Rearrangements
I’m a sucker for mashups. In fact, almost any rearrangement of a song makes me happy if it is cleverly done. I found one recently that had me thinking of rearrangements of rock/pop songs into country. We’re more used to this going in the other direction, thanks to Taylor Swift, Faith Hill, and Shania Twain. Country is seen as a fringier market, I suppose, so it makes sense to make country songs sound poppier. However, I was cruising youtube looking for songs by one of my favorite “bluegrass” bands, Nickel Creek, and I found the following:
I love the original version, but this arrangement turns it into a country engenue’s ballad of hard living and hard knocks. The slightly cliched lyrics work perfectly in a country setting, which appreciates clever more than pop, and Apple’s vocals are made plaintive, instead of strutting like in the original.
Probably the best example of this sort of thing is Johnny Cash’s Hurt.
Cash’s life does as much work here as his voice. It’s great stuff.
That said, it doesn’t always work. I haven’t liked anything to come out of the Alison Krauss/Robert Plant collaboration.
I don’t know if they just think that they are more in sync than they actually are, but rewriting Black Dog as country blues doesn’t seem to work. It may be the performers (Krauss’ voice doesn’t really do sexy; the pairing here seems a little creepy). I tend to think it is the arrangement itself, which doesn’t seem to trust the acoustics to get be sufficiently rocking. This starts out a little dark and dangerous and then just fizzles. It’s too bad.
Anyhoo, have you noticed any rearrangements from pop to country (or back again) that you have found noteworthy? Other genre hopping is also on the table.
Posted on September 18, 2009, in Music, Pop Culture. Bookmark the permalink. 46 Comments.
Steve Evans
RJH
Scott B.
John C.
Susan M
Aaron Brown
ninemoons
arandomjohn
kulturblogadmin
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Clark Goble
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Corrine Bailey Rae is now one of my favorites. I only recently learned about her music and who she is … and I just love what she does, though it seems she’s been less active since her husband died of a drug overdose. Sad story.
Anyway, I was listening to her R&B singles, which are spectacular. Then I was reading about her and was amazed/happy to find out she was/is a major Led Zeppelin fan.
So here’s a YouTube video of Corrine Bailey Rae performing a cover of “Since I’ve Been Loving You”, live.
Is country still viewed as fringe? I thought it was taking a big chunk of the traditional pop market.
Whoops – it’s Corinne Bailey Rae.
I can never get that first name spelled right.
Holy crap. That Nickel Creek and Fiona Apple friggin’ rules.
I really dig this Krauss/Plant one:
How about Damien Rice doing Prince’s When Doves Cry?
Is country still viewed as fringe?
I would say no. Country is actually the #1 radio format in the country.
Cash’s Hurt video is so heartbreaking. I think pop/country is hugely popular but I miss the good stuff. Like Johnny Cash or Waylon Jennings.
That Cash recording is heartbreaking. You can just hear the ache in his voice- and the backdrop of his life is wrenching. I think Reznor wrote that song for Cash, whether he knew it or not.
I thought mashups were when someone takes two different songs and mixes them together. Like a DJ, not a performance.
How’s about this for genre hopping?
I can come up with something better if I have time.
Same here. This post seems to be more about cover versions.
While Black Dog is an interesting failure, the album as a whole is fantastic. I’m surprised you didn’t like their collaboration.
I want to like that Fiona Apple song, but the sound is just so bad in it.
For weird duets though I like two U2 ones. The first is Bono and Frank Sinatra which has a surprisingly high play count in my iTunes library. It gets played a lot
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL_EKEVtmSU&hl=en&fs=1&
The other one you’re probably familiar with.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3YFmpSFJ40&hl=en&fs=1&
An other odd combo that works is Clapton and Roger Waters. I always wonder why he keeps teaming up with him since he always says afterwards what a horrible experience it is. Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking has a fantastic guitar solo.
Yup — this post is about covers, not mashups.
It’s true the post is about covers, but more about genre-hopping. I agree with your definition of mash-ups, but using them seemed like a good jumping off point. Mostly, I’m interested in genre-hopping. The original title of the post was “Odd Couples”
I guess I just don’t like the way Krauss and Plant sound together. I’ve never heard anything off that album that hasn’t made my eyes roll.
Tim, I wonder if country gets covers more area, but if more people listen to hip-hop/urban stations? Can you speak to that?
In any case, critically I think country is a genre that one has to transcend in order to achieve critical success. So I tend to think it fringy due to the profound lack of respect it garners.
Also, Clark, if you look around, you can find 4 more videos of the Nickel Creek/Fiona Apple collaboration. Unfortunately, I think this has the best sound of the group (but you may disagree).
Sugarland has a couple of good covers that my country-loving wife introduced me too.
They cover Kings of Leon’s Sex on Fire.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqGdFL16VpI&hl=en&fs=1&
and also Edie Brickell’s Circle of Friends.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdQswBQtXEU&hl=en&fs=1&
Weird, the embedded versions showed up in the preview.
Mary Chapin Carpenter does a countryish cover of John Lennon’s “Grow Old With Me” … ignore the corny homemade video and just listen … good stuff.
I went trolling around and found some interesting stuff:
Dolly Parton’s cover of Collective Soul’s “Shine”
Living Colour’s live cover of “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”
A ska version of “Hotel California” …
An acoustic cover of Rush’s “Subdivisions” (I didn’t know anyone did Rush covers – nevermind cross-genre Rush covers)
Spanky Wilson’s soul/funk version of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love”(which seems to truly enrage a number of commenters)
I’m just tossing in Cake’s “I Will Survive” because it is pretty awesome.
Dolly Parton also covered “Stairway to Heaven.” It’s not great, but it’s certainly better than the horrorshow of a “Black Dog” cover by Plant & Krauss. Ugh.
