Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. We had a fine time hosting family and friends. Even though we made a conscious effort to scale the food a little better to the amount of guests, we had way too much food. I’m still eating my way through the leftovers, so I thought I’d post some music to eat by.

Goat “Sugar We’re Going Down” (Fall Out Boy)
I never could take Fall Out Boy seriously, even before Pete Wentz married Ashlee Simpson. But I can take this percolating acoustic version seriously.

Casey Shea “Chop Suey” (System Of A Down)
More acoustic deconstructionism, this time with harmonies. It’s much funnier than the Richard Cheese cover.

Jack Jones “Dixie Chicken” (Little Feat)
I haven’t heard too many Little Feat covers, which is a pity. Jack Jones’ website (which is located on a Japanese server for some reason) includes a litany of praise by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, and Tony Bennett. And even a couple of people who aren’t dead.

Martin Denny “A Taste Of Honey” (Bobby Scott)
Martin Denny is one of the gods of the Exotica movement. His best music contains dense layers of exotic instruments, percussion, and bird calls. Presumably in an attempt to broaden his musical horizons he put our a record called Exotic Moog. As a moog record it’s pretty good, much more adventurous than most. As a Martin Denny record it’s kind of disappointing. I guess he just couldn’t get the synthesizer to do bird calls.

Smashing Pumpkins “Dancing In The Moonlight” (Thin Lizzy)
I used to know a guy who spent most of the 1960s eating LSD every day. He had many interesting stories, and you never knew how many of them were true. At any rate, he claimed to be friends with the Smashing Pumpkins folks. This was in the days when the Pumpkins were just a local bar band in Chicago. He kept offering to get me into their shows for free but I never took him up on it. I just wasn’t impressed by their original music. But I’ve always been impressed by their covers.

This past work week was very busy and psychically draining. Not necessarily a bad thing when you’re self employed, but it makes it hard to lovingly craft a theme for your cover blog. So I’m going to take the easy way out and just post some interesting covers. Hopefully next week I’ll be able to put some songs in a larger context.

Fritz Ostermayer “Angst In My Pants” (Sparks)
Readers of a certain age will remember the original as a twitchy New Wave novelty hit. Fritz Ostermayer slows it way down to a stately, if slightly odd, waltz. I stole this from one of my fellow cover bloggers, Cover Me I think.

William Elliott Whitmore “Don’t Pray On Me” (Bad Religion)
This comes from the very nice Bad Religion tribute album Germs Of Perfection. I saw William Elliott Whitmore play years ago at a church that had been converted to a concert venue/art collective clubhouse. The previous owners had left behind a fifteen-foot neon cross suspended from the ceiling. Mr. Whitmore insisted that they turn it on. The sight of him sitting below the huge neon cross playing his banjo and singing about digging his own grave is one of my most memorable concert experiences. A week or two later I was talking to somebody at work about the show and she casually said, “Yeah Will Whitmore played at my birthday party a couple of months ago.” And I realized that I was hanging around with the wrong crowd.

The Hot 8 Brass Band “Sexual Healing” (Marvin Gaye)
The Hot 8 Brass Band is a very fine group of musicians from New Orleans. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina they’ve dedicated themselves to using their music for social outreach. That makes me like this song even more.

Electron Love Theory “I Will Follow” (U2)
Longtime readers know that I have no special fondness for U2’s music or for Bono. But I do like what Electron Love Theory has done with this song. It’s from a whole album of electronica U2 covers that they recently put out.

The Boo Radleys “Alone Again Or” (Love)
No cheeseball mariachi horns here. It’s all chunky guitar riffing and it sounds good to me.

My iPod has been on a David Bowie kick lately. The left side of my brain tells me that it’s just because I have boatloads of Bowie covers on my iPod and I’ve been spending lots of quality time in my car with my iPod lately. The right side of my brain insists it’s the Divine Invisible Hand Of Fate directing the content of yet another Cover Freak Post. Whatever the reason, they’re good songs.

