All That Was Old Will Be New Again, and Vice Versa

[akirlu]

Mark Mothersbaugh covering Trent Reznor. My head may explode, but the cover works alarmingly well. Yes, Hal's most recent compilation disc includes Devo, doing a very Devo version of Nine Inch Nails' "Head Like a Hole."

But it seems like I've had a tropism for covers lately anyhow. I guess it can't exactly be called a cover if a group does an acoustic version of their own song, but I really like the acoustic version of System of a Down's "Sorrow" that has been rattling around lately. In fact, I've always suspected it of having been written as a lone-guy-with-his-guitar song, and have wanted to hear it done either a capella or very stripped down. But when you're an Armenian American punk band, I guess stripped down acoustic numbers are only something you can do after you put the band on hiatus. Or something. Anyway, I'm glad they put out this acoustic rendition, which is so much closer to the heart of the song. Also on the recent rotation: Placebo's lovely version of "Running Up That Hill," though I cannot, repeat cannot, believe that Hounds of Love has been old enough to vote for two years.

It makes me wonder, for the umpteenth time this week, how The Youth of Today thinks about the increasingly old-fogeyish tunes of my teens and twenties. When Gary Numan's "Cars" plays on the Muzak piped into the Mall, do they even hear it, or is it like the 101 Strings version of "A Summer Place" was for me?

Comments

[greenshadows.livejournal.com]

When Devo released their "E-Z Listening Disc" in 1987, I knew the apocalypse was at hand - but that it would still probably take a few more decades for the world to actually blow up. :b

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

The apocalypse, like viable fusion power, is always ten years away.

I really like a lot of the musical genre headfuck stuff that gets done. Somewhere in a box (the phrase that rules my stuff), I own a copy of No More Mr. Nice Guy, which is Pat Boone's collection of covers of Heavy Metal Standards. I LOVE it. Among other things, it's the very first time I was able to understand all of the lyrics to Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water". And while I do not yet own Paul Anka's album Rock Swings, including a very necessary, if insufficiently brassy, swing version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," I will. Oh, and Lounge Against the Machine. Gotta have that.

[timill]

Mmmmm, Radiohead

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Intriguing.

Can I assume you've heard John Bayless's sublime variations on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"?

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

On the metal front, Johnny Cash did a great cover of Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage" (with the Heartbreakers). I've also been enjoying that cover of "Dream On" that Hal pointed out a while back. I'd love to hear the cover of "Running Up That Hill"!

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I'll see if I can burn you a disk. Did I ever get you any of Happy Rhodes' stuff? I know I meant to, but that was approximately a jillion good intentions ago, and I can't remember if I actually did it or not. (You would remember if I had -- Rhodes does a Really Scary Good imitation of Kate Bush. The first time I heard her I thought she was singing a duet with Bush, but no, just two different tracks of Happy doing her thing. I also like the music qua music.)

Either way, I should also get my ass in gear on that Nordic music disc for Cliff, so it should be no trouble to do another one once I'm in the Groove.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't gotten any Happy Rhodes from you. Still enjoying the Lais, however.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'll see what I can do about that. In my Copious Free Time, or sooner.

[joyful-storm.livejournal.com]

I heard New Order played in Safeway the other day. A song from an album released in late high school for me. I was frightened.

(Trader Joe's regularly has "my" music, but that's different.)

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, this phenomenon only gets worse with time. I had a rude awakening back in the 90s when I was hearing "Rock Lobster" at the Mailboxes Etc., and the undergrad working the counter had never heard it before. The edge is definitely off my music.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Hm. In some ways this is preferable to the twenty-somethings at Roxy's Deli who sing along to Kansas and Styx. Or the sudden resurgence of Boston I started to notice when one of their songs (not "More Than a Feeling") was used during the Boston-LA NBA Finals. (By the way, I hope you'll be proud to hear that at the pub quiz last night I was able to identify Donna Summer as the singer of "Macarthur Park". That and Fats Domino were my contributions to the music-identification sequence.)

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Have a pat on the head. *pat* *pat*

I'm not sure I could have correctly identified the singer on "Macarthur Park" as Donna Summer. And I know I'm a lot more sympathetic to gloppy pop songs than you are (including liking at least small quantities of Boston and Kansas, though not enough to disinter or duplicate my vinyl). But "Macrarthur Park"? I hated that song. Hate, hate, hate.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

My knowledge of gloppy pop is much greater from the era when I was a bored teenager listening to a lot of AM radio. I actually kind of liked Boston's sound, but found their songs pretty dumb. (I bought the first album when it came out.) On the other hand, I probably still know all the words to Styx's "Come Sail Away", although I haven't tested that recently. (Typoed "texted" for "tested" there initially, ho ho.)

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I didn't buy Boston's first album, but I did eventually inherit my younger brother's picture disk of it. Ravishing to look at, played like crap. Possibly worth something now. Almost certainly Somewhere In A Box.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

I gave up a good decade ago when I heard an elevator muzak version of Pink Floyd's "The Wall".

[karenthology.livejournal.com]

That's just wrong.

[karenthology.livejournal.com]

Someone called Garbage's "Stupid Girl" a "vintage track" the other day. I nearly choked on my coffee.

I feel that.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

"Stupid Girl" is a vintage track? That is whack, that is.

[mac-arthur-park.livejournal.com]

I cannot, repeat cannot, believe that Hounds of Love has been old enough to vote for two years.

Owww...did you have to do that?

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

The sad part is, I screwed up. Hounds of Love has been old enough to vote for five years. What I meant was, it's been old enough to drink for two years.