the Devil's tunes/cover versions

For new sounds, old sounds and favourite sound discussion...

Moderators: sunny, BzaInSpace, runcible, spzretent

Post Reply
mbv
Known user
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2004 2:18 pm
Location: London, England

the Devil's tunes/cover versions

Post by mbv »

4.49 EDIT: come on! this post is fucked, but you get my drift?

cover versions:

Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space

'only fool's rush in' - guess the lawyers only listened to the first few minutes before getting on the phone.


Why don't you smile now?

fantastic cover version of early Velvet's song, I only heard the original recently and Jason has made this song shine. Also my current fave spz tune.

Laurie Anderson - Born Never Asked

I loved this song off Pure Phase, really beautiful amazing grace. Again I got the original later on, and love that album to bits.


the Devil's tunes?:

JJ Cale - Call Me the Breeze

Medication

there's been loads of Medication songs, (what came first, music or drugs? Do drugs inspire music or is it the other way 'round?). The Chocolate Watchbands' Medication is a fantastic 'drug' song which has the line 'take my medication ... ...' (fill in the blanks)

Shine A Light

This song has obvious homage (the title alone) to the Stones, but the Stones never SWUNG like this!
twentysixdollars
Known user
Posts: 1319
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am
Location: United States
Contact:

Post by twentysixdollars »

For Spiritualized alone there's a lot more. Firstly the things you missed: LAGWAFIS from Pachelbel, Run Run Run from the VU, the fact that Why Don't You Smile Now is not an early Velvets song at all but rather a pop tune that Reed and Cale had a hand in as studio hacks at Pickwick records in 1964.

We could go album by album. For example, on LGM:
If I Were With Her Now - intro quotes VU's Jesus riff
I Want You - probably a reference to the Troggs song
Run - see above
Smiles - a probable Beach Boys reference
Sway - written by Mark Refoy
200 Bars - sounds like a Bob Marley tribute like Peter's I Love You

Pure Phase:
The various "phases" - Steve Reich
Born Never Asked - Laurie
Good Times - dozens of songs with that title
Spread Your Wings - sounds like "Heart and Soul"; typical doo-wop progression
Feel Like Goin Home - includes a Star Wars lightsaber duel.

LAGWAFIS:
The title track =Pachelbel's Canon
Come Together - reference is probably to the MC5, but it could be anybody
Home of the Brave - probably another Laurie reference
Electricity - probably from the Beefheart tune of the same name
Cop Shot Cop - lyrics from "Sam Stone"

and that's just the ones off the top of my head.
man
Known user
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am

Post by man »

great list! hehee if that's only the top of 26's head, can we imagine what's underneath, probably best not to know ;)
spzretent
Site Admin
Posts: 5587
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am
Location: Motor City

Post by spzretent »

If Sway is a Mark Refoy song then does that make the first ever Slipstream cover?
ORBITAL
Known user
Posts: 1249
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am
Location: Drinking Breaker at night, in the cold duchess light.

Post by ORBITAL »

Ive been tryin to get a hold of that First Slipstream record for ages. Does anyone who has it fancy doin me a copy If I supply the cd/postage etc.
SOz to go off subject folks.
mbv
Known user
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2004 2:18 pm
Location: London, England

Post by mbv »

My version of Sway is written by Pierce/Refoy. Ok, Why Don't You Smile Now? was released by The All-Night Workers, recorded in 1965, Reed and Cale's first time recording together. They probably played it live in '65 when they nicked the name The Velvet Underground from an s&m book. Jeez, to think the Velvet's were playing Heroin and Venus in Furs as early as late '65 and there was little J doing a cover of a POP song on his first record!

over and out. still a fucked up mess.
"Hot damn! Let us rumble, keep going and don't slow down ... lets have a little fun ..."
- Hunter S Thompson
twentysixdollars
Known user
Posts: 1319
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am
Location: United States
Contact:

Post by twentysixdollars »

mbv wrote:Ok, Why Don't You Smile Now? was released by The All-Night Workers, recorded in 1965, Reed and Cale's first time recording together. They probably played it live in '65...
I really, really doubt that, but if anyone has first-hand evidence of this I'll eat my words. At the moment it seems really unlikely.

Sway, it's generally agreed, was mostly written by Refoy (explains the guitar riff and the stupid lyrics) with Pierce's credit 'strictly nominal' as Peter has often said about his Spacer songs. I think Jason may have contributed a line or two, and maybe even the chorus. Apparently Spiritualized did another Slipstream 'cover' at the time, Harmony, which most definitely was not an Elton John song. Most definitely. Not.

