Umphrey’s McGee has once again topped the voting of Cover Wars by capturing a majority of the votes in last week’s Nirvana edition. Of note is that every artist earned at least one vote – which doesn’t happen frequently. This week we’re moving back to the glory days of Classic Rock, more specifically 1967 and Jimi Hendrix’s second studio album Axis: Bold as Love.
Spanish Castle Magic’s lyrics are inspired by a dance club that Jimi would frequent in his high school days called, wait for it…The Spanish Castle. Whether you’ve been a long-time Hendrix fan or just like the song because it was on Guitar Hero, hopefully you’ll enjoy at least one of the versions included this week as we’ve got a smattering of artists including: Other all-time guitar greats, alternative rockers and more…
(You must login/register with IMEEM to hear these tracks in their entirety.)
READ ON for more information and versions we could only supply via YouTube…
Following up on last week, the Dave Matthews Band walks away with the trophy after receiving the most votes from the Sledgehammer edition of Cover Wars.
It has now been 21 years since Nirvana formed and 14 years since Kurt Cobain has left us. Nirvana holds a special place in my heart as I was in my early teenage years as grunge music peaked during the early ’90s. We’ve got an interesting collection of various Nirvana covers from a pop artist, a few jazz guys and some jambands.
As always, you gotta register/login to Imeem to hear the playlist below in it’s entirety. If you are not logged in, you’ll be hearing 30-second clips.
READ ON after the jump to cast your vote for the best Nirvana cover…
Phish writing songs about the enormity of what they created, and the requisite baggage that comes with it, can perhaps be traced to some sentiments in Down with Disease. But
Last week’s She Said She Said voting reassures something I’ve always known to be true – Gov’t Mule destroys covers. So Mule takes home their first CW trophy and one note about last week: Audio has since surfaced of Mike Gordon’s band performing the song (previously we only had a YouTube) and has been added to the playlist.
Moving on to the new stuff…known for its sexual innuendos and bangin’ horn lines, Sledgehammer is Peter Gabriel’s only #1 hit to date here in the USA. This song comes to us off the 1986 release So.
As always, you gotta register/login with Imeem to hear these clips in their entirety.
READ ON after the jump to see some video of our seven contenders this week and to place your vote for the most deserving band of this Cover Wars title…
The Taste-inspired headlines are just going to keep on coming from us here at Hidden Track regarding this release. The official Phish YouTube channel just tripled it’s toal number of
Black Cab Sessions has quickly become one of my favorite music sites out there. If you are not familiar with the concept: Bands or portions of bands pile into the
I know I’ve been a little Beatles heavy as of recently, but who could blame me? Members of Phish getting together to play Beatles cover is a pretty big deal. Speaking of which, two weeks ago’s Day Tripper edition is way too close to call, so if you haven’t done so – navigate over there and place a vote if you are so inclined.
I was thinking about doing She Said as a Cover Wars just as soon as Mike Gordon’s new band played it in Northampton last week. Then I heard that Trey and Fish played it with him at Rothbury and THEN I heard that Gov’t Mule played their own rendition of it directly after that – so this could not be more topical.
If you don’t know the inspiration of the song – long story short: During an off week of The Beatles USA tour in 1965…they rent out a house, most of the band is on LSD as is Peter Fonda who is freaking out George Harrison and John Lennon by telling him that he “knows what it’s like to be dead”. Fonda accidentally shot himself at age 10 and apparently his heart stopped 3 times on the operating table. Fonda thought this was a good story to tell people that are tripping face and was even showing people his wounds from it.
Two weeks ago we took a look at a few versions of Solsbury Hill and we’ve got a Gold and a Silver medal to give out. The winner, by a landslide, is the a cappella group The Hyannis Sound – congrats guys. Coming in second was my good friends Rane. Sorry about the week off, how you all got by for 14 days without a playlist of covers to sit and judge, I’ll never know.
This week I’m returning to the original band featured in the first ever edition of Cover Wars, one of the most covered bands of all time: The Beatles. We’ve got six versions of Day Tripper here and don’t worry, there isn’t an American Idol clip anywhere near us this time. We’ve got a nice mix of some other artists of the ’60s covering the song while it was still ripe — and of course a few jambands rocking their way through the tune.
That’s mine. Including the lick, the guitar break and the whole bit. It’s just a rock ‘n roll song. Day trippers are people who go on a day trip, right? Usually on a ferryboat or something. But it was kind of-you know, you’re just aw weekend hippie. Get it?
Yep, we get it John. It’s also one of the songs that Lennon & McCartney disagree on the songwriting credits – but hey, all that matters is that it’s a great tune. You’re going to need to register/login to Imeem to hear the tracks in their entirety.
READ ON after the jump for voting, videos and descriptions…
What? No, Cover Wars doesn’t come out on Tuesdays, you guys are all crazy. Yeah, what can I say, I’m a day late. I enjoyed the return to using just one song so much last week that I’m going to do it again. Let’s take a look at nine renditions of the 1977 single by Peter Gabriel: Solsbury Hill.
In what I consider true slacker-blogger format, why write when you can just copy and paste? Here’s what the folks over at solsburyhill.org have to say…
The first and last Peter Gabriel hit for quite a while, many critics have considered Solsbury Hill to be Peter’s finest moment. While this view clearly fails to take into account many subsequent successes in the catalogue, it does indicate the unusual and extraordinary appeal of this track. Built around a 7/4 time signature in a sprightly B major, the song’s sunny disposition is largely thanks to the acoustic guitar riff, an instrument which has rarely been used in Gabriel’s arrangements since the 1970s. Lyrically the song takes the stress and uncertainty of a future without his former bandmates and twists it into a positively electric excitement (eg. his heart’s “boom boom boom”). The track’s pace quickens as new instruments are added with each additional verse, the final cathartic moment occuring at the last “home” as the crash cymbal darts across the stereo spectrum (a technique applied to many of the songs insturments, so much so that listening to Solsbury Hill in audiophile headphones can create a sense of motion sickness) and the electric guitars groan down to the tonic chord over bristling shouts and odd-ball squeals. Solsbury Hill is one of the few songs in popular music to guarantee goosebumps with every listen and well deserves its place in the Peter Gabriel catalogue.
We’ve got nine versions this week, and eight of them appear on the playlist below. To hear the covers in their entirety be sure to register/login to Imeem:
READ ON after the jump for the voting, videos, commentary and the announcement of the winner of last week’s Can’t Find My Way Home CW…
If you’re paying really careful attention to what I write in Cover Wars you might recall that I said I was going to ten straight weeks of Cover Album Wars instead of the older format where we had multiple versions of the same song. Well, I lied. This week I’m taking a request I have received and we’re taking a look at nine covers of Can’t Find My Way Home. CFMWH comes to us from the greatest super-group of all time: Blind Faith.
Blind Faith was a short lived band, releasing just the one self-titled album. Founding members Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood (who wrote the song we are discussing) recently performed three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in February of 2008. However, the show was billed as Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood and not as Blind Faith.
Read on after the jump for some versions that you can only find on YouTube, the winner from last week’s column (it’s a first time winner), killer videos of Blind Faith Live and more.
You must register/login to Imeem to hear the audio clips in their entirety.
To place your vote, and for full descriptions READ ON after the jump…
