A Geek History of Time - Episode 231 - Covers That Surpassed The Originals

Episode Date: September 30, 2023

I'm saying that we were getting to the movies. Yeah, and I'm only going to get into a few of them. Because there were way too many for me to really be interested in telling you this clone version or this clone version in the early studio system. It's a good metric to know in a story art. Where should I be? Or there's beast. I should step over here.

Uh, yeah. At some point, at some point, I'm going to have to sit down with you like and force you, like pump you full of coffee and be like, no, okay, look. And are swiftly and brutally put down by the minute men who use bayonets to get their point across. Well done there. I'm good, Aimean. And I'm also glad that I got your name right this time.

I apologize for that one TikTok video. Men of this generation wound up serving a whole lot of them as a percentage of the population because of the war, because of a whole lot of other stuff. Oh yeah. And actually in his case, it was pre-war-war but you know I was joking. Did he seriously join the American Navy? He did. Fuck it. This is a geek history of time. Where we connect an artery to the real world.

My name is Ed Blalock. I'm a world history and English teacher here in northern California. And I am of course also a dad. And today was a kind of a dad milestone. We wound up starting the process of reorganizing my son's bedroom because he has been keeping his pajamas dry for the last 10 days or so overnight. And so he has now, he's getting promoted to what we're calling his big boy bed. So the Ikea bed that he has been sleeping in has the option of being flipped essentially upside down

and lofted. So we lofted his bed and got a toy storage cabinet that is going to double as the stairs, that are climbed, get up into it. And we're all very excited about it. I'm oddly enough at nearly 50 years old, a little envious because when I was a kid, I really wanted a bunk bed,

but my mother was too overprotective to even consider allowing me to have my bed lofted. Okay. So I'm making sure that my son gets that since I didn't. And he's also very excited because his room So I'm making sure that my son gets that since I didn't. And he's also very excited because his room is gonna be redecorated to the stuff on the walls. The jungle stuff is coming down. It's all gonna be hot wheels stuff.

So he's very excited about that. So that's what I'm going on. How about you? Well, I'm Damien Harmony. I am a high school US history teacher up here in Northern California area. And the only real news that I've got is that my son has been planning for weeks and weeks now,

the design of a zoo. He's gotten back into the zoo design. Right, right. He's been planning the design of a zoo. And's gotten back into the zoo design. Right, right. He's been planning the design of a zoo. And last week, while I took his sister to an archery lesson, she doing that. Yeah, yeah. While I took her to that, I asked him if he wanted to come. And he said, no, I'd rather stay home. I said, great. What are you going to do? And he says, I was going to design my zoo. Oh, okay, cool. I said, no raging parties, no inviting people over,

and having like huge, like drinking contests. And he's like, are you serious? I was like, yes, well, I'm serious. The number one concern I have is that you're going to invite people over clandestinely to have a drinking party at a house that has no alcohol. And he looks at me, I'm like, no, I'm not serious. Have fun with your due. Yeah, this is this is how we can tell where you and your son sit on on on the on the spectrum compared to one another. Yeah. Because I'm like, you know.

Yeah. So, you know, since you speak sarcasm, I start to say as a second language and I go, no, that might be your first language. Yeah, most kids start singing before they start talking. I think I started like with, you know, hellish rebuke. Yeah. Yeah. You started out smarbuke. Yeah. Yeah. You, you, you started out smarming off. And like, yeah. But, uh, but he showed me today, uh, his, I saw, I told him just, like, first

off, let's see a map of it and the thing enormous. I said, okay, show me two regions in your zoo. And so we went through Asia and we went through Australia parts of Australia. Okay, so he's doing two and organized by Connid. Yeah. Okay. And it is. It is one hell of a plan. He's telling me all about these animals that I had no idea of and existed. I'm asking questions about them like, oh, what's their habit now? Like what are they eat? What are they do? And he's just firing it off. Like These are animals. I can't even tell you the names of now. Pretty fast. I'm going. He's like, yeah, they're diurnal. They mostly berries. They live in isolation,

but you know, the mothers raised the babies for this long. And I'm just like, better living through video games. So, so that was actually going to be an next question. Is he playing zoo tycoon or any of those? Yeah. And I know that it was reviewed poorly in 2013 when it first came out. And I understand why, but it has been nothing but a delight in this house. Oh, that's good. Yeah, very cool.

The free download. Nice. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah. So anyway, that's what I've got going on. Nice. Tonight actually is the first time we're going to do this.

This will certainly not be the last time we do this. No, indeed. But this is the first time we're going to cover a subject that I've always found kind of fun. Uh-huh. Despite the fact that I don't care that much about music, I always get a kick out of when the cover is better than the original. Yeah.

And so I asked you to prepare some and I have prepared some and we are now doing the episode where covers that surpassed their originals. Yes. Yeah. So, if you don't mind, I would like to start certainly. And I would like to start with a shot across the bow of all who love music. Yeah, purple haze by Jimmy Hendrix. Okay, as covered by the cure.

