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Songs You Never Realized Were Covers


drawkcabi

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Bruce Springsteen is probably second to Bob Dylan in having songs covered. "Blinded By The Light" by Manfred Mann was already mentioned and Mann also covered "For You". The Pointer Sisters covered "Fire" and Natalie Cole covered "Pink Cadillac".

Two songs I like that are actually covers of very old folks songs are "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals and the wonderful duet of Nick Cave and PJ Harvey on "Henry Lee".

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Great topic!

 

This one was embarrassing, but simultaneously vindicating. I'd been arguing with friends about Adele's merits as a songwriter. I think her songs are awful dross by and large, only reason people can't tell is because she's got a great voice. But, I conceded, she did have one song that I thought was genuinely great. Of course I should have known To Make You Feel My Love was a Dylan tune (although I've now discovered it was first recorded and released by Billy Joel - and shame on anyone who thinks Uptown Girl is a Westlife original, by the way). So while I was a bit ashamed to not know that it was a Dylan original, I was pleased that I had clocked its quality regardless.

 

I was another one who heard Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah before Cohen's, so for a while I thought it was penned by the former. For a more recent example, I just found out that the incredibly beautiful and heart wrenching Be For Real from Cohen's 1992 album The Future was actually written by a guy called Frederick Knight (the song actually ends with Cohen saying "Thanks for the song, mr Knight", and first recorded (as far as I can tell) by Marlena Shaw, whose most famous song, California Soul, is also a cover (originally written by Ashford & Simpson ("Ain't No Mountain", "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing", "I'm Every Woman" etc.).

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3 hours ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

 I'll just throw this one up, not because I didn't know it was a cover, but because I know @Myshkin hates it...

 

Good job, this thread needs to be shut down now. Hope you're happy with yourself. If anyone dares post a link to the Ataris version of Boys of Summer this thread will have to be burned.

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14 minutes ago, Mmerek Hamšzulíe said:

Great topic!

 

This one was embarrassing, but simultaneously vindicating. I'd been arguing with friends about Adele's merits as a songwriter. I think her songs are awful dross by and large, only reason people can't tell is because she's got a great voice. But, I conceded, she did have one song that I thought was genuinely great. Of course I should have known To Make You Feel My Love was a Dylan tune (although I've now discovered it was first recorded and released by Billy Joel - and shame on anyone who thinks Uptown Girl is a Westlife original, by the way). So while I was a bit ashamed to not know that it was a Dylan original, I was pleased that I had clocked its quality regardless.

A few years ago when I had heard of Adele but didn't know her work, I heard her cover of the Cure's "Love Song" while at a mall, and I Shazamed it because I wanted to know who had dared to put out such a lame, lifeless cover.

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24 minutes ago, Myshkin said:

Good job, this thread needs to be shut down now. Hope you're happy with yourself. If anyone dares post a link to the Ataris version of Boys of Summer this thread will have to be burned.

You really shouldn't challenge me like this unless you are prepared to reap the whirlwind.

/Don't look back, you can never look back

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1 hour ago, Myshkin said:

Also, I want to state that the NIN version of Hurt is better than the Cash version. I don't care what the rest of you think.

You and Stephen King. I remember reading an article that he was aghast that people thought the Cash version was better. Cash's version became very personal to me while trying to learn how to cope with chronic pain. Another cover Cash song, "The Beast in Me" by his then son-in-law Nick Lowe, did as well. 

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6 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

You really shouldn't challenge me like this unless you are prepared to reap the whirlwind.

/Don't look back, you can never look back

Now you've done it. Mods, ban this person. 

1 minute ago, Trebla said:

You and Stephen King. I remember reading an article that he was aghast that people thought the Cash version was better. Cash's version became very personal to me while trying to learn how to cope with chronic pain. Another cover Cash did, "The Beast in Me" by his then son-in-law Nick Lowe, did as well. 

I also think Dylan's version of All Along the Watchtower is better than the Hendrix version.

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On 1/20/2016 at 1:36 PM, KiDisaster said:

 

I also had no idea 'Hurt' was originally a Nine Inch Nails song until years after hearing the Johnny Cash version. 

Actually the original Klingon version is the most moving.

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On ‎1‎/‎24‎/‎2016 at 0:02 PM, The Monkey said:

The fact that Dazed and Confused wasn't a Led Zeppelin original took me by surprise.

(Although ZP changed enough of the lyrics to get away with not paying royalties)

 

 

To expand on this.... http://www.musictimes.com/articles/6250/20140520/7-songs-other-than-stairway-to-heaven-that-led-zeppelin-stole.htm

 

Also... as mentioned above, the Black Crowes "Hard to Handle".... along with Aretha Franklin's "Respect, and the Rolling Stones "Satisfaction".... were all originally done by the late, great Otis Redding

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6 hours ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

You really shouldn't challenge me like this unless you are prepared to reap the whirlwind.

/Don't look back, you can never look back

Kind of off topic, but what the hell, it's my thread.

I once worked with a guy who was a serious deadhead. Followed the band on tour, 420 enthusiast, long hair, always wore tie-dye or old tee shirts.

Then he bought a used Cadillac and since that time I could never not associate this song with him. (I know I've committed a double negative crime, but the sentence just didn't seem right any other way.)

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12 hours ago, Martini Sigil said:

 and the Rolling Stones "Satisfaction".... were all originally done by the late, great Otis Redding

Wrong on that last point, actually. While Otis recorded a version the same year as The Stones came out, Satisfaction is a Jagger/Richards original and was originally recorded by The Stones.

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Hum, for quite a long time I thought 

was really a Madness song. And not infact a cover of

 

And of course the classic, giving the Doors creative ownership over the Alabama song, instead of Kurt Weil and Bert Brecht, who wrote.

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