No, Green Day Did Not Write That

Stop covering Kate Bush's songs. She will pounce you.

Big Star’s first two records are about to be reissued on vinyl and CD in a month, which makes me giddier than a pig rolling in dollar bills. Big Star’s legacy might be that they were one of the first obscure bands to get super name-dropped by record collectors long, long after their music came out, paving the way for Slint, the Vaselines and many others. Their legacy could also be the sweet, affected tone of songs like “Thirteen,” a tune that stands tall and bares its chest waiting for you to hug it, put it on mix CDs, play it while staring deeply into the eyes of that girl or guy you love, wind breezing through your hair, your exorable spirit twinged with that fey remember of innocence. The legacy might also be that Cheap Trick cover of “In the Street.”

I like Cheap Trick, I mean, “Surrender” is as accessible a pop jaunt to shake your hair to, but the cover of “In the Street” that was played on That ’70s Show basically guaranteed no one would never give a shit about the Big Star version except college DJs – which might have been true even had the show not existed, because the Big Star version is kind of cheesy in that ’70s stutter-step disco shoes, Friday night joint way. I don’t know if it’s on the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever or Dazed and Confused. Still, that Cheap Trick got a little more recognized/popular at Big Star’s expensesucks if the people who listen to them never give the original band a shot – not that Big Star is objectively better than Cheap Trick (although I like them more), but the cover might rob the original of its potency. For example, I think just about anything would be ruined if I heard a Green Day cover of it before hearing the originals.

Some other examples:

The Futureheads – Hounds of Love (600,000 Youtube hits) vs. Kate Bush – Hounds of Love (20,000 Youtube hits)

The Futureheads version of this song is pretty great – those layered four-part harmonies climaxing at the end like the most enthusiastic orgasm you’ve ever had – and that it remains the only song of theirs anyone listens to five years after their first album is what happens when you make its performance a gimmick at every concert. The band would do this call-and-response at their shows of the recurring vocal parts – “Oh, oh oh, Oh, oh oh,” one guy would go, and “OH OH OH! OH OH OH!” the other would coo after him, both like a pair of Brit-pop album. But if you’re an indie kid, did you know it’s a cover of a Kate Bush song? Bush’s version is less up-tempo, to describe it in a totally generic way, but it has this hand-in-your-face, mug-for-the-stage dramatic mysticism to it that no one has been able to replicate since, no matter how hard Lady Gaga might be subconsciously trying.

M.I.A. – Paper Planes (35,000,000 Youtube hits) vs. The Clash – Straight to Hell (450,000 Youtube hits)

I guess this isn’t a cover at all, but that M.I.A. stole the most memorable musical phrase of her song from the one of the last good Clashs song ever written may have escaped a few – as my sophomore year roommate told me, “No, Jeremy, M.I.A. did that shit first. The Clash ripped her off.” He might have been joking (well, probably, unless he was actually retarded), but I feel you need to know this because the Clash song is one of the best anti-war songs I’ve ever heard, a solemn vigil for the thousands dead in Vietnam that filmmakers surely would have co-opted for their Vietnam movies had it not been buried underneath the top 40 appeal of “Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now” and “Rock the Casbah” on Combat Rock. The closest Joe Strummer could have gotten to becoming a working-class hero was by death, and on this song he got closer to becoming a ghost than any of the other righteous Clash songs. That said, you’re not going to get laid to this song unless your significant other is really cool.

Placebo – Running Up That Hill (3,000,000 Youtube hits) vs. Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill (100,000 Youtube hits)

I wonder why it comes back to Kate Bush, as it seems to these days, or why these Placebo cover seems to be so popular at her expense; unlike the Futureheads’ cover, I think it robs energy from the original, not gives it more. I actually don’t have that much to say about this; I just can’t believe people aren’t listening to more Kate. Harumph.