Really? Really. Okay, and part of me wonders, should we do pauses to listen so that we can discuss audience will hear that. Yeah, I think I think I think that's going to be important because you say that and I'm like right in a minute. Okay. So let me just give you a little bit of background history. Okay. Yeah. Send you the link. Yeah. Yeah. Originally Jimmy Hendrix described Purple Hayes as a love song, which I was surprised. Okay. And it was really his and his groups first single that they had created themselves. Hey Joe was actually their first breakthrough single, but it wasn't one that they had written. That was actually something that they had covered. And it was

a song by Billy Roberts. Purple Hayes happened because someone heard him experimenting with the opening riffs of Purple Hayes. Okay. And they said, oh Jimmy that's going to be a hit. Yeah. And it's very similar to how sweet child of mine got started. Like, okay. Yeah. Slash was doing like a picking exercise and like, Oh, wait, what is that? Yeah. It was the first song recorded using a pedal that was designed specifically for Jimmy Hendrix. I could have gone into the name of the pedal, but it would have meant just as much as me as me not saying it.

But kind of cool, there's a pedal designed specifically for him. You know, you've made it when people are like designing equipment for you to make it into a new music. The actual title in the theme of the song was from a sci-fi novel by Philip Jose Farmer titled Night of Light that Hendrix had read. It was written in the 50s, I don't quite know when Hendrix had written or had read it himself, but in there they're describing this distant planet and there's a sunspots and they are causing the sky to emit a purple haze. Oh, okay, all right.

Now the song lyrics themselves were a constant frustration for Hendrix. He had written like over 1,000 different lyrics, largely because he was trying to incorporate his dreams into this song. And, you know, he was unable to reconcile this dream with that dream, with this dream, with this concept. Yeah, well, yeah. So he's constantly just pouring through

and crossing out, pouring through and crossing out, pouring through and crossing out. And he just couldn't get, get enough of it together to make a coherent and self-contained song. And so here's what he had to say on, he said, quote, you know, the song we had named Purple Hayes, it had about a thousand, thousand words. I had it all written out. It had about a thousand, thousand words. I had it all written out.

It was about going through this land, this mythical, and then he says some other things, because that's what I like to do is to write a lot of mythical scenes, you know, like the history of the wars on Neptune. Nice, all right. Now a lot of people, you know, they think Jimmy Hendrix, they think purple haze, they

think the purple acid at the Monterey festival festival. Yeah, it was not. In fact, Oswald got was his last name, mostly. No, it's Oswald. I keep mostly, I want to say, mostly was the British fascist that right but whose name we couldn't remember when we were with Dr. Cruz. Yeah. But yeah, yeah, it's so but Oswald like Bowsley or something like that. It's something similar. who developed like the generic brand LSD that everybody was taking, he developed a batch called, I think it was called Monoray Purple. And a lot of people are like, there it is. Oh, yeah, drug friends. Yeah. Right. And actually,

Ausley, that's his name. Okay. Ausley. Okay. Ausley was like, no, no, because his whole point of his drug was like, it's, it's not going to haze you out. It's going to focus on opening the doors of perception. Yeah. Like you do. Yeah. Um, and Jimmy Hendrix also never really talked about it being connected to drugs, but like

the things that he's saying sound like he's on drugs, but it's, it's never been a thing that has been connected to drugs, although people like to think so. It's just a psychopath kind of kind of, you know, head trippy subconscious journey through the inner workings of your mind kind of song, which that, but it's also a love song. Like keep, you know, keep that thing in mind. So once the song got released,

Hendrix then came out and kind of codified what it was about. He said, quote, he, he's talking once the song got released, Hendrix then came out and kind of codified what it was about. He said, quote, he, he's talking about the song's protagonist, likes this girl so much that he doesn't know what state he's in, you know, a sort of days, I suppose. And that's what the song is all about. And there's actually leads toward it being probably autobiographical because when Hendrix was in New York, he kind of had a relationship with a woman who tried to trap him in the relationship through the use of putting a voodoo curse on him, which he thought is what made him ill while he was there.

Wow. Really? Yeah. And so, and if you say anything about like his music and the use of the word voodoo for instance, you know, voodoo shot. Yeah. And that like, there's a lot going on there. But yeah.

So, I thought my earlier relationships in my life were unhinged. That's. Yeah. Wow. All right. These approaches to voodoo. So the song had nothing to do with drugs or with the landing zone flares in Vietnam that some people thought it did. The Kier's version was on a compilation album from 1993 called Stone Free, a tribute to Jimmy Hendrix. album from 1993 called Stone Free, a tribute to Jimmy Hendrix. It hit number two on the alternative charts and it came on the wave of their top charting album Wish. So this is like the apex of the cure of the cure fame. Yeah, yeah. The Friday I'm in love was on that album. Yeah,

okay. Yeah. So having the cure cover Hendrix in 93 when the nostalgia CD movement is really hitting big, right? Oh, yeah, the ads were all over TV. Yeah, the doors double CD best of the doors. Yeah, was selling big in 1990 I'm trying to remember was was there a Sometime around there. It was 90 92 and 94 sometime around there, it was 92 or 94 sometime around there, there was one night around the time that the rolling stones were doing a tour. And somebody asked, I want to say somebody, I want to say somebody asked Mick Jagger, I think it was him, him who made the remark. They said, are you, are you guys, you know, just, just, you know, coming out here, you know, to make

another buck buck? And whichever member of the band it was, it responded to, no, that's not us. That's the who. Like, they truly remarkable stab below the belt like holy shit, man. But I remember like around that time. You lounge in 94. Okay. So that might have been when they fired that shot across the bow. Because otherwise, it would have been the steel wheels tour.

