Cover Songs and Exact Copies
From Morguefile |
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...
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