The Cutting Room Floor
I'm putting the finishing touches on the play list for the next edition of Soundtrack, an all "covers" edition of the show.
I can honestly say there has never been a broader ranger of choices for songs to fit the theme. Name a song... any song... popular or obscure, and there is probably a 25 to 50 percent chance that someone has recorded a cover of it!
Two songs that I absolutely love are not making the cut (though I suspect they will be in the "Bonus" edition of the show): Smashing Pumpkins' take on the Thin Lizzy song "Dancing In The Moonlight" and Matthew Good's re-working of The Dead Kennedys "Moon Over Marin".
These are exceptionally brilliant cover songs but they both demonstrate a "problem" I've encountered several times in trying to create the play list: The cover song can be brilliant but if most of the audience I'm hoping will listen to the show isn't even remotely familiar with the original version of the song then there is no real way to appreciate what the cover version brings to the table.
Thin Lizzy's "Dancing in the Moonlight" is a terrific song and probably my favorite by that band. But sadly, the only well-known songs by that band are "The Boys are Back in Town" and "Whiskey in the Jar". If I had gone with, for example, Bon Jovi's nice but largely paint-by-numbers take on the former or Metallica's destruction of the latter (sorry, I like Metallica but their version of "Whiskey" blows) then there wouldn't be a problem. I think to truly appreciate Smashing Pumpkins turning "Dancing in the Moonlight" from a mid-tempo shuffle into an Unplugged-style ballad you have to have some familiarity with Thin Lizzy's original performance.
I have no love for The Dead Kennedys. The whole punk era passed me right by and I've never really grasped the appeal. On his new album, Matthew Good covers their song "Moon Over Marin" and I love his version so much that I checked out the Kennedys version and while it is listenable, I like Good's version better. But, alas, the same problem as with Thin Lizzy. How many people could hum the Dead Kennedy's "Moon Over Marin"?
The hardest part of putting this show together has been recognizing that if I'm going to present covers within the context and framework of what I've tried to create with Soundtrack then I need to err on the side of the familiar; the songs being covered need to be on the radar screen and the category of "obscure" cover had to be passed over. This came at the expense of not only Matthew Good/The Dead Kennedys, Smashing Pumpkins/Thin Lizzy but also Amelia/Elliot Smith, Contraband/Mott The Hoople, and Train/Sugar.
Anyway... those are the notes... the finished product will be up on Sunday.
J
I can honestly say there has never been a broader ranger of choices for songs to fit the theme. Name a song... any song... popular or obscure, and there is probably a 25 to 50 percent chance that someone has recorded a cover of it!
Two songs that I absolutely love are not making the cut (though I suspect they will be in the "Bonus" edition of the show): Smashing Pumpkins' take on the Thin Lizzy song "Dancing In The Moonlight" and Matthew Good's re-working of The Dead Kennedys "Moon Over Marin".
These are exceptionally brilliant cover songs but they both demonstrate a "problem" I've encountered several times in trying to create the play list: The cover song can be brilliant but if most of the audience I'm hoping will listen to the show isn't even remotely familiar with the original version of the song then there is no real way to appreciate what the cover version brings to the table.
Thin Lizzy's "Dancing in the Moonlight" is a terrific song and probably my favorite by that band. But sadly, the only well-known songs by that band are "The Boys are Back in Town" and "Whiskey in the Jar". If I had gone with, for example, Bon Jovi's nice but largely paint-by-numbers take on the former or Metallica's destruction of the latter (sorry, I like Metallica but their version of "Whiskey" blows) then there wouldn't be a problem. I think to truly appreciate Smashing Pumpkins turning "Dancing in the Moonlight" from a mid-tempo shuffle into an Unplugged-style ballad you have to have some familiarity with Thin Lizzy's original performance.
I have no love for The Dead Kennedys. The whole punk era passed me right by and I've never really grasped the appeal. On his new album, Matthew Good covers their song "Moon Over Marin" and I love his version so much that I checked out the Kennedys version and while it is listenable, I like Good's version better. But, alas, the same problem as with Thin Lizzy. How many people could hum the Dead Kennedy's "Moon Over Marin"?
The hardest part of putting this show together has been recognizing that if I'm going to present covers within the context and framework of what I've tried to create with Soundtrack then I need to err on the side of the familiar; the songs being covered need to be on the radar screen and the category of "obscure" cover had to be passed over. This came at the expense of not only Matthew Good/The Dead Kennedys, Smashing Pumpkins/Thin Lizzy but also Amelia/Elliot Smith, Contraband/Mott The Hoople, and Train/Sugar.
Anyway... those are the notes... the finished product will be up on Sunday.
J