meandthestereo

As the old saying goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…or something like that. In general, I think this is a true statement, but with one little tweak. If you’re going to do something that someone else has already done, you should do it just as well, or better, than the original artist did it. If you’re a musician and you plan to cover a song that was already recorded, particularly if that song happens to be kick-ass already, you better put some serious effort into it and make it sound great. This brings to my rant for this week:

Cover Songs.

I was on the road the other day, and I heard a cover of ‘Hey Joe’; you know, the Hendrix tune. But, it was Deep Purple actually performing the song…and not incredibly well either. I was a little put out by this because I like Deep Purple and I am a rabid Jimi Hendrix fan, but I consider it blasphemous that anyone would cover a Hendrix tune and do it in such a poor manner. That’s not the worst of it; ‘Hey Joe’ has been recorded over sixty (yes, 60!) times since it was first penned and recorded in 1965 (by a group called The Leaves). Say it ain’t so! I haven’t listened to all sixty versions of the song, but I bet that each cover is at a different level of quality. In recent memory, I think the worst version of a song I have heard is Avenged Sevenfold covering ‘Paranoid’; the old Black Sabbath tune. Have you heard this? I think it was recorded for a sound track. Not only is it a piss-poor version of the song, but who told M. Shadows he could sing in the first place. Read the rest of this entry →

When Vodes posted his Desert Island list last week, Joey and I thought it was a good list and a great idea.  Joey immediately commanded me to write up my own list for this week’s article and since I had begun thinking up my list immediately after reading Vodes’ post, I thought, “Woohoo easy article!”

Unfortunately, this article was not as easy as I thought it would be.  It turns out deciding on only five songs that I will listen to for the rest of my life (as in as long as the supplies on the plane last cause I’m not much of a survivalist) was not that easy.  My first list mostly represented music from the late 90’s and early 00’s but then I realized I would eventually get tired of all that angst.  I needed to diversify my list and include some more toe-tapping numbers.

My new list is better.  It includes music from more time periods.  It includes some singable songs (for when I get tired of simply talking to my volleyball) and is more of a broad sampling of Rock and Roll.  So here’s my list in no particular order and without any references to LOST.

Come On Lets Go – Ritchie Valens
Its singable, danceable, and gets bonus points for being sung by a Mexican.

Read the rest of this entry →