I feel like it’s a trend now that covers are more popular than the originals
(prob from the fact I came back from a convention where 90% of the art for sale was unlicensed fan art)
[also n/m the fact I’ve been trying to compose a cover for the past two days, oops]
Yumi
I like some covers okay and all, but usually not more than the original; this one is more of an exception for me. But I can’t speak to their overall popularity, I suppose.
Damoncord
I think it’s more that it’s the man in black covering it that made it as awesome as it is.
How is that only a recent trend? Hendrix singing Watchtower, Ford singing Sixteen Tons, Rachmaninoff writing a whole rhapsody covering Paganini, it’s been popular for about as long as we’ve had music.
StClair
I happen to like JonTron’s cover of Firework better than Katy Perry’s, and the Pet Shop Boys’ You Were Always On My Mind more than Willie Nelson’s. Some of it is surely which you’re exposed to first, and some is just a matter of taste.
Now, I was about to say that Willie Nelson was covering Elvis Presley… But then I thought I’d better double-check this, and it turns out that they are -all- covers. The original recording was with Gwen McRae and Brenda Lee.
And yeah, I have found out so many songs that turned out to be covers over the decades, that calling it a “recent trend” is… Well.
I think what happened more often in the past was that people thought the cover was the original because back then, it was easier to get away with it; what with no internet and all.
dethtolldotmid
A lot of songs were shamelessly ripped off from black musicians, that’s why.
AndieStardust
omg i retained that from a book i read! Like how Kid’s Bop decided to edit lyrics to remove unpalatable imagery, the original lyrics were saucy and clever as hell for the time period (and even now, on some songs) but got very very clean and given to white bands/artists. And some tried to sound like they were black!
… I just listened to the PSB version, and must now thank you immensely. Oh my.
–Dave, next up, what have i done to deserve this?
Jimi
Exactly! Almost every widely beloved song was a cover or reimagining or written by someone besides its known performer, and I promise everything else was at least heavily inspired by something.
Ensiform
“Almost every?” That is factually wrong. Actually nearly every (when it isn’t every single) well known song by Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Credence Clearwater Revival, Lou Reed, Jonathan Coulton, They Might Be Giants, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Green Day, Rancid, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Boston, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, the Eagles, the Doors, etc etc etc etc were written by the artists.
hoop
it takes a special kind of nerd to put Jonathan Coulton in a list with CCR and Black Sabbath
Hey, JC wrote a song every week for a _year_, and gave them all away on his website. Almost all of them are at least Very Good, and there’s a sizable chunk that are Excellent by any standard.
–Dave, appropriate for this story-ending: When You Go
Hooked on a Feeling, you have BJ Thomas’s psychadelic rock electric sitar, and then there’s Blue Suede’s big brassy ooga chakas. One caught on more, but both made it their own.
Cody C.
There’s actually another cover between the BJ Thomas version and the Blue Suede one by British artist Jonathan King, which also had the “Ooga Chakas”.
Liquid Len
Wow, never knew that version. Only thing I New of Jonathan King was his role in the start of Genesis.
NickG
And, you know, convicted paedophile.
Schol-R-LEA
Ever song Leadbelly wrote and someone else made famous.
JohnInCA
Arguably, listening exclusively to the original artist is a relatively modern trend in the history of music. Think about it: anything where the “original artist” died prior to the invention of the phonograph (1877) that you’ve heard? A “cover”. We don’t think of most of it that way because it’s normal that you hear “Some Pretentious Orchestra’s rendition of Four Seasons” or whatnot, but that’s effectively a “cover”.
So I’d argue that folks have always liked hearing different artists, different takes, different inrepretations of the same “piece”. Whether it’s theater, music, paintings, we like “covers”, whether they’re played-straight “covers” or twists and altered takes (think the “winking” Mona Lisa painting).
Long story short? “Covers” have always been popular. The real abnormality was the century where we rarely heard them, not the increased ease and prevalence of finding them now.
thejeff
Though “Some Pretentious Orchestra’s rendition of Four Seasons” isn’t necessarily a “cover” in the same sense some modern covers are. Back then it was generally the composer that was considered important, not the orchestra that first performed it.