Okay. So I don't know enough about the songs to tell you. Yeah, all right. But so nostalgia movement is in full swing and everything that is good about the Jimmy Hendrix song, the cure literally just seems like they sidesteped it and then they improved upon it, I think. And I'm gonna pause here so that you can see this link.

Oh. Okay, so having heard it now, you hear when I'm talking about when I say like it's kind of haunting and ephemeral. Yeah. Like the very beginning with that kind of back and forth sound, you're, you've got headphones on too. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So the, so the binaural kind of effect going on. And then the rest fading in with the beat. Right. Yeah. The, the rest fading in with the beat. Yeah, the centrality of the original is like you you can hear Jimmy Hendrix in every note of the guitar on that song it is that is that is him as an artist stepping out going okay, okay, let me, let me show you all just exactly what I'm capable of. Right. Well, and they use riffs too. They do, they do, but what,

what I find, what I find remarkable about it is it is still recognisably, like the riffs are still recognizably the same, the same. But through the production choices and one of the things I noticed and I don't know, like if Jimmy had been alive longer, if some kind of, like if he might have gone back and changed some things like with changes in technology and in the way that that production changed the amount of effort that he put into the the recordings and the productions of his songs, absolutely he would. Yeah, because like Purple Hayes itself, I didn't really get into the nitty-gritty of that. Yeah, but it took hours and hours and hours of him like, okay, that didn't work. Let's try this other thing. That didn't work. And change with this over this. Let's play this through this. Let's play this through this. Let's

let's record it at half speed and then speed it up to double speed so we get an extra octave out of it. And then let's play through headphones and then put those headphones through them. And it's just like Jesus Christ, like it seems like such a boring straightforward song. And I am gonna say boring because it is kind of repetitive and after the first verse of Hendrix's version, I'm like, okay, I get what he's going with and I'm kind of done.

But this one, I just think it had so much, I mean, Robert Smith's voice echoes in and out. It says, no, his voice is the Hayes. Well. It says, though, his voice is the haze. Well, it's, it's as though his voice is the haze. And the other thing is in the Hendrix version, his voice takes center stage, center stage. Yes. And the, in the cure version, it's, it's clearly there. Mm-hmm.

But the way they've chosen to balance the levels out, his voice is much more ambient within the rest of the song. And Hendrix's version, Hendrix's song is a psychedelic head-trip guitar odyssey. Okay. The Cures version is much more ambient. Yeah. It is much more, I think you may have already used the word hypnotic, but it is a mood piece.

Yeah. It is very, very much a mood piece, and it's nearly enough to make me a fan of the cure because it's a song I recognize and gives me a context for, okay, this is what these guys do. Right. You know, and they, I think they did a really, really good job of paying homage since it is a tribute, it's on tribute. Oh, yeah. Record. I think this is an example of them, of them paying, paying a really good tribute by saying, this is a great song. Here's, yeah. And here's, here's,

here's what we can do with it. It feels like, you know, that, that TV show on Disney called Visions, where it's like eight different studios from around the world Give us their idea of a Star Wars story. Yeah, it feels like one of those. You're like, okay. I see the Star Wars But wow you guys are and I ruby in Felt dolls. That's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, so did you notice the energized sounds from Scotty's transporter pad? No, I didn't I didn. I didn't recognize them, but now that you say that, I'm like, uh, okay. That's what that was. Yeah.

Nice. Nice. So anyway, there's my first. Very cool. Thank you. Cool. What do you got? Well, my first choice is going to be a bit more prosaic, I guess.

And I'm going to, I had another one listed first, but I'm going to open with my number two. I'm going to talk about Hurt by Johnny Cash. I guess I can cross that off the back of my list. Covering a Trent Resner. Okay. So I'm so few quotes to add in. Okay. All right. Yeah. Um, I had not realized that Resner had actually been hesitant to let to let cash cover the song because he was afraid that it might be gimmicky. Right. But cash.

