17 March 2023
On the BB Radio series 2 of artists playing covers in the studio’s piano-room
U2‘s main men Bono and The Edge were the latest guests. As ABBA fans
for years they picked the Swedish pop stars’ 1975 hit SOS to perform, backed
by a silent orchestra.
The Edge: “We found a Johnny Cash angle on the song.”
Here’s their intimate, acoustic version. Lovely.
ABBA
10 November 2022
Band: THE JAILBIRDS
Who: Hard hittin’ rock unit from Ontario, CA
Cover: HIGHWAY STAR
Original by legends Deep Purple from their LP
Machine Head which topped the UK Charts
50 years ago.
Single art by Mikhael Feliks
The band: ” ‘Highway Star’ was one of, if not the first cover song we learned
as a band when we started. It had everything a band needed to be able to do,
packed into one song. The solos, the rhythms, the vocals, it’s all there, and it’s
all on 11. It is quite a tough song to play, and we saw it as a challenge for
ourselves. It has become the staple song we always cover live when time
allows for it.”
I’m pretty sure that Deep Purple would dig this superheated version.
It has all the Purple characteristics. hair-raising guitar riffs and solos,
relentless drum/bass puissance, sky-scraping vocals, and the volume
to the max. Hell bloody highway hell!
Bang your head here…
.
Original version
THE JAILBIRDS: Facebook – Instagram
Beck covered Neil Young‘s 1972 classic
Old Man with a tender acoustic take.
Beck‘s performance was destined to be used in a commercial to
promote this Sunday’s NLF (National Football League) game with
the Kansas City Chiefs vs the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, on
the Sunday Night Football broadcast.
Watch the promo here.
Neil Young who never ever gave permission to use any of his songs for
commercial advertising, in any way, is not so happy with Beck’s move, as
he showed with a picture, without a caption, on his Instagram account.
.
I wonder who will be the loser of Sunday’s game.
Beck cover in full
.
Neil Young original
24 September 2022
Fleetwood Mac heroine STEVIE NICKS (born Stephanie Lynn Nicks, 74 years ago)
played some solo shows this past summer. One of the setlist’s songs was her
cover of a 60s classic gem named For What It’s Worth by Americana legends
Buffalo Springfield (1966–1968) featuring giants Stephen Stills and Neil Young.
She now recorded and shared it.
Nicks: “I am so excited to release my new song this Friday. It’s called ‘For What It’s Worth’
and it was written by Stephen Stills in 1966. It meant something to me then, and it means
something to me now. I always wanted to interpret it thru the eyes of a woman — and it seems like today, in the times that we live in — that it has a lot to say… I can’t wait for you to hear it.”
Pure Stevie…
The original
STEVIE NICKS: Facebook – Instagram
Daily electricity to load your batteries
18 September 2022
Band: KATE KOAN & THE LOST SOULS
Who: The musical project of Kat Koan.
A versatile Berlin-based artist.
Two weeks ago Welsh record label GOD IS IN THE TV released
Come Into My World: A Collection Of KYLIE MINOGUE Covers
in aid of MacMillian Cancer Support.
The 33-track album contains original Kylie covers. An eclectic range of her classics, from pure electronica, to indie, pop, psych, garage punk, folk, industrial goth, and disco by a range of independent artists from throughout the UK and Europe, there’s something for every taste on this album.
Koan picked Slow. The sensual electro-pop groove that opened her 2003 album.
The cover has a fairly different dynamic. More rock than pop with its psychedelic
guitars, its firm rhythm section and Koan‘s arousing vocals. It’s rare that a cover
is better than the original. But it happens here. Top. And the accompanying video
is top too.
Listen/watch.
Kylie’s original.
You can buy the compilation via Bandcamp and
support the MacMillian Cancer Charity Organisation.
.
