I’ve never been all that interested in video games. I was a teenager during the golden age of video arcades but they didn’t do too much for me. The thing that bothered me about games like Space Invaders or Pac-Man was that you always ultimately failed. Sure, with hours of practice you could play your way through all the levels of the game, but that seemed a dubious use of your time and money even to an awkward adolescent with bad skin and no girlfriend like me.

Because I never got into arcade games or Sega or Nintendo I’ve never been very enchanted with chiptunes. The nostalgia is lost on me and the limited palette of 8-bit music tends to strike me as boring and repetitive. The other day I found out about Kind Of Bloop, an 8-bit tribute to Miles Davis’ seminal album Kind Of Blue. Andy Baio put the project together as a labor of love and went to great lengths to get approval from Miles Davis’ estate. The one thing he didn’t think about was the album’s artwork, an 8-bit version of the cover of the original album. The photographer who shot the picture on that cover threatened to sue. Even though there’s a very good chance that a court would find the artwork sufficiently transformative to qualify as fair use, Mr. Baio paid off the photographer because he couldn’t afford to go to court.

All this made me think about electronic music. And when I think about music my thoughts more often than not end up being a Cover Freak post.

Virt “Freddy Freeloader” (Miles Davis)
The music of Miles Davis is something else whose appeal eludes me. I appreciate his place in musical history and the influence that he’s had on countless musicians. You would think that Miles Davis fans could reasonably agree that his music is not for every one, but I’ve been yelled at and insulted by Miles Davis fans over the years because his music just doesn’t move me like it moves them.

At any rate, Davis fans will either love or hate this, but for my money it’s every bit as creative as the source material in its own way. Buy the album and help Mr. Baio pay his legal bills.

Dos “Hallelujah” (Leonard Cohen)
When I posted a tribute to Laughing Len, one of my readers commented about how this song has become a “solemn hymn for the depressed” since Jeff Buckley got ahold of it. He should like this more upbeat take.

Moog Cookbook “Whole Lotta Love” (Led Zeppelin)
I just couldn’t stand to post five chiptunes, so now we turn to the mighty Moog synthesizer and its chips. Just like with chiptunes there’s a lot of crappy Moog music out there. But the Moog Cookbook righteously rocks on this one.

Martin Denny “Love Me Tonight” (Tom Jones)
If you’re a fan of Martin Denny’s dense multi-layered exotica records you’ll be hugely disappointed by his Exotic Moog album. But from the perspective of a Moog album it’s wildly creative and very good. As a huge Tom Jones fan I find this song highly amusing.

Gary Schneider “Green Tambourine” (Lemon Pipers)
I originally posted this song in 2006 and Gary Schneider somehow found out about it and wrote me. He was charming and self-effacing and sent me another CD that he had recorded in his home. He even told me where to find the plans to build the box that gave him the vocal effect he used on this song. It’s still one of my favorite things that’s happened to me over the lifetime of this blog.

Mrs. Freak’s cousin Kaydee (actually her cousin’s daughter) has been staying with us for the past week. She’s been traveling around the country meeting people and getting into adventures, like Caine in Kung Fu. It’s all part of an epic journey of self-discovery that you can read more about here. Or you can stay here and read my half-assed commentary on her visit with musical accompaniment.

Tony Lewis “On The Road Again” (Willie Nelson)
This is the worst cover I’ve heard in quite a long time. It takes what was originally a joyous optimistic song and sucks all of the energy and enthusiasm out of it, leaving ghastly husk behind to frighten the children. Mrs. Freak thinks that this is just a bad song, but I beg to differ.

I’m pretty sure Kaydee is having more fun on her trip than you would expect listening to this song.

Botanica “Broken Bicycles” (Tom Waits)
Somewhere outside of Cleveland Kaydee’s car was rear-ended, which destroyed the bicycle she had hanging off the back of her car. Mrs. Freak took her to a yard sale where she found a fabulous used bike that she then traded to the owner of a local bike shop for one even more fabulous. When I told my barber this story, she asked if they then fell in love and she decided to move to Chicago. That did not happen to the best of my knowledge. There’s a post on her blog with the details.

James Mathus “Diggin’ My Potatoes” (Traditional)
As she travels across the country Kaydee is working odd jobs to pay for gas and food. After she leaves Chicago she’ll spend some time on a relative’s farm in Minnesota digging a root cellar. I know it’s not exactly digging potatoes, but you’d be surprised how few songs there are about digging root cellars.

