Baba O'Riley

I found this really bitching version of The Who's "Baba O'Riley" on iTunes, and it's the song as covered by the London Philharmonic. Pretty damn cool, though I've managed to lose the link. It's not terribly important, though.

Next up is kind of important, given that it's only $5.99, which means, if you like more than half of the songs, buy the whole album, because it's cheaper. I found this pretty interesting album that was done by the Beatles' producer George Martin, where he had done all of the arrangements up for the music and then brought people who are clearly not the Beatles to do the singing, or whatever. Goldie Hawn does a sort of nightclubby version of "A Hard Day's Night," Jeff Beck does the Stratocaster thing for an instrumental version of "A Day in the Life," Sean Connery reads the lyrics to "In My Life" (which is a better choice than his singing "San Francisco" by the Mamas & the Papas in The Rock), and then you've got a John Williams (the Star Wars composer, yes) arrangement on "Here Comes the Sun." Pretty interesting album (link requires iTunes).

And then (also an iTunes link) this might be the worst album in the history of mankind. When Pigs Fly is an album by various artists from Ani Difranco (and Jackie Chan) to Devo. It gets weirder, trust me. All of these tracks by all of these artists are covers. It could have been good, if not for the fact that:

• Jackie Chan sings, and
• All of the covers are (presumably) deliberately out of whack.

It's got Don Ho doing a version of "Shock the Monkey," Herman's Hermits doing "White Wedding," and "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap," as covered by Lesley Gore. I'd recommend staying far away from this album unless someone else is picking up the tab.

And the last album of the day is also a stinker, Oldies But Goodies! (they're all iTunes links today) This is essentially an album of Motown-era covers, as done by bad late-Nineties "punk" bands. And, of course I have to put the word punk in quotes, because ... well, they're just not. Regardless, most of these bands also aren't any good, which makes even listening to the samples painful. At the very least, it'll give you greater respect for the musical talents of Sam Cooke, the Crystals, the Chordettes, Chuck Berry, and the other artists of the day.

As a little footnote, before I go to bed, I have to figure out whether or not to buy a song called I Wish I Had My Own Tits. Actually, I'm going to tack another album on to the list, because I can't really say enough good things about Hayseed Dixie. In fact, I'd really prefer not to say anything about Hayseed Dixie, other than this might be the best cover album of all time. I understand their AC/DC cover-album is also quite good, as the opening to "Hell's Bells" is supposed to be phenomenal..

Listen to the samples, buy a few songs, get back to me in the comments.


AIM: therbmcc71