Severely dismantled covers of well known songs
 

I'm really fascinated by the way Fennesz deconstructed The Rolling Stones's 'Paint It Black' reducing it to an even more nervous and anxious version of itself.It's totally unrecognizable in this version,firstly because he transformed it into an insectoid rubble going through even more self-doubt but also because the obvious mark that it stumped on it is that of sound that was electronically generated and glued together (cut n paste fanfare,so to speak)rather than created from scratch.Any other mentionable examples in this field that you feel like talking about?

Personally, I'm a bit more fascinated with what Coltrane did with Hammerstein's "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music musical.

__________________
Oh help me, please doctor, I'm damaged
There's a pain where there once was a heart
It's sleepin, it's a beatin'
Can't ya please tear it out, and preserve it
Right there in that jar?

I love the way Jet deconstructed "Lust for Life" and infused it with a post millennial... oh wait no they just copied it.

Marie Laforet's "Marie douceur" is amazing. French cover of "Paint It Black", essentially.

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Chan 'cat power' Marshall killed 'House of the rising sun' when i saw her in november.

And i heard a HORRIBLE version of Joni Mitchell's 'River' being played in starbucks a few days ago, no idea who it was singing it????

I think SY's cover of 'Superstar' was a pretty good adaptation of the original. It was not severely dismantled, but it was definitely given a better drive. I can't think about any other covers and I never bought Cat Power's covers album.

Can we come up with more interesting parallels rather than the outstandingly obvious?Not referring to anyone in particular.

If you sort of count Rapeman's Kim Gordon's Panties as a cover of Schizophrenia you could say it is pretty deconstructed and turned into another completely different song.


The most deconstructed cover I can think of is DEVO- Satisfaction. But that main riff is still there, so it still doesn't quite cut it as a parallel to yours.

You could not have been more obvious.

Than what,mister?

Half Japanese did a great cover of 'Tangled up in Blue'.
Pussy Galore did the whole of Exile on Main Strett.
Everyone would know about Devo's "I can't get no (satisfaction)".
On the topic of Stones covers proto-doom band Pentagram did an awesome cover of "Under My Thumb", it's not very dismantled though.

Half Japanese also covers La Bamba, but surprisingly it isn't very different from the original, and it was sort of disappointing to me when I first heard it.

TVBC's cover of Husker Du's "Reoccurring Dreams" bears just short of zero resemblance to the original.

And it rules.

My first thought was Satanicpornocultshop's anorexiagasballoon which I assumed was an obvious choice. I shan't say what it's a cover of, because everyone should seek it out on account of it being a perfect example of a well-known song fucked up badly, in a good way.

I'll say Galas and not bother saying any more.

Roland Kirk's/ Ground Zero's versions of 'I say a little prayer' are awesomecore.

I utterly swear that Haino, when I saw him in Newcastle year before last did a cover of The Troggs' Wild Thing, but it was unrecognisable except for a half-bar and an emotion of the song's self.

Soft Cell's Tainted Love/ Where did our love go? is awesome, perhaps not because it retains the original melodies of both songs, but because it inserts a perversity alien to both songs.

V/VM needn't be mentioned, but have been neglected thenceforth.

I'd like to say Melt Banana's version of Surfin' USA, but that's entirely in keeping with the spirit of the original.

I think what Porky is getting at it desecrations that reveal something latent to the original which was previously unapparent. Hence the use of the (Derridaen) deconstruction. Perhaps Einsteurzene's version of Je T'aime?

I'm out of ideas otherwise.

The masters of making severely dismantled covers of well known songs are definitely The Residents. The most obvious example of course being the entire Third Reich n' Roll album, but also their cover of (I can't get no) Satisfaction, etc.

Satanicpornocultshop's cover is that of pale blue eyes?I'm referring to covers of well known songs that regain some life through the mincer of fresh ideas.I hope that makes sense.The Fennesz cover in question,i find rather old by now but i just wanted to particularly refresh the memory of those who know it because i wouldn't want it to end up in the bin as some novelty but classy electronic experiment,if you know what i mean.

Like I mentioned in the "least favourite song" thread, Total Eclipse of the Heart was one of my most hated songs until I heard the V/Vm version.


Then the V/Vm one for Bonnie Tyler is the best example I can come up with. It was a stinking rotten corpse that with a bit of a Frankenstein treatment somehow started breathing again.

Seems as though there is a certain one that escapes me right now.