It’s less common today, when many performers write their own songs or at least have have them written specifically for them, but it still happens – Some songwriter writes a song, Band A records it, but it doesn’t take off, then Band B records it and it does. Is Band B really doing a “cover” off Band A’s song or just playing the Songwriter’s song like Band A was?
Old Fart
Tito Puente’s original “Oye Como Va” is obscure compared to Santana’s brilliant cover. I wish more people knew about the original. Those horns!
Khno
And what a kind man too…
Lin
I mean, once Reznor heard the cover, he officially declared the song Cash’s song.
Roborat
I usually prefer the original to the cover. However I do like Captain Tractor’s version of The Last Saskatchewan Pirate better than the Arrogant Worms, however I did hear Tractor’s version first.
That’s the weird part – it’s a song about depression written by an industrial metal / goth / leather band, which makes sense – but coming from Johnny Cash it’s actually BETTER.
First time commenter – I am stealing this from somewhere else where I read it long ago, but the difference between the NIN version and the Cash version is the difference between angst and despair. It’s even more brutal when you watch the video and realize the only a couple months after it was shot June died.
Goshii
I think its because Johnny really sells it what with the shit in his past that he had to deal with. I really wish i had been able to meet Johnny before he passed.
Needfuldoer
I think it’s kind of like ‘Me and Mrs. Jones‘, the content of the song just works better with an older voice. Listen to the original recorded by Billy Paul, then Michael Bublé’s cover. The cover still sounds good, but it’s missing something.
For ‘Hurt‘, Johnny’s aged (and frankly, frail) voice sells it as a reflection on a lifetime of regrets, as opposed to the angst of a younger man who still has time to make up for them. I don’t think it would have had the same impact if he had recorded it in his 20s or 30s.
Remmington Steele
Truth.
Cash brings a life time of experience to a song in which he faces his mortality.
rectilinearpropagation
Yes, exactly! It’s the voice.
I honestly had no clue who Johnny Cash was when I first heard this and knowing nothing about him and only hearing this one song I was all, “This man has been through some serious shit”.
Cash spent his life singing the blues, doesn’t fit any better than that.
wraith_ferron
It’s a song about depression and lamenting life’s choices. I say that a person dying of cancer while estranged from much of his family and former friends fits pretty well.
I must be the only one who feels it’s a lateral move
just really don’t care for either
Tricia
It was a beautiful and original song, but Cash put the real *emotion* into it. He brought it to life. And the music video really cements it as the quintessential version in my eyes.
ninja_jesus
Right Where It Belongs is my fave too.
Wereg
Yeah. Such a shame that Reznor absolutely adores the Cash version, to the point of not even considering it HIS song anymore.
Cash hit it out of the park. A lot of folks felt like many of his American Recordings series felt gimmicky, but some songs like “Hurt” and “Heart of Gold” were completely remade by his delivery at the end of his life, in contrast to the respective writers youth. Just a towering performance, and so heartfelt.
Stu
Agreed on that.
Also, one of my standard bearers for “Better than the original” is “Mad World” as done by Gary Jules – https://youtu.be/4N3N1MlvVc4 – over the original by Tears for Fears (https://youtu.be/u1ZvPSpLxCg), where the music kind of overshadowed the depressing lyrics.
No. She’s conflicted. She’s completely straight, but she is dating a woman and it’s just dawning on her again. It’s also because shes dressed finely and at a bar. It’s not the kind of date she was going for. Ruth is just so damn manly and she’s just a whole lot of woman.
1) Definitely not completely straight. She’s had at least two girlfriends. But it looks like she doesn’t know what she wants from a relationship, or life. It’s a hard place to be.
2) How exactly is Ruth “manly”?
I think it’s more that Billie’s self-image is that she’s straight and she’s struggling to reconcile that with, you know, dating a woman.
thejeff
More subtly that Billie’s self-image is “normal”, and that therefore it must be normal to like girls. Because she’s not queer or anything weird like that.
And she’s starting to realize that’s not how the rest of the world is going to see it.
I don’t think she’s ever used the word straight or expressed any trouble with liking girls.
I’d also read that particular scene more literally off the lyrics: “I will let you down”. That strikes at Billie’s toxic self-image.
