Amoeblog

what came first?

the cover or the cover version
I don't know what it is that gets me about cover songs. But I really do like them. It is always fun to hear one of your favorite bands cover some horrible song that was not really good before they covered it. Or to hear  some band do a sort of tribute to some awesome song you loved in your youth. As I listen to more and  more music I also find out that some of the songs that I loved forever and thought were originals were actually covers of much older songs. I didn't grown in the girl group 60's or the Motown 70's. So many of the songs that I originally heard in the 80's and 90's that I thought were originals, were actually just covers. When I bought the  Siouxsie & The Banshees "Through the Looking Glass" cassette and listened to it for the first time, I had no idea it was all covers. It only took me a couple years to figure it out. I had not heard Television and Iggy Pop yet. I also heard most of the covers on the This Mortal Coil albums for the first time as "This Mortal Coil" songs.  It is weird to grow up hearing one version of a song only to learn later that there is some older original version that actually inspired the version I grew up loving. How would I know that the Soft Cell song "Tainted Love" was actually performed 10 years before I was born by the great Gloria Jones. The song was then covered by Ruth Swan in 1975. After the Soft Cell version that I grew up with in the early 80's, the song has of course been covered countless more times. The song has been performed by Blue Oyster Cult, Coil, Marilyn Manson, and the Pussycat Dolls. Rihanna even sampled the Soft Cell version a couple of years ago for her song "S.O.S."

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Posted by Brad Schelden on November 11, 2007 at 05:32pm | Post a Comment

You have to believe we are Magic ...

Nothing can stand in our way!

Tonight, join us at
Space Gallery
1141 Polk Street at Hemlock in SF, 9pm
as Club Unicornbread presents
a night of decadence and innocent yearning:


Ladies and Gentlemen of the world, join us in a celebration at what lies at the heart of all we do day in and day out:
the Muse of Creativity (above, changing my world and yours!) and the music of
Electric Light Orchestra!

Join this famous and talented cast as they give tribute
to what is arguably
  The Best Pop Musical of the 1980's!

We call it Xanadu ...
      Ding!
                             Ding!

Posted by The Bay Area Crew on April 19, 2007 at 06:25pm | Post a Comment