Cover Songs: Volume 6
Click on streaming service of your choice to listen to the playlist as you read along. Note that only the YouTube version has all the songs discussed in this playlist.
This is the sixth installment of an ongoing series exploring the art of the cover song. In the first volume I outlined the various types of cover songs (Straight-up; Modernization; Tempo Change; Genre Change; Reinvention) which provides the framework for my analysis. Reading the introduction of that first volume will help before continuing here.
The Playlist
Rudy, A Message to You (Rudy) \ Dandy Livingstone (1967) & The Specials (1979)
Police & Thieves \ Junior Murvin (1976) & The Clash (1977)
Red Rubber Ball \ The Cyrkle (1966) & The Diodes (1977)
Cum on Feel the Noize \ Slade (1973) & Bran Van 3000 (1996)
State of Independence \ Jon & Vangelis (1981) & Moodswings (Feat. Chrissie Hynde) (1992) - not on Spotify
We Have All the Time in the World \ Louis Armstrong (1969) & My Bloody Valentine (1993) - not on Spotify
True Love Will Find You in the End \ Daniel Johnston (1985) & Spectrum (1992) - not on Spotify
Let's Stick Together \ Wilbert Harrison (1962) & Bryan Ferry (1976)
Ball of Confusion \ The Temptations (1970) & Love and Rockets (1985)
Let It Ride \ Bachman-Turner Overdrive (1974) & Big Sugar (1998)
Money \ Barrett Strong (1959) & The Flying Lizards (1979)
In this volume I’ll be focusing mostly on songs that featured a genre change and in which there was some distance between the original and the cover (with one exception). Some of these are songs that had more famous covers than the version in this playlist, but as per usual the focus will be on music consistent with the themes here at Ceremony.
“Rudy, A Message to You” \ Dandy Livingstone (1967) & “A Message to You Rudy” \ The Specials (1979)
The first two songs in this volume are not genre changes, but exemplify how the second wave of ska modernized from the first wave, as outlined in the profile on ska. Many of the wonderful covers of that second wave were the defining songs of the era, and none make that case more than this song. Coventry, England’s The Specials were the leaders of the second wave with their self-titled, debut LP in 1979 forging the way for the British ska scene to blossom. Britain and Jamaica had long had a close relationship musically, and while ska was a combination of American Jazz and R&B with calypso music, it would be England that first embraced the form outside of Jamaica, driven by its vibrant, Jamaican ex-pat community.
Robert ‘Dandy’ Livingstone Thompson was one such example. Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica he moved to England in the late 1950s at the age of fifteen. He started releasing ska singles in 1964 under the name, Sugar and Dandy, via London’s Carnival Records. He had a modest hit with the song, “What A Life!” As he continued to release a plethora of singles, his sound evolved into ska’s slower successor, rocksteady. His debut LP was 1967’s Rock Steady with Dandy, but the notable single that same year, “Rudy, A Message to You,” wasn’t on the album. It was a quintessential rocksteady song, riding the familiar ska off-beat but at a laid-back tempo. Accented with horns, the song featured a solo by Cuban trombone player, Emmanuel ‘Rico’ Rodriguez. Livingstone’s sweet, simple vocal delivery matched the song’s plaintive, pleading message for the Jamaican youth, the ‘rude boys,’ to “stop your messing around,” to “think of your future,” and “straighten out” from “creating problems in town.”
The Specials’ version of the song, with ‘Rudy’ moved to the back of the title, was fairly straight up, with a slightly slower tempo, and a modernization thanks to the contemporary production. Elvis Costello, himself at the start of his career, produced the song and album. The Special’s cover was further tied to Dandy’s original by Rico Rodriguez reprising his performance on the song. The Specials were notable for their two-tone look and brand, emblematic of the band’s composition of black and white band members. They were a good messenger to update the song’s message, singing to the disconsolate British youth of the late ‘70s. “A Message to You Rudy” was the band’s second single and the first from their inaugural album. It reached #10 in the UK chart and has become one of the best known and most popular of the second wave ska songs.
