1 – to fit in with this weeks themes:
What is your favourite cover song ever and why?
I know we’ve done it on RR. But I want stories.
(be brutal – that includes you steenb- 1-2-3 maximum, in order)
2 – What is your favourite cover ever?
By this I mean, sleeve design obviously (or book jacket – I’m easy)
Again Why?
(be brutal – that includes you steenb! – no faffing, 1-2-3 maximum)
3 – if all songs and info were wiped accidentally, but you were given the chance to save just ONE record LABLE, what one would you choose?
(just one- that’s it – everybody, not just steen)
4 - you can erase the influence of one person or group from musical history – who or whom do you want it to be – or is it just The Who.. who knows?
Go on get Nasty – let’s hear some personal vendettas!
5- What Mr.Man are you?
(you can choose to be a little Miss, but they are crap, so don't bother)
answers on a postcard to the usual address...
take your time...
no moaning..
...or just ignore me.
40 comments:
1. Hmm not sure, but I love covers in general.
2. In A Silent Way by Miles Davis, I actually have it framed.
Cannonball Adderley's Somethin' Else, class is permanent.
3. Aaaargh!!
4. We've already had that one, and somebody came up with a fine answer: Limp Bizkit.
5. Mr Tall and Mr Lazy, lovechild, you know, when silence allows it. Oh and somehow, Mr Nice's DNA got mixe dup in there.
1 – What is your favourite cover song ever and why?
It is Hendrix's cover of All Along The Watchtower and it is my favourite because a) it is brilliant and b) because it was the soundtrack to my first ever acid trip.
2 – What is your favourite cover ever?
I don't actually have a sigle favourite but as a group of covers with a fantastic unifying design concept behind them, for me it has to be the classic Penguin paperback covers of the 1950s and early 1960s
3 – if all songs and info were wiped accidentally, but you were given the chance to save just ONE record LABLE, what one would you choose?
Island, so I can keep King Crimson's music
4 - you can erase the influence of one person or group from musical history
Oh! Tough call, there are so very many to choose from. However, there is one that stands out, because they have spawned so many useless imitators, so step up and get erased COLDPLAY
5- What Mr.Man are you?
None, I am way too old for the Mr Men
I'm such a brat! IS there a mr. bratty? Good questions, Shane, must have a think. Back in a bit.
Love the art.
1. Almost inevitably, I'm going for The Stranglers' cover of Walk On By.
2. I miss LP's - cd booklets just don't do it for me. XTC's GO 2 with all the typed stuff was brave (I believe it was the first New Wave album to have a Hypgnosis cover) but for just looking at and turning over and over and sideways and stuff it's probably Electric Ladyland (errrm...)
3. Spillharmonic, of course!
4. Stock, Aitken and Waterman. (Okay that's three but you know what I mean, yeah?)
5. Is there a short, fat slightly psychotic Mr Man? If so, bagsie!
Actually, I think the classic Penguin covers I mean are from the 1930 originally!
1. This Mortal Coil's version of Song To The Siren. Because, in the same way I was bowled over with Sol Seppy this week, I thought Liz Fraser's singing on Song To The Siren was not of this world. The jury will be have to be out for at least a decade on Sol Seppy, because 27 years on, I STILL think that about TMC, and I'm being buried to it when the time comes.
2. I need to nominate something outside the strict parameters of the question, unfortunately. It's the tour poster from Tangerine Dream's 1980 UK tour, which had pride of place in successive DsD bedrooms for years, until I stored it somewhere inadvisable when between permanent homes, and it rotted away. If I get a chance, I'll put up a picture of it.
3. Blimey, that's a hard one! [said the actress to the bishop, fnarr fnarr.] Probably New*West. Although if I say SpillHarmonic, we'd clean up with a global monopoly wouldn't we?
4. Cowell, obviously. Do I really have to explain why?
5. Sadly, but obviously, Mr. Greedy.
1. Neil Young's version of Oh, Lonesome Me. The Don Gibson original( as has been discussed here abouts) is alittle too peppy for the lyrics. Neil serves it up right. This is totally subjective & if asked next week I'm sure to give a different answer.
