Dr. Frank's What's-it

my condolences...if you have to listen to the radio, listen to public radio stations where the dj's actually get to pick what gets played.

I often listen to a corporate rock station, and I still totally agree with that statement (a first, as far as I know, regarding Atrios). Next we'll get a Kid Rock cover of "Stairway to Heaven," and I'll have to shut off my radio for a year.

My way to avoid crap like that is listen to the radio during off-peak times, because then it's either requests or picks from the DJs, and the quality jumps quite a bit.

I've given up on the radio a long time ago. Listen to the oldies. But even that can get a little repetitive too.

what if they did an mtx cover?

Anne, I've always wanted to hear LB do "Population: Us." Okay, that's an exaggeration. I've only wanted to hear that since just a second ago. But I really really want it. Bad. "With My Looks and Your Brains" would be pretty good, too.

i guess i'm not as outraged as i should be. don't get me wrong- i'm sure it's god-awful, and i'm sure i would cringe if ever were i to hear it [which isn't likely, unless noggin decides to play the video repeatedly]...i certainly dislike lb as much as required by punk rock law. if they're big fans of the who, though, and this song in particular, what makes them have any less right to cover it than any other band?

i guess i feel sorry for them. they just wanted to do a cover of one of their favorite songs...even if the remaining members of the who themselves said it was the best cover of the song they'd ever heard, everyone would be rolling their eyes b/c it's lb.

poor babies.

Yeah, Anne, I wouldn't really call it "outrageous." Presumptuous, rather, perhaps; like if, say, Tim Burton were to do a remake of Vertigo or something. You know, with better special effects and profanity and all. Great idea! There is something kind of funny about it, but of course they have every right to do it. Van Halen did "You Really Got Me"-- same kind of thing, though I admit that at the time I didn't quite realize just how funny it was. And who knows, LB's interpretation may well have something interesting to contribute. I hope, at least, that FD does some cool rappin' in the quiet parts before the heaviness sets in and he starts screaming about his love being vengeance.

C'mon, Frank -- VH covering "You Really Got Me" is the same as LB covering "Behind Blue Eyes"? I don't buy it.

First, while both songs are undeniably part of the classic rock canon, of the two only "Behind Blue Eyes" has the epic, "majesty of rock" quality that makes a cover of it automatically kinda silly and presumptuous. "You Really Got Me," on the other hand, is a pretty straight-forward rock song, easily coverable by anyone without making any sort of statement. Now, if VH had tried to cover "Big Sky" . . . ;-)

Second, and much more important (to me, at least), while VH was a little goofy, they were a great rock band pre-Sammy and did a pretty good job with "You Really Got Me" (especially all those "ooh aahs" during the breakdown!). They don't deserve to be lumped in with LB.

Aaron,

Excellent summary, IMHO. It is wrong of me to point out that the "epic, 'majesty of rock' quality" of "Behind Blue Eyes" makes the Who's original version "kinda silly and pretentious" too? If LB's cover tries to take the piss out of the song, it'll at least be amusing. If it's an attempt to be "taken seriously", however...

I take your point, Aaron, and I agree, of course, that Van Halen was a better band than LB. I still think the VH "You Really Got Me" is kinda funny, though.

Kiss used to close their shows with a Who medley which included "Won't Get Fooled Again." I love Kiss, but that was freakin' hilarious, too. For some reason.

Please to rephrase word order of my previous post:

"It is..." should be "Is it..."

This is why English needs an interrogative enclitic. And no, that isn't something dirty.

P.S. I keep seeing references to the MTX cover of "Big Sky," which I've never heard. Frank, can you elaborate on this oft-referenced performance, or is this just a shaggy dog cover?

Nick,

I'm with you -- I'm not a huge Who fan post "The Who Sell Out," although they had some pretty classic songs after that period too. "Behind Blue Eyes" is certainly a bit grandiose (and my reference to "the majesty of rock" was tongue in cheek), but I don't think it's really pretentious, because they pretty much pull it off, IMO.

