If you haven't already consumed the entirety of animator and film-maker Steve Cutts's YouTube channel, what are you waiting for? He has an excellent, dark sense of humour that I very much appreciate, and think you might too. Here's an example, the first short film of his that I saw.
There, that was good, wasn't it? The music used therein is Game of Pricks by Guided by Voices. Here's the full track in all its 93-second, retro-sounding, Sunday short glory.
Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.
Last time: Tony Christie to Arctic Monkeys
In recent(ish) years, Radio 1's Live Lounge feature has been a rich source of interesting covers. Today's track is a great example, as Alex and his Arctic Monkeys co-conspirators provide a brisk rattle through of Love Machine. They did this on 19th January 2006, can you believe, and by the sound of it had a right laugh in the process.
Never let it be said that New Amusements does not adequately embrace manufactured girl bands; here's the Girls Aloud original, from their second album, 2004's What Will The Neighbours Say?
Next time: girls become women...
Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.
Last time: Michael Ball to Tony Christie
Thank goodness for artists who have been around long enough to bring us back towards slightly more recent material every now and then. In 2008 Tony Christie recorded the album Made in Sheffield. Richard Hawley produced it, and it featured only songs written by Sheffield songwriters, and new songs by Tony himself. And that, friends, is how Tony came to cover the Arctic Monkeys track Only Ones Who Know.
The original is from the Arctic Monkeys' second album, 2007's Favourite Worst Nightmare. Here it is, proving that Tony kept a pretty Straight Bat for his cover.
Next time: young women permitted...
Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.
Last time: The Shadows to Michael Ball
After the misery of the last entry in this series, it's time to move back towards stronger material, even if it means a bit of rule bending. For today's cover is actually a collaboration with the original artist... but we have to get off Michael Ball somehow. So from Heroes, his 2011 album of covers and collaborations, here's Michael and Tony Christie, with Avenues and Alleyways.
I don't know about you but I would much rather hear Tony do this on his own, the way I remember it, i.e. as the theme tune to The Protectors.
Next time: chilly simians ahead...
Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.
Last time: Queen to The Shadows
My biggest concern when I was weighing up whether to do this series or not, even greater than its natural tendency to go further and further back in time, was the fear that I'd have to entertain songs and/or artists that I do not like, just to keep the whole thing going. On a completely unrelated note, today's Cover Charge see the excellent Shadows covering Michael Ball.
With all apologies, here's Michael's original suggestion that Love Changes Everything, from the Lloyd-Webber musical, Aspects of Love.
Next time: even a dark alleyway is preferable to the above...
Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.
Last time: Travis to Queen
Queen were too busy doing their own thing to record many covers. But their individual members were more productive, thank goodness (for this series). Take the corkscrew-haired astrophysicist and badger-saviour that is Mr Brian May. Like a lot of his guitar-bothering chums, he was asked to contribute something to Twang, a 1996 tribute album celebrating the music of Hank Marvin and The Shadows... to wit, here he is ripping through FBI. It starts out a Straight Bat, but becomes increasingly an Own Stamp.
Here's the original from Hank, Bruce and the lads. I've gone for a live performance, so you can enjoy their trademark "dance" moves.
Next time: this series descends to a new low...
Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.
Last time: Glen Campbell to Travis
Travis have always been partial to a good cover version. Here they play with an absolute Straight Bat with their take on Queen's Killer Queen, a B-side to their 2001 single Sing... which is, of course, how we got to Travis in the Cover Charge chain in the first place. This series doesn't just throw itself together, you know.
Lovely though Travis's homage is, the original remains untouchable. 51 years old, and much loved by Amusements Minor, especially for an in-car singalong. Hmm. A 51yr-old song for the 51st Cover Charge post. This series doesn't just throw itse... oh, you get the idea.
Next time: we follow just one member of Queen... but which?
Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.
Last time: The Bee Gees to Glen Campbell
As has been mentioned before, the problem with this series is its naturally tendency to go further and further back in time. Last time, we ended in 1961. How to bring it back to something more recent, relatively at least? Well, I don't know about you but one thing I didn't have on my bingo card before starting this series was Glen Campbell covering Sing by Travis, and yet here we are. From his 2008 album of covers, Meet Glen Campbell, this is very much a Straight Bat, right down to the banjo part.
Here's the Travis original, complete with the food-fight video that looks like it might have been a lot of fun to make. Either way, this was the first single to be lifted from The Invisible Band and hit #3 in 2001.
Next time: Fran and the boys commit regicide...
