joe cocker

Playlist #283: Covers and Covers and Covers

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

Happy Monday, folks! Though it’s a bit of a dreary one here in Northern Virginia. I assume it’s because of the Nor’easter or the El Nino or whatever. I’ve spent the morning jamming to an old collection of Elton John Covers (it’s called Two Rooms, if you’re curious), and it is the most 1991 collection I have ever heard. Anyway, here’s some covers!

  1. Kate Bush, “Rocket Man”: Why did she make this a reggae song? Why is there Northumbrian pipe in the last minute and a half of it? Because she’s Kate Fuckin’ Bush, that’s why.
  2. Santana, “Oye Como Va”: If you’re gonna cover Tito Puente, you go hard with it.
  3. Wilco, “Thirteen”: There are approximately seventeen billion covers of this Big Star tune, and each one offers just a little something different than the others. There’s a broken vulnerability to the music and Jeff Tweedy’s vocals here that I really like.
  4. Joe Cocker, “The Letter”: I always associate Joe Coker with powerful covers of others’ songs. He and his band just rip into this one for a barnstormer of a live show.
  5. Sturgill Simpson, “In Bloom”: Did you know this grunge mainstay could sound all country and soft? Neither did I until Sturgill Simpson covered it.
  6. Cake, “I Will Survive”: Dripping with 90s irony and not looking to make any friends, this song challenges the listener to meet it on its own terms and just rocks out with trumpet and electric guitar in the extended coda.
  7. Johnathan Coulton, “Baby Got Back”: Who doesn’t love the quirky white boy covering the Sir Mix-A-Lot classic?
  8. Harvey Danger, “Save It For Later”: Did you know Harvey Danger recorded more songs than just “Flagpole Sitta?” Did you even know the name of that song was “Flagpole Sitta?”
  9. Luna, “Most Of The Time”: I’ll admit, I did not expect this band to have a male lead singer. I guess that’s one of my own biases I need to reassess.
  10. George Harrison, “If Not For You”: Yeah, I’m ending the list with not one but two Dylan covers. Which I can do because it’s my website and my playlist. I can do whatever I want, and I want to end with a beautiful George Harrison cover of a great Bob Dylan song. So sue me.

Playlist #130

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

Happy Monday, folk! This is moving week, the week where all of my sanity leaves my body in a sudden rush and I wake up on Friday, hopefully in a new place with all of my stuff there. If not, well, I know how to cry.

  1. Paul McCartney, “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”: I tell myself this one is about me. I’m not 100% convinced I’m wrong. My wife thinks I’m handsome, at any rate.
  2. HAIM, “The Wire”: I have heard exactly three (3) songs by this band in my whole life, and I’ve like all three of them. This one cops the drum rhythm from the Eagles’ “Heartache Tonight,” which is actually pretty dope.
  3. The Gaslight Anthem, “Our Father’s Sons”: It’s not a finished song. Bits and pieces of it end up in other songs off The ’59 Sound album. But the lyrics are fairly unique to this particular version, and I like those.
  4. Joe Cocker, “The Letter”: Oh, so a fast train ain’t good enough for ya, Joe? You gotta get on an aeroplane instead? I mean, I guess it makes sense, at least here in the States where high-speed rail just isn’t a thing. But if you were in Japan, you’d be rethinking that train.
  5. Amanda Shires, “Pale Fire”: I keep coming back to this song every few months. I love it. There’s a simplicity and honesty to it that I really appreciate and tend to look for in music.
  6. Patti Smith, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”: If you’d told me there’d be a version of this song that features stand-up bass and a banjo and that I’d love this particular version of the song, I’d…probably have believed you, that sounds right up my alley.
  7. The Beatles, “Two Of Us”: “On our way back home.” Yeah, this one is a stealth moving song!
  8. Muddy Waters, “Goin’ Home”: If it’s good enough for Muddy, it’s good enough for me.
  9. Moxy Fruvous, “Boo Time”: I will never, until the day I die, truly understand or maybe even be able to appreciate this band’s bizarre name, but I can get behind some of their stranger songs like this one. What the hell is “Boo Time,” anyway? Is this a Halloween song? Or is it the time when you cuddle up close to your boo? I honestly don’t know, and it keeps me up some nights.
  10. Electric Light Orchestra, “Roll Over Beethoven”: The pinnacle of early ELO. I will not be taking comments about it at this time, or ever.