As for your other point, frankly, it didn't even occur to me that maybe LB was taking the piss with their cover. I guess maybe we should all try to listen to it before going off on these lengthy critiques!

Aaron

Nick,

I played bass in the version of MTX that attempted "Big Sky" (although maybe they also did it after I left, I don't know). In any event, my recollection is that we played it in public exactly once -- at a youth center in some small town in Germany, on the first date of MTX's first (and extremely ill-fated) European tour. Went over pretty well with the German punters, I recall!

Aaron,

Listen to a song before judging it? Never!! What the hell is the point of pop culture if you need to evaluate things based on their quality, rather than on their associations, references, fan base, etc?

I think that the Kinks' cover of Van Halen's cover of "You really got me" on "Come Dancing with the Kinks" kind of undermines that comparison. LB doing the Who is more like Billy Joel doing Dylan on "We didn't start the fire" or something like that...whatever your feelings about the original, it's just a spectacular embarrassment to witness.

Nick-

Your point assumes that LB is in a position to take the piss out of anyone. This is the band who made that "nookie" song, which is like butt-rock's (angry) answer to "My Ding-a-ling."

Sheerly vomitous.

My fave Kiss cover was "God Gave Rock n' Roll to You." Now THAT, my freinds, is the majesty of rock!

Speaking of which, Frank, when are you finally gonna get around to covering "Good Ale We Seek"?

Aaron, when you're right, you're right.

As for "Good Ale We Seek," I'm just waiting for my moment.

Aaron,

Ohhh, THAT Aaron! You were the first MTX bassist I ever saw, at a free Friday Noon concert in Lower Sproul on the Cal Campus in, oh, I'm guessing 1992. You guys were about to release "Milk, Milk, Lemonade" IIRC. It was a great set -- it was the 1st I'd heard of or heard MTX, and I'm still hooked. So thanks for a really cool show, 13 years later.

Also, thanks for clearing up the "Big Sky" mystery. And sorry for the fractured posts, Frank.

Spacetoast,

Yeah, you're probably right. Did people say, "Well, maybe Pat Boone is really commenting on contemporary American racism in his cover of 'Tutti Frutti'"?

Nick, there is something funny about the phrase, "the first MTX bassist I ever saw . . ." Sort of suggests that there is a genus "MTX bassists," which I guess there sort of is! Maybe all the MTX bassists should start a club -- we can meet at the corner of Gilman and 8th every 10 years on the summer solstice, and eat pizza or something.

The other thing is that it's kind of an odd choice with Pete Townshend's recent misadventures. Anyway, I think Pat Boone laid out his political views most transparently in his cover of "Enter Sandman."

i've always thought vh's 'you really got me' was silly, too.

i wonder how many people were outraged by mtx covering duran duran?

>Maybe all the MTX bassists should start a club

I would never belong to any club that would have me as a member.

There actually is something to the "majesty of rock", and there is something to the idea that some artists are just not worthy to cover certain songs. They can do it anyway, but it is pathetic when they do. "Behind Blue Eyes" is at once both (1) a genuine classic and great song, epic and (2) pompous, overblown, overwrought.

I don't think it is pretentious, because Townshend wasn't pretending when he wrote it and most of all Roger Daltry sings it totally straight like he realy means it. So, they pull it off. But, to pull off a high-risk play like that, you have to be really, really good. And the Who were still, at that point, really, really good. To step into the arena with the Who, just past the peak of their greatness, is to invite comparisons most bands would be wise to avoid. LB are not wise.

Also, "Behind Blue Eyes" is a song which appeals to adolescents, and for many of us who were teenagers (whether in the '70s, like me, or later) the song hit home, even though once you are a grown-up, it really cannot work anymore, since most of us achieve emotional maturity of some kind, but you have your memories. So, LB are screwing around with some people's deep memories doing a cover of this one, and they cannot possibly do so without desecrating them. Again, a bad call. It would be almost as stupid as covering "Nights in White Satin."

Also, van Halen managed in their goofy way to reach that majesty-of-rock level from time to time. I would say they do so on "Dance the Night Away" -- there's a girl, she's young, she's pretty, she's dancing, the moment is magic, and even nutty Diamond Dave has the wit to just sing it straight and share the magic.

