War Pigs is the first track on Black Sabbath’s 1970 release Paranoid, their best-selling album. On a personal note, I have two distinct early memories of this song. 1) Listening to my brother’s Faith No More CD and initially thinking it was their tune. 2) Later, at the age of 17, seeing Gov’t Mule destroy this song at BankBoston Pavilion as part of Summer Sessions (there were also sets from Galactic, SCI and moe.) Covers by both these bands will of course be included. Let’s have a listen.
The Contestants:
I know what you were thinking. You’re going to lead off with the version with all the trombones right? Yes, we are – thanks Bonerama. Audio Source:2-13-2008
December 31st is the biggest night for live music of the year. An argument might be made for Halloween, but I’m not buying it. Your non-live-music-loving-friends don’t say things like, “Halloween is the most anti-climactic day of the year” while you sit there and just snicker. We’ve been a little Phish heavy this week so let’s take a look at how 24 other bands rang in 2011.
Side Note: This was my first time using embedded images from setlist.fm and I must say it looks super slick. That site has really got it going on, I hope the quality of data improves as more people use it, because with better information – statistics like “What songs did LCD Soundsystem play in 2010” will be really useful to have for a wide variety of bands.
We were saddened to learn yesterday of the death of Gerry Rafferty at the age of 63. While his name is most closely associated with the saxophone-rock-hit Baker Street, Rafferty
Welcome to a new year of Cover Wars. I could think of no better cover tune for the occasion than this 1983 U2 classic. New Year’s Day has quite the resume appearing in both Rolling Stone’s and Pitchfork’s Top 500 songs of all-time. We’ve got a good collection of covers this week, one of which was played just a couple of days ago, so enjoy and don’t forget to vote at the bottom.
The Contestants:
Though this was not the first time The Dresden Dolls covered this song, it certainly is the most recent. The band put together quite the New Year’s Eve setlist this year for their show at The Warfield in San Francisco. There is of course, the celebratory sounds of balloons being popped on the recording. Source:12-31-2010
It might be a little early in the morning for this much guitar rock as Umphrey’s McGee rips through one of their oldest tunes Much Obliged and then plays the
To my surprise, it was pointed out to me after our previous Cover Wars when we took a look at Any Major Dude Will Tell You, it was our first time ever selecting a Steely Dan song. Well, let’s make up for some lost time shall we? This week we’ll have a listen to four performances of Green Earrings, first track of Side Two of the 1976 record The Royal Scam.
‘Tis The Season for jamband reunions. Don’t get confused, the inclusion of From Good Homes and Miracle Orchestra does not mean we set the time machine for Last Week’s Sauce 2000 like did earlier this year, these bands played shows last week. We lead off with a selection of Beatles songs from The Black Crowes’ farewell-for-now Fillmore Run. We sprinkle in some Shoegaze courtesy of God Speed You Black Emperor!, mix in the fusion sounds of Kung Fu and a slice of a San Francisco superjam featuring Will Bernard and Marco Benevento. Getting on a plane? Going for a long car ride? Take this 75 minutes of music with you by clicking below for all the audio in this week’s piece.
You can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast, click here to download.
[Thanks to tonedeaf for this week’s photo]
The Black Crowes – You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Yer Blues, I Wanna Be Your Man Date & Venue: 2010-12-14 – The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA Taper & Show Download: Fillmore Crowe
As ScottyB recapped, the Black Crowes paid tribute to their influences in the encore slots of their six shows at The Fillmore in San Francisco. Only two of the shows have shown up on bt.etree.org, this encore is from Tuesday night’s Beatles tribute. No tape yet of the run-closing Rolling Stones segment.
People like to discount Wikipedia for being a source of misinformation, but I’ll tell ‘ya, a quick read of the page for Ain’t No Sunshine nets you some pretty damn good factoids on this 1971 Bill Withers classic. 1) Produced by Booker T. 2) Donald “Duck” Dunn plays the bass 3) Withers was working at a factory making toilet seats when he wrote the song. Okay, #3 they claim to have a source for from Rolling Stone but the link is broken, but I *want* to believe them. I’m sure it’s true. Anyway, literally hundreds of people have covered Ain’t No Sunshine, a search of allmusic.com brings you 1,456 results. What we’ve got below is 10 renditions we think are worth a listen.
The Contestants:
This same Buddy Guy album (Bring ‘Em In) appeared two weeks ago in the I Put A Spell On You Cover Wars. Carlos Santana joined Guy on that cover while Tracy Chapman joins him on this one. This cover features an early key change, multiple vocalists, horns – the whole nine yards.
As I was watching the tapes roll in this week from recent shows, I had two thoughts about possible themes for this week’s edition: 1) Acoustic Performances/Sets 2) The Warren Haynes Christmas Jam. Not wanting to choose, we’re going to have a jumbo-sized Last Week’s Sauce and bring you six performances. We start out with three from the acoustic section: The Black Crowes, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds and Jeff Tweedy [with a little help from his friends]. Then, we’ll switch into high gear with some highlights from Asheville with help from Steve Miller, Umphrey’s McGee with John Bell and the brand-spanking-new Warren Haynes Band. This is a good one, so set aside some time and maybe even download the podcast if you want to take all of this audio with you.
You can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast, click here to download.
[Thanks to tgakidis for this week’s photo]
The Black Crowes – She Talks To Angels, My Morning Song Date & Venue: 2010-12-12 The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA Taper & Show Download: Fillmore Crowe
The Black Crowes have only three shows left before they start their next indefinite hiatus – three more shows at San Francisco’s historic Fillmore Auditorium. And they have already played three shows there so far. The locals are expecting big things this weekend in terms of special guests and I’m sure the Crowes will not disappoint. Recently, it’s been a formula of Acoustic Set I and Electric Set II and this run of shows has been no exception. These two hits closed Sunday’s first set.
