Last week, we kicked off the beginning of Cover Wars March Madness by announcing our first ever “play-in” game. We took ten covers that had not previously participated in a Cover Wars and let the readers select up to three for automatic entry into this year’s tournament.
The winners of the play-in round are:
1) Live and Let Die (Paul McCartney) as performed by Perpetual Groove
2) Across 110th Street (Bobby Womack) as performed by My Morning Jacket
3) FM (Steely Dan) as performed by 2D (Gorillaz) featuring Nathain Haines
The other 29 entries already gained entry into the tournament the conventional way – by winning a Cover Wars in the past year. Now that we’ve got our 32 covers selected, let’s take a look at the matchups…
Matchup #1 (Bob Dylan Covers):
The Black Crowes – Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
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]
VS.
The Black Keys – Wicked Messenger
There are some real gems from the 2007 I’m Not There soundtrack and this is one of them. Previously on Cover Wars, Stephen Malkmus and the Million Dollar Bashers contributed a cover from the same release for Ballad Of A Thin Man. Source: I’m Not There (Music From The Motion Picture)
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/bkmessenger.mp3]
READ ON to vote in the remaining seven matchups for the the first half of Cover Wars March Madness Round 1…
We first visited the catalog of Tom Waits a couple of months ago when we made the Cold Water edition of Cover Wars. Goin’ Out West was released on the 1992 Waits album Bone Machine. Fun bonus this week, we’ve got both very old and recent video to compare from two of our four contestants. You don’t see a whole lot of Mid ’90s live concert footage on YouTube, so that was a pleasant surprise to find. Ten points to anyone who can identify what scene in Fight Club features this song.
The Contestants:
British band Gomez leads us off this week with a strong performance from 2005. A fantastic recording of a show that also features covers of The Beatles and Buddy Holly. Audio Source: 1-24-2005
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/gomezwest.mp3]READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