Sometimes you just have to realize that what you have is actually beautiful, and rock songs can be beautiful, and respect what you have stumbled on, and do it straight. Bob Wills does not do his crazy hollers on "Faded Love" because he knew he had come up with something beautiful and he acted accordingly.

The basic thing about covers is that you should do them if (1) you love the song, and (2) in some way you can do it justice. Parody or irony doesn't work because it just shows that the band doing the cover is a parasite rather than an originator.

The LB cover is not a pisstake. It's a perfectly earnest, straightforward version with full stereo-imaged acoustic guitar and an atmospheric background pad. He omits the "scream" bridge, staying fairly close to Daltrey's vocals.

It's a vanity project for Fred Durst -- he's even changed some of the lyrics. There's a brief Speak-and-Spell "hip-hop" section, but it's hardly intentionally funny.

It sounds like acoustic Metallica meets Enigma or something.

I now imagine the MTX bass cadre playing dueling banjos on 8th and Gilman. Exclusively on basses.

Lexington-

I agree with part one of your theory of covers: love (or something like it) the song. But I would relax part two some, mostly because I think "do it justice" either means something too specific, or is an ad hoc after the fact judgment that essentially amounts to "I like this one," or else is just not applicable (to take an MTX example, what would "doing justice" to "No Milk Today" amount to?). Also, I like parody and irony, but then I would argue that you can slice it finer than earnestness on the one hand and Weird Al on the other. How 'bout Red Steagal's "Lone Star beer and Bob Wills music"? That's kind of ironic, no?

A disco cover of 'Comfortably Numb' by Pink Floyd is currently riding high at number 10 in the charts over here in England.

I'm against radically different covers on the whole, but if Johnny Cash can almost make Nine Inch Nails sound reasonable there is always hope.

I agree Spacetoast. To stick with MTX as an example, most of the songs covered by Dr. Frank & Co. were done with both love and a bit of a smirk (I Feel Love, What Difference Does it Make, Pleasant Valley Sunday, Don't Go Breakin' My Heart, Somebody Wants to Love You, Spider Man Theme, Speed Racer Theme, What's in the Cuckoo Clock . . . , etc. , etc.). That doesn't make them "parasitic." Or, if it does, then they are parasitic in the nicest possible way.

Even funnier than Pat Boone's stuff is William Shattner's stuff. He did a cover of AC/DC's "Shook Me All Night Long" and it sounded pretty much like uber-dull spoken word. Even funnier than that is a parody somebody did, I don't know who but I'm sure you can find it on Kazaa etc... is "Cookie" which is a Sesame Street parody of LB's "Nookie" sung by who else, but the Cookie Monster!!! It's bloody hillarious!

I agree with Andy. I am strongly against radically different covers. I was really pissed when MTX turned "Can I Do The Thing" from a sweet bossa nova tune into a punk rock romper.

the point i was trying to make in my previous post, was that it doesn't really matter what song is being covered, or who's covering it- there will always be people who are appalled at it, as well as people who think it's the greatest thing since aeresol cheese. what gives any of us the right to decide who's worthy of covering certain songs?

i know that when i was a kid, popular covers of classic songs always made me want to learn more about the original artist. if lb's cover sparks an interest in the who for some TRL watchin' teeny bopper, then what's the harm?

i think i was more annoyed when the scorpions covered 'i can't explain,' and i like the scorpions!

Yeah, I could take or leave Speedracer/Spiderman, in that they are pop-punkishly waggish in that way that waggish pop-punk bands always are pop-punkishly waggish...and to whatever extent that itself is "the joke," I shrug --anyway, I think The Jam's "Batman" is the canonical entry in that genre and I don't need the updates. Another good one is the very deadpan "Sonic Reducer."

