Cover Charge #6: Jesse Malin to The Replacements

The premise of Cover Charge is simple. Artist A covers artist B, then B covers C and C covers D, and so on and so forth, until you, me or Google give up on blogs altogether.

Last time: Bruce Springsteen to Jesse Malin

Cover versions seem to fall into one of two categories, broadly speaking: the Straight Bat, in which the cover sounds very similar to the original, and the Own Stamp, in which the covering artist tries to do something a bit different. Today we have an Own Stamp from Jesse Malin, as he offers up a thoughtful reworking of The Replacements' Bastards of Young:

And here's the original from Paul Westerberg and chums, all the way back from 1985 and their fourth album Tim:

Next time: The Replacements replace someone else. Contain your excitement.

The Cover Charge "chain" to date.

Cover Charge #5: Bruce Springsteen to Jesse Malin

The premise of Cover Charge is simple. Artist A covers artist B, then B covers C and C covers D, and so on and so forth, until you, me or Google give up on blogs altogether.

Last time: Neil Young to Bruce Springsteen

Seems that towards the end of last year, The Boss recorded this straight-bat cover of Jesse Malin's She Don't Love Me Now for tribute compilation album Silver Patron Saints. I know next to nothing about Malin, but do know (thanks to John and Wikipedia) that he suffered a spinal stroke in 2023, leading to paralysis from the waist down. A fundraising/support tribute compilation followed, which included this offering from Bruce:

And here's Jesse's original, from his 2015 album New York Before the War. Spot the difference? No, me neither.

Next time: Jesse has a go at someone else, with a marginally less straight bat.

The Cover Charge "chain" to date.

Cover Charge #4: Neil Young to Bruce Springsteen

The premise of Cover Charge is simple. Artist A covers artist B, then B covers C and C covers D, and so on and so forth, until you, me or Google give up on blogs altogether.

Last time: Radiohead to Neil Young

An entry at the excellent Neil Young Archives tell us that he recorded his take on My Hometown on 16th September 2013. Here's the video proof:

And here's the original from Bruce, back in the day:

Next time: The Boss covers someone. But who?

The Cover Charge "chain" to date.

Cover Charge #3: Radiohead to Neil Young

Okay, I give in to the weight of public opinion (three blog comments). The premise of Cover Charge is simple. Artist A covers artist B, then B covers C and C covers D, and so on and so forth, until you, me or Google give up on blogs altogether.

Last time: Toots and the Maytals to Radiohead

Radiohead have, at various times, covered a number of Neil Young songs but for my money one of their better attempts is this, Cinnamon Girl:

And here's the original from Neil and Crazy Horse:

Next time, some time: Mr Young covers someone. But who?

The Cover Charge "chain" to date.

Cover Charge #1: The Specials to Toots & The Maytals

Last time out I wrote about how I'd planned but abandoned a new blog series, the premise of which would have been simple: one week, artist A covers artist B, then B covers C, C covers D, and so on. I abandoned the idea because, having planned 30+ steps, I realised I was considering songs and artists I wasn't fussed by, just to keep the whole premise rumbling on. So I just posted one cover I really got something out of, Toots and the Maytals covering Radiohead, and thought that would be the end of it.

However, the ever-lovely C at Sun Dried Sparrows expressed an interest in hearing more of what I'd planned. I don't usually do requests but, especially for C, this is how I'd planned to get to Toots. My intention was to start the Cover Charge (terrible name for a series) with Coventry's finest, The Specials, rattling through an excellent Monkey Man in 1979:

And here's the original from Toots and the Maytals in 1969:

Who knows, I might recycle other posts that I'd drafted for this series when the usual dribble of guff runs dry.

The Cover Charge "chain" to date.

Cover Charge #2: Toots & The Maytals to Radiohead

I recently toyed with the idea of starting a new blog series. The premise of "Cover Charge" was to be simple: one week, artist A covers artist B, next week artist B covers artist C, then C covers D, and so on, and so forth, until you, me or Google gave up on blogs altogether.

I drafted the first few posts in the series (The Specials to Toots and the Maytals, to Radiohead, to Neil Young, to Bruce Springsteen) and had mapped out an artist route for the next thirty of so links in the chain. But I lost heart, and binned the whole idea, when I realised I was starting to consider artists and songs I had no interest in or, worse, actively disliked, just to keep it all going.

