Dylan's Self Portrait immediately comes to mind. Got terrible reviews when released (Greil Marcus' review in Rolling Stone was entitled "What is this sh*t"), but I loved it. Still do, and the critics have now acknowledged they were wrong.
Your vote for greatest (covers) album
Mine is Annie Lennox "Nostalgia". Not only is she one of the greatest female voices ever, she knows how to make a song her own.
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Hi, i cannot choose one cover and i forget many more Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles In the Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin Nevermind - Nirvana Sticky Fingers - The Rolling Stones Bitches Brew - Miles Davis London Calling - The Clash Velvet Underground & Nico- Velvet Underground & Nico Aladdin Sane - David Bowie Brain Salad Surgery -ELP |
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Mary Lee’s Corvette - Blood On the Tracks (by Bob Dylan) at Arlene Grocery. The guy from the audience at the beginning of Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts is fantastic. Speaking of real Bob Dylan fan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YLehh_t62M "Seventeen years ago, they were a ubiquitous presence in what was then a thriving Lower East Side rock scene. One of the few remaining venues from that time, Arlene’s, had a series of “classic album” cover nights. Most of them were pretty cheesy and didn’t draw very high-quality talent, further reinforcing the assumption that the best musicians all want to play their own material. One of those nights featured a local venue owner doing a version of an album by the Band. The other album on the bill that night was Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, which Mary Lee’s Corvette played all the way through, after only two rehearsals. It was one of the most transcendent shows ever witnessed by anyone from this blog (or its more primitive predecessor – in the fall of 2001, blogs as we know them today didn’t exist). That e-zine rated Mary Lee’s Corvette’s venomous version of Idiot Wind as the best song of the year. A few months later, the band officially released the live recording, which by then had been circulating among collectors who were in awe of frontwoman Mary Lee Kortes’ vocals and the band’s similarly electrifying performance." https://maryleescorvette.com/music https://newyorkmusicdaily.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/mlkpetes/ |
slaw, I am writing from the memory so I may mess something up, but it was recorded on the cassette or a Mini Disc, I think. One song is from the portable recorder next to the drummer, etc. Hardly an audiophile set-up. It does convey the atmosphere well, though, so if you want "be there" feeling this is a good one. ’At the last moment, Kortes decided to tape her scheduled performance of “Blood on the Tracks.” Having only a cassette to make a board tape, the first side came out OK, but the second side was problematic. Then she found someone had recorded the entire performance on a mini-disc. After passing copies along to Billboard magazine and www.dylancoveralbums.com, Kortes thought that would be the end of the story." https://archive.triblive.com/news/rock-road-ahead-looks-promising-for-mary-lees-corvette/ |
I can possibly see the confusion although it does say covers album, plural not cover album singular which would more indicate the art of the cover. But I think that would be a good idea for a seperate thread with it clearly worded we are looking for votes on best cover art, although a lot of early Yes stuff and anything by Roger Dean would likely fill the top 20 places imho..... |
The Mona Lisa Twins, whom I just discovered while listening to as many versions of Brian Wilson’s "God Only Knows" as I could stand. The Twins---two sisters, true twins, from Austria, and my favorite new musical discovery in a long time---do the best cover of it I’ve ever heard. In one way I like it better than the original by The Beach Boys: no Mike Love. ;-) I listened to a bunch of The Twins YouTube videos, and they are a trip! They have a bunch of albums listed on Amazon, all real expensive for some reason. Have to do some investigating. I think I’m already in love with the blonde. Apparently John Sebastian likes them a lot, too: he joins them on their video of his Lovin' Spoonful song "Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind." |
glupson, "Sid Vicious’ 1979 Sid Sings is a fun live album."I have not heard that album, but Sid Vicious in My Way is the top. You'll like it if you're a fan of the Stooges, New York Dolls, Ramones etc. Probably my favourite live album even if I don't play it very often. Punk was not the entirely British invention that we thought it was - as we later found out. Its musical roots were firmly in the US/New York scene but we hadn't heard those bands. No one played them here back then. At the time it was quite shocking. Quite a few years passed before the academics got their teeth stuck in and analysed it to death and the MSM could breathe again. |
Lol, in the spirit of the A-goner who thought album covers, not song covers, I remember when Roger Waters’ solo album “Pros & Cons of Hitchhiking” was released in 1984, the girl on the cover had a naked behind. Then, the Moms Against Yucky Album Covers (or whomever) made a stink and all subsequent releases had the black box over her rear end. I was 16 and had to have the “right” cover. Again, sorry, I know we’re talking song covers here, not album covers. |
A full on cover album is hard to come by. Early Stones and Zeppelin covered (or "borrowed") extensively. Jeff Buckley has the single greatest cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Current favorite/fun covers are from Lake Street Dive. A better question is who’s cover’s are better than the original. As in see above... |
Good point, @mcslipp. At least The Stones acknowledged the writer of the songs they outright covered. Zeppelin just changed the name of the song, and claimed authorship. Willie Dixon---writer of some of the songs they stole---sued, and won. Plant & Page are shameless, disgusting thieves. IMO, of course. |
My vote for album of covers is Ummagumma by Pink Floyd. The album cover is actually a cover of the painting inside the cover photo. The painting, which is a cover of the painting within the previous painting, which is a cover of the painting in the preceding painting, which is a cover of the painting in the previous painting. (Just in case the subject changes back and forth again). |
