Today I was listening to a Christian radio station and some band has done a U2 song remake. Now if this is your second cousin or something, please forgive me, but I wanted to puke. It just sounded like some Christian band trying to remake a U2 song...which I guess it was. The song was not particularly bad, it is just that they are not U2.
There are certain artists and singers who just can't be redone, especially if the song sounds a lot the same and there is no original sound to it. Maybe if a song is completely redone it might be OK, but just leave certain artists alone. No one will ever sound like Bono, so don't even try.
I'm picking Billy Joel and U2 for artists that just should not be remade. When Garth Brooks did "Shameless," I thought it was shameful. Billy Joel should never be sung with a twang. There should be a Constitutional amendment on massacring Billy Joel songs.
Oh...and Jimmy Buffet, too.
Here is my question for you: If you had to pick two artists that you think should never be redone, who would they be?
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5 comments:
That's why you shouldn't listen to Christian radio stations. : )
P.O.D. does a cover of "U2's Bullet the Blue Sky" that is really good.
Also I thought Radiohead's new album sounded a little U2 (or Bono) at certain points so I'm sure they'd be able to pull of a great cover.
As far as bands never being covered?
It's hard to say since given the right band they can do a good cover. I thought of Pink Floyd but then I remembered Foo Fighters did a cover of "Have a Cigar" that is pretty rocking.
I thought of Nirvana but then I remember Tori Amos did a cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" that was very unique and interesting.
Black Sabbath has been covered really well by Faith No More in "War Pigs".
The Cure has been covered very well by Deftones in "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep" and the Cure has turned around and covered Hendrix pretty well in "Purple Haze".
SRV has also covered Hendrix really really well in "Little Wing" and "Voodoo Chile"
Depeche Mode has been covered really well by Deftones in "To Have and to Hold" as well as Marilyn Manson in "Personal Jesus".
Deftones who does a bunch of awesome covers (in addition to being my favorite band) have been covered well by Linkin Park in "My Own Summer", One Line Drawing in "Be Quite and Drive" and Breakin Benjamin w/Seether in "Change in the House of Flies".
So really when I think about it it seems all the great bands have been covered really well by other bands who were really good. As long as it is a good band and who adds their own spin on it then I think anyone is fair game.
Lastly I thought maybe Led Zeppelin. I couldn't think of any cover that someone had did of theirs but then I remember Tool covered "No Quarter" and freaking owned it!
So I can't think of anyone else. Sorry
Bryan
Hi Yvette,
Is Bono a Contemporary Christian artist? I was reading Philip Yancey, and he was talking like he was.
But a few years ago, I read Jesse Helms' autobiography, and he was talking about his and Bono's work to stop AIDS in Africa. He was talking like Bono is really popular with the younger generation. That's not true with CCM artists--their popular with part of the younger population, but not most.
Hi James,
I'm not sure how to classify a contemporary Christian artist, but I'd consider him to be an artist who is a Christian. That is, his music has a lot of Christian themes, but not exclusively Christian (at least that I can tell). He has a powerful witness in the world because he acts on behalf of people, is open about his faith, and is highly regarded.
Here is a really cool article where it quotes Bono talking about how he reads The Message. The quote is about 3/4 of the way down:
http://www.atu2.com/news/connections/peterson/
One thing that makes Bono great, in my opinion, is that he does appeal to so many ages because U2 has been around so long. I'm in my early forties, and I saw them back in the 80s.
It's great to hear from you.
Yvette
Correction...the quote is about 1/2 way down.
Thanks Yvette,
I just saw that I made a big-time grammatical mistake. I wrote "their" when it should be "they're." It was early!
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