All Along the Watch Tower [Deep Cover]

Hey new semi regular feature of the blog. The "Deep Cover." What's "Deep Cover?" you ask? You didn't? Can we pretend? Okay great ... "Deep Cover" is a cover song that's so well known that the original version is all but lost to the sands of time, or more often than not mistaken for the original version by people less edumicated than I.


So the first "Deep Cover?" All Along The Watch Tower. It was Jimi Hendrix's only Top 40 hit.  It's one of the greatest rock songs of all time. VH1 put it in it's top 3, Rolling Stone put it at number 47, shockingly low if you ask me. Guitar World said it had the #5 greatest guitar solo of all time. And Total Guitar magazine called it the greatest cover song of all time.


The original was of course by Bob Dylan. And who doesn't do a Dylan cover? The legend is that Dylan liked Hendrix's version so much, it's what prompted him to pick back up the electric guitar, which he had previously sworn off. I'm sure this set off all sorts of hippie protests. I can't find anything to "verify" this on Wikipedia, so maybe not. Anyway Dylan did say about the Hendrix cover  "It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn't think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day."


Sure the song has been covered a billion times by a billion artists, but they all play it more in the style of Jimi than of the Dylan original. And yes, that now includes Dylan himself.

Sexy Nation Army

Not quite a cover, not quite a mash up. Take the lyrics of Sexyback put them to the tune of Seven Nation Army and give it to some guy I went to college with and you have a hot bowl of steaming musical goodness. 

Download this cover and a bajillion other free mp3's of Josh Woodward's music from his website.

Never Gonna Give You Up

Sweet Zombie Jesus! What fresh hell is this? Barry Bowling? Because Rick Rolling is too predictable?!?

Brian Wilson [Brian Wilson / Barenaked Ladies]

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Okay, let's see if I can explain this in the most confusing way possible ... It's Brian Wilson covering Brian Wilson. Except he's not singing a song he wrote, or even previously recorded, because that wouldn't be a cover. He's singing the Barenaked Ladies song, written about himself, the former Beach Boy, called Brian Wilson. I hope that at least slightly confused you, because if it didn't I wasn't doing my job.

Stayin' Alive

One of the great things about the internet, besides the pornography, is the ability to find things that simply should not exist, like most of the pornography. The other thing that's fun to find is simply random covers by seemingly random "lost" tracks by well known artists. 

These tracks seem to fall into three categories. Behind door number one, you have tracks recorded before the band was famous. Behind door number two, is the "we never got around to finishing this song." And behind door number three is "well I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time."

To quote Ms. Piggy "Ozzy Osbourne?!? Boy, did I open the wrong door." Mmm, I wonder what the Bee Gees' think about this cover ...

Sort of Haunted House [Brown Derbies / Too Much Joy]

Long before Glee made school related singing groups in vogue, there was an entire musical universe consisting of college a cappella groups. One of my personal favorites is the Brown Derbies. From their website : 
"The Brown Derbies is [sic] an all-male a cappella group from Brown University. The group was founded in 1982 and has since become one of the most well-known collegiate a cappella groups in the country. We sing a large range of styles, from Barbershop to Rock to R&B. We've released 10 studio albums which have all received critical acclaim (they may be lame a cappella organizations, but they're still critics) and we've performed all across the United States and in few other countries as well."


When you love cover songs like I do, sometimes you stumble across a cover without ever having heard the original and you think to yourself, "Man if the cover is this good, then how awesome must the original?" Then you go track down the original and it's like, "Wow, this totally was NOT worth it." This was one of those songs for me. Not that the original Too Much Joy version is bad, it's not. It's just not the emotional power house the Brown Derbies version is. The Derbies don't have too much in the way of digital downloads, but I would recommend the CD's, as much as it pains me to say that. 

Don't You Forget About Me [ Life of Agony / Simple Minds ]

Simple Minds hit new wave gold when this song was featured on the Breakfast Club soundtrack. Life of Agony was hit with a lawsuit when a fan took a fatal stage dive at one of their concerts. Okay not my best segue way ever, but you try blogging some time and see if sometimes instead of turning out gold you try to sneak some brass in sometimes? Hmmm?!? Yeah, that's what I thought.

I Can't Help Fallin' In Love With You

One of the most succesful reggae bands of all time, the group UB40, is barely known here in the states, save the sparse charting cover song spead out over three decades. Despite a vast musical catalog, all three of their U.K. number one hits and four of their five U.S. top ten hits were cover songs.


However UB40 does have a unique place in the annals of music history. UB40's cover of "I Can't Help Fallin' In Love With You" is the only cover to chart higher than the Elvis version. Also worth noting is they have the most soulful sounding ginger for a lead singer outside of Rick Astley. 


And now you know the rest of the story.

Fireflies

I went searching the interwebs for a punk cover of a Lady Antebellum I had heard of. This is of course how I wound up with an R&B cover of Owl City the sounds like it was used in the concourse area of the Epcot Center's "The Land" attraction. You know the one with all the hydroponic gardens and the singing food cabaret thing? Too obscure?

Pushing forward, to be honest, I know nothing about Ahmir, other than they bill themselves as YouTube's most popular R&B band. I'm not sure what criteria they used to reach that conclusion ... it's like being the self proclaimed most handsome guy in chess club. They've got this cool pre-grunge Color Me Badd type vibe to them. I meant that as a compliment. No really, I swear. Their musical song book consists of covers of Beyonce, Train, Justin Beiber, Eminem and Miley Cyrus. Diversity at it's finest.

Cat Scratch Fever

Surely there's no greater rhyme in Rock 'N Roll than "Working Double Time /On The Seduction Line." Perhaps that's why in 2001 a band from Deer Lick Holler, Appalachia decided to form their own tribute band to the Aussie legends. Hayseed Dixie (Pronounced like AC/DC with a southern accent) released an album of all AC/DC covers, done in the bluegrass style ...  Anyone know how to type the thunderbolt between AC and DC?


When the novelty failed to wear off and the album wound up #17 for the year on the Country Music charts and #11 on the Internet Album chart, another album of random rock covers was released. Then an album of KISS covers and so on and so forth. Fast forward to 2010 and we have ourselves a ligitimate band with original songs, including my personal favorite "Keeping Your Poop In A Jar." I'd feature one of the songs of the first album, but apparently AC/DC is one of those stupid bands who still don't want their music sold over this new fangled series of tubes we call the internet. Come on! Even Metallica's gotten the hint on that one! So how's about we cue up the cover of the Motor City Mad Man instead?

Respect Yourself

Originally recorded by the Staple Singers, Respect Yourself is an R&B cover song staple. The original peaked at number twelve in 1971 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. It was topped by a cover version, in 1987 which went to number five, by actor Bruce Willis. America you should be ashamed of yourself.

Today however I'm featuring a brand new cover as done by Huey Lewis and the News. Why you ask? It's a free download from Amazon.com for a limited time, that's why. I like free and more importantly I can afford free.

F*ck You

Move over Cee-Lo, here's Shatner!