John is one AWOL motherfucker these days.
Unfortunately, this is one of the busiest weeks of the year for me, so I can’t pick up much slack. Here’s an open thread. I’ll give you a topic to get things rolling: this is the best cover of a Beatles song ever, agree or disagree, even if it was in the worst Beatles-themed movie ever.
Brian R.
Nope.
The correct answer is:
Stevie Wonder, “We Can Work It Out.”
Dr J
Joe Cocker’s “With a Little Help From my Friends” transformed a cute little Beatles song into a huge, kick-ass song.
singfoom
Mers finally getting sued
For anyone who cares about the whole financial meltdown/fraudclosure/Wall Street as a place where people bet but the filter hates the word, this is a big deal.
MERS is the system the FIRE sector set up to get around recording titles with counties and localities. It literally has one or two employees.
All of the bullshit mortgages flowed through MERS. Good luck to the DA in Texas who has filed this. Not an exciting moment as justice is a boring sport to watch, with lots of upsets, but at least something is happening…
ETA: I always get tripped by the filter when talking about Wall Street.
wobblybits
When I read the title of the post, the first thing to come to mind was Prince’s song. Now I can’t get it out of my head.
singfoom
Sorry if this is a repost, but the filter hates me.
Mers finally getting sued
For anyone who cares about the whole financial meltdown/fraudclosure/Wall Street as a place where people bet but the filter hates the word, this is a big deal.
MERS is the system the FIRE sector set up to get around recording titles with counties and localities. It literally has one or two employees.
All of the bullshit mortgages flowed through MERS. Good luck to the DA in Texas who has filed this. Not an exciting moment as justice is a boring sport to watch, with lots of upsets, but at least something is happening…
Bob's Your Uncle!
Not bad…but this here is, I think, the best cover of a Beatles song ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VKQKVbyQcs
Svensker
Not even close.
Joe Cocker wins hands down for me.
Also, too, DougJ Green-Ellis, you sound a little testy. 4 interceptions will do that to a guy (not that we Jets fans have anything to be proud of, either).
ETA: What DrJ said.
earl in CA
10/31/94 – Phish covered the entire Beatles ‘White Album’ start to finish in one set. You may not be Phish fans, but they sure played a hell of a set that night. “While My Guitar…” was covered a few times more by the band and if you’re a fan and got lucky enough to catch them cover that one live – you definitely remember it.
@ Brian R – Thanks for the Stevie link. That version is terrific.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
Needs moar cow bell.
Elizabelle
Sly Stone is homeless in LA. He’s living in a camper in Compton. Showering in some kind souls’ home.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/soul-music-star-sly-stone-now-homeless-in-la.html
Roger Moore
@singfoom:
About fucking time. Too bad nobody thought to sue them before they had mangled the whole mortgage system and sunk the economy. One more piece of proof that lawsuits after the fact are no substitute for prospective regulation.
Dolbia
Surely Across the Universe was a worse film than Sgt Pepper. Surely.
JPL
MSNBC online has a computer game to see if you can live on 9 dollars an hour. It’s depressing. link
You can do it if you do not have to pay rent.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Elizabelle: “”I just do not want to return to a fixed home. I cannot stand being in one place. I must keep moving.”
I don’t think this makes him “homeless”.
Dave
Who Is John Cole??
UncommonSense
Yep, best Beatles cover, absolutely. Followed closely by Cocker’s version of With a Little Help From My Friends.
Neddie Jingo
I guess I’m the only person on earth who opines that Joe Cocker’s “With a Little Help” is overblown and bombastic, and rather misses the point of the original. That’s OK. I’ll just be over here stuffing figs in my ears and reciting Sarah Palin speeches.
johnsmith1882
@Brian R.: Bingo. Stevie’s cover of We Can Work It Out is the only correct answer. It’s not even close. Personally, I have to play it every so often, to recharge the happ-o-meter. Stevie is the mathematical proof that human beings have souls. Ten internets to you, good sir.
Big Baby DougJ
@Neddie Jingo:
Nope, you’re not, I think so too. I love his “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window” though.
dj spellchecka
801 [phil manzanera, brian eno, bill maccormick, francis monkman, simon phillips and lloyd watson] live….”tomorrow never knows”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Usb26HywtU
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Diana Reeves and Cassandra Wilson, Come Together.
johnsmith1882
@Neddie Jingo: You are not alone, Neddie. Listening to Cocker is akin to watching a stuck pig thrash around, dying. Unpleasant all around.
vawolf1974
Jimi Hendrix’s cover of “Day Tripper” is pretty awesome too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qic4pjTE0hc
Brian R.
@Big Baby DougJ:
Yes and yes.
Wannabe Speechwriter
Don’t forget Brother Ray-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eof2c5fTcI8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq5Oyza1afg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8fKPVF-r-Y&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhVy3Tx07vA&feature=related
Neddie Jingo
@Big Baby DougJ:
Concur. The man can sing. He just ran into a Taste Deficiency with “Friends.”
