What is your favorite cover?

Captain Sensible "Happy Talk". Go to 

 

Satisfaction ... Cat Power ... 

https://youtu.be/oyx_LUIbrhM

 

Things We Said Today ... Morgo Timmins ... 

https://youtu.be/pOoOHHKjOAQ

 

Return of the Grievous Angel ... Lucinda Williams & David Crosby

https://youtu.be/-D3YVmV_paU

for that matter, all the covers on Return Of The Grievous Angel: A Tribute To Gram Parsons are really good

 

just about all the songs on Bleeker Street Greenwich Village in the 60's 

https://youtu.be/vF_WVExdQYo?list=PLoERbxXMyKwb-OON8pm6VPgOsBJIyx5v

 

just about all the songs on Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt

https://youtu.be/vF_WVExdQYo?list=PLoERbxXMyKwb-OON8pm6VPgOsBJIyx5v

 

 

Hi, Judy Collins Hello Hooray on Who Knows Where the Time Goes released in 1968 so I think that Alice Cooper's release in 1973 the cover (yes/no?. Since a third person wrote the song (Rolf Kemp), are they both covers?

Trout Mask Replica.

Eva Cassidy - Autumn Leaves

Somewhere back in the 80's, the Grateful Dead added Bob Dylan's "When I Paint My Masterpiece" to their repertoire. There are many live captures of it out there. Here's one of them.

 

Osibisa Woyaya

The Gourds - Gin and Juice

Santana’s version of Fleetwood Mac Peter Green – ‘Black Magic Woman’!!!
 

Stay with it (starts to really rock half way through).

 

 

 

DeKay

Somebody mentioned Susanna Hoffs but forgot about The Bangles version of Hazy Shade of Winter (Simon and Garfunkel). Somebody else mentioned Little Wing but forgot about Sting's version, which is truly ethereal on a great imaging system. Nobody mentioned Rhythm of the Rain by Dan Fogelberg (originally by the Cascades) which is also an incredibly well recorded tune. Sounds like you could hear a pin drop on Fogelberg's version. I apologize for naming more than one.

Johnny Winter playing Barefootin'

@bigtwin - thanks for the Tom Scott cover, that was killer!

I could list hundreds of great covers, which I won't; but, here are a few that have been on my radar recently:

Judy Collins - Hello Hooray (Alice Cooper)

John Doe - A Case of You (Joni Mitchell)

Everything But The Girl - Alison (Elvis Costello) 

Everything But The Girl - The Only Living Boy in New York (Simon & Garfunkel)

Marianne Faithfull - Ghost Dance (Patti Smith)

Hall and Oates - Standing in the Shadows of Love (Four Tops)

Hall and Oates - I'll Be Around (Spinners)

Bettye LaVette - When I Was a Young Girl (Savoy Brown)

Nouvelle Vague - Golden Brown (The Stranglers)

Linda Ronstadt - Ooh, Baby Baby (Smokey Robinson & Miracles)

Linda Ronstadt - The Waiting (Tom Petty)

Poco - Magnolia (JJ Cale)

Yes - America (Simon & Garfunkel)

 

 

Alpha Blondy - Wish You Were Here

Really hard decisions here, so I'm going to have to go with 2, sorry about that!

I Put A Spell On You - Debbie Davis, Kenny Neal & Tab Benoit, this is mostly Tab Benoit - a really talented guy

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You - The Jeff Beck Group

Plus, Ry Cooder is the king of cover songs, too many to pick from there.

Depends on the genre.

Easy Listening - The Sounds of Silence (Simon&Garfunkel/Disturbed)

Folk - All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan/Hendrix)

Metal - Into The Void (Black Sabbath/Exhorder)

Instrumental - Little Wing (Hendrix/SRV - Live at El Mocambo)

It seems nobody listed "Red Red Wine" by UB40, a Neil Diamond cover.  The story goes UB40 thought they were covering a raggae song by N. Diamond from Jamaica, only to learn later they were covering a white Jewish guy from Brooklyn.  Nothing can beat that.

Susanna Hoffs (featuring Aimee Mann) covering Badfinger’s “Name Of The Game.”

Gentle On My Mind - Glenn Campbell

King Crimson - Court of the Crimson King

Not exactly a cover as it's Leonard Cohen performing his own song, but with a mind blowing assist by Sonny Rolllins.  Perhaps from David Sanborn TV show maybe 2006.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2T274bXIxU

Considering that she co-wrote the song, I don’t know which is the original and which is the cover, but, in any case, I like Marianne Faithfull’s version of “Sister Morphine” more than that of the Rolling Stones’.

Recently discovered Motorheads version of "Heros" by Bowie. Absolutely brilliant. Can't help but keep thinking of the Ukrainian resistance stand against that tyrant while listening to it.  Been bringing me to tears.

Smokestack Lightnin’ by the Yardbirds, orig Howlin’ Wolf

Woodstock by Eva Cassidy orig Joni Mitchell

Summertime by Janis Joplin, orig George Gershwin

Ball and Chain by Janis Joplin, orig Big MamaThornton

 

 

middlemass

658 posts

03-09-2022 at 10:14pm 

As usual with these types of threads, most people totally disregarded the OP’s clearly stated request of "favorite cover", meaning one, NOT a list. And yes, I know it’s hard to pick just one but I did it. It can be done.

So as not to cause any further upset, I have very carefully limited my nomination to just one, which I’m surprised no one has mentioned:  Black Magic Woman by Santana.  I’m hoping, though, to avoid being ruthlessly grilled by middlemass or his henchmen, as I would then have to admit I’ve never heard the original.

 

And shoutout to onhwy61:  good one!  Yes, some of us do pay attention…

 

 

onhwy61

4,764 posts

03-09-2022 at 02:56pm 

Bob Dylan's cover of Jimi Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower".

