(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Covers that added the most to the original song [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-06-09 Time for a little break from all the major events going on right now. Today I want to look at my favorite covers and ask for yours. I’m sure that in your whole history of music appreciation you must have a favorite cover or two that you think really added something substantial to the original. Three big-time candidates for me: 1) Mary Lou Lord’s cover of Bob Dylan’s “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” 2) Blue Angel’s cover of Frankie Laine’s “I’m Gonna be Strong” 3) Nazareth’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s “This Flight Tonight” I’m totally sure I’m missing some that I’ll remember later, but I think these three are very worthy. ----- Okay, let’s start with Bob Dylan’s raw wOOOOah version of “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”. I know there are a lot of people out there who would say that “Blood On The Tracks” is one of their favorite albums ever…. It’s a great song in principle, but it didn’t really reach me all that well through Dylan’s lens. But then Mary Lou Lord came along and in my view turned it into a song, a melodic song, and here she does it live, one of the best reworkings of a song I think I have ever heard. If I had to send a list of 10 songs to aliens to describe what life on Earth is really like, I’m pretty sure Lord’s version of this song would be on the list (with big props to Dylan, of course, for having written it in the first place). And it ends absolutely perfectly with the sound of the Boston subway train leaving the nearly deserted station… ------ Next up we have a sort of uncategorizable offering from a singer-songwriter I know nothing about, Frankie Laine’s “I’m Gonna Be Strong” (1963): Juice Newton did a nice cover of it in 1982, which brought it into the late 70’s-early 80’s vibe really well: But much as I love Juice, if you want to know why Cyndi Lauper was discovered, look no further than her 1980 cover of this song alongside her upstart band Blue Angel. This predates Lauper’s immensely popular solo work, and most people amazingly don’t even know about it. I wish the record company had allowed her to keep doing this (although I guess I can’t complain too much about her subsequent solo stuff). She seems to have gotten the idea to end the song with “cry, cry, cry” going a step up on each one from the 1964 version of this song by Gene Pitney, which is a good version too: but Cyndi just collects the totality and knocks the whole thing out of the park (and I really, really wish I had sheet music for this). This is why we all know who Cyndi Lauper is: ----- And finally, you can’t forget this one, especially because the original artist (Joni Mitchell) got such a kick out of it . I don’t think the cover is necessarily “better” than the original, but it sure is different…. Joni’s version, which exudes Joniness: and Nazareth’s version: These guys really did turn it into something substantially different, and they showed that a great song can have many different faces: Just having some fun here, and eager to hear some more great covers from you! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/9/2170525/-Covers-that-added-the-most-to-the-original-song Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/