Proto
Frankly I saw it as Billie realizing that maybe she’s not all that compatible with Ruth. Honestly, I’ve never been a fan of the Ruth/Billie pairing because of the quite frankly creepy way it started (to quote Carla, shoves is not loves). Now that she’s actually getting some positive reinforcement from her new dormmates she’s more closely examining her relationship.
Vi
I dunno, I think she is pretty happy with Ruth. Billie is enjoying her own game on the other screen, because Billie also likes sports. Ruth makes her happy. They enjoy each other and they’re learning now to enjoy each other in healthier and less destructive ways. I think they’re compatible.
302 thoughts on “Dirt”
Ana Chronistic
Billie’s let down b/c no lobster or fancy bread =(
(I’m let down b/c I found new ukulele strings but the actual uke is GARBAGE and also I can’t play)
and THANKS Willis for cementing my least fave NIИ song in my head for basically FOREVAR
Throwaway Name
I’m sorry about the old uke. Maybe take it to a shop to get it fixed up?
Dennis A Aleynikov
with lyrics like these I’ll take it
DrunkenNordmann
Please don’t call it uke; that kinda conjures the wrong kind of image.
biggo
Well, it’s tiny, cute and surely “passive”. Doesn’t look like a seme to me XD
Joy
:/
Yumi
Cash version is great. I’ve been listening to it/covers for days.
Wright
Johnny Cash is amazing.
Roborat
Yes. Yes he was.
Ana Chronistic
I feel like it’s a trend now that covers are more popular than the originals
(prob from the fact I came back from a convention where 90% of the art for sale was unlicensed fan art)
[also n/m the fact I’ve been trying to compose a cover for the past two days, oops]
Yumi
I like some covers okay and all, but usually not more than the original; this one is more of an exception for me. But I can’t speak to their overall popularity, I suppose.
Damoncord
I think it’s more that it’s the man in black covering it that made it as awesome as it is.
Deanatay
I’unno, there are some pretty awesome covers out there…
Professor Snugglesworth
How is that only a recent trend? Hendrix singing Watchtower, Ford singing Sixteen Tons, Rachmaninoff writing a whole rhapsody covering Paganini, it’s been popular for about as long as we’ve had music.
StClair
I happen to like JonTron’s cover of Firework better than Katy Perry’s, and the Pet Shop Boys’ You Were Always On My Mind more than Willie Nelson’s. Some of it is surely which you’re exposed to first, and some is just a matter of taste.
Emperor Norton II
Now, I was about to say that Willie Nelson was covering Elvis Presley… But then I thought I’d better double-check this, and it turns out that they are -all- covers. The original recording was with Gwen McRae and Brenda Lee.
And yeah, I have found out so many songs that turned out to be covers over the decades, that calling it a “recent trend” is… Well.
I think what happened more often in the past was that people thought the cover was the original because back then, it was easier to get away with it; what with no internet and all.
dethtolldotmid
A lot of songs were shamelessly ripped off from black musicians, that’s why.
AndieStardust
omg i retained that from a book i read! Like how Kid’s Bop decided to edit lyrics to remove unpalatable imagery, the original lyrics were saucy and clever as hell for the time period (and even now, on some songs) but got very very clean and given to white bands/artists. And some tried to sound like they were black!
Remmington Steele
Led Zeppelin got sued by Willie Dixon.
Mind you Led Zeppelin ripped off every one.
David DeLaney
… I just listened to the PSB version, and must now thank you immensely. Oh my.
–Dave, next up, what have i done to deserve this?
Jimi
Exactly! Almost every widely beloved song was a cover or reimagining or written by someone besides its known performer, and I promise everything else was at least heavily inspired by something.
Ensiform
“Almost every?” That is factually wrong. Actually nearly every (when it isn’t every single) well known song by Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Credence Clearwater Revival, Lou Reed, Jonathan Coulton, They Might Be Giants, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Green Day, Rancid, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Boston, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, the Eagles, the Doors, etc etc etc etc were written by the artists.
hoop
it takes a special kind of nerd to put Jonathan Coulton in a list with CCR and Black Sabbath
David DeLaney
Hey, JC wrote a song every week for a _year_, and gave them all away on his website. Almost all of them are at least Very Good, and there’s a sizable chunk that are Excellent by any standard.
