Cover MegaMix for Samara (Part Three)

[thehefner]

Disc 3

1.) Solisbury Hill (Peter Gabriel), Sarah McLachlan
--It's a very faithful cover, and one pattern I'm noticing is that if it's faithful, it'll never live up to the original. Covers should bring something decidedly different to the table, otherwise, why do one at all? Thankfully, Sarah's voice is lovely, so there we go.

2.) Superstar (The Carpenters), Sonic Youth
--I remember when I saw this trailer...

... the first thing I thought was, "Holy shit, what was that song?!" Maybe just heard on its own, the cover doesn't carry as much power, and might be annoyingly off-key. But man, for me, it's now forever tied to that trailer.

On a related note, did anyone else thing HIGH TENSION was one of the best horror films in twenty years... until the last fifteen minutes of the fucking film? That stupid ass goddamn twist ruined the whole fucking picture.

3.) Mr. Crowley (Ozzy), Tim "Ripper" Owens, Tngwie Mal
--Oddly, as much as I enjoy the cover, it falls short of the original. I say "oddly," because it doesn't fall short so much of Ozzy's vocals as much as it fails to match the guitar work of Randy Rhoads. And I'm not even a huge metal fan, but damn, just comparing the two versions really showed me how good he was.

4.) Straight to Hell (The Clash), Moby & Heather Nova
--I could easily have also posted Emm Gryner's cover of the same song, but Moby and Heather Nova's is quietly haunting.

5.) Waiting Room (Fugazi), Emm Gryner
--It's Fugazi Approved! (Kid testing is still underway)

6.) New Dawn Fades (Joy Division), Moby
--The funny thing about all this is that the video below isn't quite the same as the song on my actual mix (made during Moby's "hard rock 'Animal Rights'" phase), but I think I like it better than the original. Ah well. Both are good. As much as I do enjoy Moby's remixes (like so many, I got into him with "Play"), it's his original stuff that I far prefer, as well as when he actually does the singing. He's not a great singer by any means, but his voice has a nice character that goes with his music.

7.) Intruder (Peter Gabriel), Primus
--Another Primus cover of a totally obscure (relatively speaking) and rather dark Peter Gabriel song, this one from his third album (commonly known as "Melt"... if anyone I knew followed Peter Gabriel)

8.) Crazy Train (Ozzy), Emm Gryner
--I'm kinda overdoing the Emm Gryner covers here, okay, but this one's still great. Have another video, this one also inexplicably set to random Alan Rickman videos!

9.) Stand By me (Ben E. King), John Lennon
--No comment here, as it's pretty darn straight forward.

10.) Across the Universe (The Beatles), Rufus Wainwright, Moby, and Sean Lennon
--Speaking of that singing voice of Moby's, I like how the three here play off one another. I prefer this version to Rufus' solo cover from the "Sean Penn Oscar Bait" movie. (I'm kinda trying to refrain from using the 'R-word' these days, and not always succeeding)

11.) Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash), Social Distortion
--Erm, embedding this video is not allowed, so, uh... just copy-paste, kay thanks.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_i2ESgR0FUM

12.) A Heart Needs a Home (Richard Thompson), Loudon Wainwright III and Shawn Colvin
--One of my favorite Loudon Wainwright songs, even if he didn't write it.

13.) I'm Only Human (The Human League), The 6ths With Lloyd Cole
--One of the only covers by a Stephen Merritt band (besides the 6ths, he's most famous as the mastermind of the Magnetic Fields) with Lloyd Cole on vocals.

Incidentally, I just met a rather attractive and possibly crazy girl at the comic store who's a big fan of Belle and Sebastian, describing their style of music as "twee." I had never heard of "twee pop," but it certainly seemed to fit B&S, as well as Stephen Merritt's style. And I do enjoy that style, from the bits I've heard. I doubt there is honor in twee, but I rather like the Magnetic Fields and the 6ths. Which brings me to...

14.) Book of Love (The Magnetic Fields), Peter Gabriel
--One of my favorite songs on this entire mix, one of my favorite Peter Gabriel songs, and really, one of my favorite songs period. A shame it had to be discovered in a Jennifer Lopez movie (a remake of a sweet Japanese film, no less!), but whatever, this song has moved me to tears on more than one occasion, and yes, I prefer it to the sweet, twangy Magnetic Fields original. Stephen Merritt's voice is of a love lord sardonic gay man. Gabriel's is worn, older, wiser, all at once both harrowing and comforting.

So yeah, hopefully the impact is still the same when set to LOST footage (there are tons of fan videos, but I chose this one over the one set to the spanish lyrics, and the one set to JAG footage. Seriously).

15.) Straight to You (Nick Cave), Emm Gryner
--Some of you may remember the second-ever Hefner Monologue I wrote about Emm Gryner about two or three years ago, and the personal importance of this song. I'm gonna need to rewrite that at some point. For those who don't know or remember that one, suffice it to say that this song, more than any other here, carries some personal significance with me.

16.) The Curtain Falls (Bobby Darin), Kevin Spacey
--While "Beyond the Sea" was a painfully flawed movie, I don't think the same could be said for Spacey's covers of Bobby Darin. I really should just buy the whole album, because wow, he's great. His cover of "Mack the Knife" is absolutely one of my favorites (for those who remember my entire album of "Mack the Knife" covers).