Johnny Cash is a prime example of a an archetype within, Christianity of a a repentant sinner who keeps fucking up and keeps keeps making amends and keeps trying to make amends and keeps falling short. Yep. But keep struggling. but keep struggling, like constantly keep struggling. And the bad choices ever, like in his rendition of this song, like, so, so, Rezner's original version of the song is, you know, it has emotional, emotional, there is, there's very strong emotion involved. Oh, yeah. It is, it is an anthem of, I am going to, I'm going to hurt you. Like I know that I'm going to hurt you, but I want, I, you know, I don't,

I don't want to, but I know I'm going to do it. And, and from Trent Rezner, like, okay, man, that's, that's kind of heavy. Well, then you get Johnny Cash, who was in failing health. I want to say he was 71 years old, when he recorded it. He was in failing health? I want to say he was 71 years old When he recorded it he was in failing health at the time and when it's coming from a Man who had been through rehab as many times as Johnny Cash Who had made as many mistakes in The most important relationship in his life with his wife June Carter Cash and and the whole saga of that story and Like all of that life experience and all of the weight of all of that and

the and the level of absolute raw Like God-wrenching Vulnerability, that he brings to it, adds a level of confession. Yeah, to it. And there's like, Trent Resner's version is off of Downward Spiral from 1994. Yeah.

It's not the best song on that album. Uh, it, I think it was like the third single that would come off of it. That sounds right. It's buried amongst other songs that I think were far better and far more emotionally appealing. Coming from Trent Rezner. Yeah, but hurt is absolutely. He's really, really sad. He's despondent.

It feels like parts of him are stripped away. Yeah. When Johnny Cash sings it, he takes hurt to a whole new level of pain. Yeah. He's not just parts of him aren't just stripped away. He's in the pool of his pain. Yeah. Yeah. He's, yeah. Yeah. There is, there is so much regret. Yeah, there is there is so much regret. Like like you can you can hear. Um, yeah, I like like I can so clearly picture him singing this to his wife. Yeah, because she doesn't die until the next year. Yeah so yeah, and and see and I thought this was him singing honestly to God Like that's the depths of his disappointment that he knows he is created I thought this was his I'm sorry to God. I mean that's part of it too. Yeah

You know and and he he was He was a believer. I mean he that's part of it too. Yeah. You know, and he was a believer. I mean, he was, he, you know, and in interviews, he spoke with bear, I'm gonna call it bear-faced eloquence about his relationship to God. And yeah, I think you're right, there is an element of, I know I've been a terrible, terrible disappointment. And I know that I have failed.

Yeah. So hard. So many times. Here's the difference. Yeah. Yeah, so hard. So many times. Here's the difference. Yeah, Resner is still stuck on a relationship with person. Yeah. Cash is stuck on his relationship with himself and God. Like he is, you know, yeah, I think I think I'm letting you down. I'm letting myself down. Resoners. This other person is the focus of it. The

focus of his pain is this person having left him. Johnny Cash is his own worst torment. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And there is, and I don't want this to sound like I'm poo-pooing,ner. No. There is a maturity to what cash is expressing. Well, okay, so Trent Resner is probably in his 30s by the time he writes, hurt. Yeah. And he cashes in his 70s. So, yeah, maturity works, but I would say that there is a warnness that.

Exhaustion. Yeah, there you go. I think that's more than maturity. I think it's Goddamn that exhaustion. Yeah, there you go. I think it's more than maturity. I think it's God damned exhaustion. It's time at the end. Yeah. And I'm looking back, whereas Treasner is stuck in the middle. Yeah.

Yeah. So when you first approached me with the idea for episode. This this is literally the first song that impede lately came to mind. I think most of our listeners were we're going to be pissed if we didn't get to it right away. Like oh my god come on. Yeah. Yeah. I know we're all here for this. We're all here for this. Yeah. And you know it's worth worth noting that in interviews since Trent Resdor said, oh, yeah, no, that's his fucking song now. Yeah, so I have the actual quotes. Would you like to? Oh, yeah, yeah, do it. Yeah. So his original quote was quote, I listened to it and it was very strange. It was this other person inhabiting my most personal song.

I'd known where I was when I wrote it. I know what I was thinking about. I know how I felt hearing it was was when I wrote it. I know what I was thinking about. I know how I felt. Hearing it was like someone kissing your girlfriend. It felt invasive. So that was his initial, but then he saw the video. Now, Trent Reznor came up at a time where music videos were really important. And after seeing the video,

Trent Reznor said, quote, it really, really made sense and I thought, what a powerful piece of art. I never got to meet Johnny,. I never got to meet Johnny, I never got to meet Johnny, but I'm happy I contributed the way I did. It felt like a warm hug. For anyone who hasn't seen it,

I highly recommend checking it out. I have goosebumps right now thinking about it. Having Johnny Cash, one of the greatest singer songwriters of all time, want to cover your song, that's something that matters to me. It's not so much what other people think, but the fact that this guy felt that it was worthy of interpreting. He said afterwards it was a song that sounds like one he would have written in the 60s, and that's wonderful.

And that's Trent Resner about it. The thing that I want to zero in there though. Trent Resner wrote this song. And he says, I never got to meet Johnny, but I'm happy. I contributed the way I did. Yeah, like I contributed is like what the cure did on the tribute album. His personal song is now just a contribution. Johnny Cash is lexicon. Yeah, I think that's pretty cool. And yeah, remarkably humble. And and it just kind of shows like I have long admired Trent Resner I like where you coming from. Yeah, I really hear that the Trent Rester has done something horrible. Like because- What do you have to of though? Like listen to his songs. Yeah, well, I think he calls me God.

