I love cover versions. I love searching for different takes on tracks I like and yet hate movie remakes. Is that weird? Hypocritical? I don't know but that's just the way it is.I find cover versions often lead me to bands I otherwise wouldn't have known. For example, my most recent search has been 'Running Up That Hill' by Kate Bush. Of course most people will know Placebo's version, which I love. But I also found a version by Chromatics, which I really like, and a version by some goth-by-numbers band called Icon and the Black Roses.
And while calling it 'goth-by-numbers' could be seen as an insult, I checked out the album and it's actually really good. There's not a damn thing on it that you wouldn't have heard before but they do it so well it's hard to fault them. And that's how Kate Bush led to me finding an album I otherwise would have missed.
I was going to illustrate this post with a doodle of me as Charlie Brown or something, like a remake. But I had this image in a notebook and, for some reason, went with this instead. It just kind of gets across the current mood yet looks far more cool than the reality. I wish I has an Astro Andy shirt.
And a cup of coffee.
Actually, I think I'll go make a cup of coffee. That would be nice.
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4 comments:
Dear Sir, I have a similar relationship with covers/remakes. I think that the reason is that because covers are "safe", bands are allowed to be wild with them. To reinterpret in a way that may be more creative than the artist replaying their 20 year old hit again.
Because movies are so incredibly expensive, no movie investment is ever really safe. So a remake is tied to both the expectations of a movie that is already known to be very good and to the usual pressures.
In addition, the ability to play a broad variety of songs is considered a sign o a good musician. Being a good composer just isn't the same as being a good musician
Compare this exciting small group performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO1uMjz3n3w
To this stodgy big band performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok-3nCIhyTQ
Musical reinvention tends to be better and more "natural" than movie reinvention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqc209-rwNI
Seriously, make some Astro Andy t-shirts, I'll buy one, fuck I'll buy TEN.
I love covers, I prefer covers to most original music. A friend of mine 'used to' do a cover once a month of a song I may or may not have ever heard before (he's not dead or anything, just been very busy winning the 2008 World Air Guitar Championship) and I play his covers more often than the originals - I'm crazy like that.
I hate movie remakes, especially remakes that waste my time - Gus Van Sant's PSYCHO; scene by scene the same entire movie but somehow missing the entire mark by fourty thousand fucking lightyears.
Seriously, if I wrote a book page by page exactly the same I'd be sued for plagiarism on a grand fucking scale, these jerkoff's "re-interpret" a classic movie much the same way as my taking a shit is "re-interpreting" a sandwich and they win a multitude of awards and are then given more money to make shitty original movies, bomb at the box office, and then are never heard of again, hopefully buried next to Jimmy fucking Hoffa.
You may have guessed - I feel strongly about a few things.
Hey Bit,
make an Astro Andy Shirt so that Sephim will buy ten and I can buy one.
You should check out Zazzle(dot)Com. they are infinitely better than Cafe Press.
I've used them before, and might i recommend you pick up an official DoubleDateCollective ringer tee there too?
:D
http://tinyurl.com/6xpdmc
You can even take some of your comics and put em on black shirts, I would buy one of those in a heartbeat too.
Speaking of heartbeats, how's yours doing?
lay off that coffee man... (i know, tis hard)
i am trying to wean myself off of coffee and making the switch to tea.
I love coffee too much though.
-jeaux
I have a doctor's appointment now so will get this whole chest pains 'I'm about to drop dead' thing checked out.
That Zazzle site looks great and it would be very cool to be able to have t-shirts of my own design. The base price is quite high but it would still be fun.
I had a browse through yours, Jeaux, and there's some great stuff there. The 'Hung Over' one is particularly excellent. I may just have to pick up one of those even if hangovers are a very rare occurrance for me these days.
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