The covers thread vice versa: what Lindsey songs certain people SHOULD HAVE covered.

[face of glass]

Sorry if I seem too active in this forum, but I’m on a secret mission to make the Lindsey forum catch up with the Stevie forum in the amount of threads before she releases her next solo album and everybody goes nuts again.
This is connected with the “quotation” thread and the other “covers” thread. Gerald said that Lindsey not only borrows from himself, but also from others. Of course something like “Running Up That Hill” being an inspiration to “Big Love” seems a bit weird to me, but other than that I think Lindsey sometimes wants a piece of his to remind of something from the history of rock’n’roll, but in a way that it still seems like it’s coming through his mind and isn’t a pale imitation.
So, when it was boring at work today I started to think of imaginary LB covers, some of his songs that remind me of other artists. And also songs of his that other artists SHOULD have done. “I know you don’t agree”, but I still wanted to write these down.

Keep in mind, though, that some of these covers just wouldn’t be possible, because either the artist passed away or Lindsey released the song way too late.

“Don’t Let Me Down Again”: Lynyrd Skynyrd. Their three guitars would sound great in this.

“Monday Morning” and “Second Hand News”: These are sometimes described as power-pop, so I think they would sound good in the hands of Cheap Trick.

“I’m So Afraid”: Unknown Pleasures-era Joy Division. The bass and the drums are in their place. Just make the solo a bit clumsier, obfuscate the lyrics even further and put Ian Curtis in the vocals and you’re all set.

“Never Going Back Again”: Any great picker who can also sing at the same time.

“Go Your Own Way”: This would be a treat for The Who. Keith Moon could have come up with a drum arrangement as great as Mick. I guess John Entwistle should have helped Pete Townshend with the harmony vocal, because Pete’s voice would be too whiny for this one.

“What Makes You Think You’re The One”: Elvis Presley could have done this with Bill Black and Scotty Moore in his early days. It wouldn’t have been as aggressive, but would have rocked the house anyway.

“Walk A Thin Line”: So mellow that it would fit the Friends-era Beach Boys like a glove.

“Johnny Stew”: The guitars sound so Talking Heads-like that it would work on either More Songs About Buildings And Food or Fear Of Music.

“Holiday Road”: Another one for Elvis. He used to do a lot of novelty tunes and this song beats at least 99% of that genre.

“Play In The Rain”: Kate Bush was another Fairlight experimenter on the other side of the Atlantic. She could have done an entire side-long suite of this song (like “The Ninth Wave” on Hounds Of Love), adding more and more stuff to it as she goes along.

“Time Bomb Town”: This sounds like the late-period Talking Heads to me, with a similar simplicity to it. Also, Lindsey’s vocals on it remind me of David Byrne’s paranoia.

“Caroline”: Like I said in the other thread, perfect stuff for Roy Wood.

“You And I, Part One”: The Pet Sounds- or Smile-period Beach Boys would just do amazingly well on this.

“Soul Drifter”: Lindsey spoke of it as a Tin Pan Alley-type tune, so who could be better for it than Frank Sinatra? This should have been the Voice’s swansong, not those stupid Duets albums.

“Street Of Dreams”: Closer-era Joy Division. Their song “The Eternal” reminds me of this one. Once again, obfuscate the lyrics, put a minimalist industrial dirge in the background, have a synthesizer imitate the rain and it will work.

“Someone’s Gotta Change Your Mind”: This and “Save Me A Place” have both a very typical chord structure and their success depends on the production. But if we stripped the songs to their bones, then only a few would be worthy to sing them. The late Johnny Cash comes immediately to mind, after Lindsey of course.

“Murrow”: Any old respected bluesman would do here.

“Red Rover”: If Brian Eno wanted to start making those crazy pop songs of his again, this would be a perfect one for him. Although something like “Third Uncle” or “Kurt’s Rejoinder” doesn’t really sound like it, they both have an incredible hyperactivity, just like “Red Rover”.

“Come”: When I first heard this I thought that the solo sounded hair metal-like and it freaked me out for a while. Then I understood that it should be like it, after all it just adds brutality to the song. But then again Lindsey said that it’s supposed to be a funny one too. So I’d give it to David Lee Roth-period Van Halen. The song has so much exaggerated macho-like qualities, that only David could do it justice, after all he always had a tongue in his cheek when he sang his lyrics. And I’d still rather hear EVH replacing the solo with his rhythm work. That was always more fascinating to me than his solos.

Hope I didn’t take the best ones yet.

[wondergirl9847]

I can TOTALLY hear Sinatra doing Souldrifter!! I love Ol' Blue Eyes!

I'm not good at this kind of thing, so I'll stay out of it, but your suggestions sound GREAT!! I don't know who some of these people are, or have never heard them sing, but overall, sounds pretty cool to me.

EDIT: I thought of something I'd like to hear...BBMak harmonizing to Save Me A Place.

[BlueGrass]

Thom York of Radiohead would be perfect for Red Rover. I mean, his voice is similar to Lindsey's o nthe song and the frenetic energy sounds like a song on their new album. Lindsey mentioned he was listening to OK Computer around the time of The Dance which may have had something to do with the experimental recording. I think fi he sang Go Insane it would be cool.

