Though Daniel Lanois is known more for his work as a producer (U2’s The Joshua Tree, Peter Gabriel’s So, Bob Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind to name a few), he has a few albums of his own, and The Maker is arguably his most well-known composition.
The Contestants:
Dave Matthews Band: Dave Matthews has been playing The Maker as far back as 1991. Its frequency has fluctuated throughout the years, it’s even disappeared for periods of over three years, but it keeps coming back in the rotation at both DMB shows and Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds duo shows. Source: Live In Chicago 12.19.98 at The United Center
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/dmbmaker.mp3]Video from the Chicago ’98 Webcast:
Also of note to the Hidden Track readers is that on 10-15-1994 at the Oak Mountain Amphitheater, there was a full-band sit-in where all the members of DMB joined Phish for their encore and after a Drum Duel and a brief Free-form jam, The Maker was performed. Listen to it below. Thanks to hoydog for all he does with the Phish Downloads Spreadsheet.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/phishmaker.mp3]READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
O-o-h Child was originally recorded by Chicago’s Five Stairsteps, it was released both as a single and on the 1970 album The Stairsteps. O-o-h Child reached #8 on the Billboard charts. What did I learn this week? That the correct way to spell the song title is O-o-h Child.
The Contestants:
Beth Orton: Beth Orton leads us off this week with her down-tempo solo acoustic performance. This cover was included in an episode of the television show Alias. Source: The Other Side Of Daybreak
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/bethchild.mp3]READ ON for the rest of this week’s contestants…
Time is the fourth track on Pink Floyd’s 1973 release Dark Side Of The Moon. Well, this song called Time is anyway. Let me tell you, rounding up the renditions for this week was no easy task as: a) There are lots of other songs simply called “Time” and b) There are thousands of songs with the word “time” in them, and you can’t always make search terms do exactly what you want them, no matter how hard you try.
The Contestants:
Dream Theater: According to the 3,585 comments there are on YouTube for this video at the time of publication, this cover is both the best ever and fucking awful all at once. The YouTube comments section is an interesting cross-section of humanity. Anyway, one very frequent comment is that guitarist John Petrucci really rips, and that is hard to deny. Couldn’t tell you the date of this video, I read about 50 of those 3,000+ comments and nobody mentioned it.
READ ON for the rest of this week’s contestants.
Everybody Wants To Rule The World was a chart-topping single off the 1985 Tears For Fears album Songs From The Big Chair.
According to Roland Orzabal, Everybody Wants To Rule The World was written and recorded in two weeks and was the last cut to make the album. Good thing they got it in there.
The Contestants:
The Bad Plus: The Bad Plus show up a lot on Cover Wars, often leading off (because we use alphabetical order) and easing us in with instrumental renditions. This is the second song to be included in a Cover Wars from their 2007 album Prog (see also Life On Mars Cover Wars) Source: Prog
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Lenny is the tenth and final track on Stevie Ray Vaughan’s 1983 debut album Texas Flood. The song’s title is a tribute to SRV’s wife Lenora Bailey.
Jeff Kitts sums up this tune very well in the book Guitar World Presents Stevie Ray Vaughan,
Like any master musician, Vaughan was just as comfortable with slow, delicate ballads as he was with barn burners. Vaughan composed the beautiful ballad, “Lenny,” for his first wife, and recorded it on Texas Flood. “Lenny” is very Hendrix influenced; it’s sort of a cross between “Little Wing” and “Angel,” two of Hendrix’s greatest ballads.
The Contestants:
The Bridge: The Bridge guitarist Cris Jacobs leads the band through this relatively to-the-point rendition. Source: 2-28-2007
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Life On Mars? was originally released on David Bowie’s 1971 album Hunky Dory. Life On Mars? would be released as a single in the U.S. two years later with The Man Who Sold The World as its B-Side. Talk about a killer combo.
The Contestants:
The Bad Plus: In addition to this adventurous take on a Bowie classic, this Bad Plus album from 2007 also features interpretations of Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Tears For Fears) and Tom Sawyer (Rush). Highly recommended listening. Source: Prog
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/badplusmars.mp3]READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ is the last track on the 1970 Velvet Underground album Loaded. Loaded would be the last Velvet Underground album before guitarist/lead singer Lou Reed left the group to start a solo career.
I’ll tell ‘ya, if you do actually listen to all five versions of this tune – and you happen to listen to them all in a row, you’re going to have the overwhelming urge to blast some loud and aggressive tunes as soon as that’s done. 44 minutes of Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ might bring you a little bit down, so have something queued up – I went with a live version of Immigrant Song.
The Contestants:
$10,000 Gold Chain: Not a whole lot of information out there on this band, but I do know it’s led by Mike McCready (the lead guitarist in Pearl Jam). It’s possible the only song this ensemble ever recorded was this cover for a 1996 Jim Carrey movie. Source: The Cable Guy: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
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Will It Go Round In Circles first appeared on the 1972 Billy Preston album Music Is My Life. The track would then be issued as a single the following year and eventually hit #1 on the Billboard Top Singles chart.
The Contestants:
Band From TV: Band From TV makes their second Cover Wars appearance this week, they previously were featured in the You Can’t Always Get What You Want edition back in July. As we mentioned then, this is a group made up of professional actors and all of their proceeds go directly to charity – pretty cool. Source: Hoggin All The Covers
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Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever was released as a single and also appeared on The Four Tops 1966 album On Top. Though he’s never recorded a version of the song, Stevie Wonder gets the songwriting credit for this legendary Motown gem. The composition was a joint effort between Wonder and Ivy Jo Hunter, whose songwriting credits also include another smash hit – Dancing In The Street.
The Contestants:
The Band: It’s gotta be confidence-building for a lead singer tackling this song, in this case Rick Danko, knowing you’ve got a voice like that of Levon Helm to back you up. While poking around looking for information on these covers, I found a great interview that Peter Stone Brown did with Rick Danko in 1977. When asked why Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever was never on an official release from The Band, Danko answers that he thought it was on Rock Of Ages. It’s interesting just how little artists can sometimes know about their own releases. The track would make it to the Deluxe Edition release in 2001. Source: Rock Of Ages (Deluxe Edition)
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This song comes off a 1979 album by the Charlie Daniels Band titled Million Mile Reflections. Vassar Clements also deserves some songwriting credit, as he wrote the fiddle hook (basically) in his tune Lonesome Fiddle Blues.
For such a popular song, there are not a whole lot of real covers out there. Because of this, I’ve decided to include two renditions where the artist has made some slight changes to the subject matter of the song. If I had not done this – you would be looking at all jamband versions, and I try to avoid that the best I can.
The Contestants:
Blues Traveler: Leading off this week, we’ve got Blues Traveler who have had this cover as a staple in their repertoire for at least 12 years now (earliest recording on the LMA is 1997). Source: 8-22-1998
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/btdevil.mp3]Bonus Video From Wetlands 1998:
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