My personal nomination for favorite cover has long been Devo's "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", which (a) takes on a great, great song (b) changes it radically so that it sounds like Devo (c) without making it unrecognizable and (d) is itself a great performance. What I like about the MTX covers you named, Aaron, is that you found some aspect of the song (e.g., the rockier aspects of "I Feel Love" or "What Difference...") to emphasize, and made them sound MTXey without losing the original song. I guess by that standard, Pat Boone succeeded in making Little Richard songs sound like a dorky, white spokesperson for Chevrolet.

I'm a little reluctant to harsh on bands, even LB, for doing covers because, in general, I think they're really interesting. You learn a lot about how a musician hears music you're familiar with, and sometimes learn to appreciate something you never heard before in a song. I'd be more interested in hearing LB's cover of "Behind..." than some song written by Durst that's trying to evoke the same thing.

Well, OK Spacetoast -- I guess I'm not totally objective on the Speedracer issue, and I can see your point. All I can say is that singing the backup vocals on that one was lots of fun!

Anne, you are veering dangerously close to a sort of relativism that I fear will not be well-received in these parts.

Anne-

You're too hung up on this business about LB not being "punk credible" or something. That doesn't enter into it. I think, a "rap-rock" version of "Behind Blue Eyes" is just patently obscene in the same way that, say, a foot-and-a-half-long chili-burger is, which doesn't have anything to do with whether foot-and-a-half-long chilli-burgers are cool. It's just really gross, y'know?

...and Aaron, yeah, no offense. I only sit around noodling on MTX songs...that is, whenever I get a break from crying in the corner to the originals.

OK, busted. "Do it justice" is a totally ad hoc, subjective thing. But, yeah, Weird Al is one pole, the bad one. Devo's "Satisfaction" is a perfect example of the right way to do it. How the Hell can you possibly rise to that level, it is one of the greatest rock songs of all time? Devo answered it -- by doing a totally insane but cool version of their own. They managed to get into the arena with the Stones and survive. They managed to add to the legend -- hence not being parasitic. But to pull this off you have to be pretty darn good in your own way -- which Devo were. Husker Du's version of Eight Miles High works in a similar, though not funnny, way. The Prime Movers from Boston did a killer cover of "Waiting for the Man", with a howling harmonica intro -- a cover based on love of the original, but with their own stamp on it.

A smirk is one thing. Acting like you think you are, say, actually better than the Who (or whoever) is another. Maybe NO irony is an overstatement. I'm just tired of irony. It is over-used, and it conveys a tone of unearned and undeserved sophistication. It would be fine with me if everybody agreed to say what they actually meant, say, for the rest of this decade.

I agree about not being harsh on bands. Better to just silently ignore bands you don't like. Hell, most musicians are nice enough guys who at some level mean well. As to LB, I only say that it was probably not a good choice to do a cover of a classic which can only make theem look weak in comparison to the original.

These comments have addressed two out of three possibilities: (1) Covering a classic, and the hazards presented, and (2) covering a novelty tune like Speed Racer, which is meant as a goof. The third option, and the coolest one, is covering worthy but obscure or lesser known songs. La Peste from Boston did a cover of "Action Strasse" by the Alex Harvey Band -- pretty damn obscure, but what a great song. The Fleshtones did a version of "When the Night Falls" by the Eyes -- same thing. The Clash doing The Equals' "Police on my Back". My wife's old band, The Pop-a-Wheelies, did a great version of the Stones "Child of the Moon". This way you not only get a song which is mistaken for an original, you get to wink to those in the know, and you pay tribute to undeservedly forgotten bands and songs.

I think "radically different" is the best way to do a cover. If you can't bring something new to a song, all you're saying by covering it is "hay doods I like this song," which is only appropriate [according to my personal song-covering rule book] if the original was unjustly obscure.

And as long as I'm on the subject, the Go-Go's cover of 'Cool Jerk' just makes me shake my head in bemused dismay.

HEY NICK!!!! Speaking of both DEVO and cover songs, have you heard DEVO's cover of the most overdone song in the universe: Enter Sandman?? It's pretty entertaining, well at least more-so than the 500 other covers of the song. As a side note: I hate Metallica.