77s “Working On A Building” (Traditional)
We have also put Kaydee to work on our house, remodeling the little mud room off our kitchen into an extension of the kitchen. She put in some cabinets and countertops to replace the hodgepodge of tumbledown shelving and old chests that were there before. And for the record, my home is not a Holy Ghost building.

James Ghofulpo “Breakfast In America” (Supertramp)
This song is about the reactions that the members of Supertramp had when they first visited America. Kaydee of course has lived here her whole life so her impressions are probably a little different as she drives across the country. I have not seen her eating kippers for breakfast, but I did see her eat an ice cream concoction and onion rings for dinner.

I’ve been working on a difficult project lately. The more I worked on it the more hopeless it has seemed and the more my despair has grown. But the dark pit of my existential angst was recently brightened by a small ray of hope. I’ll take all the help and encouragement I can get right now so I’m celebrating the power of hope.

Rock Box “Wishin’ And Hopin'” (Dusty Springfield)
This song isn’t about hope so much as it is about the fact that hoping for something isn’t enough. You need to take action to make your wishes into reality. That’s what I’m doing, but it’s a whole lot easier to do something if you have hope that it will accomplish something.

This is an interesting version, it’s got that 50s vocal harmony thing going on.

Stiff Little Fingers “You Can Get (It If You Really Want)” (Jimmy Cliff)
These guys were an Irish punk band around the height of The Troubles. They were angry. Really, really angry. Which is why this song seems so out of character, both for its positive sentiment and for its relatively cheerful delivery. Again we’re advised that you must “try and try” to make your hopes reality.

The Go Set “Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards” (Billy Bragg)
When Billy Bragg was starting his career he was hung with the unfortunate label of the “next Bob Dylan.” His record label even helpfully branded his songs as “urbane folk music.” Around that time I was a college radio disk jockey and I did a very interesting phone interview with him. I found him to be thoughtful and quite funny. By the time he wrote this song he was chafing a bit at his role as the socialist-poet poster boy. The Great Leap Forwards for Billy is an escape from the trendy revolutionary scenesters as well as the revolution that those people say they want.

Beat Farmers “Reason To Believe” (Bruce Springsteen)
I’m not a big fan of Bruce Springsteen. I like a few of his songs when they’re done by other people, like this one from the immortal Beat Farmers. I feel sorry for all the people who never got a chance to see the Beat Farmers perform live before Country Dick Montana died.

This song is a commentary on how people sometimes cling to hope, manufacturing it even, in order to get through their lives. That’s not me. This is real, certifiable hope I’m talking about here. Really.

Dar Williams “Better Things” (The Kinks)
This song is pretty much pure optimism. “I’m sorry that things have been rough for you but be optimistic and better things will happen.” I’ve always been amused by the line “I hope that all the verses rhyme and the very best of choruses to follow.” Ray Davies has never been one to let a lyric get in the way of a good melody.

Chicago is the world’s second largest Polish city. The only city with more Polish people in it is Warsaw. It was a very big deal around here when Pope John Paul II came to visit. There are thousands of storefronts all over town that have signs that proclaim “Mowimy Po Polsku” (We Speak Polish).

I drive through a Polish neighborhood on my way to and from work and stopped on my way home the other day at a strip mall storefront restaurant with a sign in front that simply said POLISH FOOD. So I got a small round loaf of bread stuffed with chicken, turkey, and huge amounts of cabbage. There were three shakers on every table: salt, pepper, and paprika. And as I sat there sprinkling paprika on my sandwich and listening to the Polish pop music they were playing I couldn’t help but think about all the Polish covers I have. And of course I couldn’t help but share a few of them with all of you.

Lubomski “Psychobojca (Psycho Killer)” (Talking Heads)
This is faster than the original studio version, much closer to the version on the live Talking Heads album. It features a nice rubbery bass line. Unfortunately the singer does not attempt to sing the French parts in French. At least I don’t think he does. Maybe he’s singing in French with a really thick Polish accent and I can’t tell.

Pidzama Porno “Pasazer (The Passenger)” (Iggy Pop)
I’m trying to learn this song on the mandolin and the thing I’ve been concentrating on is that distinctive chugging rhythm. It’ s currently kicking my ass but I’m not about to admit defeat. These folks don’t have that problem, they’ve got the cadence down and they’ve added some nice horns to boot.

