Battle of the Covers: It's The End Of The World As We Know It (Request)

"Dusty Ventures" (dustyventures)
10/13/2014 at 12:30 • Filed to: Battle of the Covers, BOTC, Musiclopnik, Leonard Bernstein

I'm feeling particularly fine today. Which means it's probably the end of the world as we know it. Or, as with the release date of some of these covers, it may be a false alarm*. Either way, we've got a cover suggestion from JRCB and we're going to fight.

After two straight blowouts we finally had a battle when we contested Nirvana's !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and what a battle it was! When I made my traditional prediction (which I make in the comments before every round, for those who didn't know), I predicted it would be a battle of the three female vocalists. Surprisingly only two of those vocalists came into play as Evanescence, arguably the best known of the three, was completely left behind as Lana Del Rey and Dead Sara spent the entire weekend trading votes. Every time I checked in on the battle they were within one vote of each other, and they spent most of Sunday evening tied. Finally Lana Del Rey managed to grab a single vote over Dead Sara just before the polls closed, giving her the win. No such conclusion was reached in the battle for worst, however, as the Yaron Herman Trio ended the contest tied with Little Roy. Oh well.

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Unfortunately Wikipedia was unusually vague about the origins and details of this song, but I can provide a few interesting little factoids. The song's roots go back to a previously unreleased R.E.M. song titled "PSA," which remained unreleased until 2003. It also draws from Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues." One of the interesting themes within the lyrics, which has a stream-of-consciousness flow to them, is a pattern of celebrities with the initials L.B. (Leonard Bernstein, Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce, and Lester Bangs). This comes from a dream R.E.M. guitarist Michael Stripe had in which he found himself at a party with famous people who all shared those initials. I can only assume he felt insanely out of place at this party.

*Chris Carrabba's cover was released to coincide with the 2011 rapture. Bon Jovi released a live version that also came out for the rapture, and Sugarland, Little Big Town, and Matt Nathanson did a live collaboration for the rapture as well. Starpool and Peter Buffett released their covers on December 21, 2012, the Mayan Apocalypse.

Great Big Sea - (1998)

The Suicide Machines - (2001)

Riddlin Kids - (2002)

Chris Carrabba - (2011)

Starpool - (2012)

Peter Buffet - (2012)

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LEST YE FORGET! If you want to check back on the results of previous rounds, or see what covers are coming in future rounds, there is a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! with past rounds and the upcoming battle schedule.

DISCUSSION (5)

Dusty Ventures > Dusty Ventures
10/13/2014 at 01:31

Prediction: This is a tough one, there's no clear winner to my ears. Based on how voting has gone in previous rounds I'll guess Riddlin Kids, Great Big Sea, and Starpool will be the main contenders.

Blondude > Dusty Ventures
10/14/2014 at 20:06

Heh, the Riddlin' Kids one is funny because on that same album they also had a song called I Feel Fine.

So yeah, that one makes me feel fine.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Dusty Ventures
10/24/2014 at 08:56

Looks like its been a while since you've done a BOTC, but I stumbled upon a possibility for you. Wicked Game, originally by Chris Isaak has been covered by Parra for Cuva and it has been getting a lot of air time on BBC1.

It has also been covered by Lana Del Rey. The video screws with my head because someone took video from her other music videos and put the vocals from Wicked Games over it so her lips never match the song.

Here is London Grammar doing a live cover of it.

It's tough to find covers where people really do their own thing. Here is Three Days Grace, but really it seems to be only the lead singer doing it on acoustic guitar.

Here's HIM's take on it which has a little bit more of their own take instead of just trying to duplicate the Chris Isaak version.

Here is Playloud covering it. They appear to be a Greek old guy rock band.

I'm surprised at how many covers there are of this song and amazed at how many of them try to be an exact copy of the original. You have to start getting into some obscure bands before you get anything that has any originality to it.

If you use this for BOTC and include the Daughtry remix I will be forced to spam your post with every Nickelback video I can find. Which reminds me of a story/joke that I've seen attributed to Dave Grohl. "Nickelback walks into a bar. There is no joke, there's nothing funny about ruining music."

Dusty Ventures > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much
10/24/2014 at 09:24

Thanks. I do intend to do more BOTC rounds, I just needed a break. Doing three per week was exhausting.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Dusty Ventures
10/24/2014 at 09:25

No problem. I don't actually get into it, but I stumbled across all the videos because I decided to look up the Parra for Cuva video this morning.