BCB 100 - Neil Young

Still Baron · Postby **Still Baron** » 22 Jun 2006, 23:22

neverknows wrote:
Snarfyguy wrote:
neverknows wrote:Isn't Neil Young difficult to cover?

The Feelies used to do Powderfinger and Sedan Delivery pretty well.

And I'm a Feelies fan!

Were those on the 12" with the Beatle covers?

The Slider · Postby **The Slider** » 22 Jun 2006, 23:22

There was a good version of Powderfinger by the Beat Farmers, but there is no fundamental point in covering Neil.
Even Cash's Pocahontas seems a bit perfuctuary.

And anyone for that horrible Like A Hurricane by Roxy Music?
Not to mention The Mission's. :lol:

Snarfyguy · Postby **Snarfyguy** » 22 Jun 2006, 23:40

neverknows wrote:'Sedan Delivery' is on The Good Earth. They did 'Barstool Blues' too, for a French promo CD. 'Powderfinger' I'm not sure.

They used to play it live; it might not have come out on a record.

As Slider notes, there's not much point.

They didn't add anything to the song except the novelty of it being done by them. That's okay in a live setting, but not really for a studio record.

Bungo the Mungo · Postby **Bungo the Mungo** » 22 Jun 2006, 23:44

Didn't Loop do 'Cinnamon Girl'?

Beno · Postby **Beno** » 22 Jun 2006, 23:47

Saint Etienne did 'Only Love Can break Your Heart'.

Snarfyguy · Postby **Snarfyguy** » 23 Jun 2006, 00:47

The Slider wrote:And anyone for that horrible Like A Hurricane by Roxy Music?

Probably the worst thing they ever did, wasn't it?

Except for maybe their cover of Jealous Guy.

Completist or no, I still refuse to have that "The High Road" record in my collection.

Carl's Son · Postby **Carl's Son** » 23 Jun 2006, 01:17

Beno wrote:Saint Etienne did 'Only Love Can break Your Heart'.

That's a great one. Completely different in style to the original but it works really well and doesn't come across as gimmicky.

The Slider · Postby **The Slider** » 23 Jun 2006, 10:39

You'd think it was just that his simplicity and individualism makes his own versions definitive and all others completely superfluous (as I personally think the Pixies' Winterlong is - it is a carbon copy).

But then there is Bob Dylan.
And there are hundreds of brilliant interpretations of Bob's songs.

I don't know why, it is just is.

Bungo the Mungo · Postby **Bungo the Mungo** » 23 Jun 2006, 10:44

The Slider wrote:You'd think it was just that his simplicity and individualism makes his own versions definitive and all others completely superfluous (as I personally think the Pixies' Winterlong is - it is a carbon copy).

But then there is Bob Dylan.
And there are hundreds of brilliant interpretations of Bob's songs.

I don't know why, it is just is.

Interesting. I was thinking about posting something about being creatively crippled by respect, but then that wouldn't explain the abundance of decent Dylan covers, as the man is accorded more respect than any other rock/pop musician.

Corporate whore · Postby **Corporate whore** » 23 Jun 2006, 11:50

Personally I'd like to hear Frank Sidebottom take a stab at Rockin' in the Free World.

JQW · Postby **JQW** » 23 Jun 2006, 12:05

Corporate Whore wrote:Personally I'd like to hear Frank Sidebottom take a stab at Rockin' in the Free World.

It'll be an improvement over the version I saw Neil do with Pearl Jam at Reading some years ago! That version was rotten.

You know it was! It really was!

Thank you!

Piggly Wiggly · Postby **Piggly Wiggly** » 23 Jun 2006, 12:28

Geoff Cowgill sums his appeal up quite succinctly in the opening post.

Favorite LP: After The Goldrush

Favorite song: "Country Girl"

Neil Jung · Postby **Neil Jung** » 23 Jun 2006, 12:30

The Church do a decent cover of Cortez The Killer on A Box Of Birds, their covers album, but then they can do no wrong for me.

