Tag: Retro

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Tunes

100 best covers: #73 (a tie!) The Wonder Stuff / Morrissey “That’s entertainment”

<< #74    |    #72 >>

What’s this? A tie?

This is not something you’ll see too often in my lists because it feels like a bit of a cheat. If you’re going to rank things, do so with conviction is what I say. However, in the case of these two covers, they will be forever inextricably linked and it would be near impossible for me to place one over the other.

I’ve already mentioned somewhere in these pages that I was pretty heavily into The Wonder Stuff in the early 1990s, especially in grade 13 (or OAC, as we called it at the time in Ontario, Canada). In January 1992, the Stuffies released the single, “Welcome to the cheap seats”, as a double EP and I duly purchased it on cassette. One of the eight tracks was their cover of The Jam classic, “That’s entertainment”. I wasn’t super familiar with the original but I loved the tune, along with the rest of the cassette, so I decided to share it with my friend Andrew Rodriguez, whom I knew was a fan of The Jam*. I offered him my Walkman on the bus ride home from school one afternoon and I watched his face as he listened but I couldn’t tell by the rapidly changing dramatic expressions whether he liked it or not. At the end, he took off the earphones, pressed stopped, and handed it back to me with: “It’s quite good actually. Quite faithful to the original. Definitely better than Morrissey’s cover.”

Then, Rodriguez went off about the original, waxing poetical about how Paul Weller wrote the song in about 10 minutes, probably drunk, probably on a bar napkin, but my mind was way behind him, still processing his last comment. Morrissey also covered this track? Why yes, JP, he did. In fact, it was done just the year prior and released as a B side to the single, “Sing your life”. It took some time for me to track this one down, I think. Things weren’t so easy before the Internet, you see. It was probably my friend John who had a CD copy of the aforementioned single and from whom I recorded a copy of this second cover to blank cassette.

Upon listening to both these covers, it is obvious that my friend Andrew was right about the fact that The Wonder Stuff cover was definitely closer in spirit to the original but that doesn’t necessarily make it better than Morrissey’s version. Say what you will about him these days, there was always something about Moz’s delivery. His version is slowed down, which lengthens the song by a whole minute, allowing us time to thoroughly process Paul Weller’s words and reflections on the crazy world happening all around him. The Wonder Stuff take the song on as it is, adding their own folk-punk-influenced pop sound and Miles Hunt’s easy snarl.

Waking up at 6 A.M. on a cool warm morning
Opening the windows and breathing in petrol
An amateur band rehearsing in a nearby yard
Watching the telly and thinking ’bout your holidays
That’s entertainment

Are either of these better than the original? Probably not. But I love them anyway.

Cover #1:

Cover #2:

The original:

For the rest of the 100 best covers list, click here.

* I’ve since realized that Andrew Rodriguez is quite possibly the world’s biggest Paul Weller fan (or maybe just Canada’s biggest). He’s been promising a Top Five Tunes post about The Jam for a couple of years now. Maybe next year…

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Tunes

Best tunes of 1992: #23 L7 “Pretend we’re dead”

<< #24    |    #22 >>

Try as you might, you can’t really pigeonhole L7. Sure, they came out of the punk rock and alternative aesthetic. They came to prominence in the age of grunge and their fashion choices, or lack thereof, certainly had them placed amongst the boys club of those bands. Others will lump them in with the Riot Grrl movement, especially because of their outspokenness and their avid work in support of pro choice. However, the group predated all of these. And there was no conforming or pretension with L7. Nor were they strangers to controversy. They were true originals.

Donita Sparks and Suzi Gardner formed L7 in 1985. The quartet was completed in their most prominent years by Jennifer Finch and Demetra Plakas. By 1992, the group was releasing their third album, “Bricks are heavy”, on Slash records. Produced by Butch Vig (of “Nevermind” fame), the album did very well with the alternative rock set by upping the noise, grime, and by being generally unapologetic. There were three well received singles released from the album, the first of which was “Pretend we’re dead”, the subject of our post today and my introduction to the band. I remember it being played on the regular on CFNY, Toronto’s alt-rock station, which came in pretty clear in my small hometown, east of that city. However, I’m reasonably sure that before I heard it there, it appeared on a mixed tape made by my friend Tim.

“Pretend we’re dead” is loud and pure angsty rock and roll. In fact, it almost feels to me like a song Joan Jett would’ve come up with if the 90s were her era. The guitars are dirty and dripping with sludge and yet they race along, amped with jet fuel. The drums crash and the vocals sing words that seem meaningless, but beg for fist pumping and head banging. Yes!

For the rest of the Best tunes of 1992 list, click here.

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Tunes

Best tunes of 1992: #24 The Lemonheads “It’s a shame about Ray”

<< #25    |    #23 >>

At some point late in 1992, I babysat my young cousins one evening for my Aunt Joan at her townhouse at the other end of town. After the two girls went to bed, I slipped in a videocassette tape of recorded music videos I must’ve brought with me and opened up whatever Stephen King book I was reading at the time. The video for this particular song was playing when my Aunt came home from wherever she was and she being younger and somewhat hipper than my own parents, was actually being genuinely curious when she asked to whom it was I was listening. It was unsurprising that she had not heard of them but seeing my excitement at the band, she patiently listened to my ravings about them as I rewound the tape to the place where I knew I would find the video for the same band’s cover of “Mrs. Robinson”. She claimed to like their sound and I didn’t think anything more on the subject after going back to my own home. A few weeks later, however, while opening Christmas presents, I was delighted to receive from her a compact disc copy of “It’s a shame about Ray”. If I am remembering correctly, that was the same Christmas from which I obtained the first CD player of my own and since I didn’t have a lot to play on it yet, this new CD got a lot of playing time.

The Lemonheads are an American alternative rock band that originally formed in 1986 and save for a six year hiatus between 1998 and 2004, have existed in some form or other ever since. They are, generally speaking, the plaything of frontman/guitarist Evan Dando, fielding a pretty much new band whenever he decides to record and release a new album. For “It’s a shame about Ray”, The Lemonheads’ fifth record (second on a major label), the personnel included David Ryan on drums and the most excellent, Juliana Hatfield on bass guitar and backing vocals. The bulk of record was written in Australia with Dando’s friend Tom Morgan, the first of which was reportedly this title track, the reason we’re here today.

“I’ve never been too good with names
But I remember faces”

Evan Dando has remained vague about the meaning of the song and the identity of the “Ray” of its title. In some articles, he has been quoted as saying the line came from a newspaper article and in others, he has said it was inspired by someone who called everyone “Ray”. He even claims he doesn’t know who “Ray” is himself and likes to keep it mysterious.

Drugs, I guess.

Anyhow, it’s clear by all the past tense talk and mentions of names etched in stones that “Ray” is no longer with us, whether dead or just missing. Dando’s delivery throughout the three minute tune is suitably solemn and… just there. Really, its beauty lies in its subtlety, a simple head bopper that has these ripping guitar and drum fills between the choruses and verses. And when Hatfield appears with those soft backing vocals at the end, you just might need to shed a tear or two.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 1992 list, click here.