The Not-Pop Jukebox

Today, I'm thrilled to offer my first guest post, from the prolific, eclectic, and every-honest reviewer at Isaac Ashe's Sound Advice. Mr. Ashe has generously offered to share his recent contemplations on covers songs that have gone more right than wrong and included a suggested playlist to back up his own words. Don't miss The Gourds.

IN BETWEEN churning out butter commercials here in the UK, I read recently in the music press that Sex Pistol John Lydon plans to re-record Pink Floyd’s mighty "Dark Side Of The Moon".

He must be howling - the mind boggles trying to imagine him tackle the vocal solo on The Great Gig In The Sky... Nevertheless this news got me thinking about some of the other unlikely cover versions in my collection. Some artists make a career out of this--Richard Cheese, John Barrowman, The Chipmunks--but the cream of the crop for me are those that rarely tackle a cover.

One that worked quite well in my eyes is the late, great, prone-to-jailbait Micheal Jackson and his distinctive take on The Beatles’ Come Together--although Paul McCartney may not have enjoyed hearing it quite as much as I did. Others which raise a smile are The Gourds’ country reworking of Snoop Dogg’s Gin And Juice, which is so wrong it’s rizzle, and Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro, cover version experts, and their unrecognisable version of Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way.

Of course, not all these ideas come to fruition. Electroshocker Peaches was planning to put on a complete show of her unique “stripped-down” take on Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar until being blocked by the rights holders recently. That would have been some spectacle --at least Peaches, of all people, knows how to get over such heartbreaks.

Because Isaac recommended a song with an R-rated title from Peaches, I've replaced that with a great cover of Insane in the Brain from The Connells and included a cover of The Great Gig in the Sky that includes Peaches and Henry Rollins, as a bonus. This is not to say that the tunes in today's post are work- or child-friendly. Sadly, I couldn't lay my digital hands on the Biffy Clyro cover to include here.