Music Snob

Last night, mum and I went to a singer/songwriter night at Mondo’s, which is a restaurant at the bottom of our hotel (we’re staying at the Hilton, did I mention that?). We stayed to watch a couple of old guys who sang songs about one of their mothers (she’s dying, it’s sad) and two other young girls as well.

After the second girl performed, the man who’s mum is sick was circulating the tables, having a chat with the people there so he stopped at ours and told us a bit about the night. They’ve been running it for three and a half years and he mentored some of the younger acts who have now gone onto bigger and brighter things. It was a good night and it was good to hear some talented people play and sing but one thing that the guy said really irritated me.

He said that one of the rules is that you can’t play any covers. Fair enough, it’s singer/songwriter night. But the way he said it… it was as if cover songs are the worst thing on the planet.

I used to agree with him, mostly because of Westlife and their complete inability to come up with anything original but yet score number ones with songs by Michael Buble, Josh Groban and Abba.

But some of my favourite songs are cover versions. Adele’s ‘Make You Feel My Love’ was originally sung/mumbled by Bob Dylan, Muse’s ‘Feeling Good’ was originally sung (I think) by Nina Simone, Damien Rice’s ‘When Doves Cry’ is a Prince/Squiggle song, Cat Empire’s ‘Hotel California’ is an Eagles song.

I could go on and on, especially because of Radio 1’s Live Lounge and 1967 albums where artists do their own take on awesome songs (Leona Lewis covering ‘Run’ by Snow Patrol, Gossip singing ‘Careless Whisper’ by George Michael, Corinne Bailey Rae singing ‘SexyBack’ by Justin Timberlake) and sometimes make them sound even better (McFly besting Katy Perry with ‘I Kissed a Girl’, The View singing the Libertines’ ‘Don’t Look Back into the Sun’ and KT Tunstall’s rendition of Bryan Ferry’s ‘Let’s Stick Together). Obviously this is all my own opinion… but I really cannot stand Bryan Ferry.

Mark Ronson’s album Version is just that. Different versions of popular songs. And it’s one of my favourite albums at the moment.

Cover versions are awesome and, I might be speaking total crap here since it’s been a while since I checked the British charts, all over the place. Look at Glee. Glee is nothing but cover versions and songs from the show constantly make it into the charts. I actually prefer some of the Glee versions and think it’s odd when I hear the original artists singing them now.

Of course, singer/songwriters are important. My most listened to artists on my iPod are Damien Rice, Sia and Muse. I love listening to their original music but I’m definitely not snobbish when it comes to covers and neither are these artists.

What’s wrong with taking something that’s good and turning into something slightly different and, sometimes, making it slightly better?