The Big Mess Orchestra “Sound And Vision” (David Bowie)
This is one of my favorite arrangements of any song by anybody. You’ve got accordion, glockenspiel, tubular bells and tuba all working together perfectly. The Big Mess Orchestra is a mutant cabaret band out of Philadelphia.

Cocosuma “The Man Who Sold The World” (David Bowie)
I don’t know if this song qualified as a hit when it was first released. It probably became more popular after Nirvana played it on MTV Unplugged. This version is more fully orchestrated than Nirvana’s but dreamier than the original.

Beck “Diamond Dogs” (David Bowie)
It’s hardly a surprise to hear Beck covering Bowie. There’s a clear influence there, and Beck is the kind of game-changing innovator that Bowie once was. It’s a shame that after so many years of setting trends Bowie became just another follower of them. Maybe it’s just that I’m not interested in anything that Bowie has recorded since the early 80s, but I don’t see a whole lot of people covering Tin Machine.

Lassigue Bendthaus “Ashes To Ashes” (David Bowie)
My iPod coughed this up and it just blew my mind as all the electronic bleeps and twerps bounced around my car. Listen to this one on a good stereo if at all possible.

David Bowie and Marianne Faithfull “I Got You Babe” (Sonny And Cher)
This song is usually sung as a doe-eyed expression of youthful love and hope for the future. But there’s something about Marianne Faithfull’s world-weary cigarette-ravaged croak of a voice that makes it sound like Bowie’s a gigolo who married her for her money, despite the assertion that their money’s all spent before it’s earned.

This was recorded in 1973 for the Midnight Special TV show. Check out the video on Youtube, he’s wearing a red latex corset and black feathers, she’s wearing a nun’s habit. My understanding is that this was the last public appearance of Bowie as Ziggy Stardust.

Thank You For Your Support: Thanks to everybody who very generously contributed to help keep Cover Freak operating. I’ve already invested some of that cash in the blog, purchasing three of the five songs I’m posting this week. For the folks who have not yet contributed, there’s still time. That orange button at the top of the right column isn’t going anywhere.

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Zappa Tribute Update: I’ve had two people ask me this week when the Zappa tribute album will be released. The current plan is to release it on December 19, which is the Sunday closest to FZ’s birthday on the 21st. Mark your calendars and tell your friends.

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The title of this post comes from one of my favorite Camper Van Beethoven songs. I’ve been learning to play it on my mandolin and it’s gotten me thinking about fruit. The Food Pyramid tells us that we should eat between two and four servings of fruit a day. Since Cover Freak is all about exceeding expectations I’m dishing up five servings today. No need to thank me.

Trio “Tutti Fruitty” (Little Richard)
These wacky Germans are best known for their song “Da Da Da,” but I always thought this was their best work. The bopping beat and chirping synthesizer still make me smile. When I was a college DJ we had a 12″ vinyl single of this song and there was one guy who didn’t realize that it was supposed to be played at 45 rpm. He played it several times at 33 before somebody told him. I’m still not sure if it sounded better slowed down but I’ve got to admit it didn’t really sound terribly wrong either.

The Zig Zag People “1, 2, 3, Red Light” (1910 Fruitgum Company)
This is from one of my favorite albums, “The Zig Zag People Take Bubblegum Music Underground.” Just like the title says, these guys took bubblegum pop songs and rearranged them as hardcore acid rock jams. Those disposable, blatantly commercial songs sound ever so much better that way.

Louis Prima With Sam Butera & The Witnesses “Little Green Apples” (Roger Miller)
“Little Green Apples” is one of those songs that is covered often but rarely creatively. One of these days I’ve gotta work up a post on songs like that. Anyway, there are a couple of predictable reggae covers and a couple of soul versions that are sort of interesting. But most of the time it’s delivered as a solemn ballad.

Louis Prima thankfully rides to the rescue with a version that makes me want to do the frug. As a bonus, near the end Mr. Prima breaks out his rhyming dictionary.

The Space Lady “I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)” (Electric Prunes)
I looked on Wikipedia to see what specific species of plum is used in dried prunes and found the following quote, which I found amusing. I had never noticed the change in packaging, but then I don’t follow prune marketing as closely as I probably should.