“Police & Thieves” \ Junior Murvin (1976) & The Clash (1977)
Junior Murvin
Admittedly, I selected this song on the assumption it was also a second wave cover of a first wave ska original, so you can imagine my surprise when I learned the original was issued only one year prior to The Clash’s version. Murvin Junior Smith was from Saint James, Jamaica and was a falsetto-tinged reggae singer, having been inspired by Curtis Mayfield. Performing as Junior Soul early in his career he’d been releasing singles since the late ‘60s by the time he convinced legendary ska singer and producer, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, to record his first album. He won Perry over with his song, “Police and Thief,” which Perry recorded in his infamous dub style. It anchored the album as the title track, though updated to, “Police and Thieves,” and was released under the name Junior Murvin. The single wasn’t a chart success initially but received acclaim and was a popular anthem during the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival riot, a formative event for The Clash (Joe Strummer and Paul Simonen were involved), who documented it in their song, “White Riot.” “Police and Thieves” had a second wind in 1980 after being used in the Jamaican film, Rockers, with it reaching #23 in the UK singles chart.
The song was another cry for peace, a common theme of ska and reggae, and featured the memorable lyrics, “Police and thieves in the street / Fighting the nation with their guns and ammunition.” As one of the first punk bands with a political bent, it was a perfect fit for The Clash, who covered the song on their debut LP the year after Murvin’s version. Two minutes longer, it was true to the original by keeping the reggae beat but was merged with the energy and edge of the The Clash’s punk sound. Joe Strummer added a new, first verse, “They’re going through a tight wind,” a lyric lifted from The Ramones’ song, “Blitzkrieg Bop.” The New York band had invigorated the London Punk scene with their show at The Roundhouse in July 1976, which The Clash had attended hours after their debut show. The Clash’s genre change on “Police and Thieves” was achieved by extending instrumental sections, in which the band’s punk/reggae vibe could be explored, riding a strong bass line from Paul Simonon. Second wave ska and first wave punk were closely linked, and The Clash were the highest profile band to join the two. Their version of “Police and Thieves” was an early, consummate example of how well they could make it happen.
“Red Rubber Ball” \ The Cyrkle (1966) & The Diodes (1977)
Punk was, in its initial incarnation, a return to the simpler forms of early rock ‘n’ roll but ramped up to new speeds and energy levels. Punk bands routinely drew on songs from the ‘50s and ’60s as inspiration, leveraging the simple and catchy melodies which could sound great when run through the punk speed machine. One of Toronto’s first and best punk bands, The Diodes, did just that with their first single, which was also the lead track to their 1977, self-titled, debut album.
Punk was also a rejection of current music trends and the music was instilled with rebellion and a penchant for sticking it in the eye of contemporary music culture. Naturally, the established music artists, especially those well-removed from the harder rock sounds of punk, were not too impressed with this new genre. Paul Simon, one of the world’s leading folk and pop performers, first as part of Simon & Garfunkel and then, by the arrival of punk, a chart-topping solo performer, was one of those artists to give punk a thumbs down. For The Diodes, picking one of his songs was a very punk way to express themselves and announce their arrival.
Simon wrote “Red Rubber Ball” in 1966 with Bruce Woodley of Australian band, The Seekers. Simon’s early career was mostly as a song writer before Simon & Garfunkel took off over the course of late ’65 and 1966. His work with Woodley was a paid gig to give The Seekers some material, with them writing several songs together. The Cyrkle was a band out of Pennsylvania managed by The Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein. John Lennon provided the spelling of their band name, which was inspired by a traffic circle in their hometown of Easton. After opening for The Beatles on their 1966 American tour as well as for a Simon & Garfunkel tour, The Cyrkle were building a name for themselves. Simon offered them “Red Rubber Ball” and the band recorded it as their first single, eventually becoming the title track of the debut LP. A simple, catchy, typical ’60s pop song, it reached #2 in the US and, notably, #1 in Canada. The Seekers also included a version of it on their album that year, Come the Day (Georgy Girl in North America).
The Diodes weren’t just one of the first punk bands in Canada, they helped form the punk scene in Toronto through their shows and especially via their club, Crash ‘n’ Burn, a legendary (and brief) venue that gave the city’s nascent punk scene a place to play. After playing at New York’s epicentre of punk, CBGB’s, in July 1977 the band was signed to Columbia Records in Canada and released their debut single and album. Canada, like most other places, wasn’t quite ready for punk music and “Red Rubber Ball” was not a hit. However, it was a great genre change cover, in typical punk fashion taking the jaunty rhythms of the original and converting them into a driving, searing tune delivered in catchy harmonies over the chorus. It offered the band a strong start to what would be a notable (in Canada) career spanning four albums over the next five years.
