I find ithe world of music, especially rock and roll and pop, originals and copies, very interesting. One thing I love observing is how each decade has another copy of an original set back even as far back as the 50’s but the generation hearing the copy for the first time thinks it is the orignal for aggges to begin with and claims said rendition for their own, and as if its never been said or heard before.
Oh how the then mighty fall when they discover the truth, and that the orignal is often better and has more edge then the newest, and more often then not ‘pop-y’ version.
There are, of course, exceptions to the rule. take Buddy Holly’s “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” for instance, a Chuck Berry song, yet (and Iconfess here I’m actually not a Buddy Holly fan, he’s too ‘bosanova’ for me) I LOVE Buddy Holly’s version (bossanova riff notwithstanding) and have you heard the Hollies version of Bob Dylan’s “Blowing In The wind”? Yes, I’ll admit they seem to have taken all the angst out of the song, the pathos is definitely missing too, but for all that i just love that version.
This could be though because these versions (and I could go on and on) are presented in a more pop manufactured way and thus songs that are originally raw and rather un-polished (plus Dylan can’t sing for toffee and it took Peter, Paul and Mary to break him pop) are presented in a more comfortable way and so I’m back in my comfort zone again. Somehow my conscious is appeased and I am lulled back to a warm cosy world of pop rather then unvarnished rock as its orginal form was.
On the flip side however, you have where they have gone too preppy and pop-y and are just so sachrine sweet its embarrassing! There should be a rule that if you don’t ooze rock and roll, ha! if you dont even trickle rock and roll, dont even attempt to sing it and yes I’m talking to you Lil Mix and Cameo’s “Word Up” (confession thats a guilty pleasure, it’s truly awful but I kinda like it) and a lady, whose name eludes me who did a sing by numbers version of Berry’s rocking Christmas song “Run Rudolph Run”…(and again here I could go on and on, I remember hearing Britney Spears try to pull of a more rock and roll type song….no. definitely not.) there are great re-dos of bad songs and terrible, toe curling re-dos of great songs, which ones do you love or loathe and which ones are your guilty pleasures?
