I was listening to the cd that came with the uncut magazine and boy is it crap! Utter crappola. I think the only song that I thought had any substance to it was the cover of Modern Love because it was so different to Bowie's original and had a kind of soft ballady passion to it. Every thing else was souless and lacked any enthusiasm...with some people missing the point completely in terms of how Bowie uses his voice (or used to), to display particular emotions. No one did this.
Anyone think of a Bowie cover that is good? I mean really good?

King Crimson's version of "Heroes" isn't too bad.

yeeaaaahh...isn't too bad is not good though.

Well, we can't always reach the pinnacle that is the taste of Chinchilla, can we?

This is an extremely good question. It cannot be overestimated how good Bowie is in the studio.

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It cannot be overestimated how good Bowie is in the studio

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I think that is the biggest reason why there are so few good covers. The amount of studio wizardry with excellent musicians and layers of great sounds produce a good portion of what makes covering a challenge. Also, the uniqueness of Bowie's voice and delivery cannot be matched. Giving a unique rendition with good musicanship, like the "Modern Love" example or "Be My Wife" from Life Beyond Mars, seems to give a cover more pizazz and make it actually listenable for repeated listens. That can be said for all covers, I think.

I'm getting a bit tired of those slowed down covers of Modern Love - the one in Uncut must be at least the third one (after John Frusciante and Astrid Young) The very beginning of Bowie's original is probably my favourite part of the whole song, and many covers omit it.

I think there have been good covers; there have been good faithful cover (Keane's Under Pressure), good unusual covers (Tori Amos's After All, Lassigue Bendthaus's Ashes to Ashes), and good covers that pushed the song to the 11 the original didn't (Bauhaus's Ziggy Stardust).

I'm still to hear a good Heroes cover - King Crimson doesn't count, with Fripp in the band it's kind of cheating.

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I'm still to hear a good Heroes cover - King Crimson doesn't count, with Fripp in the band it's kind of cheating.

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It is cheating in a way and I think for that song no one can out do Bowie on the vocal end. It is his forever.

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I'm still to hear a good Heroes cover

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Try Nico.

And speaking of Bowie covers, 'Diamond Gods' has a pretty good 'badalamentian' version of I Can't Read. The rest is mostly shite, though.

~
Heaven is a place where
Nothing ever happens

Icehouse - loving the Alien
Seal - Quicksand
Nirvana

I thought most people had figured that 75% of the content of the "free" cds is filler? Exception being the "roots of..." titles or the artist selected "jukebox" one they do a couple times a year.

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Anyone think of a Bowie cover that is good? I mean really good?

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Sam Kronis - As the world falls down.

Click the pic. . . . . .

Basic I know, but Bauhaus doing ZS is still miles better than any version Bowie has done.

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I'm still to hear a good Heroes cover

Try Nico.

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Yes, I'm aware of this one - Nico isn't really my thing. Another 'cheating' cover (i.e with Fripp) is Blondie's but as much as I love Debbie Harry, she doesn't do the song justice either.

Here's the weirdest one so far.

I've just remembered I'm quite keen on The Cure's Young Americans

Life on Mars? by Anggun.

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Basic I know, but Bauhaus doing ZS is still miles better than any version Bowie has done.

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No it's not.

It's great but that sentence is so wrong. Have a real listen to it. It's an unashamed, shallow, soul-less copy. I didn't used to think that. But it lacks Bowie's warmth. And originality.

I think King Black Acid do a wonderful cover of Always Crashing in the Same Car on the Crash Course for the Ravers tribute CD. They make it their own, even adding their own lyrics that sounds like it should be tacky, but they actually add a new dimension to the song.


BTW, Ziggy Stardust is the last Bowie song that I ever heard/will ever hear Bowie doing live again in my whole life. THAT was the best version ever. It was so incredibly ace even my tears halted in reverent awe of it.


my face is finished, my body's gone and i can't help but think,
standin' up here in all this applause and gazin' down at all the young and the beautiful with their questioning eyes,
that i must above all things love myself

Is this the Nico cover that was on the Uncut cd? I threw mine away after listening to it....but if it's the same one then.....what the hell?!!
I'm not joking, I actually burst into laughter...she sounds drunk. But ofcourse this is all relative to peoples own tastes.

