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Do That To Me One More Time

Janet asks:

What are some of your favorite remakes?

I am always hesitant with this kind of a list as there are probably very clear examples that I am overlooking. Nevertheless, here are some of the ones that come immediately to mind.

Jimi Hendrix: All Along the Watchtower
This is the definitive version of a little folk song Dylan recorded for John Wesley Harding. That nearly everyone who covered the song since has adapted Hendrix’s version is telling. And if this poll is to be believed, the vast majority agree.

Grateful Dead: Not Fade Away
I am a little too young to remember The Crickets, although I enjoy their original version of NFA, a little doo wop standard. But as a deadhead, this song is one of the signature tunes, spanning the complete history of the band. NFA was often played with Turn On Your Lovelight, another Dead standard. In later years, Throwing Stones segued into NFA as a closing song. The band would leave the stage with the audience continuing to sing, “You know our love will not fade away.” The band would sometimes pick up the rejoiner prior to the encore.

Manfred Mann: Mighty Quinn
Another Dylan song covered by many. Manfred Mann’s cover is the definitive version, offering a rollicking playful joust through this fun tune.

The Byrds: Mr. Tambourine Man
Dylan is well represented on this list and rightly so. While true Dylan fans enjoy his rendition of the song (as I do), most folks will think of The Byrds’ version. What a great band. Too bad David was booted over Triad.

Hot Tuna: Hesitation Blues
From their first album, this version features a young Jorma singing this blues standard. I love it thoroughly and . . . hold on . . . just popped it in the stereo. Wonderful.

The Band: I Shall Be Released
Yet another Dylan song. This song was in regular rotation on my college radio show a long time ago. So special.

Cowboy Junkies: Sweet Jane
Surprised, aren’t you? Lou Reed’s harrowing Velvet Undergorund song is completely re-done here by the Junkies. Much like Hendrix’s re-working of Watchtower, this song is a re-working of a great song and, as Paula Abdul would say, the Junkies make it their own. Much like when Clapton re-worked his own version of Layla a few years later, this sets the song in a completely different light.

Eric Clapton: Crossroads
Speaking of the man . . . how many blues songs could populate this list! Clapton explodes on Robert Johnson’s song. It is a tour de force that has defined the blues for an entire generation.

The Fugees: Killing Me Softly
While I grew up on Roberta Flack’s version of this song, which I love, one has to tip the hat to Lauryn Hill et al. for their cover 25 years later. Their hip-hop version helped introduce a style of music to a broad audience.

Run DMC: Walk This Way
Of course, rappers Run DMC did the same thing in the mid-1980s when they covered Aerosmith’s Walk This Way (with a little help from the Toxic Twins). Rap came to mainstream America because of this cover.

Aretha Franklin: Respect
Indeed, a re-make! Otis Redding penned the song a couple years earlier. I love Redding’s version, but the Queen of Soul put this song on the all-time list. Her version of the song was so popular, that President Nixon used Sock It to Me on Laugh-In. My first wrestling competition had me clad in a Sock It to Me T-shirt.

Ike and Tina Turner: Proud Mary
The intro alone sets this song on its head. It is soon obliterated by Tina pumping up the tempo on this rock classic.

Janis Joplin: Me & Bobby McGee
Many folks do not even realize that Kris Kristofferson wrote this song. Janis scored a #1 hit with this after she died. As a youngster I knew that my music lacked female voices. Janis was an exception.

Edwin Starr: War
Another song most do not realize is a cover. Other than Springsteen’s cover in the 1980s (I saw an awesome version in Montreal), what other version have you ever heard? Starr built his career on his thunderous version of this song.

The Animals: House of the Rising Sun
Eric Burdon’s career stems from his version of this song. Covered a lot, The Animals truly capture the mood of this blues piece.

Black Crowes: Hard to Handle
I like the original, but it would be unfair to dismiss this version. It placed the Crowes on the charts and introduced the grunge-era fans to a wonderful history of music.

Otis Redding: Try A Little Tenderness
My absolute favorite Otis song! This is a powerhouse version that has been mimicked, but not equaled.

Led Zeppelin: Nobody’s Fault But Mine
I could continue this list with blues song after blues song that rockers have covered and introduced to new audiences. Zeppelin’s version of this Blind Willie Johnson song keeps the blues feeling throughout and still has room for the rock.

Van Halen: Ice Cream Man
Say what you want about flakey David Lee Roth, he has a way about him that exudes innuendo. This song is a natural then.

Earth Wind and Fire: Got to Get You Into My Life
I was one of the few who enjoyed the Sgt. Pepper’s movie when it came out. I have seen it more recently and realize that I was misguided as a youth. Despite the poor movie, Earth Wind and Fire’s version of this is spectacular!

Patti Labelle: Lady Marmalade
I never realized this version was a cover. When I slammed then-candidate Jon Corzine for using Mya on a campaign stop, I discovered that Labelle’s version was also a cover. This is a wonderful song!

Johnny Cash: Hurt
I recall Nine Inch Nails’ Woodstock ’94 performance. It was dreadful, in my opinion. Their music (noise?) is totally not my style. This song, however, is blistering in Cash’s hands. What a melancholy song. Even Trent Reznor recognized the power of Cash’s version.

I pop the video in, and wow… Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn’t mine anymore. … It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. [Somehow] that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning—different, but every bit as pure.

It seems to me this is the definition of what a cover/re-make should be.

Thanks Janet for taking me down memory lane . . .

Also blogged on this date . . .

• Bumper Stickers Should Be Issued - 2009
• Customer Service - 2008
• Election Post-mortem - 2005
• Neverending Scavenger Hunt - 2005
• The Wonders of Nature - 2005
• Swing Bridge in Operation - 2005
• What is it with that orange hat? - 2004