Further top-of-my-head covers & references!: (Notice that there's a lot less to say about the predominately original Let It Come Down)

LICD:
Do It All Over Again - a probable Beach Boys reference ("Do It Again")
Out of Sight - sounds an awful lot like Pink Floyd (grumble grumble)
Twelve Steps - Electricity redux. Instrumental bridge derived from Curtis Mayfield blaxploitation soundtracks.
I Didn't Mean to Hurt You - instrumental arrangement very reminiscent of Dennis Wilson solo material ("Make It Good")
The Straight and the Narrow - arrangement reminiscent of Ray Charles's two country LPs.

Amazing Grace:
This Little Life of Mine - reference to/ripoff of gospel tune, This Little Light of Mine
Hold On - Just Amazing Grace with different lyrics.
She Kissed Me - See obscure Crystals single (by Carole King!), He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss). Also Electricity Redux.
Never Goin' Back - Also Electricity redux.
Cheapster - commonly likened to Bob Dylan's 115th Dream, but sounds more like the MC5's Skunk to me. (I think Jason has admitted as much)
Rated X - Reference to/ripoff of the track from Miles Davis's In a Silent Way.
natty
Known user
Posts: 765
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am
Location: Comfortably dumb.

Post by natty »

While we're on the subject of SPZ covers, haven't we left out the most obvious one of all, the Troggs "Any Way That You Want Me". The song which sounded the Spacemen's death knell and launched the band?

And $26 you're so funny. I often wonder if you even like Spiritualized. I know Jason's not beyond reproach, but you seem to rip on them so much it just makes me laugh. Keep up the good work, buddy.
twentysixdollars
Known user
Posts: 1319
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am
Location: United States
Contact:

Post by twentysixdollars »

natty wrote:
And $26 you're so funny. I often wonder if you even like Spiritualized. I know Jason's not beyond reproach, but you seem to rip on them so much it just makes me laugh. Keep up the good work, buddy.
All good points natty. Of course you should know by now that I like Spiritualized (duh!), love them even...things I don't like include:
*Amazing Grace
*Some of the production on Let It Come Down
*The largely 'ambient' filler that's on the earlier albums
*Recurring
*Most of Peter's songs after Perfect Prescription
And that's essentially all I criticize. Of course, I criticize it a lot.

In fact some of my most vitriolic arguing has been with Ian G over the merits of Pure Phase. I think it's a masterwork, (especially if edited down to 45 minutes) and Ian, I guess, hates it. Incidentally I was counting Any Way that You Want Me as a Spacemen song, but you're completely right.
mbv
Known user
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2004 2:18 pm
Location: London, England

Post by mbv »

She Kissed Me - See obscure Crystals single (by Carole King!), He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss). Also Electricity Redux.
I'd hardly say this is obscure, I mean come on it's The Crystals? Not as well known as the Shangri-La's and the Ronettes but surely eveyone's heard or at least heard of He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss).

I have the All Night Workers on mp3, it's a on an excellent VU bootleg called So Blue, in fact I have the 2 discs worth of So Blue on mp3. :) You are confusing the All Night Workers with Reed/Cale's earlier band The Primitives, there on the So Blue boot as well along with early versions of come VU classics, good stuff!

check here for proof http://www.loureed.org/prevu/

I thought I mentioned spz first single already?
Last edited by mbv on Fri Jan 23, 2004 5:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
"Hot damn! Let us rumble, keep going and don't slow down ... lets have a little fun ..."
- Hunter S Thompson
mbv
Known user
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2004 2:18 pm
Location: London, England

Post by mbv »

A great resource for Velvet's lyrics and guitar tabs: http://ww21.tiki.ne.jp/~wildside
"Hot damn! Let us rumble, keep going and don't slow down ... lets have a little fun ..."
- Hunter S Thompson
Starfish
Known user
Posts: 1189
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am
Location: MidWest, UK

Post by Starfish »

Just to add... You can get the All Night Workers "Why Don't You Smile Now" on a 60s garage compilation Mayhem & Psychosis (three brilliant vinyl LPs - now condensed onto 2 CDs with early versions of Mr Pharmacist, Baby Please Don't Go, I Can Only Give You Everything). In fact, check it out here http://www.turnmeondeadman.net/ADM/GPCS ... hosis.html
I can't be sure of the precise year but it would definitely be circa 65. It's fantastic actually and worth hunting down - sounds like the Walker Brothers.
Incidentally, round about the same time, "Why Don't You Smile Now" was also covered by the wonderful Downliners Sect, although this is version is more r&b, as one might expect.
mbv
Known user
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2004 2:18 pm
Location: London, England

