One of the rare occasions from the mid-1960s where Jagger and the boys played it classy with the ladies. A cool, non-sappy, sincere declaration of love and appreciation. Goes down smoothly like a fine Pinot on a summer night.
Terrific, latter-day Cohen circa 1992. Brilliantly used over the opening credits of Oliver Stone’s film “Natural Born Killers.”
More no-nonsense Australian hard rock. Sounds like Rod Stewart fronting Motorhead (if that’s not a cool concept, I don’t know what is). Along with Bushwick Bill of the Geto Boys and Udo Dirkschneider of Accept, Tattoo’s lead singer Angry Anderson is the best little person to rock the mic … ever.
Man, I love Tim Buckley. He’s often lumped in with other folk artists of the era, but I think that’s entirely wrong. While he strummed a guitar and often sang lovely and sad ballads, Buckley could turn on a dime and be the scariest, most intense motherf–ker in the room. That voice, when it rises and cracks and wails, comes from a private hell that I don’t want to ever go near. Incredibly powerful stuff.
The Ramones had their last hit in 1996 with a garage punk cover of Tom Waits’s “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up.” Tom Waits returned the favor with a smokin’ cover of “The Return of Jackie and Judy” released on a Ramones tribute album. I’ve never heard Waits having this much fun and it’s great to hear him cut loose like this.
For those who don’t know, Joy Division was the band the members of New Order were in before their lead singer Ian Curtis left this mortal coil by his own hand. “Love Will Tear Us Apart” may be Joy Division’s most famous song (its become so mainstream these days I heard it in Safeway over the PA sandwiched between Ronnie James Dio and Michael Jackson a month or two ago), but “Atmosphere” is arguably their best. The video is directed by legendary photographer Anton Corbijn (who also directed Nirvana’s classic “Heart Shaped Box” video). If you like what you hear/see, be sure to check out Corbijn’s superlative 2007 biopic on Curtis “Control.”
The Replacements cover a KISS classic, circa 1984. While many people at the time probably took this to be camp, they actually do a respectful and credible job with this one and if there’s irony here, I can’t see it.
Ween’s gleefully obscene and surreal take on the Irish drinking song and maybe, The Pogues. Loads of really, really bad language on this one, so not safe for work, little ones, or people who are very, very sensitive.
More quality snark from Cracker. I don’t know why this wasn’t pushed as a single back in the day, other than the fact that it was too “country sounding” for alternative radio (does anybody but me see the irony in that last observation?). Hopefully, some country singer will cover this and get Mr. Lowery and gang the royalties they’ve deserved over the years. Seriously, Nashville brothers and sisters, this has #1 smash written all over it.
Back in the 1990s, irony and sarcasm came in such heavy quantities, that if you were going to go that route musically, you needed to be really clever and/or have a great band to back up your snark. Fortunately, for Cracker back in the early 1990s, they had it in spades. You may not realize this from the video, but Cracker was one of the five best bands I’ve ever seen live.
Dave's Strange World 