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Pop Rock Nation

Author: Jenny

  • Songs from your sickbed

    As January comes to a close, I’m thinking about how fortunate my husband and I have been so far this winter, escaping the horrible flu that has brought so many to their knees or driven them to their sickbeds.  If you’ve spent any time watching the news or hanging out on Facebook, you have no doubt heard from people who have been bitten by some nasty bug that has led to an oppressive sickness. In some unfortunate cases, the flu bug has led to worse illnesses or even death.

    I know many of my friends have been sick this winter. With that in mind, I thought I’d write a post for those who are presently stuck in bed.  Here are a few songs about sickness.  If you’re not sick right now, count your blessings and, for God’s sake, wash your hands!

    “Medical Love Song” by Monty Python

    Perhaps one of the most comprehensive songs about sickness out there is the hilarious “Medical Love Song” performed by the venerable comedy troupe Monty Python.  Be careful about listening to this if you have the flu, because it will make you laugh so hard you’ll erupt into a coughing fit.  On the other hand, if you have a weak stomach, you may end up vomiting because the lyrics are pretty disgusting.  If you’re me and violent coughing makes you throw up, you may do both.


    This particular video comes from a live show by Eric Idle.

    I doubt there are many songs out there that can top “Medical Love Song” in terms of inclusiveness.

    “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” by Johnny Rivers

    The first time I heard this song, I’d swear it was on a 45 and sung by someone like Jerry Reed.  I was at my cousin’s house and his parents are very musical and had a nice collection of old records.  But try as I might, I can’t find that same version I heard at their house.  In 1972, Johnny Rivers made “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” a hit.

    If you’re in bed, shaking, hacking, and sweating, perhaps you can especially relate to this classic.

    “Fever” by many singers

    You can’t garner much sympathy for being sick if you don’t have a fever.  The song “Fever” is a true classic, having been written by Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell, who used the pseudonym John Davenport.  It was originally recorded in 1956 by Little Willie John, but it’s been covered by many, many well-respected artists.  Peggy Lee’s version might be the most famous, but you can hear versions by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, and Bette Midler, just to name a few.  You might say this song went viral!

    Here’s a rendition done by Rita Moreno and Animal, of The Muppet Show.

    “I Want A New Drug” by Huey Lewis and the News

    If you get sick enough, maybe you’ll consult your personal physician, who will prescribe a new drug for you. Hopefully, it’ll make you feel like yourself again, or at least as well as you’d feel with your main squeeze at your side.


    Being a child of the 80s, this song has a special place in my heart.

    “Hospital Beds” by Cold War Kids

    Of course, if your illness progresses too much, you could find yourself laid up in the hospital. In that case, you might relate to this song by Cold War Kids.

    On the other hand, hospitals are probably the last place you’d want to be when you’re sick!

    “The Jack” by AC/DC

    And then there are illnesses that don’t get spread via casual contact…

    AC/DC reminds us why it’s a good idea to be extra careful when it comes to choosing sexual playmates.

    “Heart Attack” by Olivia Newton-John

    A heart attack is the last thing you’d want to have happen when you’re in the throes of a nasty virus.  Better take care of your ticker, lest you end up like Olivia Newton-John. She makes heart attacks sound better than they really are.


    I will admit I was quite the fan of Olivia’s when I was coming of age, but she’s also done quite a few songs that fit my blog themes.

    “Seasons In The Sun” by Terry Jacks

    Sometimes being sick leads to the process of dying, which brings to mind this 1974 hit by Terry Jacks…

    Come on now, you know the words! I’ve heard that the flu this year has made some people wish they might find relief somehow, perhaps even through death.  And I’ve also heard that Terry Jacks’ hit also makes some people wish for death, though tastes definitely differ.

    “Angel” and “I Will Remember You” by Sarah McLachlan

    If you do happen to pass away, you can take comfort in the fact that there are many lovely songs written about death, like these two modern classics by Sarah McLachlan.