I guarantee you he's been a shit friend. He's out of time. I know, but like- But yeah, I hear you. You know, the quotes and what I've seen and heard from him outside of the music he's created, he really genuinely seems like somebody whose heart is in the right place, who is a good dude. And certainly you can get to that place after having not been one.

Johnny, you know, I think Ash is an excellent example. You know, and it occurs to be talking about it. You know, when Johnny said, you know, that, that hurt sounded like a song he would have written back in the 60s. I'm kind of wondering when he wrote, when the man comes around. Because there is, they're radically different in approach, but there is, they both, like cash's version of hurt, is clearly a song about the ending of someone's time.

So are you talking the the one that got released on one of the American four album? Maybe. Yeah, as far as I know, that was that came off of the same album as hurt did. And that would have been 2002. Okay. All right. Okay. So, all right. I had thought it was earlier, but there we go. So yeah, that whole, you know, thinking about the endings of things is clearly a common thread there. And that's another, that's another angle

of his relationship to and his view of his, his faith. Yeah, there. Yeah. Um, so anyway, uh, yeah. Right. That's, that's an important one. Speaking of songs by terrible people. Um, okay. So, um, uh, but then covered by people who I admire ideologically. Okay. Every day by Buddy Holly has covered Pearl Jam. Nice. Thank you. Yeah. Now every day is the B side to Peggy Sue in 1957. Yep. Okay, so Peggy Sue is the big hit, but a whole lot of people who wanted to cover songs covered this song. The only percussion you hear the whole time

is the drummer slapping his knee. Yeah. You know, and that's a very stripped down. Yeah, it's number, yeah. It's that. Yeah. It totally sounds like balls slapping someone's genitals when you're doing the doggy style.

And now we'll never I will never be able to hear the ball song. Yeah. During that song. Thank you so much for the day. It's a good applause. Yeah. See, the whole song is just about edging. Oh, man. That's a rollercoaster. There you go. Sorry. Sorry. I had a little bit of a, uh, uh, out to him.

It, uh, blister in the sun. There you go. Go through my mind. There. Yeah. So anyway, yeah. Uh, so, but a few years after it comes out, uh, regardless of whether or not it does sound like doggy style ball slapping to you. A few years after

it comes out, other artists start covering it. Yeah. As B sides to their singles, most famously James Taylor covered it in 85 and it got all the way to number two on the charts. Really? Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know if I've heard the James Taylor version. I don't like it. I really do. It's James Taylor in the 80s. And it's pretty much that's all you need to know. Yeah, I mean, I like James Taylor. Yeah, when he strips it down, but when it's like a whole bunch of production, I'm like, no, no, thanks. No, thank you.

But yeah, it's 2000. Pearl Jam took a swipe at it at a concert in love with Texas now Pearl Jam was on tour further by you even said there were by Narrow by Norell by Norell tour They had been on their 2000 by Norell tour And what they started doing was so so a little before that. I think it was the vitalogy Tour okay, you could stand against ticket master and they're like So a little before that, I think it was the vitalogy tour. They could stand against ticket master. And they're like, man, fuck that.

And then they noticed that nobody else was taking that stand with them. And they're like, shit, this could be our career. Yeah. Yeah, it was a very principled stand for a group of very principled guys. Yeah. Then that sadly didn'tpled guys. Yeah. Then that sadly didn't

didn't do anything. Yeah. Yeah. But what they did start doing was they said, um, hey, feel free to record boot amateur bootlegs of our concerts. Oh, yeah. We're around to each other, you know, kind of a grateful debt approach. Yeah. Or Dave Matthews band approach. Although I don't if they've Matthews band encouraged that or not, but it was very Same same energy. Yeah, but so they they encourage people to do that, but in this tour they said wait, why don't we release These albums like each live performance is a new album. It's a live performance album. Okay And what they wanted to do was to release it for just their fan club, but they're legal issues. So they said, okay, fine. We'll release it and put it out to everybody

with a fan club in mind, you know. Yeah. Speaking of democratization of music. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So they, they started releasing live recordings of every show they did. And so this way people wouldn't just have amateur bootlegs, they'd have better quality amateur bootlegs. Yeah, it's a bootleg, but at least the people doing it had access to a mixing board and writing the ability to better recording equipment. Yeah, and I think they broke multiple records that year of having the most albums in the top 200.

Because of this strategy, I think that that's kind of a cheat, but whatever. Anyway, they released 72 albums live that year. All right, man. Have you heard this song? I have, but it's been a long time. Okay. So the ball slapping sound is gone. Okay.

