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Cover Versions

For my money, this deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Aretha’s Never Loved a Man. One of the great recordings in the history of soul, a cover of an old Traffic song; captured on smartphone, then sucked from sight into the black hole of Youtube.

 
Mose Allison - Eyesight to the Blind

"Eyesight to the Blind" was initially recorded by Sonny Boy Williamson in 1951 as his first release on Lillian McMurry's Trumpet label.

Mose Allison covered the song on his album "Autumn Song" which was released in 1959 on Prestige. Sonny Boy Williamson's original is a "classic" 12-bar down-tempo blues song; Mose Allison is transforming the song into an up-tempo and fabulously swinging number.

 
Angelique Kidjo covers Talking Heads


She's doing her Remain In Light show at the RFH in June
 
Uncle Tupelo - Coalminers

The original - titled "Come All Ye Coal Miners" - is by Sarah Ogan Gunning. She was the daughter of a coal miner and advocate for miners' rights from the coal mining country of Eastern Kentucky.
She became a singer and songwriter and some of her songs - including "Come All Ye Coal Miners" - were recorded by Alan Lomax in 1937 for the Library of Congress. A later version is available on the '73 Rounder compilation "Come All You Coal Miners".

The song - now titled "Coalminers" - was covered by Uncle Tupelo on their eponymous and all-acoustic "March 16-20, 1992" album, so reverent to traditional acoustic song-writing.

 
Womack & Womack - Angie by The Stones
Smith & Mighty - Anyone by Dionne Warwick
Massive Attack - Just Be Thankful by William Devaughan
The Jam - Heatwave by The Supremes
Simply Red - Heaven by Talking Heads
 
Mazzy Star - Five String Serenade

A song by the great Arthur Lee.
He recorded the original on the album "Arthur Lee and Love" that appeared on the French New Rose label in 1992.

Mazzy Star covered the song on their wonderful 1993 sophomore album "So Tonight That I Might See".

Really hard to tell which version I would prefer.

 
What A Fool Believes - Aretha's cover of The Doobies

First Time EverI Saw Your Face - George Michael's cover of the Roberta Flack original
 
Ramblin' Jack Elliott - Pony

Tom Waits recorded this song on his 1999 album "Mule Variations".

The great Ramblin' Jack Eliott did a cover on his album "The Last Ride" (HighTone, 2006).
It's in a faster tempo than Tom Waits' original, but nearly as rugged and jagged. Joe Craven's banjo adds a nice old-time vibe to the tune.

"And I hope my pony
I hope my pony
I hope my pony
Knows the way back home"

 
The Gun Club - Cool Drink of Water Blues

The original was recorded in Memphis/Tennessee by Tommy Johnson in 1928. Released on Victor Records the same year.

The Gun Club covered the song on their debut album "Fire of Love" in 1981.
Jeffrey Lee Pierce's rambling swamp vocals and feverish, possessed and hell-bound performance just make this iconic blues standard sound like it would be his own song.

 
One of Curtis Mayfield’s greatest, and darkest songs, just taken straight.


And Todd Rungren did a spiffy take on Curtis’s I’m So Proud, too....


(Also worth hanging around for the segway into Smokey’s Ooh Baby Baby.)
 
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