Caltrops - No Stairway to Heaven

Forum Overview :: No Stairway to Heaven

by ToutSuite 01/12/2003, 1:15pm PST

Devo - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction From the audio blitz that was their first album, and the exclamation point on their statement that everything you thought you knew about pop music is dead.

Rolling Stones - Time Is On My Side (need to balance out the above a little bit). Their live version of this circa 1975 is just about as good as it gets. But the original studio version is pretty amazing as well.

Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun She took a pretty shitty Romantics/Knack/Cars-style early New Wave song and turned it into an anthem. Not an easy trick, and it's still a great tune now.

Miles Davis - Time After Time (balance again, folks). Cyndi also composed one of the all-time classics, and it's been covered by everyone from Bon Jovi to Cassandra Wilson. Miles' is the best version, though.

Elvis Presley - Hound Dog Yes, rock'n'roll purists will shout from now until the day they die (at this point, we're talking weeks, not years) that Big Mama Thornton got ripped off, that Elvis dissed after stealing her song and performance out from under her when they were both working the Memphis circuit, but in the end, his version is much, much better.

(can't provide balance for the King, because I don't think ever wrote anything anyone else ever bothered to cover)

Patti Smith - Because the Night/Pointer Sisters - Fire I'm not sure whether to call these cover tunes; although the Boss played them all through the (often bootlegged) 70's and 80's tours, they never appeared on an official release. Well, Fire ended up on his Live 75-85 compilation, but that doesn't count. Still, these are both viable versions, and Patti managed to keep the original sentiment of the song while composing her own verse.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Santa Clause is Coming To Town Bruce covers Phil Spector as much as he does the Crystals (nee Darlene Love) here, but if any band ever could reproduce the Wall of Sound live, it's this oversized bar band. One of those performances which brings nothing but smiles every time it comes on the radio. In December, at least.