No Tribute to Tribute Albums
Metal Mark has a great post on his opinion of "Cover Albums." I agree with his position of feeling cheated with them. To me it feels as if it is completely uninspired and quite frankly, lazy. With that said, this post isn't about cover songs or albums, it is about tribute albums. Albums which contain a compilation of songs from one band performed by a variety of artists. I was actually going to write a post about this a few days ago when I heard about a Beatles "Sgt. Pepper" tribute album containing such bands as The Fray and James Morrison (No not Jim Morrison.) What disturbs me about this tribute album in particular is that the artists performing these classic genre pushing songs are that they are far from being revolutionary or even being unique. The Fray does not bring anything new to the table, they are just like any other band on your top twenty radio. I'm sure these bands feel honored to pay homage to such classic songs but sometimes classics shouldn't be touched and this is an instance, especially when performed by an uninspiring band.Even when looking at other tribute albums I am certainly missing the point. I've heard recently of two new tribute albums, one for John Lennon and one for The Smashing Pumpkins. The Smashing Pumpkins tribute album is a variety of their best songs covered by Emo bands which will be featured on MySpace and placed into an issue of the magazine Spin. The Lennon album is going to be sold on June 12th and the proceeds will go to the Save Darfur campaign.
The Lennon tribute album I can't argue with considering it is for a great cause but like so many other tribute albums there is really no reason for them. There is no place for them in music, what is the purpose of attempting to recreate a song in history which already is considered as a classic? (Assuming it is a tribute album the song/songs must be popular) It's like a painter trying to recreate The Mona Lisa by maybe giving her a new wardrobe or adding some makeup. Some things in history are meant to be left untouched, a cover song shouldn't be covering a world renowned song. Personally I feel it is alright to cover a song when the song isn't well known, such as if someone was to cover Bob Dylan's "Masters of War." It may be known among Dylan fans but if you ask any casual music listener odds are he will have never heard of the song. Also, if you do cover a song, please bring something completely new to the song, nobody wants to hear a lackluster karaoke cover. That is my two cents on Tribute Albums and a little bit about cover songs...
posted by Jeff at 10:00 PM
11 Comments:
I agree! Cover songs usually bother me unless they are TOTALLY different than the original....but even then. There are exceptions though...for example when Ann Wilson belts out "Rock and Roll" its an incredible moment of their show (I think Robert would approve). BUT they would never sell that song or record it (I don't think anyhow).
You gave me an idea for a post :) Thanks, buddy!
I'll agree that bands doing nothing new or unique to a song are not really contributing much. But I doenjoy the covers that add new elements--not necessary totally different, per Layla's wishes, but something to merge the style of the original with the creative impulse of the new artist.
-- david
Layla - I don't mind cover songs live, especially when a band is lacking material to fulfill a lengthy show.
David - I'm not going to lie, there are plenty of cover songs that I like of popular songs like GNR's "Knockin on Heaven's Door" and Lennon's "Stand By Me." Like you, I would like something new though.
I think the problem with most tribute albums is that they aren't tributes. It's not a tribute to a band to copy their music. There was a Beatles tribute called This Bird Has Flown that was pretty cool, because most of the artists were pretty nique and made efforts to create their own version rather than just copying the song. MOst of these albums don't succeed in doing that though.
By the way, Mark Arm of Mudhoney put out an EP 10 or 15 years back called the Freewheelin' Mark Arm. It was a 7" with two songs, one of which was a great cover of "Masters of War."
Did you ever notice that the credits for John Lennon's Rock n Roll album say, "Relived by: J.L."? It's kinda cool. He showed that he had some passion for the songs and that's something else that's missing from a lot of "tributes."
There are good covers and bad covers. I think a good cover song is somewhat loyal to the original, but the band adds something of their own to it as well. I remember when the Black Sabbath tribute Nativity in black came out in like 93 or 94 and it was one of the first tribute albums that I remember.Now it's just like everyone gets a tribute album and plenty of the songs are done by artists that don't have a lot else to do.
Bob - I agree, there is no reason to exact replicas of the song. Plus I didn't notice that about the Rock N Roll album, I'm gonna have to take a look.
Metal Mark - Yeah, I'm not sure if too many bands are getting tribute albums now and days. I love the Smashing Pumpkins, but do they really deserve their own tribute album?
I'm in agreement with you, and I think my only three cover albums I like are by the Ramones, Slayer and Between the Buried and Me. The rest are rubbish. I'm thinking on blogging about all of the confounded movie remakes in light of how the new version of The Omen pissed me off by its cheapness. So between you, Mark, Bob Vinyl and me, we can attack the media from all angles!
Jeff - Actually I kind of like the Fray, but I agree. Some of the best things should stay how they were.
Peace,
- Neo
Ray - Amen to that!
Neo - It's not that I don't like the Fray I actually saw them a few years back open up for Weezer before they became really succesful. I think their first two singles are extremely catchy but I have a problem with them doing Beatles songs.
I just actually thought about this but when I saw the Fray a few years back open up for Weezer they actually played "Come Together," now things are becoming a little more interesting, lol.
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