KOAN KOAT: Facebook – Instagram
To honor OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN, who passed away on 8 August
at the age of 73, following along severe battle against breast cancer,
veteran Riot Grrls Sleater-Kinney, Aussie songstress Courtney Barnett
and American actor/comedian Fred Armisen teamed up at a festival
in Marymoor Park in Redmond, Washington, a couple of days ago.
They performed her massive 1981 hit PHYSICAL. It became a lively celebration
of the late superstar. Almost everybody with hairbands (as in Olivia’s sweaty video
of back then). S-K’s Corin Tucker did the vocals and the ONJ gym dance with
Fred Armisen.
Watch the wonderfully fun tribute here…
The ONJ original
OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN: Bio – Discography
(thanks to Steve for sharing his footage of the live performance)
21 August 2022
Fabulous songstress PJ HARVEY shared her cover
of the LEONARD COHEN musing WHO BY FIRE.
It’ll feature on the soundtrack for a new dark
comedy/thriller series, named Bad Sisters
for Apple TV+
The late genial Cohen wrote/recorded the song in
1974 for his album New Skin for the Old Ceremony.
PJ Harvey: “It was a very enjoyable day spent recording the version of Leonard Cohen’s
“Who By Fire” for Bad Sisters. I had spoken to Sharon Horgan in advance of the recording session, so I understood why she felt the song’s lyric was so perfect for the series, but also understood what nuances of Leonard’s performance she most loved, and therefore what
to try and recapture but in my own way.”
PJ
COHEN
PJ HARVEY: Facebook
(Image on top: cover of her album ‘Demos – To Bring You My Love’)
About a month ago teenage pop/punk sensation THE LINDA LINDAS released
their mettlesome debut album Growing Up, singing/screaming about their (young) generation.
Aged 12 to 18, these strong-minded juveniles put all lazy megastar bands
in the shadow when it comes to throwing a get-up-and-go party with spiky
power-pop punches.
And finally, they did what they wanted to do for a long time, recording their
cover – which they used to play live – of TONITE, the 1981 hit of their heroines
THE GO GO’S, the all-female pop-rock legends from Los Angeles.
The band explains: “The Linda Lindas started out as a cover band, and we’ve played more songs by The Go-Go’s than anyone else. And even after we started to write our own songs, we never stopped playing ‘Tonite.’ We love the idea of us going out and owning our town, and ‘Tonite’ is as fun to play as it is empowering––especially the part where we all sing together. ‘We rule the streets tonite until the morning light’ and so should our fans. Because the cover is such a hit at shows, we decided to record a studio version to pay tribute to the greatest all-female rock band of all time, a crucial part of the L.A. punk scene, and our heroes.”
THE LINDA LINDA’S
THE GO-GO’S
THE LINDA LINDAS: Facebook
30 July 2022
As announced a couple of days here a new Leonard Cohen tribute album
is coming. I’ll be out on 11 November via the iconic jazz label Blue Note.
More info here.
Here It Is: A Tribute To Leonard Cohen features covers of 12 of his
countless pearls performed by artists such as Peter Gabriel, Iggy Pop,
David Gtay, Nathaniel Rateli, and Mavis Staples.
Singer-songwriter icon James taylor is also present.
He picked Coming Back To You. A blue ballad from
Cohen‘s 1984 Various Positions album.
Enjoy…
.
The Cohen original.
Leonard Cohen: Bio – Discography
21 July 2022
After three praised albums American singer-songwriter LUCY DACUS (27)
has reached the status of indie star. She was invited recently to be part of
the Spotify Cover Singles series.
She picked that giga blockbuster hit BELIEVE by CHER, one of the
best selling singles in history with more than 11 million copies.
Lucy: “I love Cher’s voice and how low it gets. The timbre of her voice is so unique, you can recognize it anywhere. Even with the autotune, you can tell that it’s Cher and nobody else. But, on our cover, taking away the autotune, I feel like you can tell that the structure of the song is very special and I did feel myself accidentally wanting to become Cher when I was doing vocal takes. It could never happen, but I love a low voiced pop legend.”
LUCY
.
CHER
TURN UP THE VOLUME 