None taken, I assure you Spacetoast -- and I really do see your point (although I should say that, in the early 90s, the idea of punk rock covers of TV theme songs was marginally less played than it is today (but only marginally)). I was really just trying to agree with you that love/enthusiasm or whatever for the song you are covering counts for a lot, even if you are also making a little bit of a joke out of it. I wasn't necessarily holding up MTX's Speedracer or Spiderman as examples of all-time great cover songs.

Lex, I agree with you about obscure covers sometimes being the best ones. On one short MTX tour, we were playing "Waking Up Tired" by the Diodes -- pretty obscure in the US, and nobody seemed to recognize it for most of the shows. Then we got to Canada, and suddenly it was like we were playing the Canadian national anthem or something. Pretty funny.

A similar thing happened with "What Difference Does it Make." We played that one in the US for a long time with no real comment from anyone. Then we went to England and all the punk types got very upset -- seems that being a nominally punk rock band playing a Smiths song was very uncool in the UK in 1991.

Anyway, sorry this has turned into "MTX Reminiscences with Aaron" -- sometimes I just get nostalgic, y'know?

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but I’d argue parody is a close second. Either way, cover songs – whether performed well or not - are certainly legitimate. So, Fred Durst’s version of “Behind Blue Eyes” isn’t very good. Does that mean covering a well-known song is off-limits? The MTX version of the Primitives’ ‘Crash’ totally rocked my ass on more than one occasion. Ditto for Dr. Frank’s contribution to “Every Band Has a Shonen Knife Who Loves Them”. The Pixies version of the Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Head On” was fantastic. One of my favorite LPs of all time is ‘Del Shannon sings Hank Williams’ – an album of covers just as worthy as MTX’s Road to Ruin.

And as for covering “Nights in White Satin” – the Dickies pulled it off. But of course they were reaching a bit – having previously succeeded with versions of “Tra La La (the Banana Splits Theme), “Paranoid”, “Gigantor”, and “Sounds of Silence”.

I hope the MTX show at Slim’s is chock-full of covers. Don’t Go Away, Go-Go Girl!

Oh, the Diodes! Child Star was one of the best punk songs ever (a tribute to Anissa Jones of Family Affair!). And even the Diodes were playing cover songs! Who remembers their version of Red Rubber Ball (the Cyrkle song, not the corny Bobby Vee song)?

Channon,
No, I don't know Devo's "Enter Sandman" cover, and I'm not really into Metallica, either, so that might have something to do with it. But my 4-year old daughter makes sure I listen to lots of Mark Mothersbaugh's current output...

In trying to synthesize the Spacetoast/Aaron posts, how about the Modern Lovers' "Foggy Notion," which you can hear on the "Precise Modern Lovers Order" live CD -- motivated by love, maybe really obsession, and at the time an obscure song (according to JoJo's live intro, VU hadn't released the song when they covered it). The ML version is harder, less bluesy than the VU original, but in a funny way MORE VUish than the original. They always said that Jonathan Richman went to more VU shows than Lou Reed.

On the other end of the spectrum is the classic "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" movie soundtrack headed up by Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees. For the younger folks, you can't imagine how big a deal the Bee Gee's were in 78 and 79 -- they were on the cover of Dynamite magazine with the Beatles, for gods sake! And you can't imagine how awful this album and the film are. If Mel Brooks had made "The Producers" in the late 70s, this is what Max and Leo would have picked to go bust. I think the lowest of all the low lights on this album is Steve Martin's cover of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."

Nick -- the Modern Lovers version of Foggy Notion is brilliant -- and clearly a musical love-offering by an obsessive fan to his idol. And, yeah, obscure as you can get -- not even recorded yet.

Your reference to the Bee Gees Sgt. Pepper points out a fourth category of covers -- the unintentionally horrible. Still didn't that have the Elton John version of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds? His performance of that one the Sonny and Cher show was one of the most crazed moments in '70s TV. Elton John had on some kind of flapper-girl feathered headdress, I think.

Nick, I'd vote for that. Relatedly, I think Jonathan Richman's "Velvet Underground" is a first rate piss-taker-out-of-er in an honorific kind of way.