2. I'm gonna go for the one hanging on the opposite wall as I type & I will gladly grant that it's totally a 16 year old boy pick, but so what? Marianne Faithfull the Marianne Faithfull Album. Did I mention Marianne Faithfull is on the cover.
Well this may have been influenced by SOWC's daughter this A.M. but it would have to be Atlantic- Solomon Burke, the Drifters,Wilson Pickett, Aretha, Sam & Dave & Oh, yeah Otis.
4.Ok I'm onboard with DSD on this one. Chuck out Cowell!
5. My wife says Mr. Mellow.
1. My first thought was Uncle Tupelo's I Wanna Be Your Dog, so I guess I'll go with that, though lots of others floated into my mind as soon as I thought of it.
2. Intriguing question, this is the one that's stumping me, so I'll come back to it.
3. I'm not a person who knows what music is from which label. For some reason my mind doesn't work that way. So I'll go with Blue Note, cause I like the covers.
4. Ahem...I feel like I'm being so obvious...The Beatles. But do I even really feel that way? I don't know.
5. Mr. Dizzy
great answers so far..
..and I've finished my work
so I must say sorry for repeating question #4 according to EJD.. must have missed the meeting!
.. steen, you're not really a brat.. just thought I'd give you something to mule over while not sleeping.
Maki
that's my first dilemma ..
Stranglers vs Isaac Hayes
already... ouch.
Penguin paperback covers is perfect.. here's jarvis talking to Harland Miller (who adapts the covers for his art)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/may/05/art.art
my favourite is an orange one of these:
http://www.whitecube.com/editions/incurable/
George Michael has one too - weird!
at this moment in time I'm listening to Marianne Faithfulls version of Lennys 'Tower of Song'
fintan an excellent image- but along with maki- not to sure if you are really going for the art side of it - he he.
steen
only a couple of hour and straight in there.. nice one that lass.
I'm with you on an ambivalence to the Beatles.. that's it then.. erased from the history books!!!
DsD
This Mortal Coil
could fill a double here for me and for the previous post..
I love Kangaroo/ holocaust/ song to the siren and searched out the originals eventually but they will always sound like TMC in my mind.
and 'It'll end in tears' is my top photograph on a cover - I was offered some huge prints from the session - wish I'd brought them now - beautifull.. 23 envelope did excellent designs for 4AD
I also had a tour poster stored- well it was on the wall - 6foot by 4foot pixies one - it covered the entire moldy wall of a student bedroom!
stolen the night of a tube strike after watching the wedding present doing their Ukrainian sessions.
guess what... it rotted.
1. Struggling to narrow this down. The Sid Vicious version of My Way sums up a lot of what I feel about punk, mostly good, and does a satisfactory demolition job on a very annoying song that to my mind tarnishes the Sinatra image. The Make-Up's version of Hey Joe is sheer genius, not least for the bit where Joe decides to come home and face the music. And maybe Whitesnake's version of Ain't No Love In the Heart of the City for old time's sake.
2. I love the covers of the Panther editions of J.G.Ballard short stories from the 70s and early 80s, especially The Day of Forever - perfect surreal images. For albums, I think it has to be the mysterious landscapes on many Tomasz Stanko albums, especially Leosia amd Dark Eyes.
3. Horrible question. Possibly ECM, because I adore Stanko and the Marcin Wasilewski Trio so much, but then a lot of their output has been tedious Nordic noddling... Maybe FMP for all my favourite noisy German free jazz. Columbia has great music (Miles, Mingus) but is evil. Blue Note has Wayne Shorter and Bud Powell but too much generic hard bop. MY HEAD HURTS!!!
4. I'm with Steenbeck on The Beatles. It's not their music, which always struck me as faintly innocuous, but their impact on the 1970s and their responsibility for all the worst aspects of Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene and dadrock in general. In second place is the Velvet Underground, whom I quite like in small doses but whose influence has been largely Very Bad.
