Cover Songs

I love a good cover song. There's that jolt of recognizing something familiar, then the excitement of hearing an unexpected interpretation.

Sometimes the cover surpasses the original. I'd venture to say that Soft Cell's Tainted Love gets more airplay than the '64 recording by Gloria Jones. Younger generations discovered Aerosmith in the '80s because of their collaboration with Run-D.M.C. and Bowie in the '90s with Nirvana's version of The Man Who Sold the World.

I particularly like when a Top 40 pop song is done in a different genre. Most of us have heard Marilyn Manson's take on Sweet Dreams but I prefer one of Madonna's Like A Virgin. An internet favourite, it's often attributed to Manson, though the actual performers aren't verifiable. We all know the original: chirpy with stock, almost campy lyrics. The cover makes it insistent and lewd, including provocative, sensationalistic samples. I like the tension between the coy words and the harsh style. Separate industrial bands reshaped Like a Prayer and Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? I ended up liking Beyoncé's Crazy In Love after hearing Hawksley Workman, and other artists, turn it into a rock song in concert.

With covers there's always something new out there, whether it's a jazz arrangement of Radiohead's Exit Music or a salsa Billy Jean.

Here are my current top 10 covers. I tried to think of songs where the newer one stands alone and is a departure from the original. If I expanded my criteria to include pure novelty, though, Mike Flowers Pops' '60s lounge rendition of Wonderwall would've been on the list.

Across the Universe - David Bowie (Original: The Beatles)
All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix (Bob Dylan)
A Whiter Shade of Pale - Annie Lennox (Procol Harum)
Fell In Love with a Girl Boy - Joss Stone (The White Stripes)
Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley (Leonard Cohen)
Hotel California - Gipsy Kings (Eagles)
I Bet You'd Look Good on the Dance Floor - Baby Charles (Arctic Monkeys)
Jolene - The White Stripes (Dolly Parton)
Just Dropped In - Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings (1st recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis!
  Popularized by Kenny Rogers & The First Edition)
Walk on By - The Stranglers (Burt Bacharach, recorded Dionne Warwick)

Street art, Spadina Cresc, Toronto, circa 2004. Photo: Moonage Wolf.

The Cure at Riot Fest

The Cure at Riot Fest was magic. Every song was suffused with the melancholy or dissonant drive you'd expect from the band. They came across energetic and focused. Their sound was big and crisp and held up well in the outdoor setting.

Shake Dog Shake was the opening song, followed by Fascination Street. I was thrilled to hear my favourites and equally excited that they played variations on the album tracks. This was my first time seeing them live, so I didn't know what to expect. Plenty of artists who were at the peak of popularity decades ago are now lacklustre in concert. Not so The Cure. They had the ease of consummate professionals and the electric charge of bands in their prime.

The highlight for me was Lullaby. The seductive tremble in Robert Smith's voice as he delivered the sinister line, “Spiderman is having me for dinner tonight.” He wore a jacket with a pattern like cobwebs and fog floated over him. I felt intoxicated. It wasn't only the ethereal music, but a combination of the day's indulgences, wonderful company and tender arms wrapped around my waist.

After one of the lyrical pieces Smith joked with the audience that he was worried about playing it at Riot Fest. He followed it up with a few that showed their intense side.

The members were completely unified. They were clearly loving what they do. They played a long set - about two hours worth. For an encore they did three stellar songs: Close to Me, Why Can't I Be You? and Boys Don't Cry. Then the floodlights came up and we stumbled home through the mud. On that kind of night I felt perfection was possible.