And now! The post literally no-one was waiting for! Let's keep it as short as possible, hey?. Lucky we only have thirteen to get through this time. Lucky... hmm...
Side Three
Birthday - Bruce Willis - I'm with you, Cybill. It's a song called "Birthday" by the most successful and famous pop group in history, you might think you'd hear it more often but I listened to a bunch of covers and they were all unbearable so it's probably just as well people don't sing it at parties much.Perhaps if it wasn't so incredibly shouty? Maybe then it might have had a shot at "Happy Birthday"'s record as the "most recognized song in the English language". How exactly did the Guinness people measure that, anyway?
Not sure this counts as a cover since the guy that wrote it is singing. Clapton, Keef, Lennon and Mitch Mitchell here, in an ad hoc supergroup thrown together for the Rolling Stones' "Rock and Roll Circus" TV special. You remember? The one where the Stones find themselves embarassingly upstaged by almost everyone, especially The Who, and decide not to let anyone see it for a few decades.I know Yer Blues not from either of these versions but from the magnificent Live Peace in Toronto, John Lennon's finest recorded hour. Of course, what I really love about that album is Side Two, all seventeen glorious minutes of Yoko screaming through her twin masterpieces, "Don't Worry Kyoko, Mommy's Only Looking for her Hand in the Snow" and my personal favorite, "John John (Let's Hope for Peace)". You think I'm being ironic. I assure you I am not.
Mother Nature's Son - Sol Liebeskind and Andres Rotmistrovsky - Another surprsingly difficult song to cover, if YouTube is any guide. McCartney made something of a speciality of this kind of meandering country/folk in the years immediately following the split. It's often the quality of his voice that makes those songs work. I like a lot of his seventies material, much of which positively purrs with domesticity. Most of the covers seem to flatten out the tone or abrade it but this one keeps the soft, woolen texture. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey - The Feelies - As someone comments in the thread, The Feelies make The Beatles sound like The Velvet Underground. Okay, that might be a stretch. The Modern Lovers, maybe? Not The Beatles, anyway, that's the point. Sexy Sadie - The Unthanks - The Unthanks are supposed to be a traditional folk group as far as I can make out but they have a very experimental/art rock/indie edge to them. This reminds me strangely of the Langley Schools Music Project. It's also all but unrecognizeable from the original. Helter Skelter - Alec Castillo - I think we've been skating around the elephant in this particular room long enough. If you want to hear the best cover, Siouxsie's over here. Meanwhile, settle down for a history lesson. Long, Long, Long - Giulia's Mother - Not entirely sure what this is. Sounds suspiciously like Italian prog to me. I could imagine this lot opening for Uriah Heep in 1975 but in fact it was only recorded a couple of years ago.Side Four
Revolution No. 1 - Alice Cooper (feat. Johnny Depp) - Two people you really wouldn't expect any better of, I guess. At least it's preferable to The Thompson Twins singing flat at Live Aid with Madonna on tambourine. Honey Pie - Barbra Streisand - I think it's fair to say I never expected Barbra to make an appearance on this blog. I won't bother making a tag for her. I don't imagine she'll be back.Savoy Truffle - They Might Be Giants - 1960s rock bands often showed a frightening nostalgia for the music-hall tropes they presumably grew up listening to on their parents' '78s. I hated it then and if anything I hate it even more now. Ironically, if nothing else, listening to something like this makes me feel a little better about present-day artisits covering The Beatles. Just so long as they don't cover The Beatles doing anything like this.
Cry Baby Cry - Kick The Robot - No, if you're going to do it at all, this is the way. All the feels, all the colors. It's all a little bit Britpop Beatles but there's nothing wrong with that. Revolution No. 9 - Shazam - I always liked Revolution No. 9. Compared to some of the songs on The White Album it's tantamount to easy listening in my book. I was curious to see if anyone had covered it. I thought someone would have, if only for the challenge, but I didn't expect anyone to have done it live, let alone with an orchestra. There's always one, isn't there? The Shazam version seems to be a cover of the concept rather than the actual "tune" but it's pretty darn spiffy all the same. Good Night - The Carpenters - Like a lot of people in my peer group, I had my ears opened to the magic of Karen Carpenter's voice by the mesmerizing Sonic Youth cover of Superstar. It was so ineffably, magically lost I had to go listen to the original to try and work out what they'd heard in this cheesy pop act I'd obviously been missing all these years. Everything as it turned out, but most especially context.I'm not sure even Karen can salvage this one but hey, we could have had Barbra again so count your blessings.
Goodnight everyone. Let's not do this again. At least, not with The Beatles.