On 1999 career-best album Teenage Snuff Film, he took Idol’s hit and made it his own, replacing Billy’s bombastic strut with a sly and faintly ominous sneer to surprisingly good effect. Rowland S Howard – “White Wedding” (2:47) Originally by Billy IdolĪnother artist with a good ear for a cover was late and truly great ex-Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S Howard. The band’s live renditions of the song would often extend into half hour-long workouts the studio version can be found on their debut Sound of Confusion.ĥ. Spacemen 3 – “Rollercoaster” (7:50) Originally by 13th Floor ElevatorsĪnd speaking of Spacemen 3, this particular cover is not so much a reinterpretation as a band claiming a song that could have been written for them in the first place: a paean to acid-catalyzed inspiration, originally recorded by psych pioneers 13th Floor Elevators. The Galaxie 500 version can be found as a bonus track on the re-release of On Fire - meanwhile, if you look closely at this live version on YouTube, you’ll notice that Dean Wareham is wearing a Spacemen 3 t-shirt!Ĥ. Galaxie 500 loved a good cover version, and they didn’t do a better one than their take on this lost Joy Division classic, slowing the pace drastically to create a seductive, narcotic drone that’s substantially better than the version New Order eventually released (in our opinion, anyway). Galaxie 500 – “Ceremony” (5:57) Originally by Joy Division Electrelane – “I’m On Fire” (2:16) Originally by Bruce SpringsteenĪ faintly pedophilic ’80s radio hit makes an unlikely candidate for re-interpretation as a punked-up ode of lesbian angst, but much-lamented UK art-rock four-piece Electrelane managed exactly that with this live cover, which was released as an early b-side.ģ. Remarkably, Cale somehow manages to make LCD Soundsystem’s already masterful portrait of middle-aged party fatigue and alienation even better, investing it with a relentless motorik beat and ever more manic vocals that still manage to convey real emotional depth.Ģ. John Cale – “All My Friends” (7:38) Originally by LCD Soundsystem Listen to them all after the jump - and for convenience, we’ve also embedded a Grooveshark playlist of the whole lot at the end.ġ. 1 slot across the Atlantic, it seems an auspicious time to look back at some unsung excellent cover versions. With a (god-awful) cover of Biffy Clyro’s “Many of Horror” taking the coveted Christmas No. If you go with the canon, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is the best album ever, while cover versions started and ended with Jimi Hendrix’s take on “All Along The Watchtower.” Happily, Flavorpill doesn’t really buy into any of that. For an art form that so mythologizes rebellion, rock ‘n roll has developed its fair share of orthodoxy over the years.
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