Cover Songs blurb for OX Magazine

What is your opinion on cover songs?
Do you like or dislike them?
Does it depend on what is covered?
Are there songs that should not be covered?
Is there a difference between covering a song live, and covering it as a recording?
Do you know any cover songs that are brilliant, or shitty?
What about bands that only play cover songs?


I like cover songs. Well, I like to play them, and record them, but I would rather play my own stuff given the choice.  I have recorded about 30 songs written by other bands. I do it because I love the songs. No other reason. I have also recorded about 200 songs I wrote, so I give myself a pass for playing music by people I admire. Some of whom I am blessed to know. I don't think any of the songs I have covered are anywhere near as good as the originals, but I hope their authors will accept my humble homage.

There are a number of cover songs that I have heard that are really so great that they deserve a co-write.   For example, it is a given that Hendrix totally kills All Along the Watchtower. The studio version of Stiff Little Fingers Johnny Was still completely amazes me, it is so fucking good. I had seen the Clash play Pressure Drop and Brand New Cadillac and those were so great. Exciting.

Some of my favorite bands play a fuckload of covers. I love The Ramones and their versions of so many songs just rule earth. Let's Dance, California Sun, Needles and Pins, Palisades Park. Surfin' Bird. The list just goes on and on.

The Cramps covered stuff by bands I had never heard when I was younger. Talk about turning-on a generation.I cassette recorded them off of the radio- the Rodney Bingenheimer show in Pasadena. Lux brought in these great records. Blew my mind. I can't recall any other band having this kind of effect on me..

The Dickies are probably my favorite band when it comes to inventive, creative, and just triumphant cover songs. Paranoid, Gigantor, The Banana Splits Theme, Hair, She, and Nights in White Satin. These cover songs are so much a part of my life, that I cry when I recall the times in my life where these songs became literally stitched into my being.