Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld

[venta]

It's Friday, 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 before reading ahead...

Today's cover version [link to mp3 expired]

That was Patti Smith covering Smells Like Teen Spirit, originally by Nirvana.

I'm always curious to note what makes a cover version stand out from the original. In this case, one of the things which always grabs my attention is that - unlike Cobain - Smith sings "dangerous" as a three-syllable word. It's a tiny detail, but something you'd never do unless you'd stopped to view the song as an abstract entity rather than singing with the original in mind.

This comes from Patti Smith's covers album, Twelve, which is well-worth a listen. It does have a good few songs on it I don't know, but the covers I do know range from the very expected (Hendrix, the Rolling Stones) to the very unexpected (Tears for Fears).

I'm sure someone will be along any minute to tell me that this style of cover was long ago done by Tori Amos, and done better. And I certainly think that cover is equally valid; I personally don't get on terribly well with Tori Amos' style of singing (though I think parts of the piano accompaniment to her version of Smells Like... are absolutely fabulous).

Fun (for some values of fun) trivia: If you type "Nirvana smells" into a youtube search box, if offers you "like team spirit" as a completion. If you get as far as "Nirvana smells like teen" it gives up and offers you no completions at all, being totally unable to work out what crazy title you're typing in.

Also, I like the original Nirvana video, so paused to watch it when looking it up earlier. I've not seen it in years. I briefly confused myself by thinking gosh, the drummer looks just like... oh, yeah, of course he does. An interesting fact to note that Dave Grohl has vastly outgrown being just Nirvana's drummer.

Comments

[lnr]

I got it as soon as I heard the first notes after the bass intro :) But I wouldn't have been able to tell it was Patti Smith. I quite like it! Oh I really like the spoken bit nearer the end! I should let it reach the end of the song before starting to comment :)

Dave Grohl> :)

Which reminds me how much I miss Scuzz now it's not one of the channels on Freesat. We can get it if we retune the box to just show all available sattelite channels, but that loses us the red button on the BBC :/

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I started to wonder if it was Patti Smith, but I wasn't sure until she went into her impressionistic vocal break passage. At which point it sounded just like most of her other songs :-)

I think this is a bit more interesting than the Tori version, perhaps because of the guitar-picking figure.

That covers album sounds interesting, unfortunately doesn't seem to be on Spotify!

Is "ner ner ner" one of the autocomplete suggestions for "Nirvana smells"?

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Her covers album doesn't include her marvellous version of When Doves Cry? Shocking!
I do like this one though.

[fractalgeek.livejournal.com]

The Tori version was where I got to appreciate the lyrics; her version was much sexier somehow. The original is pure rage; it still stops me in my tracks when I see the video.

[augeas.livejournal.com]

Not many people know about the original Moog arangment. Also, 386 DX.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! I guessed one! (Well, the track at least...)

Good cover, too. I love the way she says the word "dangerous"!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I'm on familiar with Scuzz. Who is it and what does it do?

[lnr]

A rock and sometimes metal TV channel:

http://www.scuzz.tv/

But you do tend to get a lot of Foo Fighters :)