Being a rather lazy, unimaginative type I thought I'd open this to the room. Trying to decide on an interesting female-vox cover- it doesn't necessarily have to be a female led song already tho, wouldn't mind doing something quite radically differently if it works. Off the top of my head was thinking along the lines of Jeff Buckley, Beck as well as maybe PJH... preferably something guitar led with room for some vocal show-offery and maybe a harmony or 2 thrown in. And not TOO obscure... the idea is to give the audience something vaguely familiar snuggled in between our self penned stuff.
Questions, comments?
Oh...
..don't hold out on me you meanies
What about
Beck - The Golden Age, from Sea Change? I guess it's not that well known but at least I tried.
Don't know it...
but will check it out, ta
Any more for any more?
Brother Gorilla - Jake Thackray
Lovely bit of acoustic guitar, lots of vocal show offery on the chorus. Very familiar to Saga generation Northerners. Perfect.
I second this.
again...
don't know if but I'll definitely check it out. Cheers muchly
Go on, do Hallelujah.
You know you want to.
I do
Lord help me, I do.
But no.
Maybe do a different Leonard Cohen song?
They usually work pretty well with a female vocal: Electrelane doing "The Partisan", Jennifer Warnes' cover album, somebody-whose-name-I've-forgotten doing "Bird on a Wire".
And the Cohen track you should do is ... "A Singer Must Die".
I'll totally come and see you if you do! I love that song.
Yeah
I'd want to get it bang on if I do this... but therein lies the challenge. Some great ideas been suggested folks, feeling a bit spoilt for choice now. Knew I could count on you.
Brass in Pocket
by the Pretenders. It's a heck of a crowd-pleaser.
House
of the Rising Sun? Be good to hear some female vocals on that. Room to really belt it and fiddle about at the end I reckon.
Hmmm
yeah good one... might have a play with that. Exactly the type of idea i'm after :)
Rosary by Scott Walker
if only for the "oowaaaaoooo waaaoooooo waaaaooooo" bits
You should do..
All Tomorrow's Parties - that Velvet Underground song. Anyone who actually likes music will know it and appreciate your choice. And there's plenty of room for showing off. ;)
Ace
and Scott Walker too
Santa Baby
smoke on the water
:)
not too obscure...
don't be lazy. write your own song!
We do!
It's just after 2 1/2 yrs of vague snobbery we think maybe it's time we considered slotting a tasteful cover or two into our set - if it doesn't work we've got plenty of our own to go back to ;)
some bob dylan?
like a rolling stone - also previously sung by patti smith...
or even the rolling stones - jumpin jack flash/satisfaction/paint it black
cornflake girl - tori amos!
hounds of love - kate bush
manic monday by the bangles
the who - my generation
funny enough
was listening to paint it black on the way into work- it's a maybe ;)
do
My Curse by the Afghan Whigs. Like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSZKlAAUfR8
When You Were Young by The Killers
works very well as a stripped down cover. Or Autumn Shade 2 by the Vines has some lovely harmonies.
I
can imagine this would be a really nice acoustic one but we want something our guitarist can get his teeth into as well. Going to keep it in mind for future acoustic sets though!
Only You by the Flying Pickets
This was Number One on the day I was born, and is great. Though I think it might be a cover itself, possibly of a Yazoo song. Anyway, it rules :)
no idea why I'm suggesting this
but how about MJ Cole - Sincere.... its a wicked tune http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBKcEcavIfg its a random suggestion mind.
I like the randomness
Maybe not this one but its got me thinking of some mid 90s 'klub klassics' we could pillage...
yeah I was trying to think of some nice vocal house
either that or Bright Eyes - First Day Of My Life.....
Up Jumped The Devil by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
:D
Have you seen this vid?
I like very much
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J3QHzbK9jY
Might be one for my male co-singer to have a go at methinks...
Youtube blocked at work, dammit!
I think it could work with a female voice. And then you could sing off each other in the "Down we go! Down we go!" bit.
I'm running through Nick Cave songs I want to be sung by a female voice now. There's loads!
Maybe do a gender-swapped version of Stagger Lee?
The ship song
would be great i think.
Maybe I just love that song.
Well ok then
Sod it we'll give it a try next rehearsal. What are the other Cave-flavoured ones you have in mind? God knows we do love bit of Bad Seediness...
All right-thinking people do!