This particular song was, as far as I can tell, recorded by Darin only in his "Live in Vegas" album, with which he ends the show. It's a perfect capper, of course, but Spacey's version lacks something that the original has: an audience. And that just makes the song's abrupt ending all the more powerful, grabbing you right by the throat mid-orgasm, and then letting you go, you're done, it's over with a quiet and simple, "Good night, ladies and gentlemen. And God bless."

Rest assured, this will be the last song Johnny Go ever sings.

Or at least, the second to last. Because even Johnny will realize that you can't go off that stage without a big goddamn finish, and it's to that show-stopping mentality that I end this covers mix the only way it could possibly end:

17.) Common People (Pulp), William Shatner, with Joe Jackson and Ben Folds

Damn straight, dames and pallies.

Hey, I made it through all this without bitching about how Peter Gabriel gets no respect! Yay me! (Seriously, though, folks. Listen to "Security," for Grodd's sake.)

Coming up next: BONUS TRACKS! Just some of the covers that I neglected to include, but shoulda. I don't care how awesome "Sex Bomb" is, it doesn't belong here!

Comments

[kmousie.livejournal.com]

That Peter Gabriel song is so beautiful! (And you're right, he gets no respect at all.) The Lost video didn't distract me much (except there was way too much Jack and Kate, and not nearly enough Jin and Sun or Sayid and...well, Shannon, but mostly Sayid. Mmmm, Sayid. ... I'm sorry, what was I talking about?), but I was puzzled as to the upside-down frames. And the color variations were odd. Dear vidder, Daniel and Yunjin are absolutely stunning people. Please for to not be turning their skin green and purple.

Tangential rant, I know. But you sorta asked if the video would lessen the song's impact. The short answer is no. ;-)

[recalcitranttoy.livejournal.com]

Hey, even old people like me like Peter Gabriel. he used to hang out at the MIT media center in the very very old days when I used to work in another building (not being l33t enough for the media center). I've been a fan for ages. Saw him at Madison Square Garden. So there :-).

[bimmin.livejournal.com]

Doesn't matter when or where...Joe Jackson makes my day. *^_^*

"Steppin' Out" for the win....

[gnort.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard Gryner's cover of Fugazi, however the other three are all awesome and deserve spots on the collection. If it were on one cd, maybe it would be overdoing it, but spaced out between the three it's not so bad.

[civilbloodshed.livejournal.com]

On a related note, did anyone else thing HIGH TENSION was one of the best horror films in twenty years... until the last fifteen minutes of the fucking film? That stupid ass goddamn twist ruined the whole fucking picture.

WORD. Omfg, word. I mean, yeah, the twist it's self was stupid, but I thing the thing that pissed me off the most about it was the editing.

Spoiler!I haven't seen it in a while, but I do remember getting all annoyed they never showed a shot of Marie with a chainsaw going for Alexa(?) at the end. I really don't even know why it just, like, bothered me that they only showed the fake killer dude in Marie's head with it.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it since it came out in theatres, but I still have this lingering sense that if they only left that twist out, it could have been brilliant. I mean that absolutely seriously. The whole rest of the movie felt so fantastically suspenseful and truly horrifying (in a way that no amount of SAWs or TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE desecration remakes* could ever achieve) that it didn't even need that twist, even if that's what was supposedly the heart and the original film's idea. It was already a work of horror art in of itself.

*You may or may not know the level of pure, white-hot hatred I have for the TCM remake, especially in comparison for my deep love and respect for the original TEXAS CHAIN SAW (two words) MASSACRE.

[civilbloodshed.livejournal.com]

I don't know about "brilliant", but it was definitely A++ awesome until the end.

XD Ok, honestly? As I've seen almost every horror move known to man*, I'm pretty hard to catch off guard in "suspense" films (we wont talk about SIGNS, because Sweet Chocolate Jesus aliens in a basement with only a crappy flashlight?! That was some cheesy, b-movie, honest-to-God fright inducing shit. I may have screamed like a girl) but I'm not allowed to play the original Chain Saw because my sister says it's "boring as shit." Plebes.


*This is an exaggeration. Obviously. But it still stands that I've seen more horror movies than is generally healthy for one human being that isn't living in their mother's basement, obsessively drawing vampires and wearing wolf shirts.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I think I was using brilliant in that English schoolchild way, like it's their version of our patented "AWESOME!"

Wait. So you've never seen the original CHAIN SAW? All because of your sister, of whom I am not going to speak ill, but am now very, very, very tempted?

[civilbloodshed.livejournal.com]

No, no, I've seen the original and loved it, but even I have to admit it's a little dated. My sister prefers the remakes.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Dated?? Whatchoo talkin' about, Willis? It's set in the 70's! It's allowed to look 70's!

Actually, I really don't understand why "dated" is a problem for people when it comes to movies. They were made them they were made, and they'll all have that problem, more or less.

I don't know your sister, and therefore I won't say a bad word. But if she seriously prefers that ugly, nasty, hateful dreck that's more interested in gore and cheap lazy "BOO!" scares than actual suspense... well, I'll certainly be thinking my opinions very loudly.

[civilbloodshed.livejournal.com]

She's like twelve, and while that in its self isn't an excuse, I still have hope she'll see the error of her ways.