I do want to feature this song though, the means by which I intended to go from Toots and the Maytals to Radiohead. Somewhat unbelievably, Toots and co recorded a version of Let Down for a 2006 compilation tribute album called Radiodread:

And here's the original from peerless OK Computer era Radiohead:

Same song, same words. Amazing the difference the music makes though, in terms of tone and mood.

The Cover Charge "chain" to date.

Monday long song: That's All

Originally released as a hidden track at the end of their fourth studio album, 1997's Bagsy Me, this is That's All by The Wannadies.

Curiosity Corner: Terry Hall and Ian Broudie (and, er, Craig Gannon)

In 1993, Terry Hall and The Lightning Seeds co-headlined a tour. To promote it, they appeared on The Beat, a TV show hosted by Gary Crowley, remember him? In this clip, Gary suggests there is also some "guitar magic" from ex-Smith Craig Gannon but that's over-egging it a bit, he's just there on rhythm duties. Even calling him an ex-Smith is something of a stretch, I'd say, but still, here the three of them are, making Sense and Lucky You sound better than the familiar Lightning Seeds versions.

Terry Hall still much missed at Amusements Central.

Sunovision results

So Austria's JJ, a counter-tenor at the Vienna State Opera no less, pipped Israel at last knockings to win Eurovision, courtesy of a massive public vote share. The awkwardness of an Israel win in the current geopolitical climate was thus avoided, and JJ has since returned to Austria to a hero's welcome. The UK did reasonably well in the judges' vote but again got absolutely nothing from the public, and finished 19th out of 26. My hat remains uneaten.

More importantly though, there was a winner in the Sunovision Song Contest. This was also close, with the win being secured by the last vote. Without further ado, I can reveal the results were as follows:

6th. Alone Together by The Verdant Sigil, representing Virelia
5th. Lonely Shadows by L'Orée d'Or, representing Elystène
4th. In the Quiet of the Night by Solène Morra, representing Caldovaria
3rd. Terminverzug by Frostwake, representing Drevona
2nd. Symphony of Collapse by Elias Vergrave, representing Ormandia
1st. Dancing Kitty by Silver Vatra, representing Thesskora

What does this tell us? Well, the most bland, most anodyne, most MOR pap occupied the bottom two places. First and second were close, and a good margin ahead of third (though Frostwake's heaviness won them a lot of votes). As for those top two, well, Symphony of Collapse is the one I personally like most, musically and lyrically ... but Dancing Kitty is about a dancing cat, and is slightly earwormy, so what's the world to do?

Conclusions? AI is scary and Eurovision is largely pap. There. I'm glad it took two blog posts to work that out.

Let's close with a real song by a real band, to cleanse the palate. The Rat by The Walkmen came on the radio at the weekend, and I was quietly delighted to see Amusements Minor enjoying it as much as me. "Who's this?", he asked. A song that's older than he is, still gaining his attention, and later added to his Spotify playlist. Dancing Kitty won't be doing that in twenty years' time.

Douze points for The Walkmen from me.

The Sunovision Song Contest

Does anyone actually care about Eurovision anymore, in any way that doesn't involve irony or drinking games? Turns out that none of the Amusemenents clan had even heard the UK's entry in the build-up to this year's competition, so some deliberate YouTubing took us to What The Hell Just Happened? by Remember Monday. For my money, it's pretty terrible, features one of the worst first lines in pop music history ("Someone lost a shoe"), and can't seem to decide which of three different types of song it wants to be. If it's in the top half of the table at the close of Eurovision proceedings... well, I don't wear a hat but if I did I'd be seasoning it and finding some cutlery.

But anyway, you've read the title of this post and are possibly wondering what the Sunovision Song Contest is? Let me explain.

