Remakes blow

[Lothbah]

I've been getting really pissed off at music lately. It seems like about 50% of the songs played on the radio these days are remakes of older songs. The problem is, 100% of these songs are inferior to the originals. Just flipping through the stations on the way to work or whatever, you will probably hear a lot of these songs.

311 - Lovesong
Britney Spears - My Perogative
Goo Goo Dolls - Give a Little Bit
Sheryl Crow - The First Cut is the Deepest
Counting Crows - Big Yellow Taxi
Tim McGraw - The Ride
Jessica Simpson - Take my Breath Away

The list goes on. Each and every one of the above songs is worse than the original. Sometimes covers of songs are pretty good or O.K. The Ride isnt a bad song, but it's bad that Tim McGraw took a good David Allen Coe song and made it popular. How? By singing it. David Allen Coe isn't played on the radio because he says 'nigger' all the time. It pisses me off that Tim McGraw gets played up and down the radio with the exact same song. Anyway, I'm off on a tangent.

Anyway, my point is that the original of a song is always better than a remake, just because something (a lot) is lost when the song is done by someone else. Remakes serve purposes sometimes, like to make a song dancable (Pet Shop Boys doing Willie Nelson's "You were always on my mind"), but most of the time the remake is useless. 311's boring ass cover of
The Cure's "Lovesong" is a perfect example. Punk remakes of songs are fun to listen to about 3 times and then they just suck (Goldfinger's cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" or that one band's (Save Ferris?) cover of "Come on Eileen"

Thinking about this, I can't name one song where the cover was significantly better than the original... and only a few songs come close.

Nine Inch Nails' cover of Joy Division's "Dead Souls" was pretty good
The White Stripes cover of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" is good
The Dresden Dolls have a good cover of "Warpigs" (Sabbath or Ozzy?)

The Go Go's remake of Shocking Blue's "Venus" might be the only song that is significantly better than the original (Still not a very good song)


Anyway!!! Stop remaking songs and releasing them as singles, play them in concert if you want but LEAVE THEM THERE THEY ARE NO GOOD!!!!

[Buazag Bonesteel]

The Dresden Dolls have a good cover of "Warpigs" (Sabbath or Ozzy?)


Faith no more did this song as well.....and I actually liked it better than the original.

[Eomer]

I've heard lots of great covers over the years, but I do agree that pop stars re-doing classics is starting to get old. But personally I though Blue Monday by Orgy was a good song, so was Shout 2000 by Disturbed. Lots of others, as well.

[Lothbah]

Orgy's cover of Blue Monday was good and it falls under the category of "Worthwhile" just because Orgy and New Order are different styles of music.

Nine Inch Nails cover of Deadsouls was also worthwhile because the Joy Division version of the song is recorded really poorly, I think its just taken from a concert, and it wouldn't have fit very well into The Crow as the NIN version did.

The ones that piss me off the most are when they 'remake' the song but don't make any significant changes or the only change is that it totally blows. 311's Love Song is horrible compared to the original, and its played on stations that wouldn't touch the original... thats really lame. Besides that, it sounds like a breaking up song, when the original song was written for Robert Smith's wife when they got married.

Sheryl Crow is the queen of fucking up other people's music. First, she destroyed Guns n' Roses' "Sweet Child of Mine"... Then she took it one step further and DID A SHITTY REMAKE OF A SHITTY SONG with Rod Stewarts' "First Cut"

Oh yeah and Bobby Brown needs to lay the smackdown on Britney Spears like he did on Whitney, for mangling his song.

[nwinn]

I hate hate hate the cover of Imagine that's out right now, can't remember who did it... but, it's awful!

[Andriana Duskrose]

I hate hate hate the cover of Imagine that's out right now, can't remember who did it... but, it's awful!

A Perfect Circle, would be my guess.

[nwinn]

Yes, that's it! That song is supposed to be slow... mellow... but, those idiots made it painfully slow~

[Lexoon]

I like Nonpoint's cover of In the Air Tonight!1

[Eomer]

Meh, I thought the cover of Imagine by APC was pretty good, but I can't say I've ever heard the original so...


with Rod Stewarts' "First Cut"

Uh, maybe I am wrong, but wasn't that song Cat Stevens' first? Not sure, Rod Stewart IS as old as god.