–Dave, appropriate for this story-ending: When You Go
Kamino Neko
Yeah, it’s a long standing thing. It’s a key cause of what TV Tropes calls being Covered Up.
Goshii
Hey you need to put a warning with links like that! I am now forced to waste 2-3 hours of my life surfing through TV tropes Kamino!
Kamino Neko
Hey, I mentioned the site outside the link!
Emperor Norton II
The only safe play is to not link or mention it at all.
Carl-E
The only rule about TVtropes is: never link to TVtropes.
Clif
You forgot to provide a link.
Deanatay
If you’re gonna post links, post the right links.
Clif
I stand metatropically corrected.
Bruceski
Hooked on a Feeling, you have BJ Thomas’s psychadelic rock electric sitar, and then there’s Blue Suede’s big brassy ooga chakas. One caught on more, but both made it their own.
Cody C.
There’s actually another cover between the BJ Thomas version and the Blue Suede one by British artist Jonathan King, which also had the “Ooga Chakas”.
Liquid Len
Wow, never knew that version. Only thing I New of Jonathan King was his role in the start of Genesis.
NickG
And, you know, convicted paedophile.
Schol-R-LEA
Ever song Leadbelly wrote and someone else made famous.
JohnInCA
Arguably, listening exclusively to the original artist is a relatively modern trend in the history of music. Think about it: anything where the “original artist” died prior to the invention of the phonograph (1877) that you’ve heard? A “cover”. We don’t think of most of it that way because it’s normal that you hear “Some Pretentious Orchestra’s rendition of Four Seasons” or whatnot, but that’s effectively a “cover”.
So I’d argue that folks have always liked hearing different artists, different takes, different inrepretations of the same “piece”. Whether it’s theater, music, paintings, we like “covers”, whether they’re played-straight “covers” or twists and altered takes (think the “winking” Mona Lisa painting).
Long story short? “Covers” have always been popular. The real abnormality was the century where we rarely heard them, not the increased ease and prevalence of finding them now.
thejeff
Though “Some Pretentious Orchestra’s rendition of Four Seasons” isn’t necessarily a “cover” in the same sense some modern covers are. Back then it was generally the composer that was considered important, not the orchestra that first performed it.
It’s less common today, when many performers write their own songs or at least have have them written specifically for them, but it still happens – Some songwriter writes a song, Band A records it, but it doesn’t take off, then Band B records it and it does. Is Band B really doing a “cover” off Band A’s song or just playing the Songwriter’s song like Band A was?
Old Fart
Tito Puente’s original “Oye Como Va” is obscure compared to Santana’s brilliant cover. I wish more people knew about the original. Those horns!
Khno
And what a kind man too…
Lin
I mean, once Reznor heard the cover, he officially declared the song Cash’s song.
Roborat
I usually prefer the original to the cover. However I do like Captain Tractor’s version of The Last Saskatchewan Pirate better than the Arrogant Worms, however I did hear Tractor’s version first.
Keulen
Cash’s cover is better than the original to me.
jmsr
That’s the weird part – it’s a song about depression written by an industrial metal / goth / leather band, which makes sense – but coming from Johnny Cash it’s actually BETTER.
Maybe because i keep flashing to the trailer to Logan when i hear it?
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws2DPRL1Leo)
NickyRay
First time commenter – I am stealing this from somewhere else where I read it long ago, but the difference between the NIN version and the Cash version is the difference between angst and despair. It’s even more brutal when you watch the video and realize the only a couple months after it was shot June died.
Goshii
I think its because Johnny really sells it what with the shit in his past that he had to deal with. I really wish i had been able to meet Johnny before he passed.
Needfuldoer
I think it’s kind of like ‘Me and Mrs. Jones‘, the content of the song just works better with an older voice. Listen to the original recorded by Billy Paul, then Michael Bublé’s cover. The cover still sounds good, but it’s missing something.
For ‘Hurt‘, Johnny’s aged (and frankly, frail) voice sells it as a reflection on a lifetime of regrets, as opposed to the angst of a younger man who still has time to make up for them. I don’t think it would have had the same impact if he had recorded it in his 20s or 30s.
