Most versions of "Mad World" you hear today come from the stripped down version that Michael Andrews and Gary Jules did for the 2001 film "Donnie Darko". This fits perfectly in the film. I love this song. And I love this movie. If you haven't seen this movie, please do. This is a gripping movie that is part science fiction, part teenage angst, part thriller, with a giant bunny that leaves you guessing till the end. The movie was released in 2001, a month after 9/11. And since it begins with a plane crashing into a building, it did not do well at the boxoffice. Now considered a cult classic.
Your favorite musical covers
- Thread starter sene5hos
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Since we were talking about Nirvana covers, how about a cover of a Nirvana song?
I saw a girl do a dance at Cafe Cleo's several years ago to this song. And she was quite good. You could tell she was a trained dancer who brought real emotion to her performance. (Unlike most dancers at Cleo's who basically just hang onto the bar and twirl around.) Kind of ironic since Nirvana's original videos had strippers in cheerleader uniforms.
Patti Smith - Smells Like Teen Spirit
I saw a girl do a dance at Cafe Cleo's several years ago to this song. And she was quite good. You could tell she was a trained dancer who brought real emotion to her performance. (Unlike most dancers at Cleo's who basically just hang onto the bar and twirl around.) Kind of ironic since Nirvana's original videos had strippers in cheerleader uniforms.
Patti Smith - Smells Like Teen Spirit
To be a great cover, an artist should bring something new to the song(not just try to repeat the original performance.) You can do this by stripping a song down to its bare essence, showing it in a different light, bringing something different to the original. There were a number of great songs mentioned here (like EB noted with Nirvana) where people think the cover is the original. Let's not forget Jimi Hendrix -"All Along the Watchtower", where even Dylan acknowledges that Hendrix's version is the definitive one.
KSANA (Ksana Sergienko)
The Show Must Go On (QUEEN Cover).
I love, I love this version, with a female voice.
The Show Must Go On (QUEEN Cover).
I love, I love this version, with a female voice.
U2, One, Live Symphony Orchestra & Choir
It's really nice to see a song that we love. Another version
I love the crescendo, the end is masterful.
It's really nice to see a song that we love. Another version
I love the crescendo, the end is masterful.
Great cover of a Lynyrd Skynyrd classic
Joan Baez, covering the Band's classic "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." The song tells a story in an actual chapter of American history- the end of the American civil war- and how the north's destruction of the southern train system impacts a southern train worker, who is forced to go back to Tennessee and earn a living chopping wood. Joan Baez's version in my mind is better than the Band's, which sounds kind of goofy in comparison even though the subject matter of the song is quite serious.
Baez is mostly best known as one of Bob Dylan's many girlfriends, but on this song she distinguishes herself IMHO as more than a Dylan love interest:
The Band's Original version:
Baez is mostly best known as one of Bob Dylan's many girlfriends, but on this song she distinguishes herself IMHO as more than a Dylan love interest:
The Band's Original version:
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I was going to mention this song and you beat me to the punch. In fact, not only did Dylan mention that Hendrix's version is the definitive one, but Hendrix's version changed the way Dylan himself performed it. Here is what Dylan said about the Hendrix version (from wiki):
Dylan has described his reaction to hearing Hendrix's version: "It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn't think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day." In the booklet accompanying his Biograph album, Dylan said: "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way ... Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."
Hendrix's recording of the song appears at number 47 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and in 2000, British magazine Total Guitar named it top of the list of the greatest cover versions of all time.
Studio version of Hendrix version:
How about Manfred Man’s versión of Blinded by the Light? That’s a Bruce Springsteen song and I had no idea that the boss wrote that for the longest time:
Funny story about Joan Baez’s cover of the Band’s classic The Day They Burned Old Dixie Down. I prefer Joan’s version as well. The Band sounds out of tune. Legend has it that Joan had performed her version several times until she met the Band and learned the correct lyrics.
Funny story about Joan Baez’s cover of the Band’s classic The Day They Burned Old Dixie Down. I prefer Joan’s version as well. The Band sounds out of tune. Legend has it that Joan had performed her version several times until she met the Band and learned the correct lyrics.
EB - I rarely disagree with you, but I much prefer the Band's version. Baez"s version is a pop song. It lacks the gravitas of the original. And to me, it is goofy to have a female sing a first person narrative of clearly a man's plight. (But I guess it got her voted into the Rock Hall of Fame, which also makes no sense.) I doubt anyone who is a fan of The Band would prefer Baez's version.
This Covers thread reminds me of a funny story when I saw Roger McGuinn once in a NY club. He said that the first time he heard Petty's "American Girl" in the 70's he thought -"I don't remember writing that song." (Because Petty's song sounded so much like a McGuinn song.) McGuinn actually did eventually cover the song, but I do not include here since it is inferior to Petty's version.
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