An early cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll” by Mitch Ryder’s post Detroit Wheels’ project with the guitars and volume cranked up. Lou Reed famously said this version was superior to the Velvet’s version, which he confirmed by hiring the producer of this album (Bob Ezrin) for Reed’s 1973 album “Berlin” and guitarist Steve Hunter for his legendary “Rock and Roll Animal” tour.
Another gem from Reed’s late 1970s Arista Records period. This is the title song from his first album for Arista, 1976’s “Rock and Roll Heart.” Charming, heartfelt, and one of the best “I love rock and roll” songs of all time.
From Reed’s highly underrated album “The Bells” from 1979, comes this lovely homage to the Crystals and the Ronnettes, with a rollicking Phil Spector-ish saxophone and swinging beat carrying it along. Reed was really onto something with his late 1970s Arista-label recordings in binaural sound. They are truly a wonder to listen to even to this day.
I love loud, sharp percussion and heavy guitars. Wait until the full crush of guitars kicks in about 1:05 into the song It reminds me of the way the wall of guitars kicks in on Ian Hunter’s “Once Bitten, Twice Shy.” This song has the same beat as my daughter’s favorite schoolyard singalong “Lemonade, Crunchy Ice” and rocks just as hard. I have no idea what the video has to do with the song, since the song never mentions customized Volkswagens.
OK, I realize I may be raked over the coals for this by the true believers of the church of Iggy, but I think this is a really good cover of Iggy Pop’s “Success” done with a swinging Gary Glitter-esque beat. From the Durannie’s hit or miss covers album “Thank You” from the 1990s.
For a brief period during the early – mid 2000s, lo-fi garage punk seemed like the “the next big thing.” While the genre had been around for years, the White Stripes brought it to the mainstream and achieved huge commercial success, surprisingly with little-to-no commercial polish present. Seriously, those White Stripes recordings from that period sound like they came directly from the Crypt Records catalog. The Hives (from Sweden) were another band from that period everyone expected to be big and while they achieved some recognition, it wasn’t on the level of the Stripes. Still, their music was truly wonderfully grungy stuff. 10 years later, this still packs a punch. And it’s nice to see they’re carrying on the fine Swedish pop band tradition by wearing matching suits.
Easily the coolest song I’ve heard in the past month, this cover of an old 1930s tune (famously covered by Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, and Cab Calloway) filtered through some wonderfully minimalistic punk blues.
One of my favorite songs from “American Idiot.” I love the way this starts out as straight-ahead punk, then slows down to harmony-laden Beach Boys inspired pop. The opening lyrics are terrific: “St. Jimmy’s comin’ down across the alleyway … Upon the
boulevard like a zip gun on parade … Light of a silhouette … He’s insubordinate …
Comin’ at you on the count of 1,2-(1,2,3,4!)” and then a hardcore breakdown that will nail your d–k to a tree.
Here is the earliest known recorded version of Tim Buckley’s enduring and classic ballad. It’s quite different than the version that was eventually recorded for Buckley’s 1970’s “Starsailor” album. The version here (performed for “The Monkees” TV show in 1968) is more of a straight-ahead ballad, instead of the bizarre and heartbreaking version that appears on “Starsailor” that sounds like it was recorded by someone really ready to cast themselves on the rocks in despair. A great and underrated song that keeps gaining more resonance as the years continue. In just the last few years, Robert Plant, Bryan Ferry, and Sinead O’Connor have all done covers. The most famous cover, by This Mortal Coil, has already been posted on Dave’s Strange World.
Do you remember participating in gross-out contests when you were younger? For example, someone would hock up a loogie full of spit and throat mucus and say “Top that.” The winner would then pull out a straw. (Joke borrowed from “The Adventures of Ford Fairlane”). Poop-eating, self-mutilating GG Alllin was the ultimate example of this phenomenon in the rock and roll world. GG took the nihilistic on-stage antics of Iggy Pop and took them to even farther extremes. Aside from eating his own human waste, throwing it at the audience, or smearing it on his body, he would also physically assault his audience … randomly beating the snot out of people, cutting himself up, dragging women onstage by the hair … you get the picture, right?
Anyway, towards the end of his life in 1993, GG started getting more and more mainstream exposure. He was discussed on both Howard Stern’s and Rush Limbaugh’s radio shows. He was the subject of a really good documentary by then-NYU film student Todd Phillips called “Hated” (Phillips later became a multi-millionaire Hollywood mogul when he directed “Road Trip,” “Old School,” and the blockbuster “Hangover” series.) Also, GG made appearances on many talk shows including “The Jerry Springer Show,” “Geraldo,” and “The Jane Whitney Show.” While his appearances were always memorable, there’s something about his “Jane Whitney Show” appearance that was particularly stellar, even for GG. This is GG meeting middle America with all the hysterical overreaction that you would expect from a middle-of-the-road audience. Yes, as a parent, I do find this troubling, but it’s also one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. It truly is a John Waters film come to life.
Unfortunately, I can not find clips of his complete appearance. But what’s here from YouTube is pretty funny. For obvious reasons, not safe for work.
Dave's Strange World 