Top Five Covers
by Ryland Walker Knight
I can't possibly name THE BEST Top Five Covers so in its place I offer a list of covers I wish I could perform but, due to the fact that I have no musical skills other than singing along a little better than terribly, I can only dream about these as a vague possibility somewhere in space.
1. "Sadie" (Joanna Newsom), on banjo. [I was at this one.]
2. "Paris 1919" (John Cale), on banjo.
3. "I Wanna Be Your Lover" (Prince), on banjo.
4. "Heaven" (Talking Heads), only vocals, like that "Mr Grieves" cover on the first TVontheRadio EP. But nothing like that stupid-as-shit Arcade Fire cover of "Naive Melody".
5. "Rape Me" (Nirvana), by Smoosh. Kurt Cobain would have ben 40 years old last week. Seattle is tight.
You should list yours. Or, tackle which ones you think would be worthy of a Top Five Pantheon. I think we can all agree the DEVO "Satisfaction" cover is on the list, right?
Posts
All Nina Simone:
ReplyDelete5. Ooh Child
4. The Desperate Ones
3. Strange Fruit
2. Suzanne
1. Angel of the Morning
The Jimi Hendrix cover of "All Along the Watchtower."
ReplyDeleteThe Iron & Wine cover of "Such Great Heights."
The Shins cover of "We Will Become Silhouettes."
The Bill Frisell and Petra Hadyn cover of "Yellow."
The Johnny Cash cover of "It Ain't Me, Babe."
The Rufus Wainwright cover of "Hallelujah."
The Damien Rice cover of "Creep."