The Original Or The Cover: “Golden Brown”

Sam Wilkinson

According to a faithful reader, I'm Ordinary Times's "least thoughtful writer." So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

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6 Responses

  1. Aaron David says:

    Ah yes, Golden Brown. A nice teachable moment in punks three time signatures and the truth.

    All versions of a song after an initial release, are to greater or lesser degree covers. And that is cool, which this Cage the Elephant version is not. GB is one of those things that was created to get past a certain time and place, in this case, the anglosphere’s ever-present censors. That this created a wondrous piece of music is a testament to the Stranglers, the band who is also known for bringing us Peaches. And this is not to run the band down, as I truly love them.

    The Stranglers grew out of that brief moment in time where blue-collar garage rock and actual boundary-pushing art-rock collided, the original punk scene. Not that corporate drivel that is pushed at us now. I am not sure what Cage came from, and for the most part their music is good. This is not.Report

  2. Maribou says:

    I’m a bit of a mook in that I am a sucker for any good cover whether i think it’s better than the original or not. If I love a song I want to hear everyone with a good voice sing that song…

    Tonight’s cover is this one:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkY5FwDI48MReport

  3. Slade the Leveller says:

    The best description of The Stranglers I ever heard was from a college friend: “They’re punk rockers who know how to play their instruments.” Technical proficiency is demonstrated here, but this is a riff in search of a song.

    That said, I hope this continues to be a regular feature here. I’ve got an entire Spotify playlist devoted to interesting covers. For me, interesting means not slavish to the original. For instance, the recent Weezer covers album, IMHO, was a waste of good studio time. Why would I listen to a note for note cover of a song when I could listen to the original?Report

  4. Aaron David says:

    I agree quite strongly with Slade here. Taking the original material and pulling a 180 with it, all the while respecting it is truly fantastic. And on that note (and keeping the “brown”:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNmE5xsZBjgReport