Dolly’s cover of “Shine,” on the other hand, is pretty great.
Surprised no one’s mentioned Carry Underwood’s Motley Crue cover.
I actually really like it. I don’t think it says much for Motley Crue, though, that they wrote such a sappy song.
Alison Krauss is someone who can do no wrong for me. I could listen to her sing the phone book.
She covered Bad Company:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ7SYt-b-fI&hl=en&fs=1&
And the Foundations:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvKtxTsVoMo&hl=en&fs=1&
She’s also covered the Beatles (“I Will”) and Todd Rundgren (“It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference”).
There’s also the Dixie Chicks‘ version of “Landslide,” which got so overplayed I couldn’t stand it. I prefer the Smashing Pumpkins version.
And then there’s this, the best cover EVER.
Holy smokes. Allison Krauss is significantly less hard on the eyes this decade than she used to be. But she sang like an angel back then too.
Glen Campbell released an album of covers recently that I like. He does Jackson Browne’s “These Days.” Also Foo Fighters, Green Day, Velvet Underground, Replacements, among others. I like his U2 cover.
No mention yet of Dread Zeppelin? It’s horrible, wrong, twisted…and somehow hypnotic:
I do not understand hatred of any Robert Plant/Allison Kraus collaboration. I think they are brilliant.
danithew: I love Raising Sand, but the Black Dog performance seriously lacks. LZ’s got soul; Krauss? not so much.
The Plant/Krauss collaboration is less than the sum of its parts. I love both artists (especially Krauss), but I don’t get why everybody else seems to love their work together, which strikes me as tepid, as if they are holding back the best aspects of each other. When I listen, it does nothing for me. I’m obviously in the minority here, but it is how I feel.
John C: I’ve also thought that Plant was being “held back,” but not Krauss.
BrianJ,
She’s not normally as bland as she comes across in their songs. I stand by my statement that she doesn’t do sexy, but she does spunky and determined and neither is present in the songs I’ve heard her do with Plant. It’s like they both had to take Valium to get through it.
I’m actually less fond of Allison Krauss’s solo work … but I love what she’s done with Robert Plant.
I feel that this collaboration has helped Robert Plant as well – because it helps him show that he has a whole other gig besides Led Zeppelin.
In other words, I think they are better together than the sum of their individual parts – quite the opposite of what some are saying here …
The “Black Dog” song – it’s just a predictable effort to cover some Zep songs. It’s certainly not the bar by which to raise their duo efforts. But I don’t think it’s terrible either. It’s interesting in some ways.
I always loved the Specials cover of Maggie’s Farm, but Rage’s cover is simply awesome (I think Bob Dylan himself would have to agree there version is better than the original):
I’m guessing there are no Residents fans out there, but just for good measure, an Elvis cover from The Residents (I think this will qualify as hoping genres):
3 gold and 3 platinum records from his solo career weren’t enough?
Here’s Chris Thile covering Radiohead:
*raises hand* Residents fan! That Elvis cover reminds me of the Flying Lizards:
(Original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6xkT7FMyTc)
So I read the original post way wrong – so most of my examples didn’t fit. Excuse the off topic though, but I have to mention Radiohead’s cover of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here and then U2′s cover of Radiohead’s Creep. Both are great.
As for country back and forth, I don’t listen to enough country and when I hear a country cover of a rock song it usually sucks because country is all about bland mainstream pop now. (Think about the Life is a Highway cover)
I’ve heard a few good Hank Williams covers by the Melvins doing it punk style. I don’t know if I still have them.
Clark just got me thinking about how alt country/americana is the best country stuff of the last few years (besides contemporary bluegrass). My Morning Jacket does some great covers. Here they are doing Rocket Man:
BrianJ – I know Robert Plant has had a successful solo career. But his work with Allison Krauss is a bigger step away from what he’s done before. It feels like something altogether new.
danithew: in what way is it new? I’m not being argumentative, I really want to know how you see it as altogether new.
Robert Plant himself said it was completely different than anything he’d done before. Have you watched any of the interviews of him and Alison? They’re interesting.
Susan: Here’s an example of what Plant says about the collaboration:
The problem is that Plant has always—all the way back to Led Zeppelin and ever since—been all over the place with music. Metal, acoustic, rock, blues, folk, funk, etc. Even a little dabble in reggae. So even as he says “it’s totally different” that has to be taken in the context of someone who has studied dozens of styles of music already. It’s akin to Michael Phelps dominating in backstroke and saying “it’s totally new” for him because, you know, he usually only does backstroke in the medleys.
Well Brian, it isn’t exactly bluegrass and it isn’t hard rock … the music is more ethereal and spare in the way it feels. What I’m talking about is my gut response to the music.
I’ve tried listening to Allison Krauss’s solo work. I know she’s very talented – but it just doesn’t do much for me.
I’ve also spent some time listening to Robert Plant’s solo work and some of it I really like and to much of it I am somewhat indifferent.
However, overall, I just love the collaboration. In my view, there’s some magic/chemistry present that isn’t as consistently present in their solo efforts.
Now of course one can say that Robert Plant has dabbled all over the place – with Led Zeppelin and in his solo work. Part of the overall appeal of Zeppelin was that they had such diverse influences in their music. But when I said that Robert Plant and Krauss were creating something altogether new, I was referring to the way I feel about what I’m hearing. It sounds quite original to me – their particular mix of voices and the band they have playing behind them.
thanks danithew, that makes sense.
Has anybody else noticed YouTube sucking this week? Videos are incredibly slow to load and sometimes the site doesn’t respond at all. Last time I noticed this happening was just before the sale to Google and wondered at the time if they were trying to conserve bandwidth to make themselves a more attractive takeover target. Now I wonder what Google is doing. Are they making it slow in order to save money?