It's Ok to like Covers!

It was 1996. I was ... younger than I am now. And I was listening to a conversation between two guys about how one of them believed that Seal was undoing the very fabric of music by daring to remake Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle," which Seal did for the Space Jam movie.
The other guy was looking at him in that sympathetic way we all do when someone tells us that the sky is falling, or in this case when someone tells us, "So, now ... NOW, all these young kids today will grow up all talking about how Seal was the original writer of Fly Like an Eagle!"
And I guess the world would end after that.
It's now 14 years later and Seal is busy creating a small army of children with Heidi Klum, Bill Murray is waking up in cold sweats wondering why the fuck he appeared in the second worst Bugs Bunny film of all time, the Seal remake of "Fly Like an Eagle" is currently playing on zero radio stations across the country right now, and nobody under 35 gives a crap about Steve Miller's sleepy ass, overrated hit! Oh yeah, I said it!
And that guy, wherever he may be, has likely moved on to cursing Seether for daring to screw with the classic "Careless Whisper."
He epitomizes an entire section of the population that thinks to cover someone else's work is to insult the original artist and the listening audience that loves the original song. And if you want bad examples to back up that thinking, well, there's plenty out there. Seether may have taken a whack at a Wham tune, but do you remember Limp Bizkit's "Faith"? Yeah. Wish you hadn't, right? Britney Spears may be the only living person with as many issues as Bobby Brown, but her "My Prerogative" ate more crap than a dung beetle. And Counting Crows didn't have to remake "Big Yellow Taxi," but it was cheaper than Adam Duritz getting a sex change, I guess ...
But that's weak sauce. Because if you dare to bash the idea of covering someone else's song, then you'd better not be a fan of The Beatles, or Elvis (who would not have existed without song covers), Aerosmith, Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Clapton, Bowie, STP, GNR, The Who or Talking Heads. We love covers.
And damnit, we'd better! Bar bands across the country would be torturing us with their ghastly original songs, instead of helping us sing along at the top of our lungs while they play stand-in for our favorite artists. And even when we go to a concert to see a band with a million hits or just several albums' worth of songs, the night's not ever really complete until they try to tackle just one hit that ain't theirs.
Covering a song is a grand experiment. It can be a complete Homage: Lenny Kravitz's American Woman. Or a rougher-edged tribute: Aerosmith's Come Together. Or a total subversion: Marilyn Manson's Sweet Dreams ... or they can be embarrassing: Mick Jagger and David Bowie singing Dancing in the Streets (the video still makes me feel such pity). Or self-important and bloated: Madonna should be imprisoned for daring to tread on American Pie; and Ike and Tina ... well, they raped poor Proud Mary. Worst of all, remakes can be impotent, pointless: Kylie's Locomotion, Clapton's I Shot the Sheriff, 311's Lovesong.
And if one more motherf*****... remakes Hallelujah ... so help me ...!
But I still like covers. They bring us gems like this.
Some I'd even argue are better than the original. Jimi's All Along the Watchtower, Aretha's Respect. But they're so old and established, it's hard to think of them as remakes. For more modern songs, it's a tough debate whether there are remakes that are actually better than the original. With that in mind, I submit, the much easier to do, top-5 list of covers of modern songs that are at least as good, if not better. In no particular order...
Fiona Apple - Across the Universe. Almost everything John Lennon wrote and sang during the Let it Be era comes across to me as being as much performance art as true music. Fiona Apple's low mumbling songs rarely did it for me, but on Across the Universe, she actually makes the song feel as melancholy as the original was meant to. It's contemplative instead of random.
No Doubt - It's My Life. A definite contender for "better than the original" except among Gwen Stefani haters and 80s music purists. And not for Gwen's voice. I can take it or leave it. I think her warbling and howling is more than tolerable in this song, but to me it's everything else going on. Roxy Music made a great song, but it didn't have Tony Kanal's brilliant bass work and Adrian Young's crisp drumming and Tom Dumant's retro guitar work. It's the ultimate 80s homage. Only cleaner and slicker.
Mary J. Blige - Sweet Thing. You can't tackle a legend. Unless you're about to become one, yourself. What's the 411 was the first we heard of Mary J. and she went for broke four tracks into the record with a Chaka Khan standard. Almost no song is more identified with Chaka Khan (that doesn't start with "Chaka Khan... Chaka-Chaka Khan ...) and Sweet Thing is something you don't go after, especially with some forgettable weak-ass synthesized arrangement. But Mary J. Blige smoked that song's ass with power, passion and what every melismatic over-singer from Mariah to Christina Aguilera still doesn't have; control, baby. So much control. Even Chaka gave her props, and yet the debate rages on youtube still ... "whose version was better."
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground. Who has the stones to mess with Stevie Wonder? And good Stevie Wonder at that. It's not like Kiedis and company were remaking I just Called to Say I love You. Higher Ground is an important tune. And now, thanks to the Chili Peppers, it's an important tune that you can workout to! Booyah!
Disturbed - Land of Confusion. (tie) I was originally sold on this cover being sooo much harder and angrier than Genesis version. I blame it on my fading memory of the 80's, the Kroft puppets that were used in the video and the fact that it came off the same album as Invisible Touch. Turns out, Phil Collins comes across as pretty damned pissed. So it's harder, but not phenominally so. Plus, it makes me remember how much I love the original, without making me wish I was listening to the original. Disturbed takes the heart of a great tune and updates it without changing it in a stupid way. That almost never, ever happens. Ever.
Orgy - Blue Monday.  (tie) Also a grittier update of a cranky classic. At the time it came out, Orgy was poised to fill New Order's niche. So the song feels like as much homage as remake. It's the last we've heard of Orgy; and a one-radio-hit band can be more forgettable when their one hit is a remake. But Blue Monday stands up pretty solid.

