It’s been a rough week for me. Of course we had the blizzard that started Tuesday night. Tuesday night I was stricken with the flu and praying to the porcelain god. That lasted until Wednesday, at which point I promptly came down with a nasty head/chest cold. Mrs. Freak heroically shoveled most of the snow before she split for warmer climes but I still had to chisel my way through a major snow drift to get our cars out of the garage.

So now I’m tired. Bone weary. I really need some sleep.

Mule Train “Where Did You Sleep” (Lead Belly)
This song is generally done as a sad blues song, but it always seemed to me that there was a deep vein of anger there. Consider that vein tapped in this incredibly pissed-off cowpunk version.

Hideki “I’m Only Sleeping” (The Beatles)
If my daughter is around while I’m working on a Cover Freak post she is generally unimpressed by the music I’m previewing. This one actually prompted her to come into my office and listen. It helps that she’s a Beatles fan but this is a nice rollicking take on a Beatles song you don’t hear all that often.

Terry Hill & Marijne “Dream A Little Dream Of Me” (Frankie Laine)
Speaking of my daughter, Mrs. Freak used to sing this song to her at bedtime. Maybe that’s why I find this cover so gosh darn charming.

The Dandy Warhols “All I Have To Do Is Dream” (Everly Brothers)
There’s a new generation out there that relates to video games the same way that my generation relates to television and movies. I was surprised when a Cover Freak reader turned me on to the soundtrack from the game Stubbs The Zombie. The idea that a video game would have a soundtrack beyond that annoyingly repetitive Super Mario music was very good to know. And I was even happier that most of the music on that soundtrack was very good.

Sleepy LaBeef “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” (The Carter Family)
When I saw Sleepy LaBeef he didn’t seem sleepy at all. He was actually pretty feisty. I don’t know if he was playing with a pickup band like Chuck Berry does or if there was some deeper problem, but he started chewing out his guitar player on stage and threatening to fire him on the spot. It was both amusing and uncomfortable to watch.

If you’re curious about who that woman is singing with Sleepy, it’s Maria Muldaur.

The Academy Award nominees were announced last week. Having a young child I don’t often get a chance to see any of the nominated movies (or actors unless they’re doing a voice in an animated movie). I tend to focus on the music nominees because they’re a bit more accessible to me. It’s always good to see Randy Newman get nominated, even if it’s for yet another bit of sentimental pap from a Pixar movie.

When you look at a list of the songs that have won an Oscar several things stand out. First is how many of them are from Disney movies. Second is how many of them have since become forgotten footnotes to musical history. Here are some of the most enduring Oscar winners, and some of the best covers of the obscure ones.

Dave Alvin And The Guilty Women “Que Sera Sera” (from The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1956)
This is Dave Alvin with his all-girl backing band. You should see them if you ever get the chance, they rock pretty hard. They slip into an easy groove on the Doris Day classic.

Little Richard “Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah” (from Song Of The South, 1947)
Ah, the Great Lost Disney Movie. Song Of The South has never been released in its entirety in the U.S. on home video because the good folks at Disney thought that some folks might perceive it as racist. Clips from the movie, most notably this song, have been released on home video and I was surprised to learn that the movie had been shown in theaters as recently as 1986.

Edwin Starr “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” (from Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, 1969)
Edwin Starr is best known for his protest song “War,” but he delivers a rollicking R&B version of this song. It’s a nice change of pace from both the original and all the twee covers of it out there.

Ronnie Ong “Buttons And Bows” (from The Paleface, 1948)
I know next to nothing about Ronnie Ong, and I’m not happy about it. He’s got a great swinging Asian fuzz-guitar thing going on here that makes me glad to be alive. Why he picked this song is a mystery to me as well. Maybe he’s a fan of Dinah Shore, who had a hit with it in 1947.

New Found Glory “My Heart Will Go On” (from Titanic, 1997)
Celine Dion was everywhere in 1997, belting out this crappy song and melodramatically thumping her scrawny chest. After awhile I started to envy the people in coma wards who didn’t have to know about it. This is one of those cases where the song probably won because the movie made so much money, although honestly the other nominated songs weren’t such great shakes.

It’s been cold in my neck of the woods. So what, you say. There’s a lot of that going around in January. The problem is that it warmed up and rained before the cold snap, leaving everything outside coated with ice. It’s made mundane chores like walking the dog into exciting, pulse-pounding adventures. And it has reminded me of these songs.

Big Daddy “Ice Ice Baby” (Vanilla Ice)
Vanilla Ice would have been much better off if he had decided to be a Chuck Berry-style rock and roll singer.

Trotsky Icepick “The Light Pours Out Of Me” (Magazine)
The wacky folks of Trotsky Icepick originally planned for each of their records to have the same name while the band name changed on each album. A very dadaist way to make it hard for people to find your music and sabotage your own career. Kinda like how the first three Peter Gabriel solo albums were all called Peter Gabriel. Eventually their record label forced them to settle on a band name and to give their records separate names after the first two albums confused everybody.

