Sonic Youth’s eerie, otherworldly cover of the Carpenter’s early 1970s hit would make any short list I’d come up with for best covers of all time. Unlike their 1980s cover of “Addicted to Love,” which reeks of hipster d-baggery, the band really captures the pathos of this song in a unique, sincere, and classy way. On a side note, Kim Gordon has never looked sexier than in this video.
Joan covers Sweet’s 1975 anthem about a girlfriend who can’t make up her mind, if you know what I mean. Sadly, Joan has the same problem with said girlfriend that Sweet’s Brian Connolly did back in the day (probably made worse by the fact that she looks exactly like Carmen Electra). Fortunately for Joan, at 46 (when this was recorded), she still looks and sounds great and can rock the house just as good as she could when she was a teenager with The Runaways.
This is a cover of Leadbelly’s version of “In the Pines,” a folk song that dates back to the 1870s. In “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the 1980 biopic about Loretta Lynn with Sissy Spacek, Lynn sings a version of this song as a lullaby to quiet her baby sister. This cover is arguably Nirvana’s finest hour and like Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt,” if this doesn’t make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, you’re not human.
The first couple of minutes are deceptively subdued … and then literally 2:10 in, she bites your head off … painfully. One of the most ferocious songs ever done by any singer, male or female. And that last a capella part will chill the room you’re in by at least 40 degrees.
Siouxsie (minus the Banshees) finally going solo, circa 2007. It’s inspiring to see performers get better as they get older. “Into a Swan” should have been a bigger hit. I’m sorry she hasn’t done another solo album since “MantaRay,” which was really terrific.
This soulful, raw piano acoustic demo is probably my favorite Bowie recording of all time. Thankfully, it was included as a bonus track on one of the more recent rereleases of “Ziggy Stardust.”
One of the best “one-hit wonders” of the 1990s. A fine update of late 1970s Elvis Costello into the age of post-irony. The song sounds like it was recorded in a wind tunnel and is best played extremely loud.
One of the most underrated singer-songwriters of the late 1970s is David Johansen, former lead singer of the New York Dolls. Here’s my favorite Johansen solo track, this time in a stelllar live version from the promotion-only “The David Johansen Group Live” album recorded at New York City’s Bottom Line club in 1978. Whether with the Dolls, solo, or in his Buster Poindexter alter-ego persona (sadly, where Johansen found his biggest commercial success), the man knows how to put on a show.
One of the things I love discovering music-wise are unique and cool covers of great songs. Today’s model: a cover of Chris Bell’s mopey, but brilliant mid-1970s pre-emo classic “I Am the Cosmos” by the 4AD masters of mope (not meant to be an insult, by the way), This Mortal Coil. I never thought I’d say this about This Mortal Coil, but this kind of rocks a little. Not so much you’d put a lighter and fist in the air, but it’s a bit peppier than “Song to the Siren” or “Holocaust.” And I really like the double-tracked vocals that reminded me of Grand Funk Railroad’s cover of “Locomotion.” (Yes, I know, I’m making this sound dreadful, but trust me, it’s really very very cool). It’s better than Scarlett Johannson’s decent, but pedestrian Fiona Apple-esque take with Pete Yorn. Color me impressed.
One of the best, most brutal, and weirdest Australian films ever made is getting a major American reissue via Alamo Drafthouse Films. “Wake in Fright” was thought to be a lost film, but a negative in great shape was found a few years ago and the film was restored. This is the Australian “Deliverance”. Director Ted Kotcheff later went on to direct “North Dallas Forty” (arguably, the best American football film ever made) and the original “First Blood” (a great film, especially when you forget the moronic blockbuster “Rambo” sequel).
As Martin Scorsese said, “WAKE IN FRIGHT is a deeply – and I mean deeply – unsettling and disturbing movie. I saw it when it premiered at Cannes in 1971, and it left me speechless. Visually, dramatically, atmospherically and psychologically, it’s beautifully calibrated and it gets under your skin one encounter at a time. I’m excited that WAKE IN FRIGHT has been preserved and restored and that it is finally getting the exposure it deserves.”
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