A little surprised this one was on my iPhone (Lori???) (free Single of the Week??). No matter, I must be true to the random generator. This upbeat pop tune comes from Cookie Duster. The Canadian group formed in the late 1990’s, but went on hiatus when Brendan Canning‘s other group, Broken Social Scene, took off. When this project went on hiatus, Cookie Duster reformed and released an album in 2012. Nice tune.
Decided to change the name to “Interesting” from “Unusual”. I’d say that a lot of covers are more interesting than strange. My first post on this involved Jackie Wilson doing the Doors “Light My Fire”. Not really unusual, although a soul icon doing what became a rock classic was somewhat strange, it was truly much more interesting.
Today we are going to take a look at something that is definitely interesting, and maybe a bit unusual as well. Siouxsie and the Banshees were a 70’s punk band that expanded into a more adventuresome style of music. Some would call it post-punk, others might say glam. Personally, I never got into them very much. I did find it kind of cool that they did a cover of one of my favourite Beatles tunes, “Dear Prudence”. I have been a John Lennon fan since the early days of my musical odyssey, and many of his songs could be classified as soundtrack of my life. Dear Prudence was on the Beatles Whit Album, released in 1968 and tells the tale of Mia Farrow’s sister Prudence. She was studying with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the same time as Lennon, and he wrote the song to encourage to come out and socialize as she had turned into a bit of a recluse. ( I pretend to be an informative blog haha.).
Siouxsie and the Banshees recorded the song in 1983 and released it as a single. It became one of their biggest hits. Without further adieu, “Dear Prudence”.
And of course, the original.
Thought I’d drop in with a song. Summer hit Calgary, had to push away. Heard this on CBC the other day. Classic John Hiatt, but then what isn’t.
Today’s tune, “I’ve Got Your Fire” is by Prince Edward Island born, Halifax based singer song writer, Jenn Grant. I seem to be posting a lot of Canadian maritime singers and bands lately, which is indicative of a thriving music scene in this beautiful part of Canada. She is a recording veteran now with 2 EP’s and 4 albums since 2005, including her latest, “The Beautiful Wild” in 2012. The featured song is off that album. In all honesty, when CBC began playing this several months ago, I didn’t care for it all that much, but, it eventually grew on me. Give it a listen and tell me what you think.
Playing with YouTube this morning and got inspired to note some, what some may think, unusual covers of some great songs. To qualify as an unusual cover, it must be a reasonably famous original redone by reasonably famous act. My first attempt into the world of unusual covers is one done by soul great, Jackie Wilson. Jackie has a resounding resume of hits, dating back to the 1950’s. He died in 1984, leaving a legacy that included such hits as Lonely Teardrops and Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher. He also left us this cover of The Doors classic, Light My Fire. He recorded it in 1969. Check it out.
And for comparison, here is the Doors performing the song live on The Ed Sullivan Show.
The Canadian Music Blog 