“Cum on Feel the Noize” \ Slade (1973) & Bran Van 3000 (1997)
English glam band Slade’s 1973 hit, “Cum on Feel the Noize,” has been a favourite song for rock bands to cover. It’s anthemic, shout-along chorus, driving beat, and edgy guitars have been fodder for bands to rock out for decades now. Most famously, American act Quiet Riot had a top ten hit with the song in 1983. Slade’s version was one of several #1 hits for the band as one of the most popular glam era acts.
The cover we’ll look at again comes from Canada, this time from Montreal’s Bran Van 3000. The band was formed around James Di Salvio, a studio mixer working with Quebec artists, in particular Jean Leloup (Leclerc). Working with friend, E.P. Bergen, the pair teamed with Leloup to start putting together songs that sampled from pop, dance, hip hop, and electronica. After winning a contest at Canadian Music Week (but were disqualified when it was discovered there was no band, just a couple of guys mixing on turntables), the duo of Di Salvio and Bergen were signed to label, Audiogram, under the name Bran Van 3000 (a play on the Swedish liquor, Brännvin). Their first album, Glee, which featured the fantastic single, “Drinking in LA,” was released in 1997.
On that album was a cover of “Cum on Feel the Noize,” one of the earliest tracks the band had taken on to remix, calling on Sara Johnston to provide vocals. It was an impressive reinterpretation of the song, leaving behind the shouty energy of the original to be distilled into a caustic, ambient, down tempo version. The song intertwined a variety of sounds, instruments, beats, and various vocals to achieve its interesting take. Listen to the song several times and I guarantee you will take something different out of it each time. Yet, while being a complete genre change (to exactly what is uncertain, the song itself moved through a few different vibes – BV3 was always hard to pigeonhole), the melody and feel of the original were still present. It was the sort of cover that might introduce fans of a newer genre, electronica, to the wondrous throwback of glam.
Bran Van 3000’s debut LP, Glee, was first released in 1997 with the cover on the left, and subsequently from 1998 onwards with the cover on the right.
“State of Independence” \ Jon & Vangelis (1981) & “Spiritual High (State of Independence)” \ Moodswings (featuring Chrissie Hynde) (1992) – not on Spotify playlist
The pairing of prog rock band Yes’ frontman, Jon Anderson, with Greek new age keyboard pioneer, Vangelis (Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou) seemed like an odd experiment. For certain, the experimental and exploratory nature of both artists’ milieus had a common thread, but musically they seemed to be coming form opposite ends of the spectrum. Actually, Vangelis had an established prog rock pedigree and the pair had worked together sporadically since 1975 after Vangelis had been considered as a replacement for Rick Wakeman in Yes. Anderson had provided vocals to several songs on Vangelis albums.
In 1979, Vangelis was a respected artist in new age, a synth-based genre that used keyboards to achieve ambient, symphonic music. He’d evolved to that sound after an earlier career as a composer of scores for Greek and French film, television and theater, a brief turn in a rock band, Aphrodite’s Child, and then as a solo artist exploring prog rock. He had achieved a couple of top forty albums in the UK. Yes was one of the giants of prog rock, having scored seven consecutive top ten albums in the UK by 1979. Jon Anderson had one of the most distinct voices in the rock world. Coming together as Jon & Vangelis, they recorded their first album together in 1979, Short Stories, which reached the top ten in the UK as did the single, “I Hear You Now.” After both did some solo work, they came back together in 1981 for the album, The Friends of Mr. Cairo. The title track of which was an early favourite of mine though it wasn’t a charting success. The next single, “I’ll Find My Way Home,” returned them to the UK top ten.