Jackie-O Motherfuckers version of Amazing Grace, must qualify.

i second this motion.

harry pussy did a blinding cover of showroom dummies, and then of course the butthole surfers tore sweet leaf a new arsehole.

and in kind of a reverse of what the thread is about i have a 7" where some group called Tropics of Cancer play PiL's poptones in the style of a lullaby

Let's not forget People Like Us and her 'Downtown'.

Prehensile Monkeytailed Skink's "Kenneth" repeats only the titular line from "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" by REM.

On one of their early singles, the Registrators totally slaughtered "Hotel California" like no other band I've heard.

The Genbaku Onanies and Hijo Kaidan formed a merged band called Genbaku Kaidan and released an LP called "Acid Soul" which was essentially the unwieldly group slaughtering a buncha classic rock staples. Their version of "Communication Breakdown" is a bruiser, but "Mississippi Queen" is the biggest joke on the record.

Especially Likely Sloth's cover of Cannibal Corpse's "Hammer Smashed Face" sounds like it replaces that sick pitch-shifted riff in the refrain with a chorus of cheap plastic kazoos. The rhythm's disjointed, cut/pasted, and the vocals sound like a drowning little girl.

The version of "Beat It" by the Strangulated Beatoffs pokes a lot of fun at Jacko: "Show 'em your weenie/Show 'em it's white!" A long time earlier, there was a great 7" they did with a couple of Beatles songs including "Don't Let Me Down," which was proto-chopped 'n' screwed.

Perhaps no great pisstake of the Beatles exists than the 7" by an obscure Nebraska band in 1980 that dared to call themselves the Better Beatles. They were perhaps the only Midwestern synthpunk band from this era.

And, of course, Negativland's "U2" is the greatest example of this sorta thing ever!

How about Acid Mothers doing Willile the Pimp? It's not THAT dismantled, but it's still fun/awesome.

Thought of another one (a good one too!). Sudden Infants cover of Roxy Music classic In Every Dream Home a Heartache.

Most of Cat Power's covers are somewhat dismantled. What she did with 'No Satisfaction' is brilliant.

Xiu Xiu's Don't Cha is incredibly dismantled.

Satisfaction, as already mentioned, is a much dismantled one. Add Keiji Hainos covers band Aihiyo to that list. They take it apart, throw away the rubbish bits (most of it) and build it back up from the ground.

Also, Butthole Surfers did a pretty mangled cover of American Woman by The Guess Who. More mangled than their cover of Sweet Leaf I'd say. They also have a song called Mark Says Alright and there's a Grand Funk Railroad song of the same name but I have no idea if it's a cover or not.

Good topic by the way.

Most of the La Musique De Paris Derniere cd's have interesting covers like:
Stevie Wonder - We Can Work It Out
Big Daddy - Like a Virgin, etc.

OK, Mark Says Alright isn't a cover of the Grand Funk track. At least the liner notes attribute the writing of the song to The Butthole Surfers.

I love the MASTER & SERVANT cover on an album by a band called ENIAC (sounds liek The red Scare or Drive Liek Jehu, NOT like the electronica duo called ENIAC)

I always like playing Dinosaur's version of JUST LIKE HEAVEN at parties because about the time the regulars understand it is THE Cure song they are thinking off, it kicks into the screams, and then it just stops on a 'YOUUUUU!!!"

I love covers.

Mark Farner (sp?) was the name of the butthole's dog, as well as the dude from grand funk railroad

Ah, that makes sense, thanks for the nugget of info.

Schneider Tm did a good job on the Smiths's 'There is Light That Never Goes Out' and went as far as re-naming it 'The Light 3000'.From car-driving teen melancholia to car-driving and clubbing melancholia.

Anyone here ever heard Culturcide's "We Aren't the World," a totally irreverent stab at "We Are the World" by USA for Africa?

Culturcide also turned Grand Funk's "We're an American Band" into "We're an Industrial Band."

They were like the American Cabaret Voltaire, but way more sarcastic and funny.

This entire album is full of ace covers sometimes much better than the originals:

Britney Spears's cover of "Satisfaction" was effed up, if that counts.

...is this the one that Buck 65 did? Or is that his own tune... I didn't know Roxy did a song ...by that name... Buck's version is EFFING...INCREDIBLE.

Weezer do an excellently dismantled cover of I Bleed by the Pixies. Except they changed the lyrics and called it Undonne (the Sweater Song)

Idiot. Those songs aren't even close to being the same.

Oh Please!

The melody and rythm in the main verses are virtually identical.

Cunt off.

A little, but I'd say the similarities are just coincidence.

Listening to both back to back. Damn the Pixies are such a better band than Weezer.