An activity that he has raised to nearly an art form (Jonder has too, don't want to sell him short, nor Jose for that matter) Brian has created three WONDERFUL covers masterpieces, full versions of The Doors legendary "Strange Days", also thier not-so"legendary", but still great "Waiting For the Sun", and also The Who's bad-ass "Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy".......I LOVE the cover projects, they are a ton of work (I know, I've tried......one of these days), it is so great to slip them on and listen to them as a whole, it's CREATIVITY and BRILLIANCE, and I hope they continue to come forever! Small bit o input: Always did think Blondie's "Moonlight Drive" was too cool for school, I agree with Brian that Aerosmith attacks "Love Me Two Times" like a pack of pitbulls, the Soundgarden and Marilyn Manson efforts are A-1, great great taaribute to the deserving Doors......as for the Who stuff, I LOVE the Who, and thier songs, to me, can be interpereted in a number of ways, making them taylor made for aprojects of this nature. This is a good effort, REALLY GOOD in fact, with fine material material from Bowie, ("Pictures of Lily" is marvelous), people as diverse as The Pistols and Simon Le Bon take successfull cracks a great Who numbers.......one thing though....BRIAN doesn't know THE LITTER??????????? We'll have to change that one young man!
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Well, I managed to find a way around my popup problems on Song365, so I've got three new cover albums forStrange Days and Waiting For The Sun), and one of The Who. I tried to keep going with Doors albums, but things really fall apart when you get to The Soft Parade. I really like these three. There's a lot of unknowns, but some great surprises inside. And since I'm not writing track lists, I've put the artist's name on each track in bold face.you guys - two based on The Doors (
(STRANGE DAYS COVER)
On Strange Days, it starts with the title track, performed by a prog group called Visible Wind. I think they do it justice - nice and spacey. Siouxsee & The Banshees then deliver a great, reverb-drenched take of "You're Lost, Little Girl". Aerosmith (somewhat surprisingly to me) fucking rip up "Love Me Two Times"! Really, I haven't heard them tear into a song like this in years! I've never heard of Stepa, but that solo acoustic "Unhappy Girl" is pretty good, with that psych pop vocal.
Ruby Video - http://youtu.be/PXOeI3LQWvU
Blondie's live version of "Moonlight Drive" is pure onstage chaos. I particularly like the dedication that opens the song: "...to everybody that's dropped dead the last few years". Yeah, that was the 70's. From a live recording in 1978, I believe. Now, with "People Are Strange" I had a dilemma: there's two versions I like, they're both radically different, and I couldn't choose... so they're both here. Camera (10)'s version is a great ramped-up instrumental, and it's followed by Stina Nordenstam's ghostly post-rock take on the song. SS20's version of "My Eyes Have Seen You" is really faithful, with a nice guitar sound to it. The lovely instrumental version of "I Can't See Your Face In My Mind" is by pianist George Winston, off of his Doors cover album Night Divides The Day. Achingly beautiful, no?
(WAITING FOR THE SUN COVER)
With the Waiting For the Sun comp, you'll come away noticing it has a bit more of a goth/metal vibe to it. It just kinda happened that way. And it pains me to say that there are two songs that aren't here: I couldn't find a cover of "Love Street" (surprising) or "We Could Be So Good Together". I looked hard. What I did put together is pretty cool, though...
Dark Horses start things with a good "Hello, I Love You", playing around with the arrangement. Female-led metal band Otep deliver a punishing version of "Not To Touch The Earth". By the time they get to the "Dead President's corpse in the driver's car" buildup, it is metal as all hell! This is probably my fave track on this comp. Really cool.
I again rely on George Winston for a track, this time the beautiful "Summer's Almost Gone", from the album mentioned previously. Indie pop group Saint Etienne deliver a playful and perfect "Wintertime Love". Brenda Anzelc sings a lovely "Unknown Soldier", though she does without the whole firing squad sequence, unfortunately. Couldn't tell you a thing about Veljanov, but the way "Spanish Caravan" begins with violin and hammered dulcimer is really cool. The whole track is full of drama.
S.A.T.E.L.L.I.T.E. is another unknown, but they play a grooving, acoustic "My Wild Love". Grimace of Aggresion's "Yes, The River Knows" is very Bowie-ish, but that's always a good thing. Marilyn Manson shows up to give "Five To One" a good goth/metal runthrough. Boy, he likes doing covers, huh? This is one of his most inspired in a long time, I think.A bit of revisionism ends this comp. It's always bugged me that the song "Waiting For The Sun" wasn't on the album called that. It had to wait til Morrison Hotel to get issued! It's one of my cult favorite Doors songs, so I wanted to end with it. I've long loved Soundgarden's live cover. It's great when Kim Thayil riffs and Chris Cornell starts howling! Who's ready to rawk?!?!
This is actually a cool side effect result of a lot of the searches I've been doing lately. I knew I wanted to do a covers version of one of their comps, since their albums were always either thematic, or covers-heavy themselves. Now, this band has had Waaaaaaay too many comps over the years. My favorite comp has always been "Meaty/Beaty/Big and Bouncy". I still fondly remember how often I would play that threadbare MCA cassette in my car. It's always worked for me, since my cutoff point has always been the post-Tommy stuff. You can blame C.S.I. for me having that opinion. Now, on to the covers....
Tina Turner's great cover of "I Can See For Miles" has long been a favorite. It's pure 70's soul: all strings sections and ARP synths. David Bowie (sigh) does a awesome slowed down version of "Pictures Of Lily". I'd never heard it before, anyone know of it? Sounds like 90's or after. Patti Smith's "I'm gonna fuck you up" version of "My Generation" is, of course, from Horses. John Cale gets a bass solo!
Rush - believe it or not - delivers a crunchy, rocking version of "The Seeker". I like it, and I'm not a Rush fan. Bowie shows up again - cuz he's Bowie - for a great take of "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" from Pinups. I get the feeling Bowie is gonna keep showing up in my posts. He's got that power. 70's rock band Camel (Frampton's early band) do an amazing cover of "Pinball Wizard". When that riff comes in, I just thought "yeah".....
I don't know The Litter, but they give "A Legal Matter" a great 60's garage rock overhaul. Trevor Jones does aSimon Le Bon (yep, the Duran Duran guy) has a go at "Magic Bus". I like it, I didn't expect to. And for further proof that the punkers could never disavow The W-h-o, none other than The Sex Pistols tear into "Substitute". It's great... all bile and riffs. To close things out, 60's German band The Beatstones cover "I'm A Boy". It's another great track that can be found on one of the comps on the Garage Tapes blog I mentioned in the Louie Louie post.terrific, faithful version of "Boris The Spider".
As always, hope these are enjoyed. And hey, covers fans... Head back to the 12/31/15 post for the covers version of the first Doors album if you want the whole trio, and maybe give the cover version of Neil Young's "On The Beach" from 10/04/15 a bump too. I'd appreciate it.
The bonus link is two more albums from P.O. - great stuff. No password.