Throughout the history of music, there has been a few notable cover versions but generally the original is the best version.
Whitney improved 'I will always love you' by Dolly, The Clash took the Crickets 'I fought the law' and made it a 100 times better and Tom Waits must refuse to listen to his own version of 'I don't want to grow up' after The Ramones picked it up and made a magnificent silk purse out of it.
There have been a few more notable exceptions but covers are mostly rubbish and have always appeared amazingly lazy to me.
Shows like Pop Idol and X-Factor are a particular sore point because the victor will push out a cover version as a single followed by an album of standard ballads and then disappear until the next year when it happens all over again with a new winner.
Although she didn't find fame through X-Factor but via another of Simon Cowell's money spinning vehicles, Susan Boyle is treading the same well worn path and has released another album with not an original song in sight. As it presently sits top of the UK and US album charts, there are obviously many people who don't share my view and actually like a very average singer belting out songs that they have heard many times, and by better artists, before.
If i was a songwriter i would be banging my head against a nearby table in frustration that someone can come along, sing somebody else's tunes and make millions from it. Not change it or make any alterations at all, just reproduce it verbatim and with the help of a world-wide public relations team, clean up.
I have nothing against Susan Boyle, she has done very well to stretch the little talent she has so far, but it is a sad day for music that she is the most popular artist at this time.
A triumph for the power of advertising and hype but water boarding for the ears to music lovers and if that is all she is ever going to do, and it seems likely, you have to wonder what is the point of her.
2 comments:
What is the point of Susan Boyle? I say she represents the bone thrown to us ‘ordinary folk’, telling us that Simon Cowell and his fellow freak-wranglers aren’t simply interested in a cute face and a nice perky pair of t&ts miming along to a pre-recorded melody that might as well be an advertising jingle for washing-up liquid….
Susan’s presence says that they’re also interested in TALENT, and TALENT can be reside within ANYONE y’know… even someone as TOTALLY ORDINARY as Susan Boyle… (caps for effect!).
So… in other words, it could happen to YOU!!! Keep tuning into the show, suckers. Oh, and buy the records too! Ooh look, there’s a new single by Olly Murs. He’s dreamy!
In other words, the predicament of Susan Boyle is a pretty good reflection of the state of our celebrity fixation right now.
Fortunately, there’s an entirely different world out there, in fact there are different worldS, plural. I was listening to the dubstep album ‘Unreal’ by Burial on the way in. It’s the alter ego of a producer called William Bevan. His album sounds exactly like walking around South London at 4 in the morning (not literally – but you know what I mean)… It’s amazing.
I doubt he even knows who Susan Boyle is. And there are thousands and thousands and thousands more talented people apart from him, all ploughing their own furrow, in a multitude of genres (or perhaps creating new genres), with little-or-no regard for this kind of red-top sideshow.
It’s just as well, or else I think I’d go mad.
lucy,
boyle has a nice voice. voices come and go. a different voice every now and again is ok by me. i dont care much frankly.
everything you see on tv or cable is entertainment (especially news). everything on tv has an agenda (especially journalists). i think cheezy nailed it. lucy, you could be the next idol!!! you go girl.
why are you shocked? do you really not get it? it is the entertainment industry...
q
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