Cover Songs and Exact Copies

From Morguefile

Seth Godin said something the other day about digitizing, about perfect copies - about a Japanese Beatles cover band that perfectly mimics the "fab four" note for note, word for word, nuance for nuance.  And he says he saw them perform - they were flawless...and he doesn't want to see them again.  Why would he?  It's a digital copy...

I have the "new"  Journey  album* with the lead singer who  sounds a lot like  Steve Perry (they released it with a bonus disc of like 15 "cover" songs with this guy - Arnel, I think his name is, singing lead - he does the note for note cover of SP's vocal pretty well - like 90% or better I'd say on those recordings...it's hard to tell  the difference on a casual listening...).  And the novelty wore off...

So one of the things I enjoyed about the Needtobreathe show we went to a few months back was Ben Rector's performance of Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody - not because I like the song so much** but because he took the song and transformed it - made it something really different.  Musically, the melody was still there, enough that we could sing along if we wanted to*** but the music of it was a decidedly folky-funky style compared to the 80s pop of the original.  I appreciate such transformations.

I helped a local group of high school kids record some songs and they did a cover of the Seether version of the Wham! song Careless Whisper.  Again, not that I like the song, but a great re-imagining of the song (and the kids did a great version in their own right) in a completely different style that takes the melody, the "hook" and runs with it in wildly different ways...

And so paying homage (or perhaps a bit of parody?) to what has come before, we can remake what was exactly as it was - note for note, brick by brick, word for word.  Or we can reimagine, remake, re-dream.

Isaac Newton said once, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."  Everything "comes from what was before, sometimes it's a more direct copy than perhaps others, but, really, "there is no new thing under the sun."

I think I might take some more time over the next week or so to explore some of this... We'll see...














*Okay, might be the NEWEST one...


**'cause, you know, I don't...


***which, sadly, I did...