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Joni Mitchell – “River” Not a fan, but I’m not done yet so who knows.

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Travis_front_003
Travis_front_003 (Photo credit: marcokenmoeller)

I heard the Sarah McLachlan version of this song a couple days ago and it hit me as a well written Christmas ballad. I’ve heard it before but it kind of went over or under my head and never really stuck. Reason #387 that music is cool –You can listen to stuff, even good stuff and it might take a while for you to really hear it and have it hit you. I don’t know why that is…just like I don’t know why time and mood and all the other elements that make you you seem to have a connection to what you hear and what you don’t. You can hear stuff as just ambient background fuzz or it can dance with your soul. Same music – just you in a different place.

Instead of the Canadian Mclaclan doing  her excellent version of fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell’s song…I kicked around a bit to find a Scottish dude doing a version…Hey…this piece of music is very wimpy for the cave so I needed Scotland to give it a little nip of whiskey, salmon fishing and a cold north wind…you know, rustic masculine stuff.

So here we go with a Travis version of this song that starts with a good story. Good stories make everything better.

Merry Christmas from the Cave!

5 good covers…#1…Johnny Cash “Hurt “

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go

The other cover versions on my quick list are all good. This one I have no problem calling “great” and stand ready to defend it.  You can say Johnny Cash is a country music star if you want to limit him to just that…you would be wrong, but you could do that. Johnny Cash chooses a Nine Inch Nails song and makes it his own video epitaph on his way out of a long music career and life on this earth. The song was already dark and brooding and about hopeless self reflection but the Man in Black makes it personal. So personal that it is almost difficult to experience. Like all the best…he brings you along with him on this journey…you will feel what he feels.

Chrissie Hynde covers Radiohead “Creep”

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Chrissie Hynde is Rock n Roll. The first Pretenders record is a great record- If you only heard Brass in Pocket, you only know the weakest track on it. I am in love with this woman…she just sets stuff up and kicks it down.  And I don’t mean that creepy, stalker kind of weird love even though I am picking a music track that is about that creepy stalker weird kind of love. I mean that 14 year old girl to Justin Bieber kind of love. That AAAHHHHH! OMG!, there is Justin….I can’t believe it….here is a sharpie Justin…please sign something while I text all my BFFs…Ahhhhhhhh! Kind of love.

O.K I admit to being a bit star struck and here she is doing that beautifully dark lullaby to isolation and unrequited-ness…I don’t think there is a better song about it.

The Grammys = good music?

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Award shows by an industry for an industry are weird. On one hand- they want to highlight some of the excellent product that has been produced during the year, but on the other-they want to set themselves as a viable thriving entity that is really cool and happening.  The Artists they pick will try to reflect both these things with a keen eye towards what the public has a taste for and will spend money on. Is this bad? Everybody has to get that rent paid one way or the other.

I like seeing the nominations because it shows what we have interest in and it lets me know if I missed something. I admit that the  Black Keys completely got by me. I am going to take a crash course on this band after I write this and probably find out a song or two is already in my cortex waiting to be processed.  Or maybe not….maybe I missed them completely. I know the name and I know people like them but I got nothing to say right now. This is reason #457 that I love music…a band has to be discovered by you personally to be part of your world. Going on a little discovery mission to the Black Keys universe may make them one of my favorites or I may hate them and everything they stand for.

So I guess the Grammys can still do some good work and bring attention to some good music, even if LMFAO’s “Sexy and I know it” is nominated for something.

What Rock music does Batman listen to?

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I see Batman as more of a classical music fan since he moves in those wealthy circles of society, maybe catching an opera or two along the way.

But that doesn’t mean a dude in a bat suit can’t rock out once in a while, we know he has a dark side. He is intelligent, we also know that he is not afraid to get down and dirty with the criminal element of Gotham. He is a great advocate of those unjustly accused. Gritty, Smart and defender of the masses- all in N.Y.C…I am thinking Lou Reed for the caped crusader. Cranking up “Sweet Jane” in the Batmobile as he tears out of the Batcave to extinguish a little vengeance on some offenders…yeah that works.

5 good covers…#3 Quiet Riot covers Slade…Come on Feel the Noise

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O.K, this one is personal. Come on feel the noise [yes…I am spelling the title this way because this is 2012 and on the internet…the words were innocent and playful and there was no web when this hit in 1973…end of disclaimer] O.K back to Slade.

This was a monster hit in 1973…if you were a young dude residing anywhere covered by the English Top of the Pops universe, you did everything you could to get a copy of this 45. As a young lad myself, I managed to get one and also wear it out on the record player.  I would bring it to the States with me but alas that may have been the only copy to make its way there. The Beatles and Stones made it over and so did Monty Python and even Benny Hill, but Slade would never cross the Atlantic in a significant way. I can’t explain this because you could say (and I think I am) that they were the kings of early 70’s glam Rock.

The Quiet Riot version is good but that is not the reason I chose this. Everyone thought this was a Quiet Riot original because no one from the 80’s metal era ever heard of Slade….and no one cared. That is why the cave must stand up and put an end to this transgression.  As I said before, this one is personal…this is the first record that I added to my collection. This blog is about dragging relics out and giving them a quick polish. This post is giving you two relics for the price of one…Me and my first favorite band Slade.

And now for something completely different:

If you look at the guitar player in the video for this song, he is either dressed as Diana Ross or a Dalek… Dr Who fans help me out here.

5 good covers…#4 Warren Zevon covers Steve Winwood- Back in the High life again.

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Back in the High life again.

Sometimes digging in the cave you find a bright shiny gem that you had almost forgotten about. Warren Zevon was dark sardonic humor brought to life. Each song was a mini film noire with twists and turns and shady characters. Dark Humor walks on some dangerous streets and Warren was ready to bring you along for a stroll. This is a very rare vintage of sarcasm and cynicism mixed with brutal truth and reflection. I am struggling a bit with words to describe it…his songs always walked the edge.

Now let’s get to Steve Winwood. He seems to walk in the ethereal light of a gentle English meadow. There is a quality of the refined country gentleman about his music. He may still play the organ at his local country parish church once in a while.

So when Warren Zevon picks a Steve Winwood song to cover it has the chance to be something special. In the Steve Winwood version the song seems to be about the resolution of the struggle and getting life back where it should be. But in the Warren Zevon version the song seems to be about the struggle itself….Same damn song but not same damn song!