5. Mr Pedantic.
1.Gary Jules - Mad World. Why? Because it adds something to the original and makes it soulful (I didn't even like the original).
2. Difficult - I always liked Wishbone Ash "Argus", because it looked sort of other worldly. Or so I thought at the time.
3. Chrysalis.
4. The Smiths. Sorry, just don't get Morrisey.
5. Mr Fussy.
oh yeah, shane...First thought/Best thought!!!!!
Holy smoke, ejay, if you're around, my answer to "best cover ever" is changing by the second as I listen to my new GIFT of new Nina Songs. I'm completely blown away. She kills me. Thank you thank you.
aliM
with you on Mad World - I couldn't stand the original.. I actually listen to a dance remix of the cover most, ruining your soulfullness - but that's just me!
1. Jimmy Little's cover of the Go-between's Cattle and Cane moved me a lot recently, just because I have a weak spot for anything which blends European and indigenous Oceanic/Australasian culture, and because I was thinking about this a lot a year ago on holiday in NZ.
2. Richard Chopping's original cover design for Ian Fleming's From Russia with Love. Probably conveyed more of the idea of the world outside Aotearoa to my teenage self than any other single piece of graphic design.
3. CBS/Columbia would do me fine. Evil? So what- Shane has only just "accidentally" wiped nearly all recorded music in history for the sake of an EOTWQ.
4. Rolling Stones. I'm not that keen on the Beatles either but they wrote some great songs, whereas Richards/Jaggers entire output can be binned for all I care. There's just something totally creepy for me about this band, plus I'm not aware of any music I love which wouldn't have existed without them. Sorry Stones fans, nothing personal, and it's my problem, not yours.
5. Mr Stubborn. I had to look this up. But I was like, just too stubborn to give up and admit I haven't the slightest idea about Mr. Men.
Steen, I could list a bunch of Nina covers and they'd all be contenders. Baltimore, Isn't It A Pity, Just Like A Woman, Here Comes The Sun, etc.
Glad you're enjoying it, sorry I didn't get it to you sooner though!
so tricky and the cure have been part of my life for so long - this just makes sense to me - at Latitude last year Tricky crowd surfed to within a meter of my son, who was on his uncles shoulders (whose first ever gig was a Tricky one - it was shit tho!) my son hadn't been enjoying the too loudness.. and too many people.. until this point.
He wasn't playing this cover - but I think it's ace.
tricky
I didn't know this was a cover 'til FP nomed the Abba version for something.. it just made me step back... and like it even more.
(abba was overplayed in my folks household - the only album that wasn't my Dads I'm guessing - it put me off them)
real tuesday weld
I was doing some covers collecting when I met ms.sane this struck a nerve (the lyrics should be red wine though) Bowie was a friend of a friend in my dads circle... so has ended up being one of those people I've never bothered with because of the constant stories.
guy chadwick
2 'it'll end in tears' - this mortal coil
i've been spoilt with the prints - but it made me take up photography.. so wins hands down.
3 4AD - but you knew that anyway.. I get to keep the bands and the record sleeves.
4 Cowell needs to go now.. but Stock, Aitken and Waterman started the NO NEED FOR talent idea - just publicity - on a huge scale. They could easily be erased from my world.
5 Mr.Daydream
I was given the book for my 3rd birthday - I don't know if I grew into the character.. or if it was me already - but it fits.
(this question seams to be very British - the reason I asked is because I had to read them to our son as Ruth dislikes them with a passion, but Z-boy got them for his first birthday, from one of our friends-
but I actually re-did them as piss takes years ago.. things like:
Mr.Slump
Mr.Tipsy-Pervy
Mr.Bong
and once in a while when I was tired he'd get the re-written pissed ones slipping into the normal version - sorry son)
nilpferd
that book jacket frightens me - I hate guns - and it's such a still life with gun and rose... and then reading about it creeps me out even more.... yet I still have a music folder with songs involving gun sound effects that I find quite appealing.
I'm off away for a few days - everyone enjoy their weekends.
