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