I like the quilt my mom made me the best.

For music Take me to river - Talking Heads

WINNER! WINNER!

berner99, your "Total Eclipse of the Heart" video is fantastic.  

IMO, to rate as a great cover, the artist has to transform the song in such a way it transends the original.  A good examole of this is Sax player Tom Scott with his version of Ode To Billie Joe.  Give it a listen and see if you agree.  His sax work is subtle and very tasty.  

 

Not one fave, a big covers p/l, including

 

Rumer - Long, Long Day.

Lani Hall - At The Ballet

Carpenters - Fun, Fun, Fun

Ray Charles - Still Crazy After All These Years

Jerry Lee & Nashville Teens - What’d I Say

The Association - Seven Virgins

Liquid Smoke - Hard To Handle

Warren Funderbuk - Bluer Than Blue.

The Beatnix - Step Inside Love.

Brasil 66 - Day Tripper.

Lewis Taylor - Love Light

Anthony Molinaro - Lady Madonna

Three Dog Night - Lady Samantha

Biff Rose - Fill Your Heart 

Phil Brown - Love Or Confusion

 

Most Hayseed Dixie

And for those who want memorable, as in cover with appliances that you may wish you could forget...

Hurra Torpedo - Total Eclipse Of The Heart (Bonnie Tyler cover) (1995) - YouTube

it hurts Me too - Barefoot Servant

 

@berner99 - I loved how they used 'All Along the Watchtower' in BSG!!!!! 

For favorite cover, I'll go with Jello Biafra's version of "They're Coming To Take Me Away".... 

 middlemass ?

I will give the Mark Lanegan's Imitations a listen , 

but he is just one person . POET has a different artist for each song ,

like Steve Earle , Cowboy Junkies , John Prince , Emmylou Harris ,

Lucinda Williams , hard to pick just one .

I could have easily said Judy Collins or Pearl Jam  " Masters of War "  Bob Dylan 

or Eric Burdon and War " Nights in White Satin "  The Moody Blues 

The thing about asking for a favorite is to get others to see what's out there that they themselves haven't discovered .

I love Tony1954's list .  

Pretenders cover of the Kinks Stop your Sobbing

Warren Zevon did Knockin on Heavin's Door (I believe) after he'd been diagnosed  with terminal cancer.

All Along the watchtower cover by Bear McCreary (from Battlestar Galactica)

On YouTube e.g:

Josh Turner
Carson Mckee
Reina Del Cid
Toni ? last name

All 4 very talented and have great covers of everything from Beach Boys (sleep John B) to Stuck in the middle with you, to Ramble on. (Reina and Toni), to Pink Moon (Josh) to Dylan and Beatles and often work together/in various permutations.

Shane Ericks: Superstar or anything by carpenters--sounds very much like Karen

 

@middlemass 

Jeez. Maybe you should chill out a bit.

I am so sorry for posting more than one "favourite". 

Unfortunately my favourite changes with my mood and the circumstances under which I hear it. So you are just going to have to put up with this anarchy.

Johnny Winter "Highway 61 Revisited"

Levon Helm "Take Me To The River"

Harry Nilsson "Without You"

CSN&Y "Woodstock"

Joe Cocker " With a Little Help From My Friends"

Johnny Cash "Hurt"

Whitney Houston "I Will Always Love You"

Jimi Hendrix "All Along The Watchtower"

Guns N' Roses "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"

Linda Ronstadt "Hey Mister That's Me Up On The Jukebox"

Van Halen "You Really Got Me"

Devo "Satisfaction"

Bloomfield, Stills & Cooper "Season of the Witch"

Barenaked Ladies “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” 

Rod Stewart "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You"

Jose Feliciano "Light My Fire"

Nina Simone "I Put a Spell on You"

The Temptations "Papa Was a Rollin" Stone"

Marvin Gaye "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"

 

 

 

 

 

@middlemass How 'bout taking a less doctrinaire approach? How about taking initial posts such as the one here as conversation starters, not instructions written in cyber stone? We used to call these sorts of websites "Chat Rooms." Chat! Have fun! Don't think of them as Interrogation rooms.

Unbelievable. OK, @vair68robert, you want to go totally off topic with a whole album of covers, I give you Mark Lanegan’s Imitations, you won’t see that one talked about in his obits, a brilliant and underappreciated recording. Comes with a special bonus just for Audiogon members. Outstanding sound quality.

All the cuts on the CD   "Poet "

a tribute to Townes Van Zandt 

 

As usual with these types of threads, most people totally disregarded the OP’s clearly stated request of "favorite cover", meaning one, NOT a list. And yes, I know it’s hard to pick just one but I did it. It can be done.

So how many do we get? 3, 6, 8, 10? Guess I’ll come up with my top 50 and list them tomorrow. See how meaningless that makes all of our responses? Is this Reddit or Audiogon?

 

Byrds "Mr. Tambourine Man" (Dylan)

Sinead O'Connor "Sacrifice" (Elton)

Leon "Jumpin' Jack Flash/Youngblood" from Concert For Bangladesh

if we are asking for our favorites, these are on my very short list......and have stood the test of time.

--Eva Cassady "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".

--The Animals "House of the Rising Sun"

--Cream "Crossroads".

--Allman Brothers "Stormy Monday"

or are we asking for the most obscure or most interesting?

different answer.

Warren Haynes One (U2)

Lisa Bassenge Trio's cover of James Brown's I Feel Good.

Excellent, and especially on a good system!

And another one from Indigo Girls - "Midnight Train to Georgia"

 

Here's another nice one. A live cover of Joni Mitchell's - "River" by Indigo Girls...

 

Ry Cooder's take on Get Rhythm.  

 

How about a banjo version of Slayer's "Raining Blood":