What's a cover song, really? Is it a "tribute" to an artist or is it just an excuse for not being able to come up with a song "as good" or any good songs at all? Maybe we should ask Steve Earle.
I just saw Earle last night here in London. It was my first time seeing him perform. I liked it. It was an earnest and humble performance: a tribute to his "teacher", Townes Van Zandt. Earle just released an entire album of Townes' song, aptly titles, "
Townes".
Earle was unapologetic in his unabashed covering of Townes. He did it in tribute. He told us that this album of Townes penned tunes outsold his last two albums of original material ("as a singer/songwriter, that hurts a bit"). I was sitting 3rd row, dead center. I thoroughly enjoyed the show. He delivered each song with passion and told tall tales about times he and Townes shared.
[NOTE: This conversation I am starting here is not really a solo job. I really need to be having it in a bar with four other half-stoned, full drunk music freaks. That being said, do what you have to do in the comfort of your own interweb.]
Cover songs. Some are brilliant: Hendrix - "All Along the Watchtower". Some are fucking train-wrecks: Britney Spears - "Satisfaction". What I find funny about cover songs is that the "cover-er" is singing the "cover-ee's" lyrics, some of which are heartfelt and personal. Case in point: Jackson Browne's: "These Days".
You can argue that every one of Browne's songs are completely saturated with sentiment that oozes from every groove. How can another artist take a song like, "These days" and turn it into a full on autobiography sans parody? Don't ask Nico that question (her version: I have been in surgery theatres less aseptic than her version)
Ask Gregg Allman. He knows all too, dangerously, well.
Have you listened to Browne's, "These Days"? Have you had a listen to the lyrics? Let's jump right to the second and third verses:
Now if I seem to be afraid
To live the life I have made in song
Well it's just that I've been losing for so long These days I sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten, my friend
Don't confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them
It is a contemplative song. he's looking forward, but also looking back. Jackson Browne: "I've been losing for so damn long that I am a bit hesitant to live my life in song". That's cool, Jackson. You can reconcile your past though, can't you. "Hey", he says, "I fucked up in the past, I haven't forgotten about that". Thanks for sharing how you do it...by forgiving yourself and counting quarter tones. His version is pleasant. It makes you feel good about forgetting some mistakes you have made and moving on.
Now...go listen to Gregg Allman's version. This...this is a cover song that completely dismantles the original version. It kidnaps it, takes it across the country, avoiding amber alerts along the way, and gives it a new identity...and forces it to live an entirely different life than originally intended. And it does it with ONE WORD. One kick-you-in-the-balls word.
Let's go back to that last verse:
These days I sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten, my friend
Don't confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them
Gregg takes the last line and swaps "forgotten" for aware. WHAMO! He take the song and turns it from jaunty, feel good, I'm OK-You're OK, tune to a I'm-still-neck-deep-in-the-shit, can't get out of my own way to save myself, present-tense, pity-party lament. I fucking love Gregg's version.
If you know Gregg's story [as told in the rock-press/history books and interviews]...he has many personal failures. Need a place to start, go
here. Hey, the man has
many successes as well...but that is not what this song is about.
Go back and look at the one line in the third verse: "Well it's just that I've been losing for so long". As Gregg sings this song, he is still losing and it is because of those failures that he just can't shake.
OK...now go listen to the two versions. They are not all that different stylistically. Gregg's is a bit more of a dirge. It may be my rock and roll fantasy, but I am sure he made the ONE WORD change before recording the song, which had to have an impact on his delivery.
Are you with me now? Gregg now owns that song. If I didn't know better, I would have thought Jackson covered him.
_____
A lot of people have covered this song. Do you think anyone else out-Jacksons Gregg?
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