31 July 2020 - Natalie Imbruglia & Scala - The Hanging Tree

This song originally appeared in the 2014 movie The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 - and it is a huge shift in tone for the movie, if you've seen it.  It's a song that starts quietly and builds to a bombastic war chant.  

In this version, Natalie Imbruglia starts acapella, and then is joined by Belgian  women's choir Scala, followed by full orchestra.  It's a very powerful version of the song.  In this performance, they even captured the movie's feeling.

30 July 2020 - The Loud Family - Erica's Word

It feels 100% wrong to call this a cover.

Not only did the vocalist, Scott Miller, WRITE the song, his previous band, Game Theory, originally recorded it.  The drummer for The Loud Family was the last drummer of Game Theory.  One could say that The Loud Family were nothing more than a renamed Game Theory.

One would be wrong. 

It's not the same band, and it's absolutely not the same song.  It's harder-edged, angrier and less optimistic.  The Loud Family were a less poppy band than Game Theory, and this song is the perfect illustration of that different direction. 

28 July 2020 - Aerosmith - Heartbreaker.

One classic rock icon covering another classic rock icon. This is how Aerosmith celebrated the new millennium - or at least the odometer flipping - as 1999 turned to 2000.

There's not a lot more I can say about this one - except it's one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs, and it sounds here like it was tailor-made for Aerosmith.  Steven Tyler and Joe Perry bring as much energy and emotion to the song as Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.

16 July 2020 - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Let the Day Begin (with a Call-back)

Welcome, Wicked Guilty Pleasures readers!

This song was originally done by a band called The Call, and you can hear the original version here.  The songwriter and lead vocalist of The Call was Michael Been.

When BRMC started, their lead vocalist went by the name Robert Turner - but it wasn't his real name.  His real name was Robert Levon Been, and he is the son of Michael Been.   By the time their third album was released, he went to his given name.

Michael was very proud of his song, and in 2010, he was acting as a sound engineer at a BRMC appearance at the Pukkelpop festival in Belguim.  He suffered a fatal heart attack backstage soon after the band's appearance.

In 2013, Robert's band recorded their own version of his father's best known song, and it is a hell of a song.



That same year, The Call reformed for a couple of shows, with the younger Been on vocals.



Back to BRMC, though.  It is apparent how much it means to Robert to be playing his father's song.  It is no carbon copy, either - he makes the song his own.