Covers…making someone else’s songs your own.

The best thing about a cover song is that it allows one to make a song by someone else one’s own. this can been brilliant (Blinded by the Light by Manfred Mann), or disasterous (Most of Tori Amos’ Strange Little Girls).

The best thing about the internet (debatably) is the ability for anyone to be heard, regardless of celebrity status. At best, this allows unrecognized genius to shine; at worst, it provides some comedy.

What’s my point? I love going to Youtube and typing in an artists name and the word “cover” to hear what people are doing in front of webcams to other people’s music.

Right now, as I have just watched Rocky Horror Picture Show and Shock Treatment, I have chosen to look for the songs of Richard O’Brien.

Here we go…

Jack Hicko: Science Fiction Double Feature. Hicko and a guitar. There’s something nice about this. He doesn’t try to sound like O’Brien, but he captures the spirit of the song. This song always had an intimate feel to it, so it’s probably the RHPS song most suited to the guitar.

Jack Hicko: Don’t Dream It. Hicko again, doing an even better job with this song. He’s not imitating Tim Curry, but he is camping up his voice a little. The “Sploosh” is an awesome touch! He does different voices for the other characters, which sound more like imitations that his Frank, but it works. The mess up in the end is funny, although I never understood why most people leave mistakes like this in a recorded medium.

J.D. Justice: Super Heroes. VERY nice piano-and-voice cover of Super Heroes. It’s almost TOO faithful to the original, but it sounds great.

L.A.B. Rocky Horror Suite Maybe one of the most interesting cover’s I’ve heard. All acoustic, live performance that attempts to mash-up Rocky Horror, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and others.

RAINBOWFROG77: Science Fiction Double Feature
OK…be nice, jay. Um…Her singing is decent. Again, this song easy to adapt to voice and guitar, providing that you can actually play the guitar.

Dresden Dolls: Science Fiction Double Feature Popular song, eh? This time by a semi-well-known band. Amanda’s voice suits this song well, and the piano and guitar combo works (as it did in the original). I’d like to see them do more covers from RHPS. Amanda would look good dressed as Magenta, too. ;P

Ultraviolents-Time Warp Fun, full band performance of the song. They look like they’re enjoying themselves.

Autozamm-Sweet Transvestite Sounds great. The lead singer does a bit of an imitation, but I’m not sure this song works if you do it straight. No pun intended. They skip the part with Brad asking to use the phone, which is probably for the best in a rock performance.

Marc with a C- Duel DuetFrom Shock Treatment, the sequel to RHPS. He does a great job with this (in fact, this was the inspiration for this entire post.). He takes the song and makes it his own by simplifying it, singing both parts as one. Here’s a link to the version that appears in the movie, so you can compare: here.