Caltrops - No Stairway to Heaven

Forum Overview :: No Stairway to Heaven

by Zseni 01/11/2003, 5:10pm PST

Jacques Brel, the hardcorest chansonnier evar, got his ass covered six ways from Sunday by my dizzawg Scott Walker. To look up, next time you're downloading random crap on sko file sharing program: Next, Funeral Tango, Amsterdam, If You Go Away, My Death. Scott did a lot of cover versions in his MOR years but the Brel stuff was his baby and it shows.

Lewis Taylor's version of Jeff Buckley's "Everybody Here Wants You" was a jaw-dropping improvement on an original that nobody could believe capable of improvement; Lewis injects the original with a langorous sensuality that dampened all the panties of the two or three people who ever heard this cover. Look it up and that's an order.

David Bowie, fabulously covering Scott Walker's "Nite Flights" - also the only song worth anything on the excreable "Black Tie White Noise" album. Sensational vocal work. Bowie also covered "Across The Universe" on Young Americans, but Lennon himself, who worked on the album (the Bowie/Lennon duet Fame is on the same one), was astonished to see what he considered a b-side track push off the a-side original "Who Can I Be Now". The latter didn't see the light of day again until the Ryko re-issue of Young Americans.