Tricky. Can't pick one. Donds for Siren. Magazine for Thank You, Tindersticks for Here, Looking For A Way Out, We Have All The Time in the World & I've Been Loving You Too Long - almost enough for the best covers album ever to compete with Nick Cave's Pricks album. Which in turn reminds me of Mr Cash & Hurt....Will stop now.
Love the Factory & 4AD stuff, but will go with the Rough Trade Scritti singles, made up to look like famous brands. Sweetest Girl as a pack of Dunhill International etc.
On-U Sound
Had this one before way back when. Give you the same answer: Nothing - good things grow from manure. & stop encouraging Carole to be unkind about Coldplay - you know how sensitive they are.
The one with the bendy arms - Mr Fantastic (or was it Mr Tickle?)
1. Cover songs: I'll go with anybody who covered any BMW songs, there's hundreds of 'em. I'd include Gilberto Gil, [Kaya Ngan Daya], Monty Alexander - [Stir it Up] and Bunny Wailer sings Bob Marley [Time will Tell].
2. Favorite covers, there's so many albums in my collection bought purely for the image on the cover, bought blind: first that comes to mind is Christy Moore's 1988 compilation, I'd never heard of him but I was so taken with his picture and it became a favorite. That would be followed by the English 'Electric Ladyland', I already had the US version then I went to UK that summer, had to get a second copy. And #3, Bunny Wailer [Time will tell] cos' it's got two of my pictures on the cover [Bob & Bunny].
3. Just one label, I'd have to sweat it out between Island, Virgin, Studio One and Verve, can't imagine deleting any of them.
4 - 5 One person and who am I? I dunno, I'll have to come back.
Carole: Thanks for introducing Penguin; I grew up in a household that subscribed to the 'Left Book Club' throughout the 30's-40's, a new volume every month. Published by Penguin, orange paperbacks with black text, I'd forgotten all about 'em. When my folks moved in 1950 they dumped the entire collection! today they'd be worth a fortune to collectors.
And speaking of collectors, yesterday I thought about StacyK, I watch the UK version of Antiques Roadshow every day as I have lunch and yesterday it was from Lincoln cathedral, one of my favorite spots.
1. Probably Elvis. 'Hound Dog'. Something like that. There are too many. And im feeling lazy - so shoot me..
2. Probably one of the Television albums. Either Marquee Moon or Adventure
3. Sun. Maybe from there we could all start again.
4. I think i'd go for either Madonna or Pete Waterman. Both took an axe to a wounded beast and chopped it up to suit their own egos.
5. Mr Tossy
1. Hard one, like some of you might know I like covers....
Current favourite (because iTunes played it just five minutes ago...):
k.d. lang - After the gold rush
2. Joy Division - Closer
3. Island, just because it covers so many years and so many genres...
4. megadonds for Limp BIzkit!
5. What's a Mr. Man?
I keep forgetting to say thanks for the nice insomnia fodder, Shane. I've been thinking it might end up a childrens book, or tintin or babar...so good images. Maybe I'll dream a cover I want to make.
Shane, it is a scary cover, but it also fascinates as much as it disgusts, which was what made it irresistable to me as a teen- that mix of nightmare and polished opulence. I always used to look at the books slightly side-on...
there's one he did for Goldfinger which has a skull with a rose in its teeth, and Thunderball featured a skeletal hand grasping a flick-knife and superimposed with a playing card. Chopping himself later expressed his disgust at the violence in the books, and appeared to regret doing the covers at all, but graphically these are images which have stayed with me.
1) Not sure I've got a story, but it's been my favourite record since I was 11 or 12 - and still gives me a giddy thrill now - so it has to be Tracey Ullman's version of (Kirsty MacColl's) "They Don't Know". And yes, I do know that doesn't make me very cool...
2) Hm, I think it would have to be "Technique". Dunno why - at the time I wasn't that blown away by it, but I find it increasingly pleasing as the years go by...
3) Motown. No contest.
4) If only because I was agog and aghast at "No Jacket Required" being up for consideration for best Brit album of the last 30 years, Phil Collins.
