And now, a break from Cover To Cover, and a big fat Happy Friday!
Three versions of one of my all-time favorite songs, Pressure Drop. First the version I learned to love, from The Only Band That Matters, The Clash. After listening to The Clash for years, I began seeking out the originals of many of their awesome covers (Police and Thieves, Time is Tight, Police On My Back, I Fought The Law, and of course, Pressure Drop). Covers are sticky business. I've found that when you hear a cover first, you can never truly appreciate the original. I can recall arguing with some metalhead about a Sex Pistols song that was covered in the 80's (Anarchy in the UK, maybe?) in regard to which was the better version. I contended that the original was far superior, and he disagreed entirely. I was dumbfounded that anyone could hold such a belief...until I realized that I was doing that very thing with the above listed Clash covers. Oh well...
The second is the classic, original Toots and The Maytals song, followed by a cover recorded by The Specials, another fave of mine from the early Brit Ska days that overlapped the late Brit Punk days.
I hope you can appreciate the awesomeness that is Pressure Drop with one of these versions.
There's also a version with Toots and Eric Clapton out there, updated Toots versions, and countless other covers. I like to think The Clash had a big hand in making Toots so popular.
~Sham, Quixotic Referee
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4 comments:
Based solely on musical tastes, I suspect we would get on famously IRL.
(That suspicion has proven disastrously incorrect in past instances, however.)
It might've been Motörhead's cover of "God Save the Queen" that you're thinking of. Even as a diehard Motörhead fan, I believe the original is better. That said though, Megadeth's cover of "Problems" actually surpasses the original in my view, and I was listening to the original for years before I heard the cover.
-Matthew
@Scott: Thanks, and I would suspect you are right. Although that disastrously incorrect bit sounds ominous. ;-)
@Matthew: Yep-I'm fairly certain it was either God Save the Queen, or Anarchy...so I'd have to say you're right (it was like late 80's or so iirc). I've not heard that cover of Problems, I'll check that out right away!
Both Megadeth and Motley Crue covered "Anarchy in the UK." I thought both covers were wretched, but as you noted, I grew up on the originals.
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