Choice of cover?

[Diamond Dog]

Which 70's cover of a 60's tune tickles your fancy today?

[Charlie O.]

Slade

followed by
Bowie
Lennon

Ferry



Stranglers

[NMB]

Slade

followed by
Bowie
Lennon

Ferry



Stranglers

Precisely this. In reverse.

[Walk In My Shadow]

None of them were very good. Except Slade.

[Osgood]

Love that Ferry cover, the rest are acceptable

[Samoan]

I am tickled by The Stranglers as it kicks the schmaltz to the kerb and Warwick's voice gives me the pip.

[Muskrat]

DD: How'd you miss this?

"If you had a choice of covers,
Which one would you choose, my brother?"

[Diamond Dog]

DD: How'd you miss this?

"If you had a choice of covers,
Which one would you choose, my brother?"

Because i'm not nearly as poetic as you, Muskrat! (And i'm now very annoyed I missed it... )

[Diamond Dog]

Stranglers & Slade leading the way with Ferry a very close third. A big drop off to Lennon and then the completely friendless Bowie in last place.

[Charlie O.]

I'm not exactly surprised to see the Ferry doing so well here, but for me it's a classic example of "it was funny the first time..."

I am puzzled that the Stranglers one, which wasn't even funny the first time, is doing so well.

(I kinda thought Lennon's would walk this, though I'm not crazy about it myself.)

[Ranking Ted]

Ferry then Stranglers. Both excellent interpretations. The rest, fine but hardly essential.

[Darkness_Fish]

I've heard that Brian Ferry cover a few times, I'd consider it one of the worst covers I've ever heard. The kind of thing that if I posted it from a more obscure band people would be slagging off the singer for having a mannered and silly voice. Btw, am I the only person who can't stop singing "Claude Rains" to the chorus, even I find it really irritating.

I don't know the original of "Where Have All the Good Times Gone", but I remember being really disappointed with Pin-Ups the first time I heard it, and have never really gone back to it.

The Stranglers track is strangely competent, but has four minutes in the middle that could've been thrown away.

Never heard Lennon's cover before, I like the burbling barely audible electronic backing more than the rest of it, which is surprisingly straight forward, but lacking in energy. S'not too bad though.

I've never heard the original of that Slade thing before either, but you have to at least say that Noddy gives the pubby knees up a bit of a shot in the arm. Not lacking in the energy stakes. What it lacks in apparent substance of song, it makes up for in exuberance. Wouldn't choose to listen to it twice, but it's probably just ahead of Lennon in this poll.

[The Modernist]

I'm not exactly surprised to see the Ferry doing so well here, but for me it's a classic example of "it was funny the first time..."

It never struck me as trying to be funny. I love its surging momentum and hysteria. It does what covers are meant to do and takes an aspect of the original and magnifies it. It's the only one here where I actually prefer the cover to the original.

[Matt Wilson]

The Stranglers of course, and then Lennon.

The rest - meh.

Bowie doesn't even bother to change the arrangement, the Ferry is unintentionally funny, and Slade are, as always, overrated.

[Charlie O.]

I'm not exactly surprised to see the Ferry doing so well here, but for me it's a classic example of "it was funny the first time..."

It never struck me as trying to be funny.

the Ferry is unintentionally funny

The whole thing is pure camp!

Ferry: Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughing
backing singers: HA HA HA HA!
Ferry: Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
backing singers: Awwww....

[Charlie O.]

I cannot fucking believe the Stranglers are winning this.

[Matt Wilson]

I'm not exactly surprised to see the Ferry doing so well here, but for me it's a classic example of "it was funny the first time..."

It never struck me as trying to be funny.

the Ferry is unintentionally funny

The whole thing is pure camp!

Ferry: Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughing
backing singers: HA HA HA HA!
Ferry: Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
backing singers: Awwww....

It's not so much the camp aspect I'm referring to though, it's more the way Ferry sings - which sounds to me like a Roxy song. He brings the same lounge lizard, hipster affectation to this song as he does to most everything else he sings. And then there's the arrangement. If ever there was a song which does not deserve this arrangement then I can't think of it.

I'm not surprised you don't like the Stranglers' Doors-do-Bacharach take on "Walk on By."

[Charlie O.]

I'm not surprised you don't like the Stranglers' Doors-do-Bacharach take on "Walk on By."

In that case it isn't the arrangement that bothers me (it's good enough) - more that they don't know the words (it matters), and wouldn't know how to sing them if they did.

[Diamond Dog]

it's more the way Ferry sings - which sounds to me like a Roxy song.

I wonder why that might be?