WTF: More Crazy Covers

Francoise Hardy

For the sake of an attention-grabbing headline, we call these “crazy covers” and for the most part they’re not crazy at all.

Back in the day it was fairly common practice for even the biggest artists to do covers, because they were cheap and easy to license. And besides – when the songwriters of the day were Lennon-McCartney, Jagger-Richards, Ray Davies and this cat named Dylan, why not toss in a cover?

So here we have a handful of cover versions, mainly of tunes from the 1960s when the giants listed above still ruled the world. Each cover version sheds a new light on each song, in their own initimable way.

A few of these are kind of sneaky: Clarence Clemons is of course “covering” a song he originally played on as part of the E Street Band. Neil Diamond and Carole King are here “covering” songs that they actually wrote, but were made famous by others.

MP3: “Who’ll Be The Next In Line” by Francoise Hardy (covering The Kinks)

MP3: “If You Gotta Go, Go Now” by Mae West (covering Bob Dylan)

MP3: “Save The Last Dance For Me” by Ike & Tina Turner (covering The Drifters)

MP3: “It’s All Too Much” by My Darling Clementine (covering The Beatles)

MP3: “Cracklin’ Rosie” by Shane McGowan & The Popes (covering Neil Diamond)

MP3: “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” by Buck Owens (covering Bob Dylan)

MP3: “The Rains Came” by the Sir Douglas Quintet (covering Big Sambo)

MP3: “Foxey Lady” by Cee Lo Green (covering Jimi Hendrix)

MP3: “Woodstock” by America (covering Joni Mitchell)

MP3: “I’m A Believer” by Neil Diamond (covering The Monkees)

MP3: “I Can’t Turn You Loose” by Edgar Winter’s White Trash (covering Otis Redding)

MP3: “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by Alex Chilton (covering The Rolling Stones)

MP3: “Small Things” by Clarence Clemons (covering Bruce Springsteen)

MP3: “I’m Into Something Good” by Brian Wilson and Carole King (covering Herman’s Hermits)

Review: “Préliminaires,” Iggy Pop

Well, it’s certainly been an interesting half year so far, eh?  The centerpiece of a Springsteen album is a crappy cowboy epic, U2 fails to shake the world with their music, Dylan puts out a great album without playing the harmonica and the great American artistes du jour are … Green Day.   And now we have the curious case of Mr. James Osterberg, a.k.a. Iggy Pop, and his new album Préliminaires – strange days, indeed.

If you think Iggy’s gone all French jazz on us, you’re just half right.  Préliminaires does kick off with the jazzy “Les Feuilles Mortes (Autumn Leaves),” with Iggy crooning in French, sounding like the wasted younger brother of Charles Aznavour or Yves Montand.  Iggy has said this album was inspired by the book The Possibility Of An Island by French author Michel Houellebecq.  The hero of the book is apparently a dog named Fox and Iggy celebrates his character with the jaunty “King Of The Dogs,” done up in Louis Armstrong-style jazz. 

From the guy who once growled “I Wanna Be Your Dog” these selections might be a little disorienting but don’t worry: “Nice To Be Dead” has that familiar rock thud and Iggy menace.  It’s cool the way Iggy tries on these incongruent styles, like a shirt he’s going to wear for only five seconds.  “He’s Dead/She’s Alive” is pure acoustic American blues and “Spanish Coast” has Iggy crooning much like his old mentor David Bowie.  “She’s A Business” rocks like Iggy from the ’80s but its European counterpart “Je Sais Que Tu Sais” is more charming – it’s much sexier when a girl (in this case singer Lucie Amie) is talking in French. 

Préliminaires is a strange but immensely enjoyable album, mainly because it’s exactly what you would expect from the Godfather of Punk – the unexpected. 

MP3: “King Of The Dogs”

Iggy Pop official website

BONUS: In 2000, Iggy performed a duet with legendary French singer Francoise Hardy on the classic “I’ll Be Seeing You.”  Why not?

MP3: “I’ll Be Seeing You” by Francoise Hardy and Iggy Pop