I’m continuously discovering new cover versions. Here are some recent encounters I recommend.
🪦🪦🪦 Via Cover Me, I heard Brandon Flower’s recent live cover of “People Who Died” [Youtube]. The 1980 song by Jim Carroll recounts the demise of various sad sacks. The chorus ends, “Those are people who died, died. / They were all my friends and they died.” So we are invited to think that these stories are about Carroll’s real life friends who met tragic ends.
Flowers describes Carroll as “a New York City genius poet” and says that he’s giving the song “a country ride.” I guess. The original wasn’t a country song, but making it a country song doesn’t take much. Flowers sings the lyrics verbatim. The result is fine, but not great.
My recommendation is a bit harder to find: There’s a much better cover from 2017 by Raven and the Radicals [Apple|Spotify].1 Apple Music’s metadata has the same lyrics for it as Carroll’s original, but Raven Taylor changes all the verses to be about different people and different deaths, inviting us to think that these are the stories of her real life friends who have met tragic ends. So when she sings her version, it’s more like Carroll singing his version than like a random cover telling the stories of Carroll’s friends.2
🎸🎸🎸 Luca Stricagnoli recently posted a brilliant cover of “Feel Good Inc” [Youtube]. The Gorillaz’ original version is studio track, with lots of electronic elements. Stricagnoli’s version is a live solo guitar performance, making use of a bespoke three-neck guitar. In the video, he also explains the separate functions served by each of the necks.
This feels like it should be a stupid gimmick, but the result is brilliant. It sounds great even if you don’t think about all the jiggery-pokery involved in making it happen.
This also prompted me to relisten to Little Simz’ live cover of “Feel Good Inc” [Youtube] from several years ago. It has digital production and sampling like the original, but Simz’ rendition has a more casual vibe.
- I can’t find a Youtube link for this version.
- Sometimes singing the same words as the original version changes the meaning. I’ve discussed other examples like this here on the blog and in the book.