Snarfyguy · Postby **Snarfyguy** » 23 Jun 2006, 15:41

- non-Neil Young related digression -

neverknows wrote:
Snarfyguy wrote:
neverknows wrote:'Sedan Delivery' is on The Good Earth. They did 'Barstool Blues' too, for a French promo CD. 'Powderfinger' I'm not sure.

They used to play it live; it might not have come out on a record.

There actually is a recorded version by Feelies side project Yung Wu, opening their Shore Leave album.

Ah yes, maybe that's what I'm thinking of. I get those acts a bit confused twenty or so years later. They also appeared as The Trypes and perhaps in one or two other incarnations I don't recall. We used to see them a lot when they played here regularly and one nice thing about the bands was that they always seemed to play on (U.S.) holidays. So if you didn't have anyplace in particular you wanted or were obliged to be, you could always go and see one of their bands with a bunch of other fans, and it was a cozy sort of experience.

The Slider · Postby **The Slider** » 24 Jun 2006, 00:21

neverknows wrote:Maybe Neil Young is more a performer than a songwriter. Dylan is (was) both, his own versions of his songs are often definitive, but many songs clearly have (had) pop / soul / etc potential. Put on Solomon Burke's 'Maggie's Farm' in a party and only those who know the song will think 'Dylan'. It is always great to tell the others: 'You are actually dancing to a Bob Dylan song'.

With Dylan all the great cover versions seem to be of his more stripped back and less musically involved songs - Ferry's Hard Rain, Hendrix's Watchtower, The Byrds Mr Tambourine Man/My Back Pages, Rod's Tomorrow is a Long Time etc etc .
No one ever did an interesting version of anything off Blonde on Blonde or Highway 61 did they?

Not that this ties in with NY at all - all the covers of his songs are pretty poor (or at best somewhat superfluous) whether stripped back (Cash's Pocahontas) or Crazy Horsed (Pixies' Winterlong)

maybe it is because while Dylan's early songs are often musically ambiguous (I might venture even a little bland) Neil Young's never were. And that ergo there was nothing much to add to them the way that The Byrds and Hendrix added melodies to their rewokings of Dylan's songs....

geoffcowgill · Postby **geoffcowgill** » 24 Jun 2006, 04:29

The Slider wrote:
With Dylan all the great cover versions seem to be of his more stripped back and less musically involved songs - Ferry's Hard Rain, Hendrix's Watchtower, The Byrds Mr Tambourine Man/My Back Pages, Rod's Tomorrow is a Long Time etc etc .
No one ever did an interesting version of anything off Blonde on Blonde or Highway 61 did they?

I take your point, and for the most part agree, but I think Nina Simone's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is the exception to this.

Carl's Son · Postby **Carl's Son** » 24 Jun 2006, 10:48

I still say St. Etienne's Only Love Will Break Your Heart stands as a brilliant cover.

The Slider · Postby **The Slider** » 24 Jun 2006, 10:58

geoffcowgill wrote:
The Slider wrote:
With Dylan all the great cover versions seem to be of his more stripped back and less musically involved songs - Ferry's Hard Rain, Hendrix's Watchtower, The Byrds Mr Tambourine Man/My Back Pages, Rod's Tomorrow is a Long Time etc etc .
No one ever did an interesting version of anything off Blonde on Blonde or Highway 61 did they?

I take your point, and for the most part agree, but I think Nina Simone's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is the exception to this.

There is always an exception or two to the rule.
I like Madeleine Peyroux's take on You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go as well.

NS's JLTTB is a pretty radical reinterpretation if I remember rightly isn't it?
Almost like an opposite of the other songs - she strips it back where the others all build the bones of just the voice and acoustic guitar up to some huge great cathedral of sound.
Interesting.

Just playing it now - it is exactly that.

Bungo the Mungo · Postby **Bungo the Mungo** » 24 Jun 2006, 11:37

Chris Chopping wrote:I still say St. Etienne's Only Love Will Break Your Heart stands as a brilliant cover.

Yes.

The Slider · Postby **The Slider** » 24 Jun 2006, 12:24

I'm not sure I would go as far as brilliant, but it is certainly one of the very few NY covers that might be considered succesful in any way whatsoever.