Now I can't believe there were like 40 comments on covers before The Dickies' "Nights in White Satin"!

They wear thin after ~3rd listen, but some of those goofy Nina Hagen robot-music covers are fun.

I recall that the Aerosmith version of "Come Together" from the Sgt. Pepper movie was kind of cool, but last time I heard it I was 12 years old and smoking pot, so maybe my judgment was impaired (more due to being 12 years old than the pot, I imagine).

Lex,

According to the credit on the album, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was performed by "Dianne Steinberg & Stargard" -- Dianne Steinberg being the actress who played...Strawberry Fields, the girlfriend of Billy Shears, played by Peter Frampton. Yes, it just gets more and more awful. It's as if they got everyone together to shoot the film, and Robert Stigwood said, "Hey, wait a tic, we forgot to write a plot!" so he asked his 12 year old nephew to scribble something down in 10 minutes that was based on a bunch of Beatles song titles. Stargard I don't remember, though I do recall that this version of the song adds background singers shouting "G-go, G-go g-Lucy!" during the chorus.

Yes, I do own the album. I also own a CW McCall album. Think Fred Durst will do a "hip-hop" version of "Convoy"? Maybe that's more of a Kid Rock song.

Spacetoast,

ITA about Jonathan Richman's "Velvet Underground," into which he usually inserts a brief snippet of "Sister Ray," complete with faux-tweaker stuttering. Even better is his live version of the "Bermuda" song, where her covers/parodies "She Cracked" to demonstrate what he came to hate about the Modern Lovers' sound. I haven't seen him perform for about 7 or 8 years, but in the mid-90s he was back to doing more Modern Lovers-era songs without tongue in cheek.

Aaron,

Yeah, I think "impaired judgment" had a LOT to do with the entire Frampton/Bee Gees "Sgt Peppers" project, if you know what I mean.

And, since I've got the album in front of me, yes, Aerosmith did cover "Come Together," probably the most listenable cover on the album. Alice Cooper did a version of "Because" that is okay, too.

Whoops, sorry, Dianne Steinberg played "Lucy." Strawberry Fields was played by the immortal Sandy Farina. Incidentally, this album also features numbers by George Burns ("Fixing a Hole" sung in front of a giant cheeseburger), Earth Wind and Fire ("Got to Get You Into My Life" a good cover, actually), and Paul Nicholas, whom some of you might remember for his mini-hit "Heaven on the Seventh Floor".

spacetoast-

huh? 'punk credible'? what are you talking about? i'm the last person how would ever accuse anyone of not having enough punk credibility, and certainly the last to get hung up on it! i'm the biggest poseur on the planet- sheesh.

i just don't understand why so many people CARE about what song is covered, who does it, and how it's done...just as i don't understand why people are SOOO pissed off that the limp bizkits of the world are in the top 40.

but, i guess that's getting off topic. yes, i agree that the world didn't need a cover of the who's 'behind blue eyes,' just as the world didn't need no doubt doing a cover of 'it's my life,' or the counting crows doing a cover of 'big yellow taxi.'

my own pet peeve regarding covers is the volume of tribute albums that are out there, but that's another story...

While I'm an obsessive Who listener, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I liked the "Real Me" cover done by WASP in the eighties. I don't think I'll be able to say the same for the LB tune from the descriptions here.

This may be the only blog where more than two people have heard "Big Sky", let alone have covered it. Which only goes to show, IMHO, that Dr. Frank is the waxing wampeter of the "Big Sky" karass.

...for those of you who don't know it, the one by the Kinks, not the one by Nuisance on "Confusion Hill". Though that one's just fine and dandy as well. It's annoying when bands pick names for their songs that already have a place in the canonical mental lookup list. I suppose it's hard to avoid, but I was sure that Green Day's "Jaded" was going to be an Op Ivy cover -- until I heard it. Then again, if the alternative is to call your "Heart of Gold" "Corazon de Oro" just to avoid conflicting with Neil's version, I'm not sure what to say.