Svensker
@johnsmith1882:
You take that back. Right this minute. Or else!
johnsmith1882
@Neddie Jingo: Cmon guys, we can do better than this. Ike and Tina: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j-8aLvs5jk
Johnny Cash: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlhcyWLORes
Al Green:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs9mkVMv830
johnsmith1882
@Svensker: I won’t, but will give Cocker credit for singing his guts out. I can appreciate his earnestness. But shouldn’t a cover in some way be ‘better’ than original, or add something new, at least to be considered for this thread? Along the lines of All Along the Watchtower becoming Hendrix’s tune, rather than Dylan’s original? Maybe my criteria is too high, but I’ll take Ringo’s goofy stoned original over Cocker’s drunken thrashing about any day.
Garm
For my money best Beatles Cover ever is Fiona Apple’s version of “Across The Universe” from the Pleasantville sound track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ5WPXxNzPU
Souxie and the Banshees do a fine cover of “Dear Prudence.” Not the best Beatles cover by a long shot but a good one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25weBjXioB0
Svensker
@johnsmith1882:
It’s a completely different song when Joe sang it. I love the original version for it’s goofy sweetness, but Joe…
My problem is pretty much everything Joe did in that period just hits me straight in the heart.
Occasional Commenter
My favorites.
Aretha Franklin: Let It Be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaNBCFXD9kw
Chaka Khan: We Can Work It Out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfa7NjQx5fk
dedc79
She Said, She Said
JC
I love Cocker’s version of With A Little Help From My Friends.
Bombastic? Maybe. Overblown? Fine.
Still love it though – not something you can listen to ten times in a row, but when the mood strikes, it’s a hymn of both mourning and exaltation.
johnsmith1882
@Svensker: Well, certainly no one can take that away from you. That’s what music is all about, right? To reach right in your chest and show you your heart? Point taken. Different strokes for different folks and all that, like (the apparently homeless, sadly) Sly Stone said.
Stefan
John is one AWOL motherfucker these days.
I’d just assumed that this was one of those periodic episodes where he’d severely injured himself and knocked himself out while stepping out of bed/pouring a bowl of cereal/sitting on a white fluffy cushion, etc., and that he’d come to in a few days if, that is, he wasn’t eaten alive by Tunch first.
patrick II
Some great covers here. I will just add Bono’s “I am the Walrus” from Across the Universe.
C.S.
Rufus Wainwright’s version of “Across the Universe,”
Aerosmith’s “Come Together,”
Al Green’s “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,”
John Denver’s “Mother Nature’s Son,”
Allison Krause’s “I Will,”
Emmylou Harris’ “For No One,”
and Johnny Cash’s “In My Life” . . .
. . . . all kick Joe Cocker’s spastic ass in too many ways to count. And all are at least the equal of that EW&F cover.
Vlad
Some good suggestions in this thread. I also like:
Wilson Pickett, “Hey Jude”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IFB9Q_3t_k
The Diodes, “Red Rubber Ball”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vobi55NNnes
Vlad
[This time without links, since my comment’s trapped in moderation.]
Some good suggestions in this thread. I also like:
Wilson Pickett, “Hey Jude”
The Diodes, “Red Rubber Ball”
The Brothers Johnson, “Come Together”
Elizabelle
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
I hearz you. Sounds like some Pennsylvanians on the later thread would take Sly’s deal.
Weird former residence of Mr. Stone: a few years ago, he was living in Ashburn, VA, which is near Dulles Airport and home to many IT folk and programmers who keep the DC area humming.
Bunch of new homes and townhomes where fields reigned 30 years ago.
Not where you’d expect to find Sly, and apparently not for that long.
moderateindy
The Dead did versions of Dear Prudence that were simply amazing. Of course being the Dead they also did versions that were awful. The best version I ever saw was actually done by Bob Weir and his group RATDOG, at The Riviera Theater in Chicago. The energy of the tune just kept building and building, it was phenomenal, and I was stone cold sober!
piratedan
gonna go off the grid and pick…. The Buckingham’s cover of I’ll be Back Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37CTnbCibZU
Gravenstone
Going anti-fave. I absolutely detest the grossly overplayed Aerosmith cover of Come Together. Seriously, I will change the channel as soon as I hear it fire up. I can’t stand to hear it again, ever.
earl in CA
@moderateindy: i was lucky enough to hear JGB tear that tune up on a few occasions. Gotta give the fat man props on that one.
C.S.
@Gravenstone:
Which is played about 1/1000th as much Cocker’s abomination. In fact, I can’t even remember the last time I heard Aerosmith’s Come Together — even on classic rock radio — where I wasn’t the one making the decision to play it.
TG Chicago
If you want more funk and soul covers of Beatles songs than you can shake a stick at, check this out:
http://funky16corners.wordpress.com/category/beatles/
It’s a great funk and soul blog overall, and he loves doing Beatles covers mixes.
Neddie Jingo
@Elizabelle:
I think you might be mixing up Sly Stone and Wilson Pickett, who lived in Ashburn when he passed away.
I noticed it at the time (shameless blogwhoring).