D'you know The Loom of the Land from Henry's Dream? One of my favourites. A friend and I can never decide if Sally dies after the song is finished.
Watching Alice would work pretty nicely with a female vocal, as would the Ship Song and Let Love In.
Or the duets: Henry Lee and Where the Wild Roses Grow. D'you see yourself more as PJ or Kylie?
PJ
all the way
Fair play
I don't think PJ would have just lain meekly by the river while Nick searched about for a rock.
Back on Leonard Cohen: you heard Song for Bernadette? He wrote it but never recorded it, but Jennifer Warnes did and it's gorgeous. It probably is a bit obscure, but you'd get serious love from Cohen nerds.
I've not heard it
...but it's on my (now quite long) list! Love Cohen- his songs do seem to lend themselves to a girl/high vocal much more than say Tom Waits or Mark Lanegan (my other favourite gravel- growlers)
You like Mark Lanegan so much you married him?
I'm now going to spend my journey home trying to think of a Tom Waits song that would work with a female voice. There must be one ... I shall find it ...
Aha
busted I see! What can I say, there's definitely something about the ex-Screaming one... must be something to do with his hilarious on-stage banter I guess ;)
Naturally ...
How about Tom Waits' Ol' 55? It's the kind of song that has space for vocal performance, could be easily harmonised, and is - most importantly - absolutely GORGEOUS.
Shaggy - It Wasn't Me.
Play some Slayer!
Famous blue raincoat
When Doves Cry
Always works.
Do
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea!!!
Can't
the band name makes me feel ill
Hows about
choosing a song you like?
Well yes
Happily, I like a lot of music so it's more a case of narrowing down to something that suits our style / is going to be enough of a departure from the original to be worth doing. Reckon quite a few of the suggestions on here could be great.
You are all lovely people.
'aerodynamic'
yr guitarist can't get his teeth into that.
can*
i think you should cover
Dark end of the street
just cos it's of my all time favourite songs.
Less 'obscure' - pick a chart hit and gently break it, like Giant Drag on Wicked Game or Luna on Sweet Child O' Mine
Taken By Trees
do a lovely cover of Sweet Child O' Mine too.
I think that you should take a pop song and make it good. Slow Club covered a section of a One Republic song at their second Camden Crawl show the other night and it was great. They were laughing too much but it can work.
The Man Comes Around
by the late Mr Johnny Cash?
Or hows about....
Today by the Smashing Pumpkins? Remove the distortion and its a sweet little tune!
It's pretty sweet with distortion too!
I second The Man Comes Around. Great song.
Milk,
by Garbage.
One Beat by Sleater-Kinney
let vocal showoffery commence, the guitars are ACE too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol6OXGXDwWc
I do a maudlin banjo cover
of Livin on a Prayer. It amuses me a little when people realise what I'm playing. Its got some nice harmonies and string parts in the chorus, a mandolin solo and an unusual chord change at the end just to change it about a little. I don't modulate it though.
When I'm Cleaning Windows
George Formby
WOULD I LIE TO YOU
by charles and eddie.
^ frickin awesome
song.
Well the meanies came through huh?
The best covers are the ones where the covering artist adds something to the song. Change something up; take a metal song and slow it a tad and sweeten it up or take a high energy cattle call like "Pressure Drop" and give it the smokey chanteuse makeover.
Covers should pay tribute to the original artist but they are boring when they just copy them- make it a pixie_lanegan song too- even better, if you can, make it your bitch!
I'll say!
Some brilliant suggestions - as well as the obligatory daft ones (which are always welcome too ;)
Definitely want to make it distinctive from the original- my first thought for instance was 'Grace' but I know I'd just do it pretty much the same way as JB so there's not that much point to it (besides me saying 'look what I can do!') We tend to play quite fast and loud so we've previously avoided covers, esp. of slower songs, for fear of sounding like less than Jake(!) but as we have developed more of an ebb and flow to our sets now, I do think we could sleaze up a lot of these quite nicely.
Can't wait to try some out. Thanks everyone!
how about...
Summertime Blues. that's kinda a classic. my favorite version is by T.Rex
I HURT MYSELF TODAY
TO SEE IF I STILL FEEL
do it.
try...
... imogen heap. just for now.
search on youtube for an ace version of it performed using a loop station. freaking awesome
Novocane for the Soul
Eels. You know it makes sense!