Cover Wars

Cover Wars: Under African Skies

Under African Skies is the seventh track off Paul Simon’s classic 1986 album Graceland. We have previously done The Boy In The Bubble Cover Wars here at Hidden Track, but because of stupid IMEEM shutting down, a lot of those old editions no longer have audio embedded in them, rendering them a bit useless. At some point in the future we will go back and fix these old posts with direct audio embeds. But enough about that, on to the covers…

Cover Wars


The Contestants:

Brock Butler, who also appeared in The Boy In The Bubble Edition, kicks us off with a killer solo rendition. Source: 12-30-2005

[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/brockskies.mp3]

Video from Amberland 2008 with a little help from Ayinde:

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

Read More

Cover Wars: District Sleeps Alone Tonight

It has been seven years since The Postal Service released Give Up and I still listen to it at least once a month. The obvious choice for a Cover Wars would have been Such Great Heights with the likes of Iron & Wine and Ben Folds likely to battle it out for the win, but when I sat down to write it, I figured I’d pick a different tune on the record so we could delve a bit more into obscurity. What follows is an interesting collection where the professionally recorded takes are not necessarily superior to the do-it-yourself YouTube sensations. Have a listen below to six different covers of the opening track to what will hopefully not be the only ever LP from The Postal Service.

Cover Wars

The Contestants:

English singer Frank Turner leads us off this week with a solo acoustic version available on his release Source: First Three Years.

[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/frankdistrict.mp3]

Turner performing a live version:

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

Read More

Best of Cover Wars: On Your Way Down

[Originally Published: December 1, 2009]

On Your Way Down was originally released on Allen Toussaint’s 1972 album Life, Love and Faith. It’s OK if you thought this was written by Little Feat, because a lot of people do. Little Feat recorded their studio version just months after Toussaint and put it on their record Dixie Chicken.

Cover Wars


The Contestants:

Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint: I’m always torn on whether or not to include tracks like this in Cover Wars. That is, covers that also feature the original recording artist. But in this case, Elvis Costello handles the lead vocal duties for the duration of the song, plus it’s an amazing take – so it would be a shame not to include it. If you’re not familiar with this CD/DVD, it’s amazing – would make a good holiday gift. Source: The River In Reverse

[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/elvisdown.mp3]

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

Read More

Cover Wars: Cold Water Edition

The year was 1999 and it had been a good five years since the last major release of a Tom Waits album before the critically acclaimed Mule Variations hit the store shelves. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of allmusic says this of the album,

Waits is still writing terrific songs and matching them with wildly evocative productions; furthermore, it’s his lightest record in years — it’s actually fun to listen to, even with a murder ballad here and a psycho blues there. In that sense, it’s a unique item in his post-Swordfish catalog, and that may make up for it not being the masterpiece it seemed like it could have been.

Cover Wars

The Contestants:

This rendition from Ekoostik Hookah was recorded at Magic Bag in Ferndale, MI on 12-14-2001.

[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/hookahwater.mp3]

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

Read More

Cover Wars: Crimson and Clover Edition

Crimson and Clover is the title track from a 1968 album by Tommy James & the Shondells. Most interesting in this week’s covers is how the artists tackle the outro section, which on the original recording features vocals run through a guitar amplifier with a heavy dose of tremolo. Also of note, the album version of Crimson & Clover clocks in at almost five and a half minutes. Somewhat surprisingly, only one of the covers surpasses that length.

Cover Wars

The Contestants:

Broken Bells, which features James Mercer of The Shins on Guitar & Vocals and Dangermouse on Drums, is on tour supporting their self-titled album and are working in a couple of well-selected covers. In addition to Crimson and Clover, which they do a great job with, they are also playing the 1962 hit by The Miracles You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me.

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

Read More

Cover Wars: Femme Fatale Edition

While Femme Fatale, which appears on 1967’s The Velvet Underground & Nico, is written about Edie Sedgwick – feel free to think about your favorite Femme Fatale as you listen to this week’s covers. Maybe it’s even someone in your life, has anyone written you down as #37 in her book?

Cover Wars

The Contestants:

Beck: Last Summer, Beck announced his Record Club project where he would bring in guest musicians and record entire album covers in one day. The first album they did was The Velvet Underground & Nico. He has since also recorded: Songs of Leonard Cohen, Skip Spence’s Oar, and they are currently still posting new tracks from INXS’s Kick every Thursday. Source: Record Club

[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/femmebeck.mp3]

Video of the recording of Record Club:

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

Read More

Cover Wars: Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

This was originally supposed to publish last Tuesday, where it would have been nice and topical, but time got away from me as I took a little vacation to the West Coast, but I’m back. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, numbers which multiply together to equal 420 in case you never went to college, is the opening track on Bob Dylan’s 1966 release Blonde On Blonde.

Cover Wars

The Contestants:

The Black Crowes: In addition to performing the song live, The Black Crowes also contributed a studio take to this 1995 disc for NORML that also includes Gov’t Mule performing Don’t Step On The Grass, Sam, and Widespread Panic’s studio take of And It Stoned Me, amongst other tracks. Source: Hempilation: Freedom is NORML

[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/rainydaycrowes.mp3]

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

Read More

Cover Wars: Let ‘Em In Edition

Cover Wars March Madness is officially over and we will offer one more congratulations to our winners Perpetual Groove. Now, the 2010-2011 Cover Wars Regular Season begins. For the first contest of the season, we look at four covers of the first track off the 1976 Wings album At The Speed Of Sound – Let ‘Em In. The song is written and sung by Sir Paul McCartney.

Cover Wars

The Contestants:

Billy Paul: This ultra smooth cover complete with strings, horns, and an alternate list of people in the lyrics was recorded in 1976.
Source: Let ‘Em In

[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/leteminbilly.mp3]

A live version of unknown origin:

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

Read More

Cover Wars March Madness: Championship

We started our Cover Wars March Madness tournament with 32 different winners of Cover Wars over the past year. We broke those down into two separate portions as to not overwhelm our voters. Then, we had our Sweet Sixteen, our Elite Eight, the Final Four, and now there are two. It all comes down to this, and it’s a battle of jamband quartets.

PGroove – This Must Be The Place vs. Phish – Curtis Loew

Hailing from Savannah, GA; Perpetual Groove offers up their cover of The Talking Heads’ This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody). The first known performance of this cover took place at The Georgia Theater in Athens on September 5th, 2002. PGroove has gone on to play it over 100 times since. The vocal duties are handled by guitarist and lead singer Brock Butler.

Perpetual Groove – This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
Audio: 2-10-2007
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/pgroovenaive.mp3]
Video: 12-13-2009

Hailing from Vermont, Phish offers up their cover of Lynryd Skynryd’s The Ballad Of Curtis Loew. The first known performance of the cover took place on a Wednesday Night in the Spring of 1987 at Burlington’s famed Nectar’s. It was pretty regular in the rotation for the next few years. The first notable gap was from 10/30/1990 to 3/14/1993, a 290 show gap. It was played three times in 1993 and disappeared for the next six years. Though not an official performance, The Ballad Of Curtis Loew was soundchecked at Big Cypress in 1999. And then Phish brought it back at Fenway Park in Boston on May 31st of last year for a glorious bust out, and we haven’t seen Curtis Loew since. The lead vocals are handled by keyboardist Page McConnell and it’s part of a rare group of songs in Phish’s repertoire where guitarist Trey Anastasio doesn’t sing a single note.

READ ON to listen and watch Phish’s Curtis Loew and to vote…

Read More

View posts by year

Recent Posts

New to Glide

Keep up-to-date with Glide

Twitter