Horrible Covers of Great Songs

[DammitDave]

There is a show on the local community radio station that I listen to during the morning drive.  The show is usually pretty good but the hosts seem to go out of their way to play rotten covers of well known songs.  They're usually so bad that it almost ruins the original.  Today it was Lost In The Supermarket (Clash) covered by the Afgan Whigs ... execrable!  What lousy covers have gotten you angry?

[dogbox]

 

I always hated the Mudhoney version of hate the police -

the original by the dicks is far superior, but good on em for trying

 

[kopper]

Great topic!

I'm sure I can come up with more if I think long and hard about this, but one that comes to mind would be Smash Mouth's cover of ? and the Mysterians' "Can't Get Enough of You Baby." That one would irritate me to no end. Luckily, I haven't heard that cover in years! That band was also responsible for butchering The Monkees' "I'm a Believer." Ugh...

Others off the top of my head:

Not garage related, but Duran Duran covered Public Enemy's "911 Is a Joke," too. Unforgivable.

Motley Crue doing "Anarchy in the UK"

Michael Bolton's complete awful cover of Otis Redding's "Dock of the Bay"

Limp Bizkit murdering the Who's "Behind Blue Eyes"

And I'll leave it at this:

[Ruby Soleil]

the two at the top of my head are also not garage, but Alien Ant farms cover of Smooth Criminal and then there was this ska version of Iron Man that didn't go so well (can't remember the band). On the flip side I love Hugo's cover of 99 Problems.

[dying slowly]

take that did smells like teen spirit live in like 96 or sumin ! arguably not what kurt died for

[TeenFink]

one cover band really grates on my nerves, and i realize they probably have a lot of fans here, but who cares? i'm talking about the FUZZTONES. i can stomach maybe Bad News Travels Fast (their best moment), but the covers they recorded are pretty consistently lame.

now, the DIRTBOMBS, on the other hand, know how to cover songs and do it well. see Ultraglide in Black and If You Don't Already Have a Look as perfect examples. some outstanding covers there.

[Mr Tea]

got to agree with teen fink, the fuzztones ruined pretty much every song they covered, turning great punk classics into boring-goth-rock plodders! Its like they really didnt get it! Should've been a heavy metal band probably.

 

....then theres van halens version of 'you really got me' that one really gets me! (maybe van halen and the fuzztones are the same band hmmmm)

[Axel Björnsson]

fuck the fuzztones.. oooooo we only use vox we're so 66' fuck off.... (Really I got 2 or 3 records with them. fuck'em)

 

First of all Zakk Wylde Fuck the fuck off. ( Think of all the great Sabbath songs he have fucking killed) I got throwed out of a heavymetal store couple weeks ago when I started to talk bad about Zakk when someone told me I looked like him but that's another story.

 

Slash--ok he was in Gun's N.... No I have never been a Gun's fan. Everybody wanted me to dig it( including my mom) Fuck off.

 

don't need to find another. this guys are the worst sort of filth

[John Carlucci]

I agree, and I was in the band! lol!!  I so tried to get Rudi to do originals. The problem is, his songwriting is not too good either.  You'll notice when listening to his originals, that they all have pieces nicked from other songs so they may as well be covers...

 

• Bad News Travels Fast:  Chord progression lifted from Jethro Tull's "Locomotive Breath", Played faster
• Nine Months Later- Intro lifted from the Markette's "Out Of Limits"/ Chrous lifted from the Mc Coy's "Hang On Sloopy"
• In Heat: Main Riff  (  & concept Heat/Fire)lifted from Jimi Hendrix "Fire', Riff is inverted
• She's Wicked:  Partial lyrics lifted from Howlin Wolf ( "asked My Baby for water & she gave me gasoline)

 

TeenFink said:

one cover band really grates on my nerves, and i realize they probably have a lot of fans here, but who cares? i'm talking about the FUZZTONES. i can stomach maybe Bad News Travels Fast (their best moment), but the covers they recorded are pretty consistently lame.

now, the DIRTBOMBS, on the other hand, know how to cover songs and do it well. see Ultraglide in Black and If You Don't Already Have a Look as perfect examples. some outstanding covers there.

[John Carlucci]

 The main problem with the Fuzztones is that they never really were or are a band. Having been a part of the band that went the furthest, I can tell you that Rudi tries so hard to control everything that he kills any creativity from his band mates & they end up leaving. He's probably had like 50 people in the band by now & he thinks by dressing them up in the same clothes that no one will notice.  Because our line-up resided in Los Angeles during the 80's & 90's when all of those Hair Bands were happening, a lot of people assumed we must be Metal heads. This is a phallacy. Jordan (the guitar player) was a founding member of the Outta Place. I came originally out of the NYC CBGB's/Max's Kansas City scene as the bassist for The Speedies, Mad Mike was from the Stratford Survivors & The Tones were Jason's first band.

Mr Tea said:

got to agree with teen fink, the fuzztones ruined pretty much every song they covered, turning great punk classics into boring-goth-rock plodders! Its like they really didnt get it! Should've been a heavy metal band probably.

 

....then theres van halens version of 'you really got me' that one really gets me! (maybe van halen and the fuzztones are the same band hmmmm)

[John Carlucci]

 Lol! I said it before & I'll say it again. I never played a Vox Phantom. I hated the necks. When I was in the Fuzztones & we signed to RCA, Jordan & I Approached Rickenbacker & we signed an endorsement deal. That was the only way I was able to get Rudi to stop bugging me about playing a Phantom. To be perfectly honest, I always have favored the Fender Precision. I have two gorgeous vintage P Basses that Rudi always gave me a hard time about using in the band. One day we were soundchecking at Scream & the opening band was onstage checking the bass gear. I do not recall which band it was, but the bassist had a 70's P Bass & an SVT.  He sounded awesome. Rudi turned to me and said how come your bass doesn't sound that good?? My answer... It would if you let me play a P Bass! lol!!  To him, it's all image. BTW, he barely has any original gear left, he had to sell a lot of it off. He's playing re-issues now.
Axel Björnsson said:

fuck the fuzztones.. oooooo we only use vox we're so 66' fuck off.... (Really I got 2 or 3 records with them. fuck'em)

 

[Mr Tea]

Wow must have been tough ;-)

 

I dont mind the 'originals' so much and they had a few good tunes, but the covers perhaps should have been left alone.

 

Though I cant really talk I've butchered a few classics myself!

 

 

[John Carlucci]

 When I was in the band, we were a good live band. I don't think the recordings ever caught us as good as we were as a live band. Which is a shame, because the recordings are what live on.We had a certain chemistry. Oddly enough, I always felt Rudi was the weakest link in that chemistry. Had he let us be, to create at the best of our own ability, I think the recordings would have been far superior.  Had he let us contribute more to the songwriting, he would have had better songs.  I just hope that some people understand, despite the image of the band, we were not all egotistical 60's Garage rock Purists.