I received a piece of hate mail last week. Maybe hate mail is too strong a description, it told me how bad the blog is. It was weirdly generic and didn’t mention any specific examples about what was so terribly wrong with Cover Freak. It was the first email of its kind that I’ve received in the six years I’ve been doing this. I’m sure the writer’s intent was to hurt my feelings but instead he left me perplexed.
He had to go through a little effort to send me the email. He had to go to the contact page, fill out the form and the anti-spam captcha. Which seems like a silly thing to do to complain about a free blog. It would have been easier to just leave a comment but he was probably afraid that if he did that he’d get verbally abused by regular readers who enjoy the blog. All in all it seems to me that if he didn’t like Cover Freak he could just go away. I’m quite certain that of all the people who read Cover Freak once the majority never come back, and I’m fine with that. I’ve never tried to be all things to all people.
In the end I just don’t understand this guy’s motivation or intent. He seems to just be a very small person with a heart full of hate. But still we can all thank him for prompting this week’s meditation on hate and love.
Reel Big Fish “We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful” (The Smiths)
The easy way to view the hater is that he’s jealous. But it would be weird for somebody to be jealous of the modest success I’ve enjoyed with Cover Freak. The Sweedes Please guy influences the scope of popular music in Sweden from his nerve center in my suburban Chicago hometown. That’s somebody to be jealous of. Me, not so much.
Richard Cheese “She Hates Me” (Puddle Of Mudd)
The hater’s love note wasn’t overtly personal, it just criticized the content of the blog. But since I’m the one who puts this blog together it really was a personal attack. So I guess you could say he freakin’ hates me. But when I listen to this swanky Richard Cheese cover I smile and just don’t care.
Joan Jett “Love Is All Around” (From The Mary Tyler Moore Show)
My original intent was to post at least four songs about hate this week. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any covers at all for my two favorite hate-filled songs (by Manowar and Tonio K). And besides, how much hate does anybody really want to deal with?
The cure for hate, of course, is love. Love is all around and you don’t even need to throw your hat in the air to find it. I like one spunky woman singing the theme song from a TV show about another spunky woman.
Leonard Nimoy “Put A Little Love In Your Heart” (Jackie DeShannon)
I kinda hope the hater comes back because based on his email this song would make his head explode. It’s really an awful cover, but Mr. Nimoy’s heart was in the right place. I understand that he was something of a hippie back in the day and really felt like he was using his celebrity to promote a positive, socially useful message. It’s just a damn shame that he couldn’t sing a lick.
Joan Osborne “Love’s In Need Of Love Today” (Stevie Wonder)
This is another twee hippie-dippie kinda song, but on this one Joan Osborne sings the hell out of it. Like she does with every song she sings.
I’m not generally vocal on the blogs I subscribe to, but this prompted me to let you know I’ve been following CF for a few years now and have enjoyed countless hours of great music I’d have otherwise never been exposed to. I also wanted to mention that I enjoy the writing that ties the songs’ overarching themes together. Thank you for the blog. It’s appreciated.
Could not have said it better myself.. this is a great site with very interesting covers. Thank you.
I loved CF from the moment I stumbled across it a couple of years ago, and I’ve been coming back every week since. Yes, some of the music isn’t great, but I listen to everything you post and enjoy most of it. Keep up the good work.
Yeah, I don’t get that either. No one could like EVERYTHING on any blog, and often my opinions or tastes differ from your, but, jeez, that’s normal. I for one appreciate this blog very much and am only sorry I haven’t left you my thanks and good on ya sooner.
Hey you’re the greatest blog ever. Nasty little evil hate mailer.
Oops, sorry, I managed to send the letter ‘t’ as my comment in the previous entry!!??
I really wanted to say that if someone is so miserable and angry that they feel the need to send this sort of stuff, maybe they deserve our sympathy for their personal misery, rather than our anger? They must be feeling really bad if they are inspired to write this aggressive nonsense?
It’s amazing how a few people seem to think it is ok to blast someone on a blog, when they probably wouldn’t think about doing this in a one to one conversation?
What do you think?
Ian
I’ve discovered a lot of great music on this site over the years. To criticize a blog because the content isn’t tailored to ones own personal taste seems beyond pointless. Keep up the good work. Most of us appreciate what you do but never comment.
-A
Thanks for all the kind words folks, I truly do appreciate the support.
Ian, you’re a better person than I am. I would like to have sympathy for the hater and I tried to do that, but the best I could come up with is saying “the heck with him.”
Andy, it’s funny that you mention the “silent majority” of readers. When I was doing college radio I got very few phone calls when I was on the air. But whenever I had to miss an air shift whoever covered for me would always tell me that the phone rang off the hook with people asking where I was. I guess people listened to my show just to hear what I’d do next and didn’t want to interrupt.