Remmington Steele
Truth.
Cash brings a life time of experience to a song in which he faces his mortality.
rectilinearpropagation
Yes, exactly! It’s the voice.
I honestly had no clue who Johnny Cash was when I first heard this and knowing nothing about him and only hearing this one song I was all, “This man has been through some serious shit”.
I also think that Cracked makes a good point about the one lyric change in the cover: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-covers-that-improved-lyrics-famous-songs/
ArrDeeGee
Cash spent his life singing the blues, doesn’t fit any better than that.
wraith_ferron
It’s a song about depression and lamenting life’s choices. I say that a person dying of cancer while estranged from much of his family and former friends fits pretty well.
silentNate
Must be awful to be just so wrong about something :p
I detest the Cash cover version, Trent’s was such a beautiful and original song. My third favourite NIN song after Twist and Right Where It Belongs…
Ana Chronistic
I must be the only one who feels it’s a lateral move
just really don’t care for either
Tricia
It was a beautiful and original song, but Cash put the real *emotion* into it. He brought it to life. And the music video really cements it as the quintessential version in my eyes.
ninja_jesus
Right Where It Belongs is my fave too.
Wereg
Yeah. Such a shame that Reznor absolutely adores the Cash version, to the point of not even considering it HIS song anymore.
Tricia
Even Reznor said that Cash did the song much better.
Emperor Norton II
Which might have been why Reznor later did his own toned-down live performance, using only a piano and his own hurt voice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQRmCy6LfjI
PB
You found my favorite version!
Emperor Norton II
You’re welcome!
Noxx
Cash hit it out of the park. A lot of folks felt like many of his American Recordings series felt gimmicky, but some songs like “Hurt” and “Heart of Gold” were completely remade by his delivery at the end of his life, in contrast to the respective writers youth. Just a towering performance, and so heartfelt.
Stu
Agreed on that.
Also, one of my standard bearers for “Better than the original” is “Mad World” as done by Gary Jules – https://youtu.be/4N3N1MlvVc4 – over the original by Tears for Fears (https://youtu.be/u1ZvPSpLxCg), where the music kind of overshadowed the depressing lyrics.
Miguel
So is Billie sad with Ruth?
Calibus
No. She’s conflicted. She’s completely straight, but she is dating a woman and it’s just dawning on her again. It’s also because shes dressed finely and at a bar. It’s not the kind of date she was going for. Ruth is just so damn manly and she’s just a whole lot of woman.
Just my perceptive of things
Joy
Ew. Bad.
Joy
Try again, dude.
Suzi
1) Definitely not completely straight. She’s had at least two girlfriends. But it looks like she doesn’t know what she wants from a relationship, or life. It’s a hard place to be.
2) How exactly is Ruth “manly”?
DarkoNeko
BEER AND SPORT ARE FOR MEN (apparently)
Needfuldoer
Billie’s bi, but doesn’t believe that’s a thing.
Joy
Yeah
Emily
I think it’s more that Billie’s self-image is that she’s straight and she’s struggling to reconcile that with, you know, dating a woman.
thejeff
More subtly that Billie’s self-image is “normal”, and that therefore it must be normal to like girls. Because she’s not queer or anything weird like that.
And she’s starting to realize that’s not how the rest of the world is going to see it.
I don’t think she’s ever used the word straight or expressed any trouble with liking girls.
I’d also read that particular scene more literally off the lyrics: “I will let you down”. That strikes at Billie’s toxic self-image.
Proto
Frankly I saw it as Billie realizing that maybe she’s not all that compatible with Ruth. Honestly, I’ve never been a fan of the Ruth/Billie pairing because of the quite frankly creepy way it started (to quote Carla, shoves is not loves). Now that she’s actually getting some positive reinforcement from her new dormmates she’s more closely examining her relationship.
Vi
I dunno, I think she is pretty happy with Ruth. Billie is enjoying her own game on the other screen, because Billie also likes sports. Ruth makes her happy. They enjoy each other and they’re learning now to enjoy each other in healthier and less destructive ways. I think they’re compatible.
Tacos