The gatekeepers have a lot to answer for.
Anyway, I think this is a similar divide to the performances of ‘Hurt’ by Nine Inch Nails and Johnny Cash. People come to each with their own preconceptions and their own taste, and ultimately both tracks explore different ground and express different things through the same composition.
It is all a matter of taste; for what it’s worth, I think no one has to think something is good, but I have a lot of time for people whose sense of taste lets them explore the ground that the artist tries to take them to and understand the artist on their level, whether they think one particular performance is better or worse than another by some metric.
Must have been a weird feeling for an artist to hear Johnny Cash is covering your song. On the one hand, he’s a legend who inspired you and who you worship, but also it has to be a bit of “oh shit, his version is going to be so much better than mine, isn’t it? Well, I guess it’s Johnny’s song now. ”
Pff.
Based on monthly listeners on Spotify Johnny Cash is bigger than both Nice Cave and Nine Inch Nails. So what kind of position do you put artists who are both less known and younger in when you cover their songs? Well factoring in respect and professionalism: deference is a likely outcome. “It’s his song now!” Ridiculous.
“Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails is fine I guess. “Hurt” by Cash is just an old man voice over a steel string guitar. Very monotone and dull. I heard it way before I heard the NiN version (naturally) and I never understood why people were taken by it.
Another example is “My Body is a Cage” by Arcade Fire. Peter Gabriel did a similarly boring cover: flat vocals (compare with the AF vocals reaching for the higher notes) over a dun-dun-dun piano which builds into a orchestral backing. I guess the instrumentation is comparable but the vocals are just okay. But the vocals are supposedly the wow-factor for such artists.
But AF has done at least one Peter Gabriel cover. So it goes both ways.
For me, Cale's version sounds "lived in", if you will. He's taken the words and made them his. There's bitterness, hurt, humour, and real meaning imbued in each line. It's not elegant, it's a bit rough and raw. I think Cale is an underrated vocalist.
Other cover versions like Buckley's sound technically very proficient but slick and emotionally hollow.
I totally agree and more so on ballards.
The hairs on my back of my neck always stand up when I hear I Keep A Close Watch (especially the M:FANS version [1], but the original Helen of Troy version is also great [2] and there's plenty of wonderful live versions).
[1] https://youtu.be/d7wBvyrao8I [2] https://youtu.be/LoggPfL3dLU
Johnny Cash's version takes the song and puts it into a new context, specifically as a reflection on Cash's own life and career. It hits very differently that way, and I think it's easier for people to relate to. Both versions are excellent in their own way, and I am grateful to Johnny Cash for bringing this song into the public consciousness.
I'm guessing this comes about as a desire to be heard causing a magnification of the opinion rather than the force of the opinion. If you feel like nobody takes notice of your moderate opinion one might feel like a expressing stronger opinion in the same direction might increase the impact.
I own both Cohen's track from Various Positions and Buckley's cover from Grace, which Google gave away for free to try to convince people to use its music store. I don't listen to the latter. Even if I didn't have the former, I still wouldn't listen to the latter. That's just how I feel about it, and I understand that other people feel differently.
It is a different experience for the performer than for the audience. As an audience member, I get tired of any particular song very quickly. As a performer, it often feels like a new challenge each time. One night I can struggle to feel anything at all and it's like I'm phoning it in. The next afternoon I can come away from a spontaneous run-through of the same piece and feel like I've found new insights and played it better than ever before.
That being said, while I recognize it's somewhat subjective, I vastly prefer Jeff Buckley's version of this song over all others. Maybe because I fell in love with that whole Grace album at a pivotal point in my life. If I'm going to pick a song I feel like Cohen fully owns, it's gotta be Everybody Knows.
Only good an bad