Sweet cover

[Krusshyk]

Ok, there has to be someone on this board other than me thats appreciates what I heard today.

I was listening to Yahoo! Launch at work and noticed that there was a song on by Korn. Not usually my bag, but they were lumped into the station I was listening to at the moment. After a few notes, I realized that I recongized the tune...it was a cover of "Word Up" by Cameo. What's better is that it is a good cover...when most bands cover tunes by other bands, they have a tendency to turn them into crap. Check it out y'all.

[Isleh]

I've heard it. It's not bad.

[Skarr]

you should hear their cover of "another brick in the wall" from pink floyd on the same album....

[MrDooo]

I almost bought that album for those two songs. But then there's the rest of the album...

[Krusshyk]

Yeah Dooo, I understand your plight. I must say that the new and improved napster is actually almost as useful as it used to be. Sure, you are paying for convenience, but you can really get the system to work for you. 2 bucks for 2 songs you like instead of 13 bucks or so (if you are lucky) for two songs you like and 8 or more songs that bite hard.

I don't remember what the monthly fee is to be a member, but there is a free trial period where you can download stuff for a dollar a song for like one week without paying the subscription fee. Plus, you get to hear all of the songs in their database in streaming media.

[Rye]

i have napster its ok i dont like the fact that i cant put my burned songs on the hardrive i have to put it on a cd then put it in a folder its annoying

[Isleh]

I have Musicmatch Jukebox. In addition to MP3s I can burn regular audio CDs from them. What I really like is my DVD player can play MP3s so I can just burn a CD with about 140 songs on it.

[Weyune]

I'll give it try, but Ive never even heard of "Cameo"? And its always been my experience that cover songs aren't half as good as the originals. Its like bands can't seem to think of anything original anymore so they decide to try and cover songs that have already been out there.

I used to like Limp Bizkit until they did a cover of The Who song "Behind Blue Eyes". And Marilyn Manson, well I can't even name all the songs they have covered, except Eurithmics's "Sweet Dreams". And now there is some song out there that is an obvious cover of a Phill Collins song.

Are these bands proud that they are covering songs. As if doing a cover of a song to tribute the original artist makes up for not being able to think of something on their own. Sorry Im not posting angry, these are just my thoughts

[Krusshyk]

Weyune, I think you are getting "covering" mixed up with "sampling". Covering is where one band plays a song written exactly the way it was written, ie words, melodies, etc..."sampling" is what Puff daddy does. You take a riff or hook from a previously written song, pay someone some royalties, and then throw your own music and/or lyrics on top of it.

Eidted to note: The first two songs you mentioned are in fact covers Weyune. Apologies. When you mentioned Phil Collins, I was thinking of the Jessica Simpson song which samples a song by John Cougar Mellencamp.

Having been in a band myself, I have to say, cover songs are a very useful tool in a bands reptoire. Especially if you aren't big in the industry. When people come into a bar to drink and catch some tunes, they don't necessarily wanna hear some crap a bunch of high school kids wrote, they wanna hear what they know and already like. I don't know how many times people asked to hear "Freebird" in the middle of a set.

Sampling, however, I feel is a crock. The fact that a Rap "artist" (Using the term loosely) who shall remain nameless, can use hooks from some awesome songs by the Police and Led Zeppelin and call it their own irritates the crap out of me.

Don't feel bad you don't know who "Cameo" is. Most people my age only know them because they saw a sketch on Saturday Night Live in which the lead singer of Cameo was portrayed by Tracy Morgan. Its funny...Conan O'Brien plays Right Said Fred.

[X'an Shin]

Ok, there has to be someone on this board other than me thats appreciates what I heard today.

I was listening to Yahoo! Launch at work and noticed that there was a song on by Korn. Not usually my bag, but they were lumped into the station I was listening to at the moment. After a few notes, I realized that I recongized the tune...it was a cover of "Word Up" by Cameo. What's better is that it is a good cover...when most bands cover tunes by other bands, they have a tendency to turn them into crap. Check it out y'all.

It's almost indistinguishable from the original version to me, which makes it a bad cover in my book. See also: Marilyn Manson's cover of Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus. If you're going to do a cover, change it in some way.

The Smooth Criminal cover awhile back did that, and I liked it.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Cameo cover, but I like it because it sounds just like the original.

[X'an Shin]

you should hear their cover of "another brick in the wall" from pink floyd on the same album....

Again, indistinguishable from the original. I thought they were actually playing Pink Floyd's original when 94.7 played it here. That's a BAD cover IMNSHO.

[Krusshyk]

I see where you are coming from X'an, but there is a point where it becomes "too different". There have been several covers of "Antother Brick in the Wall" by pink floyd and some of em were decent. There is one, however, that sticks out in mind for the simple reason that it blew everything imaginable.

I can't remember who it was by, but it has gotten some play time on Q101 in recent months. They sped up the tempo and the guy wasn't really singing.

There has to be a point at which you retain enough of the original song's character for people to actually be interested in it, but maybe add your own nuances to make it new to the listener. I suppose its also up to an indvidual's opinion, but thats my take.

I too like the Cameo cover because that original song kicks ass, and because the Korn version is almost a carbon copy duplicate.

Edited to say: Am I the only person who edits their posts to correct a grammar goof up?

[MrDooo]

I've always thought that with covers you have two choices: Either do it just like the original as an homage, or make it completely your own. I like both kinds.

[Krusshyk]

Heard the cover of "Another brick in the wall" today...

Have to say...I didn't like it. I am not a big Pink Floyd fan, but they had some rockin' songs. The original by Floyd sounds a lot different in my head. There were some cool things missing from Korn's version, mostly in the guitar riffs.

[TramelRaggs]

I've heard the Korn cover of Word Up. It used to play all the time at this bar I worked at. I guess I'll be the only one on this board, but I don't like it.

The song sounds virtually like the original with more of a rock edge to it. That's all. That's a boring cover to me. Now, I don't have a problem with rock or rock covers (in fact, I think Marilyn Manson's Sweet Dreams was good because he put his own touch to that song), but I just thing it sucked. I thing the original Cameo version is better.

Maybe, though, that's just nostalgia talking. I can remember my father rocking out to Cameo when I was younger. Here I was, a child of maybe seven, trying to figure out why my ultra conservative father was jamming to a eight foot tall black guy in patent leather with a mohawk and bright red codpiece. Talk about your mixed messages.