Better than the original?

Subject: Better than the original?
From: MARINER
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 04:07 PM

In the "Dimming of the Day" thread someone mentioned some recordings of songs being better than the original.For me that's something that rarely happens. But, there are exceptions. One of my favourite "versions" of an original is The Steve Gibbons Band's live recording of Chuck Berry's "Tulane" , (From the album "Caught in the Act"),closely followed by Johnnie Allen's "Promised Land" Anyone else got any favourite "versions" of originals? ie. Buddy Holly .v. Chuck Berry on "Brown eyed handsome man?

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 04:25 PM

Any Dylan cover.

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: Gene
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 05:49 PM

am not a fan of AARON NEVILLE,

but i'd say his recording of THE GRAND TOUR

is neck & neck with GEORGE JONES' original recording..

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 06:10 PM

I've been told that there are James Keelaghan songs that I do 'better' than he does... With almost one exception, -I- do not agree...

But there are a lot of people who like Cry Cry Cry's cover of his song Cold Missour Water better than his original too... Again, I do not agree...

My one exception... I do his song "Hillcrest Mine" a LOT different than he does, and I really LOVE 'my' version... would I call it better? I wouldn't DARE! I just like my current version better cause it's different...

I like Garnet Rogers version of Girl From The Hiring Fair MUCH better than Fairport Conventions... And I LOVE FPC's version!

I WAY prefer Mick O'Brien's covers of Luka Bloom songs to the original... all of them...

ANYONE who covers ANYTHING by Shane McGowan does it much better than he does... or in my book, could every do.... Christy Moore especially....

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 06:20 PM

Que Sera Sera by Pink Martini, 1997 (China Forbes vocal). Amazon sound sample here Gone is the bouncy upbeat Doris Day version, replaced by a darker, more wistful sound that makes you wonder why wasn't it done that way in the first place?

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 06:40 PM

Wistful? Hmmm ... I'll have to agree to disagree there GUEST Dale. It sounds nightmarish to me. Sort of Doris Day meets Frank Zappa.

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 09:10 PM

Hard to admit, maybe, but I liked Johnn Rivers version of Memphis, Tennessee much better than Chuck Berry's. I thought the quality of the recording on Berry's original was really tinny sounding. I didn't even here it until many years after I heard Johnny Rivers do it.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 09:56 PM

Yes, I know what you mean!

Pete Seeger's version of "Ain't That A Sahame" was much better by far than the older one by Fats Domino. And Fats's ;-) version, in turn, was better than the earlier Pat Boone varient---which surpassed the one by A. L. Lloyd (the original original) !!

I only mention this because, as we all know, everything is folk music now. And none of us, as has been noted many-a-time in this nominal folk music forum, ever heard a horse singin'.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 10:07 PM

Jerry,

I will most certainly have to check out that recording you mentioned. I'd never ever imagined or entertained the slightest notion that Joan Rivers, of all people, would ever think of covering "Memphis Tennessee"--- let alone have pulled it off nicely enough to get a positive rise out of you here in this good Mudcat place.
(I have a book I want to send you but it can't wait until Christmas. Please consider it a Labor Day gift.)

Love to you and Ruth,

Art ;-)

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: Bert
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 11:17 PM

Lonnie Donnegan did an awful lot of Woodie Guthrie's songs better than Woodie.

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: JedMarum
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 12:44 AM

Well, if you consider the original HIT recording, rather then original song by the comnposer .. I always thought that Judy Collins did a lovely job of the Ian Tyson song, Someday Soon - and I've never cared much for remakes - BUT, a few years ago some budding young country star rerecorded the song, and she just did a superb job of it. She topped the original hit, good as it was ... 'course, maybe it's just a great song!

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: GUEST,Vic at work
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 03:21 AM

Before anyone else in the UK, Martin Carthy's version of Heartbreak Hotel. Just listen then decide.

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 04:00 AM

With a Little Help from my Friends.....Joe Cocker. Fantastic.
Giok

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: Splott Man
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 07:54 AM

I don't know about better than the original, but there are certainly some strong challenges and interesting rethinks about.

Mae West did a storming version of Great Balls of Fire when in her 80s.

The Blind Boys of Alabama doing Dimming of the Day.

Steeleye Span's Rave On.

Warren Zevon's version of Back in the High Life is full of emotions that Steve Winwood probably hadn't envisaged when he wrote it.

I'll probably think of some more later.
I like this thread, it makes me want to look up some of your suggestions.

Splott Man

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 08:35 AM

Johnny Rivers, Art.. :-) Now, Joan Rivers... that would be quite a challenge. I was typing too fast and left the y off...

Jerry

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 10:40 AM

Bert, Sorry mate but, NOBODY does Woody songs better than he. Woody was/is The Man. Burl

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 02:21 PM

Jimi Hendrix doing Dylan's "Watchtower" -- perhaps the greatest cover recording of them all. Although, I suppose, some diehard folkies might not like a rock 'n' roll remake of a "contemorary-folk" number.

"Hey Joe" was another notable Hendrix cover. The original not-quite-a-hit recording is pretty obscure; I've heard the name of the group that released it, but don't remember. I knew the song not as a record, but as something played live by almost every college-boy semi-pro rock band during the year or two prior to Jimi's appearance on the scene.

