I was tagged with that covers meme...

Damn you JLK, damn you to hades!!1!!!

All right - the problem we have here, is that there are several covers I really love and in the interest of saying fuck you, to internet memes, I am posting them all. This is not, as one might assume, a comprehensive list of my favorite covers - just my very favorites.

And to totally be an asshole, I'll post a couple that aren't covers.

My very favorite covers all share one thing in common, with one exception. I love the covers considerably more than the original and of all covers of those songs, the one posted is my favorite. The exception, is Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. This is quite possibly my favorite song ever and I am posting two versions of it, which are the very best versions. Jeff Buckley's is probably my favorite between the two, but it is only by a small margin and really only because I have a much easier time singing along with him than with KD Lang. Both are just incredible renditions and both Buckley and Lang were/are absolutely exceptional vocalists (KD Lang is totally on my top ten list of absolute best female vocalists).

But before we go to the rest of my favorite covers, here's my favorite cover from my old band Nackt, recorded roughly fourteen years ago.

Nackt - Helpless (Neil Young) by Nackt

Because embedded videos always fuck with the format of my blog, I am going to post them below the fold. That, and with the videos, this post takes up a lot of space...

More...

First up, is my very first favorite cover. I have loved this song since I was about eleven and before I even knew that Sting didn't write it. I should mention now that as horrible as it might sound, I actually don't get all that excited about most of Jimmy Hendrix more popular stuff that is rife with distortion. Don't get me wrong, I still love a few of them - mainly ones that were a running theme when I was tripping or simply really stoned with dear friends, but by far I prefer his acoustic work.

I really don't care for his version of "Little Wing" though - or anyone else's. It's not that they suck or anything, it's just that every other version of this song that I hear is compared to this one and found wanting in comparison. Sting is rather remarkably arrogant - pathologically arrogant even - but there is a fucking reason...



Another horror to admit - I absolutely despise Bob Dylan the musician. I certainly have a fondness for Bob Dylan the songwriter, but his voice fucking grates my nerves and his guitar playing isn't anything to write home about either (not that he's bad, but he's certainly not good enough to make up for his abysmal singing).

OTOH, I absolutely love U2. And mid to late 80's U2 was just fucking badass. Bono was possibly the only popular musician to pick up the mantle of "the man in black" without looking like a total wannabe ripoff of the venerable Johnny Cash. And of course Cash later validated this by recording with U2 on Zooropa and covering "One."

So U2's "All Along the Watchtower" is by far the best rendering ever. Bono is every inch the badass motherfucking rock-god, bringing this song to rock-anthem greatness, with The Edge driving this song harder than ever before...



And I'll now admit to yet another sacrilege - I absolutely hate the fucking Beatles. Seriously. "Helter Skelter" is one of the few Beatles songs I like and that only because U2 covered it and covered it really fucking well...



Now there are a lot of people who would argue that the next one isn't really a cover. But while it's true that very few people have heard the original and Johnette Napolitano actually backs Andy Prieboy on the original recording of "Tomorrow Wendy," it is still a cover. And actually, the original is pretty good too, though Napolitano is a much better vocalist who graces my top ten list of favorite female vocalists.



And for good measure, here's the original...



Now we come towards the end. But before we get to the covers of Cohen songs, I would like to throw Leonard Cohen himself into the mix. The last of my favorite covers are Cohen songs and I don't think it's fair to leave him out simply because he didn't really do covers. Leonard Cohen is a songwriting giant, though he never reached the levels of fame that many who played his music ever did. He also happens to be right up at the top of my list of favorite songwriters, second only to Neil Young.

Apologies for the strange video in the background, but it was the only youtube I could find of "Chelsea Hotel #2," one of my favorites by Cohen. While there are those who would claim that it is rather unsentimental, I am certainly not one of them. I think it is first, a beautiful descriptive of the experience of those who exist in a world of fame and fortune, who find the intimacy that they can with who they can. And it is also quite obvious that his experience with Janis Joplin was a beautiful intimate moment - just because he doesn't "think of her that often" doesn't mean that when he does, it isn't important to him. People don't always think about lovers who affected them profoundly all that often.

And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty...

Nuff said...



And here's Cohen's own version of Hallelujah...



Now we'll return to Concrete Blonde. This is a fucking awesome live version of "Everybody Knows," performed acoustic - just Napolitano and Mankey.



KD Lang - I just absolutely love her voice and the obvious passion she performs with...



And then there is Jeff Buckley...A fucking remarkable musician who grew up with musicians and died way too fucking young...