5) It's too long since I've read them to remember the stories (or the morals thereof) but maybe Mr Messy.
1) Not sure I've got a story, but it's been my favourite record since I was 11 or 12 - and still gives me a giddy thrill now - so it has to be Tracey Ullman's version of (Kirsty MacColl's) "They Don't Know". And yes, I do know that doesn't make me very cool...
2) Hm, I think it would have to be "Technique". Dunno why - at the time I wasn't that blown away by it, but I find it increasingly pleasing as the years go by...
3) Motown. No contest.
4) If only because I was agog and aghast at "No Jacket Required" being up for consideration for best Brit album of the last 30 years, Phil Collins.
5) It's too long since I've read them to remember the stories (or the morals thereof) but maybe Mr Messy.
Oops...
virtually impossible to answer questions Shane...but here goes:
1. Easy one, I played it on a podcast and Abahachi's already mentioned it, Make Up's version of "Hey Joe" is simply stunning.
The Headcoatees cover of "Teenage Kicks" comes a close second though....
2. It's obvious, but I really love "London Calling" and "Blank Generation" by Richard Hell and the Voidoids is ace too.
3. This is the tough one, I usually shop by label rather than artist. I love Not Not Fun (as you know), but there ain't too much variation there, Load records have gone downhill of late bit are still great. Domino may have to be the one as they have some big hitters like the Arctic Monkeys and perennial Japanther faves like Clinic and also some more obscure stuff......hmm....I really don't know!
4. I think I said Boyzone before for their crime of making teenagers listen to old time dull as shit ballads instead of jumping around the bedroom with a hairbrush like 80's pop used to make you do.....
5. Mr. Boring???
1. I'll go for Cowboy Junkies' "To Live is to Fly", Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" and Gillian Welch's "Black Star", for the simple reason that they're three of the most beautiful pieces of music ever made. And I know you said three maximum but youcan'tstopmementioningstetienne'sversionofonlylovecanbreakyourheartifidoitreallyquickly
2. My books and records are all packed away in cardboard boxes ready for the big move so no going back for inspiration, but off the top of my head - Screamadelica, Nowhere by Ride and Spiritulaized's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space.
3. Just to counteract all of you who want to wipe out the Beatles, I'm going for EMI.
4. Donds for Stock, Aitken and Waterman.
5. I'd like to be Mr Impossible
1. Not a cover song, but a whole ALBUM (do traditionals count as covered?). Die Roten Rosen (aka the Toten Hosen) - can't get through Christmas without it!
2. My favourite cover will be unknown to all of you 'cos it's a very limited edition. A good friend of mine played with a little folk combo called Frame For a Tune and when they recorded their (one-and-only) CD, The Sofa Sessions, they got someone to sew the packaging from an old settee cover. Beat that for textile apperception!
3. Cooking Vinyl (seeing as Chrysalis and Island are being taken care of by Ali and Carole)
4. Whilst agreeing with several of the above, particularly Stock, Aitken and Waterman and Madonna (now there's a combination for you) this man manages to make Simon Cowell look classy (it's the blonde one, Germany's 'greatest pop producer' - makes you wonder what they think 'pop' stands for. Although, come to think of it, the Germans do have a verb poppen, which means to fuck, which is something Dieter Bohlen - for that is he - is wont to do in quite public places - think carpet warehouse with surveillance camera - with the nubile young things inexplicably throwing themselves at his nether regions. But I digress...)
5. Mr. Messy (had to look this up, btw, think I was too old for the Mr Men when they first appeared. Are they the ones where Mr Benn (?) in a bowler hat went through a shop and changed into an adventure? My kid sister was more into that scene...)
Definitely not Mr. Boring, Japanther. Hey, Japanther, I was listening to some songs by your namesake on the YouTube, and I liked them a lot, but it's heard to tell with the youTube if you're hearing a good sample, if you know what I mean. Oh, maybe I'll check if they're on spotify. ANy album that you recommend?