I'm glad to hear that. It's replaced with one of the guitarists kind of just strumming it, strumming the same rhythm. Okay. And that, it's the only recording that I've found of them doing it is the live recording from Lubbock, Texas. So it's a live recording version. So you got the crowds energy. Yeah, yeah. And you've got them going for it. And you've got Eddie

Vetter, you know, with that, that weird I'm talking from my joules voice that he sings with, right? Yeah. That gave it a lot more emotional depth than buddy Holly did. And as as much as I as I, the ball slapping sound, I think this is better, probably because of the way he trails off when he goes, hey, hey, hey, hey, and he just kind of trails off with it each time. And I think it's a far superior, it's a very short song,

and it just, it sounds so much more fun. And I know that it's not going to tickle people as much as what they remember from watching stand by me. But I actually do think it's a better recording. Nothing against the buddy Hollywood version. I like it a lot. But this one is more of a jam band feel. Whereas the other one is more professional musicians. Yeah, it's a there there'd be more of a jam band feel whereas yeah well it's a different yeah it's a there there'd be more of a it feel more organic yeah so yeah so yeah that's that's all right all right cool what's your next one this one's kind of a cheat this this was actually the second thing I thought of and I put it down first on my list. But the song is Laila by Eric Clapton covering Eric Clapton. Is that okay, you're talking about the acoustic, right? Yeah. That doesn't count. Well, same guy, same song.

Well, but hold on. Okay. Okay. Okay. I mean, you know, at the end of this, you can, you can, you know, disqualify this entry. But the original song, first of all, have you heard both versions? Of course. Yeah. Okay. Because I was in high school in the 90s

in an affluent area. So everybody had the Eric Clapton unplugged. Okay. Yeah. It was that. The Eagles, Steve Miller band, yeah, whatever pot they were smoking. Okay. All right. But so, so here's the deal. I'm not concerned because I too lived in a fairly afloen area when I was in high school in the early 90s.

But the thing is I actually heard the thing is, I actually heard the acoustic version before I ever heard the original. Oh, really? Yeah. So the first version that I actually ever heard was the acoustic one. And the original was a revelation to me because they're very, very different. It's not just that one is acoustic

and that's quieter and the other one is electric and that's louder. The original is very high energy, very up tempo and it is, yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, but it is a it is a wailing rock tune that that shows off Clapton's virtuosity with the guitar. Like it is it is however many minutes of of just solid holy shit. How does he make the instrument do that that that quickly, right? And then he gets into the really beautiful end piece of it. Yeah. Yeah. For like holy crap. Yeah. Yeah. For the life's book like holy crap. Yeah. Yeah. Now, the original really, really heavily emphasized because the vocals and the high energy. Yeah. He's literally, I mean, he's wailing. Like I said, and it's emphasizing that the power of his

emotion and that in the desperation of his need for an answer. The cover, the acoustic version, which was played on the same MTV unplug alongside tears in heaven, written for his lost son, which like at the time it was emotionally affecting, if I were to hear it now, you'd have to scrape me off the floor. Sure. affecting. If I were to hear it now, you'd have to scrape me off the floor. Sure. Because I know the backstory and it would just fucking wreck me.

But this is very much an older man's song. This version of Leila, I mean, it's obviously it's acoustic, it's jazzy. And where the original is him screaming for acknowledgement, the cover is confessional, the cover, the cover, the acoustic version, much more heavily emphasized, look, I'm admitting to you that I'm in love with you. Rather than the original, which is tell me you love me.

Right. And the, I mean, the 20 plus years, and it's actually almost 20 years precisely between the two recordings. Yeah. There is so much more emotional depth to the acoustic version. I mean, for all of the amazing guitar work on the original, slowing it down and his vocal delivery in the acoustic version is a very different song, and there is, and I'm going to use this word again, maturity, that the original acts. Now, the history behind this is, Clapton wrote the song originally for Patty Boyd,

right, who was married to George Harrison at the time. And he was secretly in love with her. Yes, yeah. And so, and Patty Boyd was a muse for both of these men, and both at the same time and separately at different times. And Patty Boyd was a muse for both of these men, and both at the same time and separately at different times, something in the way she moves by the Beatles was inspired by her. And then Clapton wrote wonderful tonight about her

as well. She inherent in divorce to 1974. She married Clapapt in 1979. According to a couple of sources that I found, when he confessed to his feelings to her and she shot him down, there were a couple of sources that say that that fed into his spiraling into an episode of heroin addiction. Okay. And then he got clean, married, or, and then fell back into bad habits. And they were divorced,

trying to remember what year it was, they were divorced in like 89, I wanna say in 89, I wanna say they were married about 10 years. But it's an interesting kind of side note that one person was the inspiration for so much music. Yeah. You know, during this time period. And I heard, I couldn't find the support in any sources, but I had heard kind of an urban

legend that when Harrison found out that boy did kind of have feelings, boy did turn, clapped and down, but, you know, she did have feelings for him. And when Harrison kind of found that out, and this fits in with Harrison's reputation for being as, you know, zen and everything that he was, the story went that he said, well, you know, if you two are in love with each other, I don't want to stand in the way of that because he's, you know, I love him. He's my good friend. And obviously I love you. I want the two of you to be happy.