[Lothbah]

maybe, it was either the mormon or rod

[Varran]

In my line of work I see the remake a little more than most, and while I generally speaking agree with you, I find that sometimes pulling part of a song out can really revive styles of music and really educate new listeners.

For example... Sunrise by Simply Red. Uses a Hall & Oates sample that while old is a fantastic piece of music. The purists get pissed at it, but personally I really like it and I think it may make some (young and older) dig out the Hall & Oates track. I know it's made some dj's (including myself) dig out older songs and really look at different styles.

So I will agree that remakes can truly suck, but in some cases they can actually help people learn about music and stretch people's imagination. Spend an afternoon listening to music from the late 70's and early 80's because you heard one song on the radio and I think the song has won (and so have the rest of us) even if you don't like it.

In the end music is about emotion, about losing in the moment. If listening to britney butcher my perogative makes you dig out Bobby to remember how much better it really was, then in a way I am happy she did it. Hell, maybe it will make kids look for the original kinda like Will Smith releasing Ring my bell made a slew of dj's and listeners dig out Anita Ward.

While I don't like to listen to certain types of music I love all music. I love the thought of some kid sitting in their room with britney or christina or dr. dre blaring in their ears, dancing all around. I wish they listened to something else, an Eddie Halliwell mix cd perhaps... but in the end they are still listening to music and I am glad it is that rather than all the other shit they can get themselves into.

The last paragraph was off tangent, but hearing someone get emotional about remakes kinda made me misty.... I love passion like that when it comes to music. Reminds me of why I decided to become a dj all those years ago... for the love of the music and the people that listen to it.

[Buazag Bonesteel]

In the end music is about emotion, about losing in the moment.


So true. Almost any type of music....any song can really do it for me when the artist/s are really passionate about it and put....I don't know....soul? into it.

And speaking of that, the other day we were walking around the mall and heard the faint sound of singing coming from the ground level area. Curious we walked over to check it out. Best thing that's happened to me in a while musically speaking. Everything they do is a cover....but it A Capella. Some of their stuff is a lot better than others......but these guys put so much heart into there stuff that it just makes you want to lose yourself in it.....and a lot of their stuff is damned amazing its so good. And it's completely student run and funded by a group at RPI......and none of them are even music majors. Check em out. Called Rusty Pipes. Drive Thru is my favorite album. Torn inparticular is really well done. And the vocal percussion in Take on Me is fucking crazy.

www.rustypipes.com

[deezy]

There are at least a few gems out there. Just as an example.. Jimi Henrix version of All Along the Watchtower and (of course) The Star Spangled Banner.. just to name a couple.

[Zappo]

Smokey Robinson - You really got a hold on me,
vs the beatles version.
the beatles really blew the old one away. it's really an amazing song.
download it!

"Styx - Fooling Yourself (the Angry Young Man)"

Billy Joel did a cover of the song, and its also great.
veeery few songs are better than the 1st
i stear my ears away from most do overs.

[Buazag Bonesteel]

I kinda like Korn's version of another brick in the wall too.

[Eomer]

Korn did a version of that? I can't imagine it being good :/

However, that reminds me. "The Class of 2000" did a cover of Another Brick in the Wall, I think part 2 or 3. The "class" consisted of Tom Morello, Layne Staley, Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction Drummer), I think Adrian Belew (something like that, he gets around, plays in a lot of different bands) and a few others. The song kicks much ass. It was on the soundtrack for some stupid movie about teachers being aliens or something...

[Lonskils]

The Go Go's remake of Shocking Blue's "Venus" might be the only song that is significantly better than the original (Still not a very good song)

me dont think that was the gogo's thought that was Bannarama, I could be wrong BUT I don't think so. I have to agree most remakes are just simply silly.

[Lothbah]

you're right

Bananarama did Cruel Summer (the Ace of Base remake sucks!) and Venus
while the Gogo's did Vacation and We've got the Beat.

And speaking of remakes of Pink Floyd songs, Kittie did an O.K. cover of "Run like hell" a few years ago, although its definitely worse than the original.


Do you guys think more record companies should follow Apple Records' example and not let their artists' (The Beatles) songs be covered or sampled?
The only time the rule has bothered me is when they made The Prodigy take a song off the Dirtchamber Sessions CD, because it contained a sample of a Beatles song. Would've been cool to hear...

Anyway, I'm rambling so yeah done for now