Hi there. I know, it’s been awhile. How have you been?

Ordinarily I would have spent this week posting a year-end review. But there haven’t been many posts during the current Cover Freak fiscal year so it would have been a pretty meager “best of” post. I do want to let folks know what’s going on. Assuming anybody’s bothering to come around here these days.

The circumstances that caused me to put Cover Freak on hiatus have been resolved. Unfortunately other circumstances have intervened. Seems like every time I start to gear up to start posting, something else comes up. It’s been a tough year.

My hope and my plan is to start posting again, sooner rather than later. But right now I can’t say when that will be. So keep checking back occasionally, and when I start posting again I’ll also update the status of the long-neglected Cover Freak Facebook page.

Thanks,
Steve McI

It is with a heavy heart that I am putting Cover Freak on hiatus. Circumstances simply prevent me from posting at this time. My hope and my plan is to start posting again some time in the near future. The blog will still be here, feel free to check in occasionally to see if I’ve started posting again.

Before I sign off I’d like to thank everybody who has visited Cover Freak over the years. I especially want to thank the folks who took the time to email or leave comments. Having conversations with new friends has been the best part of running this blog. I’m also grateful to all of the artists, record labels, and publicists who have provided me with so much wonderful music to share.

Take care, everybody. Hopefully we’ll meet again someday.

Sorry folks, I just can’t post this week. Hopefully I’ll be back next week.

I just couldn’t come up with a theme for this week, so here’s some random goodness.

Renee And Jeremy “Daydream Believer” (The Monkees)
I’ve always liked this song and I like this acoustic version. It’s got some nice close vocal harmonies. You can find out more about Renee and Jeremy by checking out their website.

Tom Jones and Chaka Kahn”We Can Work It Out” (The Beatles)
I’ve always loved Tom Jones too. But this duet sounds terribly under rehearsed. The musical arrangement is sloppy and the vocals just don’t fit together. It’s disappointing because a duet between these two could have been so much better.

Slim Whitman “Una Paloma Blanca” (George Baker Selection)
Those of us of a certain age remember the late night TV commercials for the Slim Whitman’s Greatest Hits record. There were just enough snippets of yodeling to make you think that this must be a pretty weird album. I never did buy the album off TV but I eventually downloaded it. And it’s every bit as weird as I thought it would be.

Joan Osborne “Axis: Bold As Love” (Jimi Hendrix)
Axis: Bold As Love was the first Jimi Hendrix album I bought. I’m probably the only person who can say that. This a nice downtempo cover by Joan Osborne, who sings the hell out of any song she wraps her vocal cords around.

Dishwalla “It’s Going To Take Some Time” (The Carpenters)
I have to admire Dishwalla for making a Carpenters song not sound mopey.

Thanks For Your Support: Thanks to everybody who contributed to the care and feeding of Cover Freak over the last week. You support is greatly appreciated. And if you haven’t contributed yet, that orange button at the top of the left column isn’t going anywhere. Feel free to click it and contribute to the cause.

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Daylight Savings time ended today, giving us all an extra hour to sleep in. Unless you have children or animals who wake up at the same time regardless of what the clocks say.

Lulu Hughes “Time” (Pink Floyd)
When I was in high school I bought a copy of an almanac called the Daily Planet Almanac. It was kind of a hipster version of the Farmer’s Almanac. I think that they’ve long since stopped publishing. One of the coolest things in it was an extended discussion of time and the various ways it has been (and still is) measured. It blew my tiny little adolescent mind.

This may be the greatest Pink Floyd cover ever recorded. It’s absolutely fierce. Ms. Hughes just sings the hell out of it.

Telex “Rock Around The Clock” (Bill Haley)
Ever wonder what rock and roll would have sounded like if Bill Haley were a robot? Wonder no more.

Barry Phillips “Incense And Peppermints” (Strawberry Alarm Clock)
Whatever you do, don’t forget to turn the time back on your alarm clock. No sense in getting up any earlier than you need to tomorrow morning.

I generally try to stay away from instrumental covers of vocal songs, because I think a cover is more recognizable with the lyrics. It makes it easier to know what song is being covered and to appreciate how it’s been rearranged. But for some odd reason all of the interesting covers of this song are instrumental. I really like this version by a cello ensemble. It sounds much more ominous than the original.

Terry Holley “Jungle Love” (The Time)
Sure the Time were a completely prefabricated outlet for Prince to flex his funk muscles, but the records they put out were mighty fine. There are far too few covers of the Time, so once again we’ve gone instrumental.

Mister Atlas America USA “Tik Tok” (Ke$ha)
As I get older and more decrepit I’ve noticed that fewer and fewer clocks these days go tick tock. There’s really no reason for them to do so, but it seems that a part of our common heritage is slipping away. We have a clock from Ikea in our guest room that ticks and tocks quite loudly. So loudly in fact that our houseguests usually take it off the wall and put it in another room. Every day I love that clock a little bit more.