Covers that are better than the original

I can't really say it's better, but Dream Theater does a cover of Funeral for a Friend that is just fantastic.

Welcome to amalgamated A2K Wayne.
This has no video but you can tell Dream T loves the Elton John song

I heard a Johnny Cash cover of a song by Sheryl Crow . . . sorry . . . forgot the name of the song although it was rather dark.

Heard it on WUMB, which offers live streaming on the web. The dj kept talking about how odd it was that Cash covered Crow. Why? Cash was always eclectic and Crow is not without folk and blues roots.

You might be thinking of "Field Of Diamonds" an old Waylon Jennings-Johnny Cash song covered on AmericanIII: Solitary Man where she played mandolin and accordion on various tracks.

I heard two mind-blowing covers this morning on the excellent retrospective radio show, Highway 61 Revisited.

The first is by Carolyn Aiken: 40,000 Headmen. This is a song I always liked this song and have strong associations with it. This is a so spectacular.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MErjjBeKPZM

The other is by Dar Williams, a cover of Bruce's Highway Patrolman. While I would love to provide a link to it, no one seems to have posted it on youtube. What is nice is Dar's diction is so much better than Bruce's!

I didn't know you went to a boarding school in Wales. When my younger son was 13, he went to the British Isles on a school sponsored trip. Wales was his favorite part of the trip, but, then he was named for Owain Glendower.

One Johnny Cash
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99Q-HFFIzo4

Hurt Johny Cash
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o22eIJDtKho&a=fCHzFHdMUIo&playnext_from=ML

Actually, I found the cover of the Sheryl Crow song which is Redemption Day, a song that sounds like it was inspired by the intersection of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, a tiny touch of the Carter Family and a dollop of Ralph Stanley singing the traditional, "Oh, Death."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_uI1BUnzws

The comments on youtube favor Cash's version over Sheryl's because of his voice.

He was magnificent.

What the hell was wrong with that dj who thought this was an odd choice for Cash???!!!

Steve Winwood and Slash doing "Hey Joe" as a tribute to Jimi Hendrix:

I love learning stuff. Thanks POM

wandel, thought you'd enjoy this , the original.
This was THE song when I was learning in the garage

I enjoyed that one jw.

another jimi tune

ozzie and lenny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnyJOzNZ7bc&feature=related

Johnny Cash had a whole lot more emotion in that song than Trent Reznor ever did - so sayeth Trent Reznor himself!

Thanks for posting the original. I remember hearing it on the radio. Jimi Hendrix's performance of the song became the legendary version.

Sinead O Conner - Nothing Compares To You.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned.

good one. For those who never heard the original by Prince.

Sinead made it her own, fer sure

While we're on the subject of Prince

This post begins with a huge warning. No one . . . let me repeat, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE . . . could be better than Screamin' Jay Hawkins. His "I Put a Spell on You" is worthy of the adjectives a true classic.

However, Arthur Brown acquitted himself well in this 1999 acoustic version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDKuHSJEBrc&feature=related

There is an other version from last year, showing the then 65 year old Brown, his face painted like an ur-Gene Simmons or an incompetent high school footballer's, looking like he is competing against Max Von Sydow and Peter O'Toole for the title of gauntest man in Europe, that I will not show here.