    If you’re sick right now, I do hope this little little tongue in cheek look at songs about sickness help you feel a little better. If you’re not sick, please wash your hands!  The flu can and does kill; so please do whatever you can to avoid catching and spreading it. Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands! And when you sneeze, aim for your elbow!

     

    Stay well!

  • Horrible covers of famous songs

    It’s Friday and I’ve had a very annoying week. It started with me struggling to fend off the latest virus and continued with freezing weather, technical difficulties, and lots of griping from the peanut gallery. Since it’s Friday and I’m in need of a good laugh, I figure today’s blog post should be about something relatively amusing. And to me, horrible cover versions of famous songs can be very funny. There have been a lot of them over the years. I don’t know what possesses some singers to take on songs that are inappropriate for their singing style. I would expect that during a karaoke show, but not so much by established musicians trying to make a living.

    “American Pie”

    The first song that immediately comes to mind is “American Pie”, which was written and made famous by Don McLean. It’s a song about the 1959 plane crash that killed Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson). Some people consider this song to be a masterpiece. Apparently, a lot of rock stars admire it, too; for it’s been covered by several. Madonna tried to sing it in 2000 and some people supposedly liked it.

    Madonna’s “American Pie”

    I don’t really care too much for Madge’s take on Don McLean’s classic song. But at least it’s not as bad as the one done by the Brady Bunch Kids.

    The Brady Kids do “American Pie”.

    I think this version pretty much hacks “American Pie” into a lot of little messy pieces. They could have used a little more vocal augmentation or something. It’s dreadful. Maybe I should cut them a little slack, though. The Brady kids were, after all, actors. I’m sure 1970s era recording techniques were primitive compared to what we have today.

    “Day Tripper” and “Eight Days A Week”

    The next song that comes to mind is one originally done by The Beatles. The Beatles are pretty much revered as a band that helped shape rock and roll into what it is today. John, Paul, George, and Ringo will forever be immortalized as rock gods; they wrote and performed some amazing songs. What rock star in their right mind wouldn’t want to emulate them? Even James Taylor, who is one of my FAVORITE performers of all time, took a stab at it with this unfortunate cover of “Day Tripper”.

    James Taylor’s “Day Tripper”

    Okay, so I can give James a little break for the fact that this particular version of “Day Tripper” was released in 1979, near the height of the disco craze. And I will even admit that there was a time when I actually enjoyed this version. Indeed, even today, it’s sort of a guilty pleasure. It’s got a certain little spunk to it and James Taylor could sing the phone book and I would probably enjoy it. But disco and JT… maybe not the best choice for optimal listening. I like it better when James Taylor sings his own songs.

    James Taylor is not the only one to try singing Beatles songs, though. Back in 1989, country singer Lorrie Morgan also gave it the old college try with her version of “Eight Days A Week”.

    Lorrie Morgan’s take on “Eight Days A Week”.

    This particular countrified version of “Eight Days A Week” is bouncy enough, with fiddles and even a lead guitar solo by Vince Gill. But I think it really pales against the original.

    “Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird”

     

    This cover is like a souvenir of all the nightmares I lived in the late 1980s…

    Will To Power sing their mashed up medley of songs by Peter Frampton and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

    In 1988, a band called “Will To Power” covered two monster rock songs, turning them into an insipid, bloodless, ghastly medley unimaginatively called “Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird”. This brings back unwelcome memories of high school. Please, make it stop!
     

    “Ring of Fire”

    Johnny Cash was no stranger to singing cover songs. In 2003, just months before he died, Cash sang Trent Reznor’s “Hurt” and did a fine job with it. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Olivia Newton-John’s rendition of Cash’s famous hit “Ring Of Fire”, which was written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore.

    Olivia Newton-John’s try at “Ring of Fire”

    The only reason I know about this version of “Ring of Fire” is because my dad was a big Olivia Newton-John fan in the 1970s and he had Olivia’s 1977 album Making A Good Thing Better on 8-track. I was five years old at the time and thought Olivia was pretty. Now that I’m a lot older, I can’t quite reconcile the high stepping prancing quality of Olivia’s cover of “Ring of Fire” to Johnny Cash’s big hit.

