I’m worst at what I do best.. or “Covers”
It’s quite surprising that I haven’t done a covers post since last November. When I first started this thing I was doing them every couple of weeks as a handy fall back mechanism that saved me having to write about anything more substantial. I’m only doing one today because I’m tired and need something quick and easy to post, and covers are pretty good for fitting that description.
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I’ve never been a big fan of Tori Amos other than a handful of songs. I’ve never been a big fan of Nirvana either, but I probably like a few more of their songs. So I wasn’t overly excited about this particular cover given that ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ is one of the ones I do like. Surprisingly though, I ended up enjoying this version. It’s the polar opposite of the Nirvana original: it’s slow, it only has a piano behind the vocal, and you can clearly make out the lyrics. I don’t even think it’s all that fair to compare it to the original given it shares very little with it beyond the words.
MP3 Tori Amos – Smells Like Teen Spirit (expired) (Nirvana)
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I seem to be one of the few people who will admit to wholeheartedly liking Saves The Day. Sure, they aren’t perfect, but albums like ‘Through Being Cool’ and most of ‘Stay What You Are’ are uniformly enjoyable. It’s a shame though that their most interesting release is the one most often overlooked: 1998’s ‘I’m Sorry I’m Leaving’ EP. Five songs, all stripped down to basic acoustic arrangements. While four of these are Saves The Day originals, the collection ends with a cover of Modern English’s ‘I Melt With You’. Their cover doesn’t change the formula all that much, aside from simplifying it a little, but it’s very enjoyable nonetheless. Even if I didn’t even know it was a cover for the first couple of years that I had it.
MP3 Saves The Day – I Melt With You (expired) (Modern English)
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As usual, we end with the obligatory cover of a song I’m not familiar with. I have never heard the original version of ‘Bad Reputation’. Actually, I don’t even know who Freedy Johnson is. All of which means there isn’t a great deal of commentary I can offer you on this song, beyond some basic facts. The song was released as an exclusive on iTunes late in 2005, around the time that ‘Plans’ was released. It’s also a rather good song, and if I didn’t know it was a cover, I’d probably assume it was a Death Cab song as it certainly sounds like something that could come from them.
MP3 Death Cab For Cutie – Bad Reputation (expired) (Freedy Johnson)
If you’re looking for interesting covers of ‘Smells…’ may I recommend the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4559510005057780538&q=ukulele&pr=goog-sl
freedy johnston is a new york based singer song writer. bad reputation was the first track in his album titled “this perfect world” which i believe was produced by butch vig. it played during the ending credits of noah baumbach’s masterpiece “kicking and screaming”. i only know all this because it’s my favorite song.
You owe it to yourself to get into Freedy Johnston. Start with “Can You Fly,” which Robert Crisgau calls a perfect album. Go from there.
I’m same with you, i never like or dislike Nirvana, Tori Amos. And i think it was two years ago when i first listened Tori Amos’ That Nirvana cover. Actually all cover of Tori Amos don’t make a sense (in my view). They sound a colleger’s acustic cover… I liked your blog, keep going.
Nirvana is the greatest band of all time