Due to popular perception of prunes being used for constipation in older people, and being the subject of related distasteful joking, many of today’s distributors have stopped using the word on the package label. Their preference is to state “dried plums”.

I really dig the Space Lady and her cheesy Casio keyboard. This song really does sound quite dreamy.

Strawberry Alarm Clock “Good Morning Starshine” (From the musical Hair)
These guys are well known as one hit wonders for their song “Incense and Peppermints” and as one of the originators of the bubblegum pop that the Zig Zag People pissed all over. But buried on the same album as their big hit was this cover from the hippie-co-opting Broadway musical Hair.

Don’t Forget To Tip Your Waitress: I hate listening to public radio or watching public television during Pledge Week. They constantly interrupt their programming so some whiny poindexter can beg for cash. And it seems like every other week is Pledge Week. That’s why I usually let the PayPal donation button at the top of the right hand column just squat there quietly. But once a year I call your attention to it, dear readers.

Cover Freak is my hobby, and as hobbies go it’s not very time consuming or expensive. But I do have to pay for somebody to host the blog and I have to pay for the music I present for your dining and dancing pleasure. That’s why I’m asking everybody to use that screaming orange button to make a donation to Cover Freak. If all my readers would donate $2 it would be a big deal to me. Two dollars is less than the cost of a movie or a pack of cigarettes, and if you keep coming back here I hope that you’re getting at least two dollars worth of entertainment. But I’d appreciate any amount of cash you can spare. Last year I got contributions from American readers for the first time and I hope that trend continues this year. Thanks for your support. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming.

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When I started Cover Freak four years ago I had no idea that I’d be doing it this long. I just sort of assumed that I’d get discouraged by widespread indifference, or maybe I’d get too busy to keep up with it, or perhaps I’d run out of covers. And yet here we are.

I’ve had a great time with this little blog and the interaction with my readers has been both informative and heartwarming. Thanks to everybody who reads the blog and especially those folks who take the time to leave comments and/or send me email. My plan right now is to keep doing this as long as somebody out there’s interested. And what have I been doing for the last year? Glad you asked. Here’s a sample of some of the best stuff. See you next week.

Monica Green “25 Or 6 To 4” (Chicago)
This was Chicago’s first Top Five hit, and deservedly so. I don’t think this reggae version ever charted, but it certainly deserved to.

The Dollyrots “Brand New Key” (Melanie)
It starts out as a bouncy guitar-driven update of the original, but then it finds another gear and really rawks.

Celtika “Creep” (Radiohead)
Finally, a version of this song that you can bang your head to.

Devil In A Woodpile “The Most Beautiful Girl” (Charlie Rich)
I don’t know of many other Country and Western weepers recast as a blues stomp. That’s too damn bad because this is a really wonderful cover.

Lumpy “Red Rubber Ball” (The Cyrcle)
The Diodes did a punk version of this song just to piss off Paul Simon, but I much prefer this punch-drunk waltz.

Delopdere Big Gang “The Final Countdown” (Europe)
80s hair metal rewired as Turkish Gypsy disco. Absolutely brilliant.

Toadsuck Symphony “Stop In The Name Of Love” (The Supremes)
A well-written song can stand up to all kinds of reinventions. This song sounds like it always was a country/bluegrass tune.

Jim White “King Of The Road” (Roger Miller)
This is one of the most creative arrangements I’ve ever heard. It’s so far removed from the original that it’s hard to find any trace of Roger Miller’s DNA.

Jerry Garcia and David Grisman “The Thrill Is Gone” (B.B. King)
Despite my distaste for the Grateful Dead I have to admit a fondness for the album Uncle Jerry did with David Grisman. The songs are spacious and give Mr. Grisman room to strut his stuff without turning into endless Deadhead twiddling.

Das Palast Orchester “Sex Bomb” (Tom Jones)
Take a Tom Jones song, replace TJ’s manly musky swagger with Weimar cabaret sleaze, and this is what you get.