The most amusing example of this genre has got to be Green Day's "Do Da Da", which by all rights should be named "Stuck With Me", but they had already named a song that DOESN'T contain those words with that title.

anne-

"Punk credible" was like a generalization and shorthand for things I extracted from various comments. My point was just that it's possible to be nauseated by LB (and, in particular, this appearance of LB) in a completely unprincipled way...that's what I was fumbling for with the chilli-burger stuff. It was a dumb way of putting it though, and, in any case, I didn't intend anything as an accusation.

I feel nauseated with LB in a completely principled way. Also, I just had a foot-and-a-half-long chili-burger for lunch, today. Does that shoot my credibility?

Affirmative, Dave. But you should worry less about your credibility and more about your colon. You probably have mad cow disease.

Oh no. I didn't realize mad cow disease affected your colon. Well, I've been eating my wheat bran. I hope I'll be ok.

i just ate a bunch of really gross hamburger helper. i think i have mad colon disease.

Beef mites crawl up your cerebro-colonic canal and eat holes in your brain; I read so in Highlights magazine. Think twice next time you're about to put that wiener in your mouth.

sorry. ;-)

Damn. 56 comments on a post that mentions neither file sharing, nor sex. Maybe I should post about Limp Bizkit more often.

next time, post about avril or good charlotte. you'll be sure to hit at least 100. ;)

A million years ago...probably 1976...I used to play Patti Smith's live version of "My Generation" way too loud in my bedroom. That was a Who cover with conviction. My mom didn't care for Patti's improvised lyrics ("We don't need this fucking shit. I hope I die because of it."), but I thought it was the most brilliant record of all time (it was a 12-inch 45 - very vogue in 1976). About the same time, Eddie and the Hot Rods released their version of "The Kids Are Alright" - another admirable Who cover - and a personal favorite. The Who cover I detested was Elton's version of "Pinball Wizard" from the Tommy soundtrack. The movie wasn't as bad as the Sgt. Pepper fiasco solely because of the Ann Margaret Heinz baked bean scene.

Back to Eddie and the Hot Rods and covers. My first Eddie and the Hot Rods record was "Live at the Marquee" - you guessed it - an EP of cover songs (96 Tears, Gloria/Satisfaction medley and Bob Seger's "Get Out of Denver").

I'm not a Limp Bizkit fan, but if Fred wants to sing 'Behind Blue Eyes', good for him. He's entitled to ruin a Who song as much as the next guy. Are we all in "agreeance" yet? Can we all at least agree to purge "agreeance" from our vocabularies?

Now about Saturday night. How about playing "Crash" for an aging fan? It's a great song and MTX plays it better than the Primitives!

i'd like to hear a cover of kelis' 'milkshake,' please, or kylie minogue's 'can't get you out of my head.';)

see you saturday. maybe.

To all the Weird Al haters who posted,
Dare To Be Stupid is the best Devo song
they never made.
Q: Are We Not Men?
A: We Are Yank-o!

but, are they weird al haters, or devo haters?

I think Weird Al is the secret member of The Network.

You must be more informed than me then, because I only know 3 out of the 5, that being Billie, Mike and Tre. If I were to take a stab at it then I'd say the othe two were Jason and Aaron (aka the guys from Pinhead Gunpowder). Other rumors had Kevin Army and even had Mark Mothersbaugh and Bob 1 & 2 linked to the Network. Let me know what you think.

i think weird al is the 5th mtx member.

i just realized that the day before you posted this entry, i quoted the who in my own silly blog.

interesting...maybe...eh, probably not...

Regarding how awful popular music, and therefore radio, has become, it seems to have started deteriorating more than 20 years ago.

Sometime after the arrival of MTV, back when they still played videos of decent bands playing actual songs, music industry executives slowly learned that it would be much easier to sell sex, fashion and controversy than to find, develop and promote talented artists who offer strong original pop songs. Once that realization hit, popular music was finished.

Leaping forward past two decades of sickening decay, radio is now mostly unlistenable and there isn't a single major band or artist making significant and impressive popular music anymore.

These days, you can use your radio to rest a glass on but it no longer serves any musical purpose.