Though only a single in South Africa and the B-side to “The Friends of Mr. Cairo,” the song “State of Independence” became a hit for Donna Summers when she covered it in 1982. Her version reached the top twenty in the UK and just missed the top forty in the US. She stayed fairly true to the original but naturally put a more playful, soulful take on the song. Jon & Vangelis’ original was a synth-pop tune with jazzy, horn accents and built on a repeating synth line and electronic beats. Anderson’s voice, as usual, provided a soaring and lively element to the song. Vangelis was the rhythm; Anderson was the melody. The album track was almost eight minutes in length while the single version was shorter.
The success of Jon & Vangelis parlayed into some of the biggest successes of their careers, leveraging the electronics-based sound they’d explored together. Vangelis had a #1 hit in 1981 in the US with the soundtrack and title single to the movie, Chariots of Fire (released a few months before The Friends of Mr. Cairo). Yes had their only #1 single in 1983 with the song, “Owner of A Lonely Heart.” The duo also teamed up twice more on albums in 1983 and 1991.
Grant Cunliffe, known professionally as Grant Showbiz, was an English producer who was best known for his work with Billy Bragg, The Fall, and The Smiths. In 1989 he teamed up with James Hood, a drummer who had played with Kid Creole, Jeff Beck, and most notably, the Pretenders. The duo called themselves Moodswings and produced an album, Moodfood, which was released in 1992. The album was mostly instrumental songs mixing ambient electronics and dance beats. The album was in the vibe of the acid house and trip hop music of the period, and kicked off with a three-part composition, “Spiritual High.” The second part was subtitled, “State of Independence,” and included vocals from Pretenders Chrissie Hynde and excerpts from Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. Released as a single, the song reached #6 in the US Modern Rock chart. It took the melodic line from Jon & Vangelis’ tune and layered it over a danceable beat and rich, melodic synths, essentially removing the more fragmented Vangelis rhythms. Hynde, like Anderson, had one of the more distinctive voices in rock and, though not usually a soaring or emotive singer, her voice was brought alive through Showbiz and Hood’s treatment. The result, with gospel vocals added, brought the moods of the original and Summers’ versions together and created the most catchy, entrancing version yet. It was an impressive reinvention.
“We Have All the Time in the World” \ Louis Armstrong (1969) & My Bloody Valentine (1993) – not on Spotify playlist
“We Have All the Time in the World” was written by John Barry with lyrics from Hal David, and was recorded by Louis Armstrong to provide the theme song for the sixth James Bond movie, 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Barry had scored all the Bond films to that point and David was renowned from his prolific partnership with Burt Bacharach. The song’s title was taken from the novel and movie’s final line, and though it featured a trumpet it was not Satchmo playing it due to illness. The 1969 recording caught Armstrong at the tail end of his career, still riding high thanks to the 1967 single, “What A Wonderful World,” and just before his death in 1971.
The song’s title was ironic, given that Bond delivered the line just after his wife, Tracy, was gunned down on the day of their wedding. The song, however, appeared in the film during the happier courtship montage. Lyrically it was a simple love song, filled with hope and dedication to love, and set-up the movie’s tragic finale. Musically it mixed the syrupy strings common with Bond music at the time, layered over a subtle jazzy beat, strumming and flamenco guitars, and a melancholy trumpet solo. The focal point was Armstrong’s vocal, naturally, marrying the song’s impeccable melody and delivered with his iconic lilt and rich, scratchy voice. The usual playfulness of his delivery was removed, leaving a simpler, more sombre delivery to fit the song. The song and album became a favourite of Bond film enthusiasts and was yet another in a long line of memorable Louis Armstrong songs.
It was, therefore, an unlikely selection to be covered by My Bloody Valentine, the leading force in the noisy, gauzy world of early ‘90s shoegaze music. In 1993 an album was put together as part of the Peace Together project, an organization promoting peace in Northern Ireland. The fantastic LP, Peace Together, brought various artists together to record cover songs as well as two versions of an original song, “Be Still,” that brought together the likes of Elizabeth Fraser from Cocteau Twins, Peter Gabriel, Sinéad O'Connor, Feargal Sharkey from The Undertones, Jah Wobble form P.I.L., and Irish band, Hothouse Flowers.
