Cover Freak

Cover Freak is now three years old. Blogs grow up so fast. It’s been a weird and challenging year for me as I’m sure it’s been for many of you, but the blog and the conversations I’ve been able to have with my readers have been a consistent source of enjoyment.

Cover Freak is my hobby. It’s a hobby I share with the world without charge but there are expenses involved in maintaining the blog. That’s why I would like to call your attention to the top of the right column. There’s an obnoxious orange button there that says “Make A Donation” and I’d like you to consider doing so. Every year I get lots of messages from people who tell me how much they enjoy the blog. But every year I only get two donations and I’ve never gotten a donation from the U.S, where most of my readers live. That’s why I’m asking all my readers to please donate $1. It’s a modest donation, the cost of buying one song from iTunes and less than the cost of a cup of coffee or a pack of cigarettes. If you’re coming back here regularly I would hope that you’re getting a dollar’s worth of enjoyment out of the blog. If everybody who reads the blog would kick in a buck it would help me tremendously. Thanks in advance for your generosity.

And now the most notable songs from Cover Freak 2009.

Jacqui Naylor “Miss You” (Rolling Stones)
It’s strange how every new Stones album is hailed as their best since Some Girls. That album is just a cynical sellout to the disco that ruled the airwaves at the time. “Miss You” is a great example of a song that would have sunk without a trace if anybody else had recorded it. It’s a song that I have a deep and abiding hatred for. That’s why I love this cover so. Ms. Naylor’s treatment drips with menace and raw sexuality. It’s everything a great cover should be.

Kite “Breakfast In America” (Supertramp)
There aren’t a whole lot of Supertramp covers out there, probably because their songs are so intricately arranged. This version finds a great groove and periodically slaps you upside the head with some unexpected scratching.

The Jimmies “Chevy Van” (Sammy Johns)
I was in grade school when this song was a Top 40 radio hit. It had the kind of inoffensive melody that appealed to my tween sensibilities, even if I didn’t really understand what was going on inside that van. I can’t imagine any other explanation than payola for the widespread airplay of a song about picking up a hitchhiker, screwing her in the back of your van, and kicking her out in some podunk town.

The Bigfellas “Mr. Blue Sky” (Electric Light Orchestra)
The original version is famously cheerful, but every song sounds happy when it’s played on banjo and spoons. There are killer trumpet and harmonium solos in there too.

Kesang Marstrand “Say Say Say” (Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson)
When Michael Jackson died there were endless tributes and retrospectives. But this song was universally ignored. You even started hearing “Ben” on the radio, but not this. It’s like even the most hardcore Michael Jackson fans wish this song had never happened. Paul McCartney probably feels the same way. Which is why this heartfelt acoustic folk version is all the more impressive.

Beck “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat” (Bob Dylan)
There are artists I like, artists I don’t like, and artists I’m indifferent to. Beck is none of the above. Some of his stuff leaves me completely cold and some of it speaks to some primal part of my soul. One Foot In The Grave is one of the greatest albums ever made. This song snapped my head around when I first head it on the Oscars broadcast and I became obsessed with finding out who performed it. I was glad but not surprised to discover it was Beck.

Makrosoft “I Will Survive” (Gloria Gaynor)
This one makes me laugh every time I hear it. It so perfectly emulates the theme song from a 1960s James Bond movie. If I had buckets of money I’d throw some at Sean Connery and get him to make one more Bond movie just so I could use this song in it.

Sleater-Kinney “More Than A Feeling” (Boston)
When I was in high school I owned the first two Boston albums. Eventually I didn’t need to own them anymore because all the songs from them were on the radio. Then I got sick of hearing them. Years later Sleater-Kinney stripped away the arena rock trappings of “More Than A Feeling” and boiled the song down to its essence. And I enjoyed hearing the song for the first time in thirty years or so.

The Magic Numbers “Crazy In Love” (Beyonce)
An acoustic guitar, a harmonium and fragile, earnest harmonies. What else could you possibly want from a pop song?

Dump “1999″ (Prince)
Dump is an alias for Yo La Tengo bassist James McNew. This song comes from an album of lo-fi Prince covers that he put out in 2001.

Last Call
Next week is the Best Of Cover Freak 2009. If there’s something from the last year you’d like reposted, leave a comment or send me an email.

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I happened to start Cover Freak the last week of October. Since I always do a Best Of Cover Freak post when the anniversary comes around I’ve never done a Halloween-themed post. So I figured that this year I’d do one even if I had to do it a little early. Hopefully this will get you in the mood to go buy huge bags of candy.

Dr. John “Season Of The Witch” (Donovan)
Did anybody actually see Blues Brothers 2000? Was the purpose of making it purely to make a fast buck or did Dan Ackroyd also feel the need to piss on John Belushi’s grave? At least that very forgettable movie gave us this swamp-funk Donovan cover. I have a David Bromberg CD where he says in the liner notes that he’d listen to Dr. John read the phone book. I’d have to agree.