I couldn't find any support for that. Yeah, that sounds a little Arthur Lancelot, Gwennevere. A little bit. It's a little bit like George Harrison hagiography. Yeah, yeah. Which like, you know, of all the Beatles, I kind of want to say George Harrison comes closest to deserving it.

I'm not going to say he deserves it, but, you know. I would say Ringo. I would say Ringo. I mean, Ringo. Okay, Ringo. Here's, okay. Ringo is the same Gam G of the Beatles. Yes. Ringo is definitely the same way as game G of the Beatles. But oh wow. Oh man. If we just for a brief in a John is definitely Mary, right? Like, yeah. And Paul is, Paul is Pippin.

Yeah. Yeah, that makes George Frodo. Hey, you know what? Actually. Yeah, I mean, it's done based on, oh my God. So John, I'm talking about Paul the Leonardo. Ringo is Michael Angelo and George is Donatello. Yeah, oh my God.

But the but the the the Hobbit parallel. Oh my God, Paul McCartney is Pippin like. Holy fuck it makes so much sense. Yeah. So which one was the one that had to sing for tomato eating guy? That's Pippin. That's Pippin. That's Pippin, okay. Yeah.

Just like, you know, sing for me. He's like, live and let die. I don't say that. I'm chopping broccoli. Back when Dana Carvey was still funny. So yeah, anyway, that's my second entry. And like, yeah, I get a good way of saying, but I genuinely feel like they're two radically different

interpretations. It's a radically enough different interpretation of the song that I would almost all at that. Okay. So. I would just like to add a little footnote. First off, I still disagree. Just I'm a little more dogmatic than you being that I'm not Catholic. And wait, I know our world. Yeah. But also I would just I do need to add this little part.

Erick captain's a piece of shit. Um, okay. General like he he constantly speaking anti immigrant rhetoric and and like vitriol at his concerts now specifically aimed at black people in England and just like all kinds of just. Oh, yeah. He's like, yeah, it's it's one of those like, hey, you know, it's, you know, I, I don't mind when people bring their politics out, but I do get to judge them for them. Yeah, okay. That's, yeah, I'm not a shutter player music guy.

Yeah, absolutely. You said that. Cool. You were a piece of shit. Okay. Fair. So, yeah. Fair.

And honestly, that has caused me to kind of recast. And I'm not a forgiving man all the time anyway. So, you know, the loss of his son. Me? Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, the loss of his son, I, you know, I've kind of always like kind of been like, well, this is why we don't do all these drugs in the presence of our children. Like we would be able to stop them.

And yeah, I mean, I'm going to, I'm going to counter that the kid wasn't in his custody at the time that it happened. Oh, okay, and I need to go look at that again, because I thought that I thought during his watch. Who never mind that then. So that's that's just confirmation bias leading in there. So yeah, well, there you go. Never mind that. And that's okay. So so he's also still a piece of shit for the thing. Yeah, no, it's that doesn't change that and that. So he's also still a piece of shit for the. Yeah, no, it's that doesn't change that. Yeah. So all right. Well, interestingly enough, I also have a Johnny Cash cover. Okay. So, um, ain't no grave by Claude Eli as covered by Johnny Cash. Okay. So, um, and,, and I will definitely stop so that you can hear it. Yeah, yeah.

But brother Claude Eli was known as the gospel ranger of the Appalachian mountains. Holy shit, how cool a name is that. Yeah, well, all right. Okay. He was in the 1930s, okay, and for him. He was an honest to goodness, Pentecostal preacher. All right.

And he also, he also, he preached via the radio and in person, uh, places from, from Virginia to Kentucky to Ohio. Oh, how he had a radio show that he played his music on. Um, and his music was regularly covered by religious and secular artists during his lifetime. Okay. And evidently, like when this song came to mind for him, when he wrote it, he was actually suffering from and recovering from tuberculosis in 1934. All right. And it's actually the song really cheerful and upbeat.

It's mildly defiant of, I'd say, the disease. really cheerful and upbeat. It's mildly defiant of, I'd say, the disease. And it's like definitely, it sounds like he feels very confident because he knows Jesus has his back. Okay, yeah. Which makes sense, you know. I can 110% endorse all of this so far. Very folksy, very wouldsy.

Yeah. The best way to do it without like, well, actually, I'm going to send you both links. Okay. But if you think of his music as being like most of the music that we hear on the O'Brother, where are those soundtrack. Yeah. Old time. Yeah. Yeah. Wailing, whining at the same time. That bad. Yeah., that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that,

that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that listen to brother Eli. Yeah. Give it a quick descriptor. And then I'll talk about it. Okay. So so brother Eli's version is the version that you would hear them playing in church. As as the the possibly is the exit him. You know, as you're walking out, you know, and everybody is in that, you know, rejoicing. We've gotten to good news. Jesus has, like you said, Jesus has our back. Ain't no grave. Gonna hold our body down. You know, we're gonna, like, you know, death, whatever. Right. You know, I don't, I don't, I don't, I have no fear of death, you know, that whole that strain of belief, that particular thread of the theology being played up and yeah, it's a it's uplifting and it deals with a heavy subject,

but it's an encouraging song. Yeah. So then comes Johnny Cash. And this is the lead off track of America 6, Ain't no grave. It's the titular track as well. Okay. Johnny Cash's first post-chumus release as well. Okay.

