Caltrops - No Stairway to Heaven

Forum Overview :: No Stairway to Heaven

by Fussbett 01/11/2003, 12:39pm PST

I'm a big fan of cover songs. Covers get abused a lot, first notably on movie soundtracks when the producers want to get a small band's track across to a big audience. Second notably covers get abused when the goat horned music executive decides to make a new band cross over into popularity but kicking off their radio play with an ear-friendly hit of yesteryear. The most egregious examples of the last 5 years for my money are Limp Bizkit's Faith, Kelly Osbourne's Papa Don't Preach, and Orgy's Blue Monday. It's nice to see this activity fail occassionally as with Deadsy's Tom Sawyer. Not coincidentally, when I first hear it I said "It's actually pretty good. It's great that they picked such a lame song from such an uncool band as well." and that should've been the tip off that it wasn't going to thrust Deadsy into the spotlight as hoped.

Here now is a list of some of my cover song collection highlights so that you too may be like me and steal them from the Internet. I'll stick to listing the harder to find ones, as simply telling you that the Red Hot Chili Peppers covered Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground is just silly because we all have the Mother's Milk album anyway, right? Ditto for tribute albums, unless the tribute album itself is obscure.

QUICKSAND - How Soon is Now?
Unbelievably killer song. Stop at nothing to get this. It's ancient Quicksand, before their first full release, and it hinted at the potential that Quicksand ultimately never lived up to. The mastering/production is a little weak, but hey, it was the early 90s. The olden days.

BLUR - Maggie May
Blur in it's simple rock mode, not being weird, and working towards making the song sound as good as it can. The acoustic elements and Albarn's vocals make it seem more honest than Rod Stewart's version.

COALESCE - Supernaut
sXe hardcore darlings Coalesce are big cover fans as well, as they also released a 7 songs all-Zeppelin tribute EP called There Is Nothing New Under the Sun and it's pretty much the best CD ever released, ever, ever. On this track, though, Black Sabbath is the victim of Coalesce's improvements. This recording makes you realize that Black Sabbath isn't really heavy at all.

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY - Fortunate Son
Bucking the convention of taking an old song and making it heavy/punky/rappy CoC instead covers this ancient CCR song as an old time southern country/honkytonk tune. Like most things CoC does, it's great and overlooked.

MELT BANANA - Surfin' USA (live)
Taken from their live album, this track is a real party pleaser. Get through the initial noise verse that grabs everyone's attention, and when the punky chorus kicks in, everyone smiles. (NOTE: There is a studio version of Melt Banana's Surfin' USA/You're Welcome which is also good on different merits).

MACHINE HEAD - Message in a Bottle
Metal sellouts Machine Head turn in an utter surprise with this track. Buried amongst a pile of laughably Korn-tastic tracks on Machine Head's 1999 album "Burning Red", Message in a Bottle is beloved my anyone who hears it. Yes, it gets heavy, but it's not predictable in any other way, and never gets stupidly metal.

JOHNNY CASH - Rusty Cage
It's really a Cash song with Chris Cornell's lyrics. Everyone shuts right up when they hear it, and people consider becoming Johnny Cash fans on the spot.

FIONA APPLE - Across the Universe
Who doesn't like Fiona Apple? Queers, that's who. I believe this song is from the soundtrack to Pleasantville. A second tier song from the third tier of the Beatles' lifespan, turned into the pinnacle of Fiona's career. Be forewarned: you will need to jerk off when listening to this song. It's like she's singing right into your ear.

I can go on like this for like 20 more songs if you people are into it.