I’ve had a busy week, so I had no time to come up with a theme.

Andy Prieboy “On The Road Again” (Canned Heat)
Andy Prieboy used to sing for Wall of Voodoo, taking over when Stan Ridgway left. These days he apparently hangs out in Los Angeles writing novels and releasing the occasional album.

Bryan Ferry “The ‘In’ Crowd” (Dobie Gray)
Greg Kot, the rock music critic for the Chicago Tribune, wrote a column last week about cover songs. The occasion was the impending release by Bryan Ferry of an album of Bob Dylan covers. Mr. Kot published a list of his favorite covers, I sent him a list of mine, and he even wrote back.

At any rate the column got me thinking about my favorite Bryan Ferry covers. This is one of them.

Nostalgia 77 “Seven Nation Army” (The White Stripes)
I’m not a huge White Stripes fan. The drumming gets on my nerves pretty quickly so I can’t listen to their music for very long.

That said, I think that many of their songs make for good cover material because they’re so stripped down to begin with. It leaves other artists a lot of room to put their own stamp on the songs. This song is a wonderful, funky example.

Petra Haden “Mary Ann With The Shaky Hand” (The Who)
Petra Haden recorded an a capella version of The Who Sell Out. A very ambitious undertaking, but she pulls it off wonderfully.

Oranger “Mister Sandman” (The Chordettes)
Reader B. Halsey turned me on to the Stubbs The Zombie videogame soundtrack. Not being a gamer I was unaware of the album, but it’s chockablock with great covers.

And as a reminder folks, if you have any covers lying around that you think I’d be interested in please drop me a line.