Post by mbv »

Gotta love those 60's psych band names, Sentrificial Fours, Ravin' Blue, The Id. :D These 2 comps are going on my have to buy list. A guy on http://www.sharingthegroove is going to torrent the 5 CD "A Walk With The VU" bootleg. It's got all of "So Blue" and 3 more discs of rareities. Should be posted in a couple of weeks, he said. :shock:
"Hot damn! Let us rumble, keep going and don't slow down ... lets have a little fun ..."
- Hunter S Thompson
BzaInSpace
Site Admin
Posts: 3864
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am
Location: HELL

Post by BzaInSpace »

[/quote]

Twelve Steps - Electricity redux. Instrumental bridge derived from Curtis Mayfield blaxploitation soundtracks.
Cheapster - commonly likened to Bob Dylan's 115th Dream, but sounds more like the MC5's Skunk to me. (I think Jason has admitted as much)
Rated X - Reference to/ripoff of the track from Miles Davis's In a Silent Way.[/quote]

Hey 26$, without trying to come across as too pedantic, a few points I must mention.

I remember from earlier threads seeing Curtis Mayfield namechecked with regards to 'The Twelve Steps' and I need to know : which soundtrack?

As something of a connoissoir of the FUNK I cannot think of any Mayfield track/LP that sounds like 'The Twelve Steps' at all, if anything the bridge recalls 'Clear Spot' era Magic Band (1972... check out 'Low Yo Yo Stuff') with a police siren and strings in the mix. Beefheart also acknowledged by J as an influence.

I heard J play 'Skunk' in a DJ set so the 'Cheapster' point was well made.

Miles Davis recorded 'Rated X' in 1972 a couple of years after 'In A Silent Way' (1969), with some of the 'On The Corner' band. It was eventually released a few years later, '74 I think on 'Get Up With It'.

Not an outstanding Miles track in any way, it features some bizarre mixing and some relatively clumsy playing, so the Spiritualized comparison is valid I think for that particular tune.

Bill Laswell remixed it more successfully, I feel, for the 90s remix LP 'Panthalassa'.

Any thoughts?

Otherwise spot on, especially the point with 'Out Of Sight'/ Pink Floyd.

If only the Barret-era Floyd had influenced the sound of 'Out Of Sight'.... now that would have been something.

PS : I wish everyone a good weekend.... B
wolfboy
New user
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2003 2:58 pm
Location: london

Post by wolfboy »

shine a light is also the title (and chorus: " shine a light, let it shine on me") of a great leadbelly song. check it out! Its great! it features on a recent alan lomax blues repackage. cannot remember the cd's title though...
twentysixdollars
Known user
Posts: 1319
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am
Location: United States
Contact:

Post by twentysixdollars »

BzaInSpace wrote:
I remember from earlier threads seeing Curtis Mayfield namechecked with regards to 'The Twelve Steps' and I need to know : which soundtrack?
I meant Superfly. In the theatrical version at least there is the same sort of siren/string interplay. I don't have it on CD and my LP is too scratchy to ascertain what tune it was in, but I do remember this.
Miles Davis recorded 'Rated X' in 1972 a couple of years after 'In A Silent Way' (1969), with some of the 'On The Corner' band. It was eventually released a few years later, '74 I think on 'Get Up With It'.
Quite right Bza - sorry about that. As you can tell I'm no Miles fan, although I respect his ability to spot talent in some of my favorite artists (Coltrane, Hancock, Adderley). I often get my information about Rated X confused with some of Van Morrison's Common One, which very clearly references In a Silent Way. It's no excuse though and I was dead wrong.
Not an outstanding Miles track in any way, it features some bizarre mixing and some relatively clumsy playing, so the Spiritualized comparison is valid I think for that particular tune.
Agreed. The guitar work on the Spiritualized number in particular is unforgivably atrocious. As for Davis's version, I haven't heard Laswell's remixes and since the seventies albums are pretty artistically bankrupt to my ears I can't imagine seeking it out! :) Out On the Corner is particularly tiresome to my ears - no funk tautness, no R&B grit, no jazzy melodies. Just a disaster.
If only the Barret-era Floyd had influenced the sound of 'Out Of Sight'.... now that would have been something.
Haha, well there's always Gravity Grave. Of course Out of Sight still sounds like a pompous, overblown outtake from Dark Side of the Moon, and it's a huge tasteless blotch on Jason's usual (admittedly overstated) classiness.
natty
Known user
Posts: 765
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am
Location: Comfortably dumb.