Paul Weller recommended this track to Jo Whiley and she, in turn, recommended it to me. Full disclosure, I'm not special, she recommended it to everyone listening to her evening show on Radio 2 last week.
I'd not heard much of anything from Amelia Coburn before, but I do rather like this. There's something about her voice that makes me think she should be singing outside Edward Woodward's bedroom, banging on his door. But enough of such digressions: here's When The Tide Rolls In. Good, isn't it?
Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.
Last time: Sparks to The Bee Gees
Well here's an interesting one. We're going so far back in the history of the brothers Gibb that today's track is credited to Barry Gibb and the Bee-Gees. It was their fifth single, and limped to #94 in the Australian chart, all the way back in 1964. To be honest though, even this was progress from just a few short years earlier, when the boys regularly entertained the crowds at the Redcliffe Speedway in Brisbane from the back of a moving flat-bed truck; the crowd would throw money, and the band's fee was anything they could gather up from that, if Wikipedia is to be believed. But anyway, here's Barry and co's take on Turn Around, Look At Me.
I don't know about you but there are parts of that, certain chord progressions, that put me in mind of This Boy by The Beatles. But this series is about covers, not aural similarities, so I'd better reveal the original, an uncredited co-write for none other than Glen Campbell, from just a few years earlier in 1961. What a voice he had.
Next time: Glen Sings...
Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.
Last time: New Order to Sparks
Funny one today. From the 2019 expanded re-release of Sparks' superbly titled album Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins comes this curio, Holiday. Vocals are by actress-musician Christi Haydon, who had caught Russell Mael's eye whilst working on a department store make-up counter. To that point, Christi's biggest brush with fame had been playing a semi-regular but uncredited ensign extra in Star Trek: The Next Generation. But she ended up recording an EP with Sparks, and touring with them too. This is a track from that EP, in which she and the brothers Mael have a stab at the brothers Gibb.
Here's the Bee Gees original from their first flush, pre-disco 60s style. Robin takes the lead on this. It sounds more sombre than the Sparks cover... until you get to the "de de de-de" middle eight.
Next time: the brothers demand attention...
Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.
Last time: Moby to New Order
Sometimes, when you're hunting down candidates for links in the cover chain, live performances bail you out of a cul-de-sac. So it is today, as we go all the way back to Milan in June 1982, for New Order's live rendition of When I'm With You.
I don't know abut you but that sounds darker and more urgent than the Sparks version, almost like being with you is not a good thing. By contrast, Sparks' original, taken from their 1980 album Jive, feels an altogether more chipper affair.
Next time: not massive chew-sets, but in that ballpark...
It's pretty far from his finest work, but I've been thinking about this song a lot lately: of the obvious truisms it contains, of mortality, of death, of finality. "So grab me while we still have the time" indeed.
Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.
Last time: Kris Kristofferson to Moby
No playing fast and loose with what constitutes a cover today, oh no. Instead, let's go back twenty years to Moby's 2005 album Hotel and have a listen to the track that closed side one. It's very much an Own Stamp, massively slowing down the driving motorik of the original and turning it into a desperate lament. Moby's not much of a singer, so he wisely ceded vocal duties here to Laura Dawn but even she couldn't prevent this being panned at the time. The Drowned In Sound review called it "unbelievably bad". Harsh, or harsh but fair? You decide.
All of which is the scant excuse I need to wheel out New Order's original Temptation. 43 years old this year, and still sounding brilliant. And as a bonus, it's a Monday long song too. Ambassador, you are spoiling us, et cetera...
Next time: there may be dodgy wiring because I see...
Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.
Last time: Rita Coolidge to Kris Kristofferson
I was three links in the chain from the end, honest... but I've had fun doing this, and certain readers (including some long-termers) seem to like the series, so I've replotted my route with all the skill and precision of a seasoned strap-hanger learning of delays on the Central Line. The upshot of all this is that we can string the whole thing out a little bit longer. What do you mean, oh?! Come back...
I've had to bend the rules a little to do so though. So here's a version of Moby and Mark Lanegan's The Lonely Night that features additional vocals from Kris Kristofferson. Critics might say it's not really a cover, it's more of a collaboration, given that the original artists are on the record too. But honestly, my gaff, my rules. So from Moby's 2021 retrospective Reprise, here's Kris adding a world-weary gravel to an already gritty vocal, for what ends up a very, very Straight Bat "cover".
The original, from Moby (Richard Hall, to his mum) and former Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age vocalist Mark, was first released as a 7-inch for Record Store Day 2013, with a fine accompanying video too (below). It was later included on the bald-headed one's album Innocents.
Next time: no rule-bending, even if it is my gaff, however great the temptation...