My Bloody Valentine had released the greatest album of the shoegaze era, 1991’s Loveless, which had landed them a lucrative contract with Island Records. They put the proceeds towards a new studio and, in 1993, were struggling to develop a follow-up album. The band’s creative force, Kevin Shields, was a notorious perfectionist and was suffering from writer’s block. Their cover of “We Have All the Time in the World” for the Peace Together album, as well as a cover song for a Wire tribute album in 1996, would be the only music released by the band until the 2013 album, m b v.
MBV’s take on the Bond theme song was relatively straight-up, but in sound achieved a genre change and modernization via the change in instrumentation and presentation. Keeping the tune’s unfailing melody and jazzy beat, the band chose to step back from their noisy, guitar-riven sound and deliver a synth-infused track with vocals from guitarist, Bilinda Butcher. Leaning into the song’s romantic themes, MBV’s version was more celebrational than the original. However, in typical shoegaze fashion, with the lyrics buried in the mix (though far less than a typical MBV tune) and the wall-of-sound synth-strings sound, it had some of the murkier elements of their genre. For MBV fans such as myself, it was an enchanting and fun departure from their usual fare and a fantastic tune.
“True Love Will Find You in the End” \ Daniel Johnston (1985) & Spectrum (1992) – not on Spotify playlist
Daniel Johnston
This is another shoegaze reinterpretation of a song from a very different genre. Daniel Johnston was born in California, raised in West Virginia, attended university in Ohio, and then settled in Austin, Texas where he started recording and handing out homemade cassette tapes of his music. While struggling with mental health issues (schizophrenia and bipolar disorder), he crafted beautiful, simple, acoustic folk songs, attracting a following among the underground music scene in America.
Johnston didn’t record his first proper studio recording until 1988, eventually released in ’90 as, 1990. On that album was a proper recording of a song he’d originally issued on the 1985 cassette, Retired Boxer (studio version on the playlist). The song was “True Love Will Find You in the End” and it was a hauntingly beautiful song. Other than the recording quality, both versions captured the lovely melody and the interplay of Daniel’s high-toned vocal and strumming guitar. The two sounds combined the melancholy and futility of the song’s lyrical subject, and the brightness of the narrator beseeching hope and the certainty of a destiny filled with love.
Though very different stylistically, shoegaze was a fitting genre to take on such a song. Whereas MBV taking on a Bond theme sung by one of the greatest jazz singers ever seemed implausible, a shoegaze act tackling a song mixing melancholy with hope seemed ripe for the thick, moody presentations of the dreamy, noisy styles of shoegaze. Peter Kember had been a founding member of one of the earliest shoegaze acts, Spacemen 3, before going solo under the name Sonic Boom. His first solo LP was titled, Spectrum, which was the name he adopted for his next act when he formed a band with Richard Formby and Mike Stout. After issuing a couple singles they recorded an album, Soul Kiss (Glide Divine), released in 1992 and featuring the single, “How You Satisfy Me.” That same year they also issued a non-album single, their cover of “True Love Will Find You in the End.” It picked up the wondrous, hopeful vibe of Johnston’s original and was delivered on a simple synth line with a guitar. It was brought into the dream pop airiness of shoegaze via the echoey vocals. It was a respectful take that married the original’s vibe with the new genre.
Neither version of this song was ever destined to top the charts, and Spectrum’s remains an elusive find on streaming services. Spectrum released three more albums over the ‘90s while Johnston recorded albums up to 2012 before his death in 2019. “True Love Will Find You in the End” has been covered by Beck, Wilco, Basia Bulat, and Matthew Good over the years and has become one of Johnston’s best-known songs.
“Let’s Stick Together” \ Wilbert Harrison (1962) & Bryan Ferry (1976)
During the heyday of Roxy Music in the 1970s, Bryan Ferry took breaks to explore his love of old-time R&B music, releasing three albums of covers between 1973 and 1976. The third in 1976 was Let’s Stick Together, and though the album featured no less than five covers of Roxy Music material, the rest of the album continued to mine the 1960s for source material. I am not a big fan of Ferry’s cover material, but the title track from that album was one of his best songs.
Wilbert Harrison
Wilbert Harrison was from Charlotte, North Carolina and started his singing career in the 1950s. He had a #1 hit in 1959 with a Lieber/Stoller song, “Kansas City.” He wouldn’t reach the top echelons of the chart again until 1970 with the song, “Let’s Work Together,” a reworking of a song he’d written and recorded back in 1962 as, “Let’s Stick Together.” Canned Heat had a top forty hit in the US with their version of, “Let’s Work Together,” also in 1970.