It's OK to like Green Day!

So the album Dookie comes out in 1994. And many of us - most of us hear Green Day for the first time.

It sounds like nothing on the radio for the past three years and that is something of a relief. The DJ tells me it's got that "punk sound and punk attitude." I'm 18, sure what do I know. "OK It's punk." It's fun, it's good in that simple chord, offbeat, slightly vulgar, rebellious lyrics kind of way; and I immediately imagine what people my age must have thought when the Beastie Boys first came out.

Song after song after song comes out. Song after song kicks ass.

And that 's the problem. After solid albums, over and over, the haters started to come out of the woodwork.

"I never liked Green Day"
"Oh yeah, me neither bro, It's not real punk."
"Oh my God I know, like whatever happened to like the ... Clash, or the, um ... Ramones."
"Word."

Word. There you have it. Going strong for a decade now. Hipsters, music pseudo-intellectuals, "true punk" fans ... have been talking themselves out of liking Green Day. Where is the fun in that? Honestly, I ask you is there a good reason for you not to love the band? Maybe. Here are the arguments.

Accusation: They are not punk.

Answer: Dude, they're more punk than you are. For that matter, so are the Go-Gos, Blondie and Billy Idol. Because if you're clinging to some sort of old school punk rocker status, you'd better be in your mid to late 40s and not a twentysomething who walked into a Hot Topic to round out your wardrobe.

This is a band that was part of the late 80s Berkely punk scene formed in the wake of Bad Religion and included bands like Rancid, Isocracy and the Lookouts. (I choose not to mention the Offspring as it may hurt my argument.)

They cut their chops playing "real" punk. And got a record deal from it. Does that make them sellouts?

Accusation: They are sellouts.

Answer: Well, yes, probably. And selling out isn't punk. It's the opposite. I get that, man. But let's get back to the first answer.

I offer up a couple of lyrics from Billy Joe and the bunch from the Warning album.

"Is the cop or am I the one that's really dangerous?

Sanitation, expiration date, question everything

Or shut up and be a victim of authority"

"I want to be the minority

I don't need your authority

Down with the moral majority'

Cause I want to be the minority"

These are punk lyrics. Plain and simple. The rhyme scheme is Thirdgradian, the message is angry, it's anti-establishment. The song is catchy. The song. Is catchy.

And that's the real problem. Green Day is too damn catchy to be punk. They aren't alienating people with their sound. They are pulling people in who may never have heard a Stooges song.

Poor guys, they've got their punk sensibility and the mainstream success.

Does that make them irrelevant?

Accusation: They are irrelevant.

Answer: It's been 20 years and they're not just as good as before, they're arguably better. Politically, musically relevant. Whether you bought into the whole concept album idea of American Idiot or not, it's hard to argue that the songs don't work on their own.

Green Day creates an involuntary response. The jerky, punky head nod. It's the drums, the guitars that smash each chord with the beat. It's obnoxious in how addicting it is. Keep hating if you like, but try to get all the way through Holiday without moving your head. Besides, they pass the ultimate test.

Can you listen to them in the car? Yes.

That, people, is what relevant is all about.

I picked up their greatest hits a few months ago, and it turns out that's like 21 songs of head bouncing greatness. I never skipped a single track. Am I the only one? It can't be!

It's OK to like them, it really is. And you know you want to. You know you love to sing along to When I Come Around with a little sneer on your face. Crunch out air guitar to Brain Stew, singing along with that clipped "I have a severe sinus cold" Billy Joe Armstrong style, ("on my own, here we go ..." which sounds like "Obayo howae-gow" when he sings it)

You don't even have to call them punk. Just jam out.

It's OK to like Green Day. And that's really it. Because they are still relevant after 15 years of popularity. They aren't Aerosmith, or what passes for Metallica or Van Halen, Journey or the Eagles. They may well be the last great American rock band that still matters.

Punk or not.