Post by natty »

BzaInSpace wrote:

Not an outstanding Miles track in any way, it features some bizarre mixing and some relatively clumsy playing, so the Spiritualized comparison is valid I think for that particular tune.


Any thoughts?


PS : I wish everyone a good weekend.... B[/quote]

Now THAT's funny! Made me laugh out loud... Nice one, I hope you have a good weekend too!

And $26... I know you like SPZ, but damn, the negative criticism sure seems to outweigh the positive sometimes.
BzaInSpace
Site Admin
Posts: 3864
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am
Location: HELL

Post by BzaInSpace »

26$ wrote

"On the Corner is particularly tiresome to my ears - no funk tautness, no R&B grit, no jazzy melodies. Just a disaster."

It certainly has no element of grit at least in the classic sense of R & B but I think it's really ahead of its time, in fact it bears a striking resemblance to the kind of wired, intricate production favoured by modern R & B artists such as Timbaland and The Neptunes, the names other artists use or namedrop to make them sound cool....

I really like a lot of that music , sometimes not as much as something like Sam Cooke's 'Live At the Harlem Square Club 1962' but i should say that Missy Elliots 'Pass The Dutch' is one of the best things i've heard recently, Aaliyahs 'More Than A Woman' is psychedelic in the best possible way and the first version (digital) of NERD's 'In Search Of...' is absolute class.

It's hard to say why I like it, its just funky as fuck.

On The Corner is probably one of the most awesome pieces of music I have ever heard, granted it takes a certain mood but it has an unbelievable amount of depth, it took thinks like 'No God, Only Religon' to appreciate the kind of mad rhythms and it took stuff like 'Ladies & Gentlemen' title track to appreciate the superb production, although ultimately I don't think that matters, the feeling is still there, even though it is created by machine-like repetition which is still being pulled off by essentially live instrumentation.

Maybe that is the reason for it having the edge, anyone making something like this now would probably just rely on immaculate loops and overdub heaven. Although 'On The Corner' had its fair share of mixing and/ or overdubs the same intense, driving beat is being carried out by live instrumentation, loops occuring over longer periods of time.

A few years ago I never had listened to anything labelled as jazz.
Miles 'In A Silent Way' was as much as an introduction as Spiritualized
music was.

Oh aye, getting back to the post subject, did anyone realize the classic 'If I Were With Her Now' is actually based on an advertisment 'Theme from Toffee Crisp'?.... :idea:
mbv
Known user
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2004 2:18 pm
Location: London, England

Post by mbv »

I can't see a Floyd connection with 'Out of Sight' ?? That's one of my favourite spz choons, the lyrics alone are enough for me but that tune just blows. and the vid with sthe Spaceman up the volcano is fuckin' cool too, my 2 cents.
"Hot damn! Let us rumble, keep going and don't slow down ... lets have a little fun ..."
- Hunter S Thompson
mh
Known user
Posts: 276
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am
Location: The corners where the idiot children call

Post by mh »

I'd see Out Of Sight as being more in a 71/72 Floyd style, say Obscured By Clouds, or some bits of side 1 of Meddle.

Actually, Obscured By Clouds it is.
A saint
Known user
Posts: 65
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am
Location: Los Angeles
Contact:

Post by A saint »

BzaInSpace wrote:26$ wrote

\
Oh aye, getting back to the post subject, did anyone realize the classic 'If I Were With Her Now' is actually based on an advertisment 'Theme from Toffee Crisp'?.... :idea:
Uh...you do know J licensed the song for the commercial, not vice versa right?
mbv
Known user
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2004 2:18 pm
Location: London, England

Post by mbv »

Oh my! maybe he was felling a bit peckish and couldn't be arsed to walk down the shops? those Toffee Crisps are tasty tho'.
"Hot damn! Let us rumble, keep going and don't slow down ... lets have a little fun ..."
- Hunter S Thompson
mh
Known user
Posts: 276
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am
Location: The corners where the idiot children call

Post by mh »

Funny, I always thought he was paid to write the song specifically for Toffee Crisp, and being "with her now" was actually a metaphorical allusion for munching on a chewy crunchy chocolatey Toffee Crisp.
Post Reply