Harrison’s 1962 original had all the makings of a hit, but the raw recording and stilted playing likely held it back from broader appeal. The melody and catchy turns were all there, and his vocals were impassioned, edgy, and all that was great about early rock ‘n’ roll. Marked by a little too in-front harmonica, the song rode a lively mix of percussion and piano. It was a song waiting to be done right, to take all those golden elements and bring them out in proper energy and polish.
Few could be more suited to that than Bryan Ferry, whose flair and smooth vocals were perfect to ride over the lively tune. Replacing the harmonica with horns, though there are harmonica accents, the song moved efficiently, effortlessly, and with energy through the song’s great R&B rhythm. Ferry’s stylized vocal gave it a modern edge, though essentially was a straight-up cover. The song was undeniable and has become a regular in Ferry’s shows, usually providing for a raucous, danceable encore. The song gave him a top ten hit in the UK and yes, in the video that was American model, Ferry’s girlfriend at the time, and the cover model for Roxy Music’s 1975 LP, Siren, Jerry Hall.
“Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today)” \ The Temptations (1970) & Love and Rockets (1985)
This is another genre change cover of an R&B classic and both are appreciated within their respective styles. In 1970, vocal group The Temptations were at the peak of their career, having shifted from their classic Detroit Motown sound to what they termed, psychedelic soul, through which they delivered four top ten albums during 1969 and 1970. It was a good time to issue their second greatest hits album. Released in September 1970 it was promoted with a new single, “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today).” The song was written by their long-time collaborator, Norman Whitfield, and hit song writer and singer, Barrett Strong, and recorded with session group, The Funk Brothers. It delivered The Temptations another in a growing list of top ten singles in the US and UK. Marked with a funky bassline, soulful horns, and of course the impassioned, multi-vocal delivery of The Temptations the song was a document of its times, calling out the US’ racial, political, and cultural strife while, “the band played on.”
While the mid-1980s world of Reagan-Thatcher economics and the tensions of a cold war getting long in the tooth were not quite the same dramatic setting as when “Ball of Confusion” was originally penned, the song’s themes were sadly still applicable to a measurable degree. For Daniel Ash and brother tandem, David J (Haskins) and Kevin Haskins, it was a great track to sink their teeth into to launch their newest project. They had been founding members and three quarters of seminal band, Bauhaus, and Daniel and Kevin had worked together in Tones on Tail before re-joining with David to form Love and Rockets in 1985. The cover of “Ball of Confusion” was the new acts’ first single, a non-album track that was later added to re-issues of their debut LP, Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven.
The L&R cover has been issued in various forms, from a shorter 7” mix to longer, 12” remixes for the UK and US. All versions were varying lengths of the song’s hypnotic drum and bass foundation, caustic guitar accents, and Ash’s raspy vocals combined with hollered, harmony choruses. It moved between spacey, atmospheric moods and declarative interludes, but throughout the song it was the drum and bass that rode shotgun. It was therefore able to bridge the funky, R&B origins of the song to the alternative, goth-tinged feel of the L&R version. It was a genre change, a reinvention, and all-in-all a fantastic cover. However, like their predecessor bands, it failed to gain Love and Rockets any chart attention, which would have to wait a few years for them to break through.
“Let It Ride” \ Bachman-Turner Overdrive (1974) & Big Sugar (1998)
Canadian artists seem to love covering each other, and why not? There has been a rich history of music to draw from and it’s not a bad thing to remind people of what came before. When a country is as big yet as thinly and sparsely populated as Canada, an insular cohesiveness of its art community is understandable. This cover song is a great example of how to pay tribute while also modernizing.
Canada has always contributed to the various genres of rock and pop music, though in the early eras it was only in limited degrees. As psychedelic and hard rock grew over the late ‘60s, Canada’s presence was provided by the likes of Steppenwolf and The Guess Who. Breaking away from The Guess Who at their peak in 1970, Randy Bachman formed a new band with his brothers, Robbie and Tim, and vocalist C.F. ‘Fred’ Turner. Appropriately titled, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, the band launched themselves into a prolific decade of music with the release of their debut, self-titled LP in 1973.
