# Creatively inept? No problem! Just steal a song!



## sebastian (Aug 11, 2004)

Am i the only one who is sick to death of all these half-hearted remakes of older songs? I mean, I have no problem with re-doing a song and giving it a new and interesting twist...Bauhaus was good with this...their Ziggy Stardust, Third Uncle, and Telegram Sam remakes were as good, if not better than, the original. Or even the Pixies redoing Head On by Jesus & Mary Chain, giving the original song a little more edge. There are countless other so-called "cover songs" that are worthy of being played next to the original...

But good Christ...i don't know what it is, but these days it's almost like mainstream pop music has sunk to new, unfathomable lows. It was a slow progression toward this cavernous depth, but it's seemed to snowball with ever-increasing rapidity over the past couple of years. First it was just crappy cover songs, but now it's twisted itself into something far more blasphemous. We have the music of a great song from ages past, being drowned out by lackluster lyrics and lazy lilts, which seems to fit the music almost entirely not at all.

Into exhibit A i submit that monstrously awful Usher song...i don't know what it's called (i can hold my head a little higher for that, i think), but it uses that Delibes Lakme piece that's heard in so many movies. But, like, that's the ambient background and then you just get that hopeless idiot Usher rambling on about something or other in the foreground, completely pissing on and destroying all the beauty of the original composition with his senseless babbling. It's just horrible. I wish i had a link of it to post here, but if you work in a mind-numbing office job and have some inane radio station playing in the background, i'm sure you'd recognize it.

Exhibit B we have this new piece of alligator dung that uses that old Stevie Wonder classic "Superstitious". I'm not a huge Stevie Wonder fan, but that song does kick ass. But now, some teeny bopping bimbo with, i can only assume, a nice body and an idiotic smile, has released her own "version" of this song which uses all of Wonder's backbeat for her to mumble incoherently over. It's like being in a club and having a great song come on but your drunken friend is babbling on in your ear about how drunk he is, and you can't even think straight because you just want to enjoy the song and you're so infuriated that he won't just shut the hell up. Again, i don't have a link for it, but take my word for it...Horrible.

I hear all kinds of them. These less than mediocre "artists" who couldn't get a job teaching 5 year olds guitar lessons, and yet because they have a pretty face, they're thrown a bunch of money to sit in a studio while a real artist's music plays in the background and they mumble on about love or something stupid. And people buy it!!! It drives me [email protected]#$ing nuts!!! What is wrong with people! Did we slip into a cultural garbage disposal unit while i wasn't looking. Good Christ almighty!

Anyway, that's all i wanted to say.

s.


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## enngirl5 (Aug 10, 2004)

I know a lot of songs that are remade but there are a ton I never knew were. Lately I've been listening to my XM radio a lot and I hear all these old versions of songs in their original version and I'm like, "I didn't know that song was a remake!" It's funny you bring this up because I've been thinking about it a lot lately. It's ridiculous. And the thing that pisses me off is some artists are notorious for remaking songs. 50% of their songs are remakes and 90% of their popular songs are. Like some artists literally get famous off of just ripping off other peoples songs and no one ever knows it.


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## Guest (May 13, 2005)

There were a few bands recently like Limp Bizkit and 311 who came out with these new songs on the radio. I was like "wow, after sucking for so many years, you guys actually come up with a good song." Well, turns out that I am listening to the oldies station the other day and I hear these same songs, only they were from 20-30 years ago. I knew it was too good to be true that crappy bands such as them could come up with a song like that. The really sad thing is that these artists are gaining fame and making a fortune off of this. Most people have NO idea that alot of these songs are covers and they give credit to the wrong musicians. Shameful!


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## dalailama15 (Aug 13, 2004)

In the old days a cover was a cover--imprinting the original with one's sound and style, and so paying tribute to it. Anyway, a few favorites came to my mind reading this thread.

Linda Rhonstadt's version of Chuck Berry's _Livin in the U.S.A_. This version should be our national anthem.

Earth Wind and Fire doing _Got to Get you Into My Life_. Hot

Elton John's _Pinball Wizard_. The best bit in that awful movie.


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## mulder (May 8, 2005)

I think the worst covers I've heard recently were...

Attomic Kitten - The Tide Is High (the backing track was dreadful, let alone their vocals)

Christina Agu... (I can't spell her name) - Car Wash (sung like she'd just got out of bed with a hangover)

That cover of Radio Ga-Ga by Queen, I don't know the band that did the cover, might be Scissor Sisters.


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## mcsiegs (Apr 27, 2005)

More bad covers (I know some of these are old, but they are worth printing to remind you of the horror)

1. Sweet Child of Mine - Sheryl Crow
2. Cats in the Cradle - Ugly Kid Joe
3. I cant get no satisfaction - Britney Spears
4. Open Arms - Mariah Carey (Hell, the original sucked, too)
5. Vanilla Ice's cover of his own Ice Ice Baby. I mean, how many versions do we need?


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## agentcooper (Mar 10, 2005)

the worst is when you think the cover IS the original because the beginnings are so similar...so there you are, with your hopes up...only to have them dashed when you realize it's not bowie and queen, its some ****** singing about ice.


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## enngirl5 (Aug 10, 2004)

lmao agent coop, I've heard someone else say that about that song Under Pressure. It starts playing and you're like, "Yeah! Bowie and Queen!" And then Vanilla Ice comes on and you're like, What the fuck??! lol.


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## mulder (May 8, 2005)

There is a difference between covers and records that sample other records, but some records use such big chunks of the record they are sampling that sometimes it's hard to tell what's going on.

I can't believe that Britney Spears' 'I cant get no satisfaction' cover actually exists. What a horrible idea! Yuk! And Vanilla Ice re-making Ice Ice Baby? Why! I've never heard either record.


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