    “Have You Never Been Mellow”

    Olivia Newton-John got her just desserts for trashing “Ring of Fire” when Party Animals covered her hit song, “Have You Never Been Mellow”.

    “Have You Never Been Mellow” techno style

    Actually, I’ve heard quite a few techno versions of this song, none of which were particularly good.

    “Stairway to Heaven”

    “Stairway to Heaven” could probably be crowned Led Zeppelin’s masterpiece. If it’s not their best known song, it’s definitely one of their best loved rock anthems. And it’s so good, it’s even been covered by… Dolly Parton?

    Dolly Parton’s rendition of “Stairway to Heaven”

    Fair disclosure here. I actually like what Dolly did with this song; she even added some original lyrics and a little bluegrass styled jam at the end. However, as a Led Zeppelin fan, I also recognize that a lot of people probably think this cover is horrible. I don’t think it’s near as horrible as it could have been. At least Dolly didn’t turn it into disco.

    “Jolene”

    Since Dolly Parton is also quite the songwriter, her songs have also been butchered by other singers.  Her song “Jolene” has been redone more times than I can count.  I’ve heard it been turned into everything from bluegrass to techno.  In 1976, Olivia Newton-John gave it her best shot…

    “Jolene” by Olivia Newton-John

    This is a live performance, slightly faster than the recorded version. Olivia has vocal chops, but this version has strings (or synthesized strings on this live version) and Olivia introduces it with a fake southern accent. At the end, she looks like she’s in the throes of an orgasm as she shrieks about that hussy, Jolene. It makes me miss Dolly Parton something fierce.

    “Candle In The Wind”

    I love Kate Bush’s music.  I love her idiosyncratic voice, her expressive piano playing, and her exquisite lyrics.  But I don’t love what she did to Elton John’s epic hit, “Candle In The Wind”.

    Kate Bush sings “Candle In The Wind”… please someone blow it out!

    Granted, there is something kind of haunting about Kate’s vocals on this track, but I still miss Elton John’s appreciative vocals.  I don’t think she quite captured his admiration for Marilyn Monroe’s star power.  Kate Bush sounds very sterile to me, which kind of negates the whole tribute aspect of this song.

    I could probably go on writing about horrible cover songs all day, but it looks like it’s fixing to snow and that would just cap off my week.  So I leave you with one last horrible cover…

    “Paradise City”

    Pat Boone must have got quite the hair up his ass back in 1997, when he released an entire album full of of heavy metal cover songs.  He had brass balls to cover a Guns N’ Roses song, especially “Paradise City”.

    Pat Boone tries “Paradise City”.

    I’m not sure if he meant this to be taken seriously or not. Actually, I think a jazzy version of “Paradise City” doesn’t suck as much as it could. Maybe if Michael Buble had tried this, it would have worked better. I wonder if Axl Rose has heard what Pat Boone did with the song he made famous. If he has, I’m sure there were many spicy sentence enhancers used to describe it.

    Have a nice weekend, y’all!
     

  • My top five musical discoveries of 2012

     

    Fellow Pop Rock Nation blogger Brian has put forth a proposal for me to write a favorites of 2012 post. And I would be happy to do that, except I have a tendency to listen to older music that isn’t exactly cutting edge. I did buy some albums that came out in 2012, though; and in 2012, I did newly discover some folks who have been around awhile. So, in the interest of taking Brian up on his challenge, I’m going to write about my top five favorite musical discoveries in 2012, listed in no particular order.

    Todd Snider

    I first discovered alt-country singer songwriter Todd Snider  several years ago while watching YouTube.  I was living in Germany at the time and filled up some of my duller days by watching funny videos.  Someone had posted a hilarious stick figure cartoon set to Snider’s song, “Beer Run”.  As a beer lover with a warped sense of humor who remembers college all too well, this quirky song really hit home for me.