Things didn’t really take off for B.T.O. until their second LP, also self-titled, in 1974. Featuring two top ten singles in Canada, the second single, “Takin’ Care of Business,” also reached #1 in the US and #2 in the UK. The first single was, “Let It Ride,” which was also a top forty hit in the US and elevated the band towards their subsequent success. Always a muscle-driven guitar band, “Let It Ride” was pure classic rock, opening with a great acoustic intro and harmonies before being propelled by thick, electric guitar versus. The song then moved between those scratchy versus and lighter, melodic choruses, creating a hypnotic lift and fall listening effect.
A direct descendent of the style of rock pioneered by B.T.O. was Gordie Johnson and his band, Big Sugar. Formed in 1988 out of the backing band for jazz singer, Molly Johnson, the line-up went through several changes over the course of its first two albums in 1991 and 1993. Their sound drew from various styles, mixing classic rock, R&B, heavy blues, jazz, and reggae thanks to the band’s diverse line-up. In 1996 they broke out with their third LP, Hemi-Vision, thanks to the top twenty hits in Canada, “Diggin’ A Hole” and “If I Had My Way.”
In 1998, the band released another excellent album, Heated, that featured more strong tracks like, “Better Get Used to It,” “The Scene,” and the brilliant reggae-rock, “Turn the Lights On.” Also on the album was their cover of “Let It Ride,” which smartly blended straight-up, thickly layered guitar covers of the original chorus with alternating versions of the verses that were either funky, reggae-flavoured sequences or more straight-up, rocking sections. Johnson, a virtuoso player, laid a searing guitar solo into the middle for extra effect. To give all of it proper run to explore and deliver all the good it had to offer, Big Sugar’s version was ninety seconds longer than the original.
“Money (That’s What I Want)” \ Barrett Strong (1959) & The Flying Lizards (1979)
Barrett Strong
For this cover, we’re re-visiting Barrett Strong, co-writer of “Let’s Stick Together,” and exploring another strong genre change from a rock ‘n’ roll, R&B staple to one of the more intriguing singles of the early new wave era. Mississippi-born Barrett Strong was best known as a writer for many Motown acts, especially The Temptations, but was also the first Motown artist (though it was released on the label’s precursor, Tamla) to have a hit. Released in late 1959, “Money (That’s What I Want)” was a hit through the summer of 1960; however, he didn’t write the song. It was penned by the labels’ founder, Barry Gordy, along with Janie Bradford, though Strong has disputed this and his name has been included and removed from the credits over the years. Regardless, his piano-laced, raw version offered one of the eras most irrepressible R&B combinations of rhythm and melody, along with an effective interplay of the lead and backing vocals. The song broke through to #23 in the US singles chart and #2 in the R&B chart.
The song would be covered regularly over the years, not the least of which by The Beatles, who covered it on their second LP, With the Beatles, in 1963. The Rolling Stones also did a version of it on their first, self-titled EP in 1964, released just before their first album. Garage rockers The Kingsmen also did a version. All these versions were straight-up covers.
By 1979, it was probably The Beatles’ version that was best known, so when The Flying Lizards released their version, it was a shocking contrast to the slick playing and harmonies of the fab four. During an era of diverse experimentation, The Flying Lizards were formed in 1976 by Irish-born David Cunningham among a collective of visual and musical artists at the Maidstone College of Art in Canterbury, England. The first two releases in ‘78 and ‘79 were covers of ‘60s hits, “Summertime Blues” and “Money.” Purposely noisy, minimalist, and delivered in flat tones by vocalist Deborah Evans, the songs were meant to deconstruct the rock ‘n’ roll classics and present them in disparate forms. “Money,” in particular, drew from the emerging industrial sound by utilizing crashing sounds, the plunking rhythms of piano, drums, and what sounded like an off-key banjo, and a feedback-riven guitar. It was a fascinating reinvention and a genre change.
“Money” became an unlikely hit for The Flying Lizards with the song reaching the top ten in the UK and almost the top forty in the US. It rendered them to one-hit wonder status and left the song as a fun and curious anachronism of the emerging new wave music scene.
