Netiquette Reminder: I’m always grateful when people link their web pages and blogs to Cover Freak. I prefer that people link to the Cover Freak HTML (either the main page or the particular post they’re interested in) and not link to the URL of the mp3 file. It’s also best to provide some attribution about where that link is coming from. Thank you.

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While I am technically considered part of the Baby Boom generation I’ve never felt that I was part of that group. The Boomers grew up watching Howdy Doody on TV. I grew up watching Captain Kangaroo because Howdy had long since been canceled. I was four years old during the Summer of Love and my only memory of the Chicago Democratic Convention was that my dad couldn’t take my brother and me to the museum like we’d planned because people were rioting downtown.

Because Classic Rock radio is programmed by Boomers I grew up hearing the Beatles, Who, and Rolling Stones more or less constantly. Their music always seemed to me the property of another generation and I heard it all so often that I got sick of it. That’s why I’m not a real big fan of any of those bands. I understand that they’re a big part of many people’s lives and there’s a song or two from each I like. But the nice thing about covers is that they give me a chance to hear songs by bands I don’t particularly like in a new way. Today’s object lesson is the Stones.

Jacqui Naylor “Miss You” (The Rolling Stones)
I absolutely despise this song. For me it defines the term “disco sellout.” In fact the Some Girls album marks the point at which I gave up completely on the Stones. But Jacqui Naylor makes it something smoking and erotic. It might even make me check out Some Girls again. Maybe.

Dolapdere Big Gang “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (The Rolling Stones)
Ever wonder what it would sound like if the Glimmer Twins were Turkish Gypsies? Now you know.

Marc Almond “Paint It Black” (The Rolling Stones)
As much as I love Soft Cell’s song “Sex Dwarf” I think this might be the ultimate expression of Marc Almond‘s art. The syrupy strings, the gregorian-chant style background vocals, the melodramatic singing– this song has it all. I didn’t realize that he’s got a new-ish album of covers out. The clip of him doing “Dream Lover” sounds like it’s worth the price of admission alone.

Social Distortion “Under My Thumb” (The Rolling Stones)
So much has been written about how dangerous the Stones seemed to a square public when they started out, especially compared to the Beatles. Social Distortion really sounds dangerous to me. And pissed off.

Steve Earl “Sweet Virginia” (The Rolling Stones)
When I write a post about a particular band I like to include a song where that band covers somebody else’s song. They’re the band that everybody wants to cover, what does it sound like when they interpret songs they didn’t write? That’s what usually ends up in the five-hole on posts like this.

One can make the argument that many Stones songs are covers because their career has been built on plundering the music they listened to as teenagers. When they actually do cover another artist’s song the results range from dull and unimaginative to absolutely terrible. So rather than subject my readers to that I’m just going to include this soulful version of one of the Stones songs that I like.