Last Sunday night I sat alone, nursing a lovely pint, in an unfamiliar pub in an unfamiliar small market town. At the next table, a loud woman with a dog was pontificating about all manner of things, to the rapt attention of three very different men, all of whom seemed to be falling over themselves to pay atttention to her every word, apparently for the sole reason that she was borderline visually attractive. I may be oversimplifying but that's how it seemed to me, over the rim of my glasses. And trust me, I didn't want to listen in, but couldn't help it as she was quite loud in a otherwise quiet pub. After listening to how she would redesign one of the bloke's website for 50 grand, and how her dog was barking at another dog, she finally got onto Suno. "Have you heard of Suno?" she asked her three devotees, "It's incredible, look." And then she proceeded to demonstrate the Suno AI tool that enables users to provide a text prompt and have a song spat back at them. Yep. A fully fledged, multi-instrument, verse/chorus/middle eight/break/fade song with original lyrics, churned out by Suno's AI engine in a matter of seconds. Honestly, it took longer to type the prompt than it took Suno to generate the song... a song that borderline woman proceeded to play loudly from her phone, shattering the peace of the pub even more than her voice and barking dog already had.

God, I sound like a cantankerous old sod, don't I?

Of course, the acolytes all cooed, "That's amazing," or similar. And in a way, it is. Technically, as a programming and computing achievement, it is astonishing, even. But musically? Borderline woman's Suno-song was crap. Anodyne, generic, pointless, meaningless, forgettable... just awful.

And then it occurred to me, after listening to the UK's Eurovision entry yesterday and accidentally sitting through a few minutes of one of the Eurovision semi-finals, that all those words could probably be applied to a lot of the songs that will get churned out in Basel on Saturday night too. And an idea formed.

So here we have the inaugural Sunovision Song Contest. Yes, I used Suno to create the songs, and in keeping with that I used ChatGPT to create fictional countries and their representative artists. But listen up! You have to cast your vote at the end, so strap in and let's take this semi-seriously...

First up, representing Elystène, is L'Orée d'Or ("The Golden Edge") and their track Lonely Shadows. The island nation of Elystène is known for its high art, fashion, and diplomacy, apparently. L'Orée d'Or describe their style as dream power pop, and are known for their ethereal soundscapes, poetic lyrics, and avant-garde fashion.

L'Orée d'Or · Lonely Shadows

Next up is Symphony of Collapse by Elias Vergrave, representing Ormandia. Elias is classically trained, would you believe? Of course you would, he's from Ormandia after all, a central European duchy with misty hills, medieval castles, and a strong literary culture.

Elias Vergrave · Symphony of Collapse

Getting exciting now, isn't it? Silver Vatra describe themselves as politically charged dance punks mixing traditional sounds with modern beats. No surprise as they're representing Thesskora, a Balkan state with a turbulent history and rich musical tradition. But there's no rebellion in Dancing Kitty, an unabashed Europop anthem!

Silver Vatra · Dancing Kitty

The Verdant Sigil are from Virelia, and are known for blending traditional forest instruments with modern rock, evoking the mysticism of Virelia’s deep woods and mountain temples. Not that you'd know it from their entry, the cryptic power ballad Alone Together.

The Verdant Sigil · Alone Together

Next up, the beautiful Solène Morra, representing the warm, Mediterranean nation of Caldovaria, where Roman ruins and Moorish architecture mix. Solène is a sultry and dynamic solo artist who blends classic Mediterranean rhythms with contemporary pop and Latin guitar in her entry, In the Quiet of the Night.

Solène Morra · In the Quiet of the Night

And finally, the bookies' favourite, Frostwake, representing Drevona, a northern land of fjords and pine forests, with a strong seafaring and folklore heritage. Frostwake combine droning harmonies with ancient Drevonan runic chants and heavy instrumentation on their lively entry, Terminverzug.

Frostwake · Terminverzug

So bienvenue and wilkommen, members of the Blogosphere jury, now it's down to you. Who gets your douze points? And who gets the dreaded nul points? You must give every song a score, and you can only give each score value once. Vote now!

As ever, I'm playing with all the AI stuff so you don't have to. And let's be clear, the six tracks produced here are all pretty awful by any objective measure. Laughably so, in places. But really, are they that much worse than some of the pap that will get served up at Eurovision in Basel? Possibly not. And here's the other thing. All the AI work, the Suno track generation, the Chat GPT fictional countries, bands and bios, took less than ten minutes all told. Writing this post took me nearly an hour, what with uploading MP3s to Soundcloud, drafting my devastating prose, formatting it all and pressing "Publish". And therein lies the rub. If you want originality and quality, you might be prepared to wait (and pay for) carbon-based creatives. But increasingly customers are just going to want something cheap and quick. AI is coming for us.

Come back soon to see which track won Sunovision 2025, and what prompt I used to create it...