Van Halen “Ice Cream Man” (John Brim)
I’ve long believed that this is the only worthwhile song Van Halen ever recorded. Probably because they didn’t write it. Dave Lee Roth’s hairy-chested made-for-MTV sleaze suits the song’s double entendres and the guitar work is about as restrained as you’ll ever hear from Eddie Van Halen.

Nina Gordon “Straight Outta Compton” (NWA)
It cracks me up to hear a sweet folky chick croon about how crazy Ice Cube is. Don’t mess with her though, her AK-47 is a tool. Warning: not safe for work.

Sebadoh “Cold As Ice” (Foreigner)
This is one of those songs that was all over the radio when I was in high school. I pretty much ignored it. I never thought much of Foreigner, although I did like the artwork on their first album. I still find it hard to believe that Ian McDonald was a founding member of both King Crimson and Foreigner. Anyway, this slowed-down acoustic version sounds way more soulful than the original.

I was going to do a post about the recent tragedy in Arizona. It was long and political and in the end not what I wanted to do with Cover Freak. I spent so much time writing it that I didn’t have time to come up with an alternate theme. So here are some random apolitical songs.

Jason Heath & The Greedy Souls “Crazy Train” (Ozzy Osbourne)
I’ll always remember seeing Ozzy at the Aragon Ballroom when he was touring for his first solo album. That was several lifetimes ago for both me and Ozzy. Somehow I think (or at least hope) that the intervening years have been kinder to me than to Ozzy.

This Like “You Belong To Me” (Elvis Costello)
No, Elvis Costello didn’t write this song. It was first released in 1952, although this really is a cover of Costello’s cover.

Update: Wikipedia lied to me. Elvis Costello did write it after all. Thanks to Jordan for pointing that out.

Mike Ness “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright” (Bob Dylan)
I’m not a big fan of the Baby Boomer musical icons who have been forced down my throat my whole life by Boomer radio programmers and advertising executives. Among those dinosaurs I have the most respect for Bob Dylan. He’s written an amazing number of crappy songs and many of his lyrics are impenetrable gibberish, but he’s capable of writing amazing tunes like this song. I also like the way that he’s constantly challenging himself and reinventing his songs when he plays live.

Osaka Popstar & the American Legends of Punk “A Man Of Constant Sorrow” (Dick Burnett)
The argument has been made by greater minds than mine that punk music is a modern form of folk music. I dunno about that, but I do like this version of the traditional folk song originally recorded by a blind fiddler.

Mark Ronson “Toxic” (Britney Spears)
An earnest acoustic version of this song popped up on my iPod the other day, but I prefer this version. The musical arrangement is wonderfully funky and the rapping is funny, but decidedly not safe for work.

The vibraphone is a wonderful and underutilized instrument. It’s the piano of the mallet percussion family of instruments, with a mellow and expressive sound. It’s mostly heard in jazz but has occasionally (not nearly often enough for my taste) crossed over into other musical styles. Check it out.

Martin Colyer “Mr. Bojangles” (Jerry Jeff Walker)
Mr. Colyer sent me a link to his web page where he has this song posted. I just loved the idea of this song being arranged for three bass guitars, three vibraphones and drum loops and had to come up with some excuse to post it. Thus we have this week’s meditation on the vibes.

Guitarist David Bromberg used to play in Jerry Jeff Walker’s band and he tells a great story about the song and the terrible things they used to do to it after hours. There’s a live recording of Bromberg’s version that’s well worth tracking down if you don’t get a chance to hear him play live.

The Blues Magoos “Heartbreak Hotel” (Elvis Presley)
When people ask me what my favorite cover is I always answer with either the Sid Vicious version of “My Way” or this song. I’m always blown away by how the Blues Magoos eradicate all traces of Elvis from their version. I also really dig how the singer puts everything he has into every single word he sings.

Lots of people are familiar with the Blues Magoos from their cover of “Tobacco Road” from the Nuggets compilation. By the time this was recorded the band had fallen apart, leaving the singer free range to express his singular musical vision. It turned out to be the band’s last record.

…

After I put this post together I discovered that yesterday was Elvis’ birthday. I had no idea because I’m not a big Elvis guy. I don’t dislike him and I realize how influential he was, it’s just that when I started getting interested in rock and roll he was already a bloated parody of himself. And as they say, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. At any rate, feel free to consider this my Elvis tribute.

The Recliners “Roxanne” (The Police)
This is more the smooth jazzy kind of music people generally associate with both the vibes and the later stages of the career of the Police. Here the vibes aren’t really a featured instrument but are rather used to add color and texture.

Jeff Lash “Love Will Tear Us Apart” (Joy Division)
Vibraphonist Jeff Lash takes the suicidal anguish of Ian Curtis and turns it into a languid tropical number I highly recommend his albums Prozak For Lovers and Prozak For Lovers 2.

Cal Tjader “Gimme Shelter” (Rolling Stones)
The thing about the vibes is that it’s really hard to make them sound threatening or ominous. I just can’t imagine this song as the soundtrack to footage of the Hell’s Angels knifing a guy.