    Todd Snider’s “Beer Run”

    So when I found out that Snider had a new album coming out in 2012, I decided to purchase it. 2012’s Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables was actually just one of several albums I purchased by Todd Snider in 2012, who has a very unique storytelling style that I could best describe as an edgy mixture of Tom Petty and Tom Waits. Todd’s songs are mostly original and full of colorful characters. I love a good story related in a song, especially when it’s paired up with witty lyrics and compelling melodies.

    While I liked Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables well enough, I actually played his 2003 live album Todd Snider Live: Near Truths and Hotel Rooms more often. Todd Snider is just one of those artists who is great live, even if it’s just on a live recording. Having purchased Todd Snider’s music early in 2012, I figure he definitely belongs on my list of top five musical discoveries of 2012.

    Iris Dement

    I should probably be ashamed of myself for not knowing about Iris Dement until 2012. It was a brisk October day and I was on an Amazon music buying spree. Amazon suggestive sold me Iris Dement’s 2012 album, Sing the Delta, which was released on October 2. It turns out Iris Dement has been around for ages and is even associated with some of my favorite artists, like Emmylou Harris and John Prine. Somehow, I still missed out on her beautiful vocals, which are so unusual and lovely, and her expressive piano playing. I was pretty proud to welcome her to my music collection in 2012.


    Iris Dement sings “Mama Was Always Tellin’ Her Truth” live

    Mark Knopfler

    Okay, so I’ve been familiar with Mark Knopfler’s music for years now.  I grew up in the 1970s and 80s, so I am very well acquainted with his work as Dire Straits’ front man.  A few years ago, when my husband and I were living in Germany, we took a weekend trip to Barcelona, Spain, where we were introduced to one of his solo albums as it played over and over again at the outdoor cafe where we were enjoying gourmet pizza and wine.  After that trip to Barcelona, I started listening to Mark’s music a lot more often.

    In 2012, Mark Knopfler released the double album Privateering.  At the time this album was released, in September of 2012, Knopfler was having a conflict with his US record label which prevented Privateering from being sold in the United States.  I ended up purchasing a Canadian version of the album.  Like most of Knopfler’s albums, Privateering is thematic, with songs about working class characters living a rough and tumble lifestyle.  On Privateering, Knopfler incorporates Celtic, blues, rockabilly, and rock and roll into a very appealing package of twenty mostly original songs. Privateering is another welcome addition to my music collection in 2012.


    Mark Knopfler performing “Privateering” live.

    Van Morrison

    Van Morrison is another artist that I’ve been listening to for years.  In October 2012, he released his album Born to Sing: No Plan B, his first album since 2008’s Keep It Simple.  As Van Morrison often does, he’s chosen a theme for this album.  Most of the songs are about the evils of greed and materialism and each of them features a heaping helping of Van Morrison’s trademark style and spunk.  Of all the songs on Born to Sing: No Plan B, my favorite is “Close Enough To Jazz”, a bewitching track that reminds me of Van Morrison’s classic hit, “Moondance”.  This song has a nice long jazzy intro before Van Morrison joins in.  The rest of the album sails along with Van’s excellent six piece band and Van’s own work on the piano, alto saxophone, and guitar.


    Van Morrison performs “Born To Sing” live in Belfast.

    Kasey Chambers

    Australian singer Kasey Chambers was the result of another suggestive selling effort by Amazon.com.  As I was purchasing a bunch of music, I ran across her 2012 album Storybook, a collection of fifteen country and rockabilly styled  cover songs that have inspired her.  Kasey Chambers has an unusual soprano voice, an excellent band, and a great collection of songs.  I’m still getting into this album in early 2013, but it’s quickly growing on me.  I’m happy to discover Kasey Chambers and welcome her into my top five musical discoveries from 2012.


    Kasey Chambers covers “Luka”, a song made famous in the 1980s by Suzanne Vega.

    So there you have it, five albums from 2012 that are among my favorite musical discoveries from last year!