Sting would sound good on a song like SYHA or Someboy's Gotta Change Your Mind.

[Cammie]

The Rolling Stones aggression would
be perfect on "Come"... their fav subject!
Dave Matthew singing a sad... "Peacekeeper"
which is like his new tune..."Oh"! Skylark

[seteca]

Save Me A Place - David Gilmour (His soft, large-range voice and signature acoustic guitar tone would be perfect for the song!)

Come - Prince (Weird, mysterious verses and crazy, powerful, high pitched choruses, plus a mindblowing guitar solo...sounds like a good candidate to me!)

Down On Rodeo - Sting (I can imagine him singing this very well).

Tango In The Night - Luciano Pavarotti.

(I'm serious!! )

[shackin'up]

Well, I'd like Lindsey to cover Marliese and So Long by Fischer-Z. Anybody remember them?

Queens of the stone age: Come
ZZ-Top: I'm so afraid

Pearl Jam: Save me a place and I know I'm not wrong.

gerald

[face of glass]

Originally posted by wondergirl9847
I can TOTALLY hear Sinatra doing Souldrifter!! I love Ol' Blue Eyes!

I'm not good at this kind of thing, so I'll stay out of it, but your suggestions sound GREAT!! I don't know who some of these people are, or have never heard them sing, but overall, sounds pretty cool to me.

The world isn’t same without Frank, at least for me. It’s not that he didn’t do missteps in his career. He had a habit of covering current songs, so when in the ‘60s and 70’s he started to do stuff like Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”, it just proved that the two generations didn’t really have anything to say to each other.
However, “Soul Drifter” would have worked, especially because Lindsey was aiming for that kind of sound. Sinatra never really found any current pop/rock songs that he would have sounded great on, and it’s ironic that he had to give up on the label (which he helped to found) that would later sign the man who would do a song worthy of Frank’s stature.

Christy, if you have even the slightest of interest, try to download a song by Joy Division called “Shadowplay”. That one has a very Lindsey-like solo to it, so it should be of marginal interest to everyone on these boards.

Originally posted by BlueGrass
Thom York of Radiohead would be perfect for Red Rover.

Well, since Radiohead are pretty much “Brian Eno for the ‘90s and ‘00s”, it might as well work. Thom would sound great there.

Originally posted by Cammie
The Rolling Stones aggresion would
be perfect on "Come"... their fav subject!

I guess they’d have to change the arrangement. Should be brutal during the verses too.

Originally posted by seteca
Come - Prince (Weird, mysterious verses and crazy, powerful, high pitched choruses, plus a mindblowing guitar solo...sounds like a good candidate to me!)

Hell yeah. Prince has a better understanding of dynamics than Van Halen and he sure can scream his head off. But maybe he wouldn’t touch the humour of the tune as effectively as Dave. They should actually do it together!

Originally posted by seteca
Tango In The Night - Luciano Pavarotti.

(I'm serious!! ) [/B]

I can actually hear that right now. Harp-plucking in the verses, a very lulling string background. Then when he starts singing the single note in the chorus it would have to be backed up with a massive chorale, and with the brass and the strings doing the guitar chords. This would beat “Nessun Dorma”, I’m sure.

[wondergirl9847]

Well, unfortunately I deleted my Kazaa because of the sue-happy RIAA. I love listening to new music I've never heard. I've heard of Joy Division, but am not familiar with their music. I'll go try to find a clip on Amazon or Yahoo perhaps.

I know, I miss Frank too. One of my fave songs he did was "Love's Been Good to Me". I like the melody.

I can just hear Pavarotti holding that Tangoooooooooo.... LMAO!! I can just see that Bugs Bunny cartoon where Fudd held that note for like 10 minutes and Bugs went to do something and came back...because he held it FOREVER.

[strandinthewind]

The incredible harmony of the Indigo Girls would be great for "Save Me a Place" or "Walk a Thin Line."

[face of glass]

Originally posted by wondergirl9847
Well, unfortunately I deleted my Kazaa because of the sue-happy RIAA. I love listening to new music I've never heard. I've heard of Joy Division, but am not familiar with their music. I'll go try to find a clip on Amazon or Yahoo perhaps.

Look out! They’re kinda creepy. But catchy too. A lot of the slow songs they did have a background similar to I’m So Afraid”, so maybe they did have a listen to that one.

I thought the RIAA thing was just to scare people off, nothing further. Not that I care that much, I don’t download anything legally released anyway.

I know, I miss Frank too. One of my fave songs he did was "Love's Been Good to Me". I like the melody.[/B]

I don’t have a favourite song sung by Frank, because it would be too hard to pick just one. I usually pick one album, and it has often been Francis Albert Sinatra And Antonio Carlos Jobim. That one has so relaxed, so smooth performances from the Chairman that it sounds like he was in a bathtub with lavender fragrance in it. A desert island disc for me.

I shouldn’t go entirely off-topic. I thought of two new cover suggestions today while listening to Law And Order:

“Shadow Of The West”: This would fit Gram Parsons' vision of “cosmic American music”.

“That’s How We Do It In LA”: Maybe Lindsey exactly wanted to do a parody of songs like these by not doing the inevitable big band arrangement, but performing it stripped down. I’d like to hear a real big band arrangement of this one though.