Warm Up With Some Covers

In honor of the Me First and the Gimme Gimme's show playing at The Loft in Midtown (Friday, October 29, check out the calendar for more details!), I started thinking about other great cover songs.  Keep in mind the noted word, great, because a cover, especially of someone as influential as say Bob Dylan or The Beatles can go one of three ways, amazing and revolutionary, mediocre, and downright crap.  But alas, as they say imitation is the highest form of flattery, there is something very respectable about an attempt to cover a classic, or even a new favorite.  Whether it is a straight cover that sounds very similar to the originals, think The Band covering Dylan, or something as far off as The Postal Service and Iron and Wine's very different versions of Such Great Heights, it is interesting nonetheless to hear different artists interpret their favorite songs.  Some of these I heard very recently, and some have been longtime favorites (i.e. Romeo and Juliet, I started loving the original with Empire Records and later stole my sister's mixed Cd's with the Indigo Girls version.....The Killers is a new addition but it's pretty good). 

I admit, I got a little carried away with some of the Dylan covers, so I did devote an entire playlist to him, I couldn't help it, he is one of my favorites and honestly one of the best songwriters I can think of.  Sure, his stuff with the Traveling Wilbury's might have been the most legible stuff he has produced in the last few decades, but personal preference aside, how can you not appreciate the lyrics or just his mad skills.  Whether it is Forever Young, or the Jimi Hendrix take of All Along The Watchtower, or even Guns N Roses singing Knockin' On Heaven's Door, Bob Dylan is simply amazing. So even if you are not a fan of the Jester himself, listen to some of the covers, maybe it will at least make you a fan of his lyrical skills. *On a side note, did you know that he even wrote, okay outlined the song Wagon Wheel, which was later completed by Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show to become the band staple of our generation.*

So take a gander at the playlists and see some of my current favorites, a few new, a few classic, a few random, just the way I like it.  As always, suggestions and comments are welcome.  Enjoy!