I tuned in to watch a bit of Fashion Rocks 5 this week, and during Beyonce's half-hearted take on Etta James' At Last, I couldn't help but think about the art of the cover song.
Some artists have the ability to take a song and completely own it. Like Jimi Hendrix on Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower. Or make it completely new like Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt or Nirvana's take on Man Who Sold the World.
Then there's the flip side. And this was on full display at Fashion Rocks. The worst you can do to someone else's song hit with Fergie's pitiful stab at Blondie's Call Me. Then Kid Rock rolled out All Summer Long, his mash-up of Werewolves of London and Sweet Home Alabama, which takes two classic songs and shovels a pile of vapid lyrics on top to turn it into a summer drinking anthem.
But the best a cover can do is make a song new again. Like when the Futureheads unwrapped Kate Bush's Hounds of Love or even Rascal Flatts bringing back the mediocre Life is a Highway. Covers are rarely done right. But when they are, it's always a fun trip back to the future.
Obama song
Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame, along with help from Bono, recently made a video for My American Prayer, and it's leaking all over the Internet. The song is a call to arms to "turn on off the dark tonight" and elect Barack Obama as our next president. Why are is a British dude and an Irish man writing this, you ask? Because they can't vote, and they apparently had to do something.
The problem is that it's only going to hurt Obama. The song's chorus is a wannabe We Are the World complete with all sorts of singers and actors including (sadly) Forrest Whitaker, Whoopi Goldberg, Jason Alexander, Joss Stone, Barry Manilow, Herbie Hancock, Joan Baez, Cindy Lauper and, last but not least, Pamela Anderson and Perez Hilton. Quite a cast, huh?
It's a must watch … hilariously awful. Find it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVi4rUzf-0Q.