Songs and Cover Versions

[Occhidiangela]

Nominations?
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Jimi Hendrix owns Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower."
Eddy Vetter owns Dylan's "Masters of War." (A must see is his performance of it in a Dylan tribute, HBO, VH1, or MTV, I am not sure which.
Santana owns "Well Allright" (John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers.)
Santana also owns "She's Not There" by the Zombies. His richer performance just edges out the minimalist original.
Joan Baez kicked Jackson Browne down the stair with her "Fountain of Sorrow" cover.
Judas Priest got the drop on Joan Baez. Their metal cover of "Diamonds and Rust" wins, for all that her original is achingly beautiful.

Patti LaBelle's "Acid Queen" . . . Pete Townsend, you have been PWNED.
To his credit, she did it while touring with him in performing "Tommy."

In the "They should never have bothered" category:

Axl Rose should be executed, and then fed to pigs, for trying to cover the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil," which he cocked up. The rest of Guns 'N Roses may commute their sentence to performing straight-from-the-hymnal Episcopal hymns for three years -- as their only expression of musicianship.

The cover stank to high heaven. The act of covering that song was, to quote my favorite Variant Scum, "Vileness!" The Mikado standard is warranted in this egregious case: let the punishment fit the crime.

Van Halen's cover of "You're No Good" was likewise vileness. Spend a night in the box, David Lee and Eddie.

While I always liked the Stones' version of "I Wanna be Your Man," a Beatles original, McCartney's vocals and the more polished sound keep the cup in the Beatles' hands on that one. Unless Michael Jackson owns the rights to it.

The second best cover ever? The lid on Kurt Cobain's coffin. The best will be the one on Madonna's.

Occhi