The original was so good, the one you no longer own

[venta]

Right. After more than a twelvemonth of absence, it's time for the return of the Friday afternoon mp3.

It's Friday, and it's about 3 o'clock. It's time to go underneath the covers (with the lights out).

I always recommend listening to a cover version without knowing what or who it is, so click on the link and don't look at your media player too carefully...

Link to cover version expired

Nick Cave, covering Disco 2000, originally by Pulp.

One of the reasons I love cover versions of songs is that an artist can grab a song, and make it into something totally different. If you're a bread-and-butter covers band then fine, go ahead and knock out the notes, you're probably aiming to sound as much like the original as possible. But if you're an established artist, maybe trying to do something a bit quirky, then take on a song that's way out of your genre and make it different.

Which is why I love this version of Disco 2000. Not only is Nick Cave poles apart from Jarvis Cocker in manner, delivery, songwriting and practically everything. Not only has he taken a bit of up-tempo indie and made it into an acoustic ballad. He's put it in a different time signature. Now that's the kind of covering I can get behind.

[NB. If musical terms like 'time signature' wig you out: you could do a slow waltz to this version. All you could do to the original was jump up and down.]

I acquired my version of this track on a cover disc ('scuse the pun) on Q magazine. Cover discs on music magazines often have hidden gems: they want an "exclusive", so you'll often get a session version of a well-known hit, or a B-side, or a one-off cover. Keep an eye out for interesting stuff next time you're in the newsagents (though cover discs seem to be getting rarer.)

Apparently this version of Disco 2000 was actually recorded as a B-side to the Pulp single Bad Cover Version. You can find Bad Cover Version on YouTube; the video is well worth a look.

Comments

[zotz]

It was also released as a CD single with a version of Here Comes The Sun. Sadly that wasn't as good.

[venta.livejournal.com]

It was also released as a CD single

Hmm. I was going to claim that I didn't know that, but I've heard Here Comes The Sun and it doesn't seem to be on the B-Sides album... so I guess ChrisC must have the single.

You're right, though, it's not as good.

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

We got it between us within a couple of lines.
Mainly metame's amazing ability to identify things involving Pulp or Jarvis Cocker rather quickly.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yup, the lyrics (in both versions) are clear enough that if you're listening it's relatively easy to pick up. In some cases, it's more of a horrible realisation half way through the first chorus. I like that kind :)

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

Got the artist on "We were born..."

Got the track on "...it never suited ya..."

Not that I'm deomnstrating any ability, I've just listened to a lot of (too much?) Nick and Jarvis.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

In some cases, it's more of a horrible realisation half way through the first chorus.
[grin] I've got quite a few of those, too!

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

Excellent stuff!
And yes, totally agreed; I far prefer cover versions which do something interesting with the original track, rather than just karaoke. One of my favourite covers ever is 30 Seconds to Mars doing Kanye West's Stronger (which itself incorporates stuff from Daft Punk, I think). The original is a typically crotch-grabbing, arms-in-the-ay-ah hip-hop/rap track, while the cover is a trippy chill-out track that is the audio equivalent of that weird visual effect you get when you're quite drunk, where every time you move your head, it takes your brain a couple of seconds to catch up. Top stuff.

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

Fave Pulp Cover - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKbt3wRsZYw

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, that's blown one of my covers for later in the year :)

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

Oh....errr....Um....Ooops

I likes cover versions.....I have some really bad and wrong ones if you need extras !

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm always happy to make the acquaintance of new covers :)

Pretty much anything at blacktreacle dot com will reach me...

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

He he he - 3 Sent....i have a few more monday as i need to go home and eat !

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

[grin] I've got rather a few, too ... and lolliepopp has buckets of them.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I think the best example of that I ever heard wasn't a cover, it was a mash-up... of the theme from The Muppet Show, and Electric Six's Gay Bar. People clearly didn't think it was odd that someone would play the muppet theme in a club, and then were sort of caught out mid-bop :)

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

I am rather keen on mashups myself. I rather like Standing in the Way of Connection (Elastica vs the Gossip), but my favourite is definitely Sad But Superstitious (Metallica vs Stevie Wonder), which is awesome, and has to be heard to be believed.

[venta.livejournal.com]

My bootleg and mashup collection is one of the much-mourned and less easily replacable things lost in 2008's Horrible Hard Drive Death Event.

If you're offering the chance to listen to such goodies, I'd happily take it (particularly Elastica/Gossip!)

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

I'll try to sort something out.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

How about Abba and the Bunnymen?

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Now, that I've not heard. Yet. [grin]

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Heh. Feel free to post it anyway - we'll mostly have forgotten, and will be pleased to be reminded.

[edling.livejournal.com]

Ooh... I think I can dig out a few surprising ones. I'm assuming you've heard Nouvelle Vague haven't you?

[venta.livejournal.com]

They're on the list :)

Any interesting items gratefully received!

[triskellian]

I cheated and looked before downloading, but I'd have got both artist and song within very few words.

Also, yay! This track in particular is great, and I thoroughly approve of the general sentiment of unusual covers :-)

[addedentry.livejournal.com]

Ha, I remembered you'd posted this so I switched off "His'n'Hers" and...

That Q "Best of 86/06" CD has a pretty high strike rate for inventive covers. Travis were praised for covering "Baby One More Time" some years before it ended up on that CD and in context it no longer sounds anything more than a prank.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, there'll be a couple more from that CD along in due course :)

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Huzzah. I already had that one (along with my love for cover versions), but it is awesome.

I've picked up a number of those cover discs in charity shops over the years - and yes, they've had some gems on them.

[mrlloyd.livejournal.com]

Great idea for a series. I liked the new arrangement, but I actually thought the vocal was, tempo aside, very close to the original. Kind of 'Nick Cave tries to sound like Jarvis Cocker'.

The chorus on that William Shatner version is oddly good. Although I don't think he's the one singing it.

[venta.livejournal.com]

No, the chorus is sung by Joe Jackson, I believe. Who is one of those people who's a great singer while not having much of a voice.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on the time signatures. If we're trying to avoid spoiling future entries: Volume 17?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Sadly, it seems this household's Volume collection goes 1, 4, 5, 9-14. Could you elaborate in email/LJ-message (possibly with an mp3 if you're willing to be a supplier of such illegal things!)

[venta.livejournal.com]

ChrisC has just looked up the tracklisting on t'interwebs, and is most interested in what he hopes to be a cover by Drugstore/