7 November 2020 - Jessie J - Party in the U.S.A.

Today, the original Miley Cyrus version of this song reentered the charts.  The song is objectively great, and the lyrics were brilliantly written by Jessica Ellen Cornish.

Question: Isn't Jessie short for Jessica?

Answer: Why, yes, it is.  In fact, THIS is the writer performing the song she wrote, live.  

6 November 2020 - A Special Post Malone Nirvana Tribute Edition

Perhaps the biggest surprise of 2020 is the Post Malone Nirvana tribute livestream.  It's not the type of music you'd expect out of him, and yet, he does a faithful and brilliant cover many songs from the entire Nirvana catalog, from Bleach ("About A Girl" was absolutely the Bleach version although more people know it from Unplugged so that's probably why it was included; there can be no question about "School") all the way to In Utero.

I could not pick just one song, so I decided to share the entire livestream.  The livestream was performed as a benefit for the United Nations Foundation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for The World Health Organization (WHO) in support of COVID-19 relief efforts, and it is all gold.  

5 November 2020 - A Nirvana 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Special

 Each of these covers today have two things in common:

1) They were all recorded on the same day in April 2014. 
2) They all featured Krist Novocelic, Dave Grohl, and Pat Smear

These performances were from the 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction of Nirvana, and they decided to do it live with a bunch of different lead vocalists. While each are faithful covers - I mean, the backing band - none of these vocalists attempt a Kurt Cobain impersonation, and that's a good thing.  

The first one, "Lithium", from the Nevermind album, features a woman named Annie Clark who Krist Novocelic erroneously introduces as the vocalist from the BAND St. Vincent - Annie Clark IS St. Vincent - but that's not important.  What's important is that she was probably the least well-known vocalist of the lot, and this was something of a star-making performance.

Kim Gordon, on the other hand, was well-known in indie circles as a founder and member of Sonic Youth for many years.  That band broke up in 2011, but Kim Gordon didn't forget her old friends.  You see, Nirvana toured as an opening act with Sonic Youth in 1991, before Nevermind dropped and changed the world.  Gordon chose to sing the hell out of a deep cut, "Aneurysm", a B-side to......

........"Smells Like Teen Spirit".  On this night, Joan Jett - who Krist Novocelic states was NOT yet in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (but was inducted in 2015 with the Blackhearts, a year later) (The Runaways should be in the R&RHOF) - sang what is probably their best known song, and sang the hell out of it.  

This brings us to the end and Lorde.  Lorde covered "All Apologies" from the In Utero album.  It is probably the least faithful of the four covers - because, you know, accordion - and Lorde is the only one of these four singers to never walk the Earth as the same time as Kurt Cobain.  She still, like everyone else this evening, killed it.  

27 October 2020 - Lena Katina - All The Things She Said/ Ya Soshla S Uma

 Here, we are once again pushing what a cover is.  Why?  

You might recall that this song was originally recorded by Russian duo t.A.T.u.  And this is a faithful cover of the song....... by someone who was half of t.A.T.u. So, can it be considered a cover?  Here she is, performing the song live in Milwaukee.

We are calling it a cover because of the deep reinterpretation of the song Katina has recently undertaken.  This version (with the Russian lyrics) is an acoustic take on the song at a different pace.... and she truly makes the song her own.

26 October 2020 - Poppy - All The Things She Said

 Poppy has become an odd and interesting mix of pop, electronica, and metal.....

...which makes her unusually well-suited to cover the biggest international hit by Russian duo t.A.T.u, and, while making it both heavier and poppier (no pun intended), still manages to remain faithful to the original.

The story behind this cover is that it's a song Poppy has covered live for quite some time, and it was well-received - because she sings the hell out of it.  Here she is performing it several months before the single release and right before the entire world learned how to spell "COVID-19".  

6 October 2020 - A "Ripple" Special

Perry Farrell's voice is definitely not Jerry Garcia's, and yet this cover of a Grateful Dead classic is one of my favorite covers of all time.  This version brings a trippy, and not earthy, flavor that is wholly appropriate to the song.  

Norah Jones, on the other hand, makes the song a country standard.  I found this version to be unexpectedly appropriate as well.

I don't usually jump right into the special posts like I did, but "Ripple" is a classic song that allows us to put the spotlight on beautifully written lyrics.  There are some who believe it to be inspired by the Bible - Psalm 23, to be precise.  It's an instantly recognizable song, and one that is easy to sing along with.... as Wilco demonstrates here by turning the song into an audience sing-along.

 

Let's wrap up this special with an ironic cover.   The first two lines of the song are:

If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung

So it's appropriate to close this with a harp cover.  It's instrumental, but you'll be singing along.

15 September 2020 - Lush - Hey Hey Helen

Since we posted about Lush today on Wicked Guilty Pleasures, I figured it was fitting to put a cover by them over here.  This cover, of an ABBA classic song about divorce and separating, was featured on their US debut Gala, but this version was from a Peel session, which sounds more real to me.  

In contrast, here is the more ethereal studio version, which is also good.