Cover Without Context
1985: from SR-71 to Bowling for Soup
In 2004 the band SR-71 (once Honor Among Thieves) released the album Here We Go Again that went literally almost nowhere, save for one song covered by the Band Bowling for Soup (A Hangover You Don’t Deserve) the same year.
If you’ve heard the song, you almost certainly know the Bowling for Soup version. Its protagonist Debbie realizes she is living a typical suburban life and her tendency to drift back to memories from high school is derided by her children.
Musically the two versions aren’t very different, and like the image above the lyrical differences don’t seem that great. Look more closely, and you’ll see the two images are not the same either in color or any but the grossest detail. The lyrical feel of the two songs is just as jarring once you look.
The eleventh line of the first verse is where the lyrics diverge: SR-71 writes:
See was gonna shake that ass/On the hood of Whitesnake’s car.
Bowling for Soup has it:
She was gonna shake her ass/On the hood of Whitesnake’s car.
A small thing, but there is a world of difference between a definite article and a possessive pronoun when referring to the movement of a body part. The second is crasser and doesn’t quite get…