Feast your big ears on this little number, TW:

http://www.4shared.com/file/50358498/4acac287/Jeffrey_Gaines_-_Win.html

Thanks to Hey Priesto of BWW for the track provided.



Don't you know that Jesus Christ is a sausage? ~ Malcolm McLaren

Edited by strawman on 06/06/08 03:33 PM (server time).

theidiot2 - you're online, any feedback here?

Don't you know that Jesus Christ is a sausage? ~ Malcolm McLaren

Give me a sec, Herr Strawstein.



Okay:

Seeing as I'm a big Young Americans fan, probably the biggest around these parts in a post-Dogz universe, I was a bit skeptical and...

...it's all right. Performed well, but not a great record as such. But then again I'm not really into stripped down arrangements. I'd like to hear Scott Walker or even Soft Cell tackle this one.


Everyday I write the book

Edited by theidiot2 on 06/06/08 05:33 PM (server time).

I'd like Scott Walker to try "The Motel". That would give me some goosebumps for sure.

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Basic I know, but Bauhaus doing ZS is still miles better than any version Bowie has done.



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No it's not.

It's great but that sentence is so wrong. Have a real listen to it. It's an unashamed, shallow, soul-less copy. I didn't used to think that. But it lacks Bowie's warmth. And originality.





So maybe that's why i think it's is good? Rather than it being by some try hard electro-tit 'deconstructing' my favorite tunes and ripping the heart / point out. The Bauhaus version rocks, and the Bowie one is a limp sack of badly recording toss.

really good?
well I think this one is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-zUubsP2cw
Jarvis Cocker cover Starman

Good ol' Jarv.


Everyday I write the book

Its pretty generic but i dont mind Nirvanas Man Who Sold the World.

Cobain manages not to murder it and it was commercialy succesful, It still gets frequently selected on the juke box in my local (not by me) and i bet Bowie gets 0.16p every time.

For that reason I think its a good cover. . . Go on, shoot me down ; >

And we can force you to be free.

Your post says more about your crap attitude as a bogus Bowie fan than it does about the basic note for note boring cover your sugaring up


my face is finished, my body's gone and i can't help but think,
standin' up here in all this applause and gazin' down at all the young and the beautiful with their questioning eyes,
that i must above all things love myself

crap attitude AS A bogus Bowie fan?

So I'm a bad bogus Bowie fan?

Why thank you :o)

(did that work?)

Here's the repaired link to Jeffry Gaines' version of Win:

http://www.4shared.com/file/50686574/94bfeb24/Jeffrey_Gaines_-_Win.html

Don't you know that Jesus Christ is a sausage? ~ Malcolm McLaren

Thanks, I needed that.

To tell the truth ZS is soo overplayed that i preffer the cover version too now, it has more oomph. I suppose it depends what your looking for in a song. No-one can beat Bowies vocals, perhaps thats why they cant make better covers. They can however improve the musical arrangements.

Example, I think Bowies best band ever was on the Earthling tour, and the revamped versions of the old songs were far better arranged than the origonal recordings.

And we can force you to be free.

Wow! I love this cover, Thanks for posting Infidel. I hate Robbie Williams version of kooks....

There is no Hell like an old Hell....

What kind of an asshole do you have to be to cover Kooks in the first place?

TW's Top Fag!

Anna Ternheim - China Girl


It's LABRYNTH, idiot!

This one's not half bad:

Eurythmics - Fame

Fashion makes you look pretty ugly.

Okkervil River's Live at the Bowery Ballroom cover of Cracked Actor is pretty boss.

Does no one dig the Seu Jorge Life Aquatic soundtrack?

There's this quirky Five Years cover I came across on a free music site. This guy is a total Daniel Johnston rip-off but it doesn't make this version any less appealling to me. His tone and delivery are almost identical to Johnston's, but maybe it's not his fault.

Tinyfolk - Five Years

If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

try Mike Pops Flowers doing a Bowie medley

my site - updated Jan 07

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the Seu Jorge Life Aquatic soundtrack

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I love it.

Fashion makes you look pretty ugly.

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try Mike Pops Flowers doing a Bowie medley

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"this ain't rock'n'roll, this is genocide, ladies and gentlemen." - genius!