Maturing Musically, Part 2: Under the Covers

It is my firm belief that most of the really Great songs have already been written. Hand in hand with this belief is a belief that at least 80% of the new music coming out today is pure garbage...of course this may be the ravings of a grumpy, balding middle aged man, but so be it. (If anything you read here sounds familiar, I think I posted a similar blog on MySpace about three years ago, but I'm not sure.) Ah, but my mind strays from my point. As I said, most of the great songs have already been written, thus the popularity in recent years of cover songs, and even cover albums.

A cover, if you aren't familiar with the term is when a current artist goes back and records someone else's hit. This is in no way a new thing. Many of the earliest Beatles hits, Twist and Shout for example, were originally hits in the 50's. Today there are for basic ways covers are packaged.

1. There are tribute albums featuring Various artists doing songs by one group or artist. Examples include Two Rooms, the tribute to Elton John's music; Come Together..Country Stars Salute the Beatles, and Common Thread the music of The Eagles. I have found most albums in this category contain a few week tracks, but are good over all, with a variety of artists spinning their style on songs we all know. A recent twist on this was the Across the Universe soundtrack, with various stars of the movie singing the songs of the Beatles...much more successful than the Sgt. Peppers movie in the 70's.

2. There are also what I call album reworkings. This is where several artists will record songs that were all originally on the same album, and release it as an album. A great example is Tapestry Revisited where artist from pop and gospel recorded the music of Carol King's Tapestry album. It's a really good collection. I've noticed in recent years that there have been similar releases of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall. I have not listened to these, as I'm afraid they could only ruin, and not improve on Pink Floyd. (grumpy old man again)

3. Sometimes an artist will just record one or two covers and mix them in with there own new music. This has been the most common use of covers over the years. Sometimes this works well (The Beatles' Twist and Shout, or Sarah Brightman's way of turning classic rock hits into classical ballads) and sometimes these are just aweful (Think Britney Spears' version of I Can't Get No Satisfaction).

4. Last of all is one of my favorite kinds of albums, where a single group or artist sets out to record a whole album of covers. Some of my favorites in recent years are Mandy Moore's Coverage (Yes that Mandy Moore, yes it's GOOD); Wilson Phillips' California where they cover the bands of the late 60's early 70's California music scene; and the ever quirky Erasure doing Other Peoples Songs, a strange ecclectic collection worth adding to your library. Barry Manilow has releases a disc each of 50's, 60's and 70's songs, and I'm sure the 80's are coming, and they're actually pretty good. A few others that don't work as well are Big Band Theory by Styx, and the cover CD Rush recorded (can't remember the name). These two fall short in that they break one of the cardinal rules of covers...stick to songs people know. Each of the CD's sound good when they are doing familiar pieces, but then they dabble in songs by obscure bands or regional artists that most of the country won't know.

Oh, and I almost forgot my favorite cover CD of all time Phil Keaggy and Friends Acoustic Cafe. The guitar king is joined by a few friends and family members to cover music by Dylan, the Beatles, he Beach Boys, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper and more. A must have for any collector. I only hope he comes out with an Electric sequel. I could go on all night about cover tunes and music, but then you'd probably think the old guy was rambling, so I'll go plug in my headphones and Drift Away

Maturing Musically

Three things in life I cannot live without. First and foremost is my faith in God. Second is my family. And the third thing is music. As far back as I can remember my house was filled with music, often from several different rooms at once. When headphones became the rage in the 70's I believe our family kept KOSS in business. From my mother I learned to love Johnny Mathis, Lou Rawls and many jazz artists. My sister Gloria introduced my to Neil Diamond's music, ABBA, and later Phil Keaggy (still my hero), John Michael Talbot and the world of Christian music. My sister Sharon is where I learned to enjoy the Carpenters. Brother John introduced me to the world of opea, and a lot of musical theatre (didn't admit I liked it at the time). Brother Dave was into Simon & Garfunkel, Cat Stevens and Peter Paul & Mary. Later Dave was also responsible for introducing me to the British Punk movement of the late 70's and Early 80's which I'm sure is what eventually lead me to be a U2 fan. Dad used to listen to country in the morning before work...I liked a few songs, but mostly resisted it.

As for me personally I started, as most kids do with Disney music. The Mary Poppins soundtrack was a favorite as I remember. I remember very well my very first "grown up" album. Olivia Newton-John's Have You Never Been Mellow. I was soon a huge Oliiva fan, and I believe I had all her albums up to Physical. Another grown up star I got into at a young age was thanks to Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari. The theme song for their show Busom Buddies was Billy Joel's My Life, and begged my mother to buy me the 52nd Street album. I have been a huge fan of Billy's music ever since, and now also enjoy his daughter Alexa Ray's music.

But I think the moment my musical taste was blown wide open was in 6th grade (?) music class when our music teacher asked students to bring in one of their favorite songs and present it to the class. Jenn Treisenberg (sp) brought in the movie soundtrack to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and played Aerosmith's cover of Come Together. My first exposure to the music of the Beatles. Two years later when our class had an 8th grade graduation party Jenn brought in the actual Sgt. Pepper album by the Beatles, and I was officially obsessed...still am, just picked up the Magical Mystery Tour CD when they re-issued last week.

Through high school my favorite bands besides The Beatles were Kansas and Styx. But this is also when I was getting into punk and NewWave like Ian Dury, Nick Lowe, the Clash, The Pretenders, etc. I always said, "I like all kinds of music, except classical, country and really heavy metal"

When I was in college I discovered U2, and have loved them ever since (although their mid to late 90's was not my favorite era). I also was exposed to a huge variety of Christian rock. Favorites during this time were Petra, RezBand and 77's. Also I discovered the musical genius of Charlie Peacock, and the Christian New Age sounds of Jeff Johnson (Can you use Christian and new age in the same sentance? Just did). And thanks to a music appreciation class I hated, I grew to love classical music, especially Mozart and Beethoven. So my credo became, "I like all music except, Country, Heavy Metal and Rap"

As I grew beyond the college years I have kept many of the same favorites, but in my late twenties I did add country to my list of music I like, although I'm still picky about what country music I listen to, And even as I've matured and added more styles, I still don't enjoy much Heavy Metal and Rap.

No I must admit, when I was dating Bekkee (my wife) I tried to enjoy rap and hip hop because she enjoyed that kind of music. It never quite caught on with me, although I don't mind some of the mellower R&B music she introduced me too. Nowadays my wife enjoys country, which is much better for me. My wife however only enjoys current music, while I still love stuff from all period, both the stuff I grew up on, and even music from before I was born. She likes to make fun of my music, especially my 80's stuff, but I can't help it, I like it. We change, we grow, but forever music will be part of my life.