I was thinking I like the cover of Pylon's Chomp, and I also love REM's cover of Crazy, which is originally from Pylon's Chomp. Twofer!
1 kd lang, hmmm...Hallelujah, hmmm...I know, kd lang's Hallelujah. I gather she sang it at the Olympics opening. But I missed it.
2 I've always had a thing about centaurs, and since I also have a thing about Roger Daltrey I'll go for the cover of his second solo album Ride A Rock Horse.
3 Topic
4 I'm finding this one really hard, because there are lots that I don't like, but as to erasing their influence, who on earth could tell what their influence had been? It's like that story where the holidaymakers go back in time and one of them treads on a butterfly. I may come back on this one.
5 Mr Stroppy. (No, there isn't one really. And no, debbym, they're nothing to do with Mr Benn.)
1) Etta James - You Can leave Your Hat On.
Normally I hate cover versions of this song. They all pretend it's meant to sound healthy and exuberant. It isn't. It's sleazy and nasty. Etta adds role reversal into the mix and I am bereft of my facilities.
2) Electric Warrior - T-Rex - It was the first album I ever bought and I thought - and still think - that he looks so bloody cool.
3) Trojan
4) I can think of loads of people whose music I dislike but I can't think of any influence they've had on other people. Maybe I'd sacrifice the pleasure I've had from Keith Richards' music just to get rid of all that "elegantly wasted" heroin chic bollocks.
5) Oh I'm Mister Quiet - obviously - cos I work in a library innit?
ah...thanks Steen....you are officially the nicest person I electronically know!
Now, so pleased to hear of anyone checking out Japanther....they can be hit and miss and the early albums have such bad production they are hard to listen to. But if you are Spotifying, then "Tut Tut, Now Shake Ya Butt" is by far their most interesting. It is dominated by producer Penny Rimbaud from Crass and his really long spoken word poems, but these are worth a listen and interspersed with some classic catchy Japanther tunes.
Thanks Japanther. I spent a lot of time listening to them yesterday on Spotify (there's a lot on there!). They're an odd mix of elements, but it really works somehow. I like them a lot. It seems like they'd only grow on you, too. I'll check out Tut Tut Now Shake Ya Butt. (I liked the spoken word ones I heard yesterday, but I was doing some distracted listening.) I like the titles of their albums.
Hi shane - late to the party as always but they were such good questions I couldn't resist.
1a. Anarchy In The UK - Frazier Chorus - one hundred times more challenging and subversive than the original.
1b. Kirsty MacColl - A New England - somehow made the perfect song even better.
1c. Neighbours theme tune - Microdisney. Heard them do it live in 1985/6.
2a. Searching For The Young Soul Rebels - Dexys. Captures a moment in time.
2b. Unhalfbricking - Fairport Convention. I want the couple standing by the gate to be my parents.
2c. Trouble Over Bridgwater - Half Man Biscuits. Genius.
3. Hmm... I think it would have to be Kitchenware. That would save all my Prefab Sprout, Hurrah!, Martin Stephenson, The Kane Gang and Fatima Mansions.
4. I'd love to say Bob Dylan but so many of the artists I love quote him as a huge influence on their own work. No Dylan, no Go-Betweens, no Paddy McAloon, no Jonathan Richman ...
So, I think I'll say Mick Jagger instead. Just stop it. Now.
5. I'm the narrator. Arthur Lowe.
all brilliant answers and I'm glad I could come back to such fun after a few days in scary old London INNIT.
Anarchy In The UK - Frazier Chorus
you know I love this, the record gets a play every once in a while still and brings pure joy.
Tut Tut Now Shake Ya Butt
wins best album title - didn't I ask that question?
Spiritulaized's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space - I had all their amazing packages at one point - and stupidly gave one away and had the rest stolen.. most annoyed!
nilpf
'...graphically these are images which have stayed with me'
I definitely see why.. I'm totally impressed with the power of their design.
thanks all for your answers..
I'm so not letting anyone destroy any record labels.. and will just ignore those that produce manure (being a peaceful hippy and all that)
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