record as someone who's a huge Kozelek fan but who is ambivalent about MM/Isaac Brock (I don't dislike MM, I just don't have a strong opinion about them), I thought the disc was tremendous. But hoo boy, I sure do understand why is was savaged in some quarters.