Spiderbait “Ghost Riders In The Sky” (Vaughan Monroe)
I first heard of these guys when they did a demented cover of “Black Betty.” They bring the same energy to the Vaughan Monroe classic. I especially like the Southern-fried guitar freakout near the end.

Edwin Collins “Witchcraft” (Frank Sinatra)
Smooth and keyboard-drenched, it’s modern lounge music that even the Chairman of the Board could get behind.

R.E.M. “I Walked With A Zombie” (Roky Erickson)
My daughter had one of her little friends over for a play date the other day and I got to talking with her friend’s mother about the superiority of zombies to vampires. The conversation made me think of this song, which has a great groove but is hands-down one of the dumbest songs ever written. The only lyrics are “I walked with a zombie last night” over and over and over.

Ben Taylor Band “Time Of The Season” (The Zombies)
This one’s got some great glitchy keyboards and fantastic stereo separation. Listen to it on headphones if you can.

Reminder
In two weeks I’ll be doing the year in review post. If there’s something from the last year you’d like reposted, let me know.

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Sometimes I get too far ahead of myself. I’ve been working on the themes for the next two weeks and didn’t come up with one for this week. So here are a few cool songs I’ve been listening to lately.

Martin Colyer “Windmills Of Your Mind” (Noel Harrison)
Mr. Colyer runs a site at Southwestern Recorders where he posts his very interesting music. This is from his covers EP Poisonville. This song is great musically although the lyrics still make my head hurt.

Monica Green “25 Or 6 To 4″ (Chicago)
This popped up recently on my iPod and it sounded real good to me. It’s a nice take on Chicago’s big “rocker.” I really don’t like reggae that much, even if I have been posting a lot more of it lately than I ever have before.

The Zig Zag People “Yummy Yummy Yummy” (Ohio Express)
I love the way these guys transform the cheesy original into an early 70s boogie tune. I guess it’s not that difficult if you’re an early 70s boogie band.

DJ Boosta “Fly Me To The Moon” (Johnny Mathis)
It’s still a pop song just like it ever was, but it sounds completely contemporary.

Handsome Hank And His Lonesome Boys “Black Hole Sun” (Soundgarden)
Ever wonder what it would sound like if Soundgarden was a western swing band in the 40s? Now you know.

You’re Older Than You’ve Ever Been And Now You’re Even Older
Three weeks from now will mark the third anniversary of Cover Freak. I’ll be doing the traditional Year In Review post, so if there’s anything from the last year you’d like me to repost let me know and I’ll try to work it in. If you’ve only recently started reading the blog feel free to peruse the archives and ask for something you missed. You can leave a comment or send me an email. But I won’t repost anything that was originally posted before October 2008. Don’t ask. I won’t do it.
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One of the things I do in my job is database development. I was asked to do an hour-long presentation on a specific software program that I use to develop databases. The people who asked me to do the presentation said that they would contact their customers who use the software. I would be presented as an expert and get to meet potential new customers. The folks who asked me in would be providing an hour of free training for their customers. A win-win as they say in the cliche-flinging environs of corporate boardrooms. So I spent a chunk of time working up an engaging presentation at an intermediate-to-advanced level as my hosts requested.

One problem. Nobody showed up. The folks who asked me in apparently did not adequately promote the event. A couple of people who had other business nearby wandered in and out while I was speaking, but I was never talking to more than two people at any given time and spent much of the hour talking to nobody at all.

While I was doing the presentation my mind was occupied with what I was talking about and what my next topic would be. But as I rode the train back home I had several songs running through my head…

Tok Tok Tok “Alone Again, Naturally” (Gilbert O’Sullivan)
This song is one of those very odd one-hit wonders. There are plenty of pop hits that wallow in self pity and despair but not too many that openly contemplate suicide. This version sets the lyrics to a spare jazz arrangement and the result is a heartbreaking torch song. The singer really sells this one.

Gobbleshoot “Alone Again Or” (Love)
The original version had a wonderful tension between the upbeat music and the bleak lyrics. Gobbleshoot dispenses with that tension and just ladles on the bleakness. The singer sounds like a serial killer when he says “I think that people are the greatest fun.”

Social Distortion “Alone And Forsaken” (Hank Williams)
This is one of Hank’s most harrowing songs. The folks in Social D really bring it with slashing guitars and relentless, bludgeoning percussion. This is one of those songs that raises the hair on the back of my neck every time.

Blast “I Think We’re Alone Now” (Tommy James & The Shondells)
Blast is a very good name for this band. If this one doesn’t get your heart pumping you’re clinically dead.

J. Costa “All By Myself” (Eric Carmen)
My misspent youth of shallow relationships and casual sex has left me bereft of human contact. None of my friends answer the phone when I call. Time to drop some X and hit the clubs!