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You Do It To Yourself

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

What of this much buzzed-about cover of Radiohead’s “Just” (mp3) by current DJ of the moment Mark Ronson? What about it has inspired it’s everywhere-ness all of a sudden? Is it the fact that it comes from a hip NY DJ? Or that it attempts to wildly reinterpret a song by a band widely regarded as being famous only for being really, really good? Or am I looking too far here, and it’s simply the fact that it’s a cover, and people love covers? I’m tempted to combine the three, but place most of the emphasis on the latter two. Okay, the latter one. The latter-est. But why? “Just”, in particular, seems to be a classic case of extreme re-interpretation by an artist with clearly defined musical taste.

I’ve always regarded the original version of “Just” as a didactic and unsympathetic approach to suicide, fitting in perfectly with the other tales of sickness, aging and despair on The Bends. The musical accompaniment was the sound of a band shaking the shackles of post-Brit Pop genre convention but still relying on multiple, very clean-sounding guitars and soaring, majestic choruses over-ripe with drama. This cover version, then, is somewhat interesting—by stripping it clean and rebuilding it with a cartoonish, hip-hop by way of early 90s acid jazz style, Ronson, with Phantom Planet lead singer Alex Greenwald, manages to eradicate any of the original’s sinister appeal and replace it with…what, I’m not exactly sure. There are far too many rationales artists could have for covering the work of another, but irony is typically the most interesting to talk about. I’m not sure if Ronson’s cover reaches the level of irony—does it? Is it mocking Yorke’s lyrics by presenting them so (relatively speaking) flippantly? Is there some sort of agenda here, or is it just an opportunity to capitalize on a compilation release to get some exposure? It’s probably a combination of factors, but it initially led me to the concept of cover irony, which is where I turn.

Last year, blogs were abuzz with Ted Leo’s cover of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone”, which was actually rather well done (although, unlike the majority of P&J, I wasn’t too fond of the original). Earlier in the year, Death Cab for Cutie and the Decemberists covered Fleetwood Mac in Central Park, Belle and Sebastian reinterpreted “Billie Jean”, and so on and so on. None of these artists, however, expressed any particular ideological stance about/through their covers, nor are they required to. And irony is such a widely appropriated ideal nowadays it could merit its own political party (with very, very few exceptions, white rock guys covering hip-hop songs in a new idiom should be ignored). But some of my all-time favorite rock cover versions are the ones that took a work and sought to create, through profound detachment from the original material, a new (generally accepted) “meaning”, apart from the initial novelty of hearing something in a new stylistic context. Consider:

Devo “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (mp3)
from Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (1977) (buy)

Grace Jones “Use Me” (mp3)
from Nightclubbing (1981) (buy)

Soft Cell “Tainted Love” (mp3)
from Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret (1981) (buy)

Cornershop “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” (mp3)
from When I Was Born for the Seventh Time (1996) (buy)

The Fiery Furnaces “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” (mp3)
from This Bird Has Flown: A Tribute to Rubber Soul (1969) (buy)

Fairport Convention “Si Tu Dois Partir” (mp3)
from Unhalfbricking (1969) (buy)

Patti Smith “Gloria” (mp3)
from Horses (1975) (buy)

The Minutemen “Dr. Wu” (mp3)
from Double Nickels on the Dime (1984) (buy)

The Gizmos “Take Me to the River” (mp3)
from Hoosier Hysteria (1980) (buy)

John Cale “Heartbreak Hotel” (mp3)
from Slow Dazzle (1975) (buy)

Elvis Presley “Blue Moon of Kentucky” (mp3)
from The Sun Sessions (2000) (buy)

Update 3/16 (thanks Kevin!):

Uncle Tupelo “I Wanna Be Your Dog” (mp3)
from Anthology 89/93 (2002) (buy)

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