Kazik Staszewski “Niewinna kiedy sni (Innocent When You Dream)” (Tom Waits)
Tom Waits has said that the only two types of songs he writes are Grim Reapers and Grand Weepers. This is one of the Weepers and even if you can’t understand what Mr. Stazewski is saying there’s no mistaking the sentiment of the song. And that is the brilliance of Tom Waits’ songwriting in a nutshell.

Polish TV Supergroup “Ptak na drucie (Bird on a Wire)” (Leonard Cohen)
This is from a TV special entitled “Songs Of Love And Hate: The Music Of Leonard Cohen” that was broadcast 1978. In the U.S. in the 70s you would occasionally see a variety show tribute to a musical artist, I’ve got the soundtrack to one that featured the music of the Beatles. I just can’t imagine any U.S. TV network broadcasting a tribute to Leonard Cohen.

In case these names mean anything to you, the musicians on this song include: Marek Jackowski (guitar), John Porter (guitar), Jacek Bednarek (double bass), Jan Kanty Pawluskiewicz (piano, vocals), Teresa Haremza (vocals), Kora Ostrowska (vocals), Elzbieta Adamiak (vocals), Andrzej Poniedzielski (vocals, guitar), Waldemar Chylinski (vocals), Maciej Zembaty (vocals).

Analogs “Strzelby z Brixton (Guns of Brixton)” (The Clash)
Being a Slavic language, Polish is not quite as, um, lyrical as the Romance languages. Which is a good thing on this aggressive pissed off take on the immortal Clash track.

As you may know, Chicago has a new mayor, ending the 20-year reign of Daley The Younger. Daley’s time in office has left quite a mark on the city. He planted lots of trees, made Chicago much more bicycle-friendly, and of course gave us Millennium Park and The Bean.

His power was largely unchecked and he was able to make his whims reality. For instance he took a junket to Europe and was enchanted by all the wrought-iron fencing he saw in Amsterdam. So he came home and decreed that Chicago should look like that. Every public park in the city was surrounded with “ornamental iron” fencing. Every building permit for a parking lot or a new building required that the property owner purchase said ornamental iron from a politically-connected fencing company. I would have preferred that he fell in love with some other aspect of Amsterdam because I just don’t see the charm in having a gas station surrounded by iron fencing.

The thing is, this type of fencing is incredibly high-maintenance. It requires nearly constant scraping, priming, and painting to prevent it from rusting. On my way to work I drive through less-affluent parts of the city where the property owners don’t have the money, time, or inclination to maintain their required fencing. And so it’s all begun to rust away. And there’s nothing like block after block of rust to make a city look down on its luck. Somehow it just doesn’t look like the ‘Dam.

Which is a long-winded way of saying that I’ve been thinking about rust lately.

Taylor Mitchell “Diamonds And Rust” (Joan Baez)
I had been listening to the Judas Priest version of this song for years before I discovered that they didn’t write it. As much as I love what Priest did with the song, it’s a little too well-known for Cover freak. So instead I picked this version that’s slinkier than Joan Baez and not as aggressive as the closeted gay man dressed in leather and spikes.

I’ve always liked this song because it’s bitter and angry but still acknowledges the good memories from a failed relationship, the “diamonds” of the title.

Rust “Ordinary World” (Duran Duran)
Duran Duran’s music is lush and stylish but the lyrics can be surprisingly dark. Rust mines the darkness and threat in this song.

Rusted Root “Evil Ways” (Santana)
When you think of patchouli-stinking hippie jam bands, Rusted Root has to be near the top of the list. And they do a buoyant polyrhythmic Grateful-Dead-parking-lot drum circle job on this tune. Not quite to my taste but it’s got a good beat and you can dance to it.

Johnny Cash “Rusty Cage” (Soundgarden)
This of course comes from the wonderful American Recordings series that Johnny Cash did with Rick Rubin. Those recordings are consistently excellent and gave Johnny well-deserved recognition and a wider audience late in his life. But you’ve got to wonder what he thought about the lyrics of some of the songs Rubin brought to him. I don’t think Johnny ever wrote a song about burning dinosaur bones and riding packs of dogs.

The song doesn’t mention whether the rusty cage in question is made of ornamental iron, but if it was built in Chicago you can bet it is.

Rusty Wright “Summertime” (comp. George Gershwin)
It’s hard to believe that it’s Memorial Day and summer stretches before us, what with all the chilly weather and tornadoes and floods happening. But that is indeed the case and to get you in the mood for barbecue season here’s a bluesy take on the jazz standard.