I think this particular song's popularity, which was much greater among young electric guitarists as a song to *play* than it ever had been among record-buyers, is an example of the "folk process" operating within a musical community not usually associated with folk music.

In response to a couple of the messages posted above:

Gotta agree with burl -- no one does Woody better than Woody!

I understand that lots of folks feel that anyone does Dylan better than Dylan, but (as one of the many who appreciate Bob's unique delivery and performance style) I disagree. To me, the "Watchtower" cover mentioned above is one of the *few* cases where a remake appreciably improved on any Dylan original.

Joe Cocker, along with Janis Joplin, was one of the great reinterpreters of the rock era; almost everything either of them sang was a new version of some previous recording, and most of them were excellent. Cocker's "Something" and "Bathroom Window," for example, may not have been "better" than the Beatles' originals, but they were different enough to be interesting, and probably "as-good-as" their predecessors to many people's ears.

Janis Joplin covered a number of tunes originally sung by Howard Tate and written and/or arranged by Jerry Ragovoy -- most notably, "Get It While You Can." Great as Janis was, she didn't really improve upon the originals; Howard Tate was (and still is) perhaps the very greatest of all soul vocalists, and its hard to understand how he failed to get recognition, airplay, etc. Howard's albums have been reissued on CD, and he himself has recently re-emerged from obscurity -- he's been a preacher in South Jersey, outside Philadelphia -- to play occasional concerts.

If this thread stays alive for a while, I'll probably think of something else to add in a day or two.

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: Bert
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 10:07 PM

Ya may be right Burl. But I heard them first from Lonnie, so that has probably biased my opinion somewhat.

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: alanabit
Date: 07 Aug 04 - 02:50 PM

It's got to be subjective, hasn't it? I love Chuck Berry's orignal Memphis Tennessee. It has that wonderful, loping Willie Dixon bass line...
I have not yet heard the original Robin Williamson version of "October Song". It will have to be pretty special though for me to like it more that Bert Jansch's take on it.
Dylan songs seem to cover well. Maybe that is a sign that they are not all really the personal songs which some folks see them as?

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 06:48 AM

Two of Lonnie's sons are touring in the autumn with a tribute show - should be interesting.

Tony was at the last gig in Nottingham, which was the best gig I ever saw anywhere.

Its down to personal preference.

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 02:51 PM

How could I have forgotten Aretha?

Her huge hit on Otis Redding's "Respect" is another historically momentous "better than the original" cover rendition.

Otis had written and recorded the song previously, but it did not make a big splash. It may have been a "B"-side or album cut.

Aretha did more than just reinterpret this song -- she wrote an short but important additional passage at the end of each verse, the part where she spells out R-E-S-P-E-C-T. This is probably the most memorable aspect of her recording, the line most people first think of when the song title is mentioned.

Also, the idea of this song's plea for respect being voiced by a woman rather than a man was probably a major factor in its appeal during the era (late 60s) when it was released.

Another Aretha cover I just heard on the radio: "The Weight." Great record, a precursor to (if not the inspiration for) the Staples Singers' performance with The Band in The Last Waltz, but not, IMHO, appreciably "better" than the wonderful and memorable original.

******

alanabit, I agree that many many Dylan songs "cover well," which is a tribute to his songwriting -- his work is almost always universal, not strictly personal. However, I appreciate most of Bob's original renditions and find most covers, even the best, to be interesting and perhaps equally good, but very rarely are they clearly "better." (Jimi's "Watchtower" being, for me, the exception that proves the rule, as noted above.)

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 09:30 PM

I always felt that Dylan was lucky to be a poor singer. Just about anyone can do his songs as well as, or better than Bob. ;-) Check out Wisconsinite Bill Camplin's newest CD ---a fine Dylan tribute.

Stan Rogers, on the other hand, was so good at doing his own songs that nobody else (or very few) dared do his songs. And they were pretty much all great too. --- But why bother??

Art

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: Cluin
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 11:55 PM

All the Dylan songs Tim O'Brien covered on his CD "Red On Blonde" I like far more than the originals.

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: Nick
Date: 09 Aug 04 - 11:19 AM

Not a folk song but I always thought that Neil Sedaka's own cover/version of 'Breaking up is hard to do' as a ballad was hugely superior to it as an uptempo number.

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 09 Aug 04 - 01:34 PM

The Grateful Dead really made a substantial improvement upon Bonnie Dobson's "Morning Dew," a tune they played and continued to develop from their earliest days until the very end.

The call-and-response interplay between the twin lead guitars pretty much qualifies as a whole new instrumental composition, and the piece as a whole is easily the most sophisticated work of the group's earliest years, anticipating the lyricism that became more evident in the 70s with "Workingman's Dead" and "America Beauty."

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 09 Aug 04 - 02:31 PM

I thought that the Black Crows did a great cover of Otis Redding's Hard to Handle (whatever the exact title is.) Not sure it was better, but in it's own way, I thought it was just as good.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 09 Aug 04 - 02:43 PM

The Black Crowes website (well, maybe it's a *fans* website) consistently misspells Otis's name as "Reading." But then again, I would have misspelled "Crowes" just as Jerry did, without the "e."

Subject: RE: Better than the original?
From: Bo Vandenberg
Date: 10 Aug 04 - 02:22 AM

I can't think of the star spangled banner without thinking of hendrix doing it.

In my mind its a much better modern piece.