6 Obscure Cover Songs You Need To Hear (a Tune Musing Special)
Tune Musings is a regular series where a lifelong audiophile shares, dissects and reviews lesser-known, beautiful music.
I have a love/hate relationship with covers; they occasionally come off as charmless, overdone, and poorly executed (I’m looking at you, Motley Crue cover of “Anarchy For The UK”).
Sometimes a cover will add nothing of value to supersede the original. Why bother listening to The Overcooked Meatballs*’ copy of “Overkill” when the Men At Work version is blatantly superior?
That doesn’t mean that all covers are throwaway tracks. Sometimes a band or musician will take a song and do things to it that no one (not even the songwriter themselves) could have predicted or conceived. The end result is not just a simple cover version but an entirely fresh adaptation of familiar sounds.
Here are six underappreciated, somewhat unconventional covers that you may not have heard but are marvelous listening experiences that stand on their own.
*The Overcooked Meatballs are sadly a figment of my imagination and do not exist. Yet.
“Jumpin’ Jack Flash” — Alex Chilton (1970) — Rolling Stones cover
In 1970, after his first band, the Box Tops, broke up, and shortly before he would begin to blaze alt-rock trails with Big Star, Alex Chilton locked himself in a Memphis recording studio to give birth to an album’s worth of original material and cover songs. The resulting LP would go out of print for decades before being re-issued in 2012 as Free Again: The “1970” Session.
During these sessions, Chilton recorded a swamped-up version of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” that can only be described as an arrogantly perverse and novel deconstruction of the Stones’ classic. The original melodies can be ascertained, but they are turned inside out, folded thrice, ripped apart at the seams, and set ablaze.
Chilton manages to play the song’s timeless riff filthier, nastier, and with more electric venom than Keith Richards. His growling, smoke-tempered vocals leave Jagger’s in the dust. Even the decelerated drums on Chilton’s version sound meaner and angrier.
I would love to have been in the studio with Alex when this defiant session occurred.
“Astro Zombies” — Steve Gunn (2020) — Misfits cover
This will be the only entry where I share YouTube links to both the original and cover…..simply because what Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Steve Gunn did to the Misfits’ “Astro Zombies” has to be listened to comparatively to sustain the full effect of the brilliance.
In Gunn’s hands, Glenn Danzig’s 1982 horror punk single has been transfigured into a sunny, gorgeous acoustic romp. Stripped of its power chords, its manic pace, and Danzig’s “Elvis on Roids” howl, Gunn’s “Astro Zombies” could almost pass as a 70s folk anthem…as long as you ignore what is happening lyrically (spoiler: there’s a whole lotta human flesh burnin’ by extraterrestrial zombies going on).
Recorded for the Aquarium Drunkard Lagniappe Sessions two years ago, Steve Gunn accomplishes what I thought was near impossible in his version of “Astro Zombies”: making a tongue-in-cheek tune about human extinction sound delightful.
“Every 1’s A Winner” — Ty Segall (2018) — Hot Chocolate cover
Covers that cross musical genres aren’t a rarity. Just look at Motown’s versions of the Beatles or 90s grunge remakes of Johnny Cash for prime examples. The transecting covers I find unique and extraordinary occur when an artist completely reconstitutes a beloved song’s sound and tone, engendering a highly original facsimile.
A case in point is Ty Segall’s sonic reconstitution of the 1978 hit song “Every 1’s A Winner”, originally recorded by British soul ensemble Hot Chocolate.
Segall transforms a groove-tastic, dance-able disco hit into a feedback-infused banger replete with crunchy, fuzzed-up guitars and drum work overflowing with killer fills.
Even still, despite Segall’s total overhaul of the song, one can still hear the subtle glimmers of Hot Chocolate’s funky flavor in this cover. “Every 1’s A Winner” was one of my most frequent plays in 2018 for a reason; it’s nearly impossible to resist rocking along while it’s on.
“Western Cowboy” — Hurray For The Riff Raff (2013) — Leadbelly cover
I’ve been a fan of New Orleans-based Americana band Hurray For The Riff Raff since I saw them live at the World Cafe in 2017. The brainchild of singer/guitarist/songwriter Alynda Segarra, HFTRR deftly fuses blues, roots, and country rock with punk ideals and Segarra’s Puerto Rican heritage. They have managed to create a singular, idiosyncratic sound over the span of a half dozen albums since 2007.
Their 2013 LP My Dearest Darkest Neighbor was composed of HFTRR originals blended with unusual cover choices. Segarra and co. attack everyone from Townes Van Zandt to Billie Holliday to George Harrison on Neighbor, but by far my favorite cover is their recording of Leadbelly’s “Western Cowboy.”
Aficionados of Leadbelly’s original will probably not recognize this version. However, that does not detract from the cover’s unique quality. HFTRR’s copy rambles along with a rootsy, countrified flow thanks to some excellent fiddling by Yosi Perlstein, steady percussion from Sam Doores, and Segarra’s honey-dipped voice. It’s the very definition of a toe-tapper.
“I’m Glad” — Swallow Caves (2018) — Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band cover
I will always hold the enigmatic, multi-instrumentalist Captain Beefheart in very high regard. The man was clearly from another planet (which one, I do not know) — and I am thankful that he gifted his mad genius to this world before his departure in 2010. But I do acknowledge one point of contention that critics have struggled to reconcile with Don Van Vliet: he was not one of the universe’s greatest vocalists.
But did his singing really matter? Beefheart’s music was so obtuse, alien, and gorgeously unstructured that the vocals were almost…secondary and inconsequential.
So imagine what his music might sound like with someone else at the mic. British indie band Swallow Caves recorded a cover of Beefheart’s “I’m Glad” back in 2018 that mimics the music and mix of the originality sans one tiny change: they push the vocals to the fore, and my goodness, it’s a piece of beauty.
After decades of hearing Beefheart grumble his way through “I’m Glad,” the Swallow Caves’ ethereal harmonies in their version sound like an ear-opening epiphany. It’s always been a gorgeous love song (perhaps Beefheart’s most sincere composition ever) — but in this angelic cover, one can honestly recognize the purity of intentions in Van Vliet’s songwriting. In Swallow Caves’ hands, “I’m Glad” achieves an ambiance its acclaimed author might not have been able to duplicate while he was alive.
“Allison Road” — White Fence (2016) — Gin Blossoms cover
For the final cut, I return to a track from Aquarium Drunkard’s well-received Lagniappe Sessions series. Psychedelic garage rocker White Fence (actual name Tim Presley) recorded this cover of the Gin Blossoms' hit “Allison Road” in 2016, which I failed to discover until late last year.
White Fence is famous for his borderline genre-undefinable lo-fi recordings that border on post-punk experimentation. Some have compared Presley to the late Mark E. Smith. Heck, Presley actually moonlighted (very briefly) as a member of The Fall back in 2006.
However, there is very little dissonance and noise to be found in this recording. White Fence’s cover of “Allison Road” is a straightforward cover of the Gin Blossoms classic that produces two incredible outcomes: firstly, it entices me to want to listen to “Allison Road” (a song that, in any form, I would rather not waste time on). Secondly, this cover pulls off an audible deception — when I listen to White Fence’s version, I honestly forget it’s a Gin Blossoms song.
For real. Listen and let me know in the comments: who do you hear more of in this version of “Allison Road”: the Byrds or the Gin Blossoms (hint: I hear the former)?