Yeah. It's a funeral march. It is. It is's a funeral march. It is it is a hundred and ten percent funeral march. It the. Like in Timber, it is darker. It is the color of the melody is more somber and his voice, we talked about it on hurt, but he's exhausted. Yeah. Like this is him saying, uh, what the part of this

that is not being said is, I am about to die. Well, there's more to it even than that. Actually, I've got specific here about it. Okay. So, uh, well, and there's there's one thing I want to say before we get to that is the first version is a defiant cheerful statement. Yep. This is acceptance. Yeah. This, the, the, the, the, the, the tone is I have accepted that this is what's going to happen. I know what waits for me on the other side, but I know that I'm going to have to go through the door to death to get there. Yeah. And so there is a defiance. There's a sad defiance, but there's a defiance there. So it comes out a couple days after what would have been a 78th birthday. That's what this album

releases. Johnny Cash had been recording the American recordings in the last years of his life. Okay. So the voice that you heard and heard, the voice that you hear in this, he released American three and American four before June died. This left a lasting impact on him when June died, though. Obviously, Rick Rubin, the famed producer, said of this impact, said, quote, when June died, it tore him up. He said to me, you have to keep me working because I will die if I don't have something to do. He was in a wheelchair by then, and we set him up at his home in Virginia. I couldn't listen to those recordings for two years after he died, and it was heartbreaking when we did. He truly believed that the only reason for Johnny Kish Johnny cash to live after June died was to make music

Like that's what Johnny thought And he continued recording all the way up to his death. So this is this is the ain't no grave getting hold my body down It's his music. I don't care what happens to me. I will die if I don't play this music now happens to me. I will die if I don't play this music. Now, this version is not something I recommend you play when you're driving down a dark country road at night. It is haunting. Oh, yeah, this scary as fuck. Um, the banjo just has a menace to it. Yeah. And there's chains dragging on the floor And the and the percussion the the slapping right but whatever chains for me like

Like I actually thought I was like, oh, maybe I could get a career playing chains because you know I'm gonna be the best chains player that there was man. You want to drag chains across the floor? I'm your guy. I'm there you go. Yeah there was man you want drag chains across the floor I'm your guy. I'm there you go. Yeah. Also, and the third, uh, third one that I sent you, uh, was, uh, was, uh, a, a, a promo that shows up on the Titan Tron at a wrestling event for a hunter-taker. Um, this was one of the undertakers come back. This is for a WrestleMania 27.

I want to say so it's after he's beaten Sean Michaels twice. Um, and he's come back to take on triple H. The it'll be the second time at many of these taken on triple H, but the yeah, not the final time. Um, it was the only entrance I remember under taker walking fast to, fast to and by fast, I mean normal human speed. Yeah. And this promo was used by the undertaker throughout WrestleMania season.

And it led to some really, really good promos and stuff and just incredible like. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, it's emotions of emotion. So yeah, it's it's it's deeply evocative. What I what I noticed about the difference between the cache version and this version is they did fiddle with the with the sound balancing on it. Yep. And cache's voice is not magnified. Yeah, it's sped up slightly and the percussion, the thumping death march, thud, thud, thud is louder.

It has to be because you're filling up an arena with it. That's a good point. That makes sense. Kind of like the high-loan sound of blue grasses It has to be because you're filling up an arena with it. That's a good point. Yeah. That makes sense. Kind of like the high-loan, some sound of bluegrass is because you're singing across Valley. So yeah. But it, yeah.

And the better than quality lies, not only because quality lie wasn't used in wrestling, but also just it's, I mean, it's, it's it has so many more layers to it. It's, you know, it's not just a one note thing. I think, I think that's part of it. I kind of want to say I almost want to want to make the opposite argument that it's a distillation of particular parts of the E-Live version of the song.

Sure. And it is because first cash, like I said, changed the color of the song as dramatically as he did. Yeah. And then in this version, they said, okay, you know, you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna take that and we're gonna strip it even further. And we gotta make it a bang or a for an arena.

Well, I remember he didn't write it for that. I just think that's a good one. I know, I know, but I'm talking about the alterations they made to it. It was like, okay, we got to, you know, so yeah, no, that's, that is, and that is a remarkable example of a mimetic drift. So, all right. Okay, well, my next one, I got to get my notes back in front of me, because now we've got multiple windows open. Let's see, here we go.

Okay, my next one is Warpigs. Oh. Now, the original is Black Sabbath. Okay, it's Azeas born and the original is black Sabbath. Okay, it's azi I was born and the rest of black Sabbath. It, it is this, it is, it is a poster child for metal music in the 80s. Like it's, it's, it, it's not really a trope codifier because the tropes are already codified, but it embodies so many of them.

You know, it's heavy, heavy, heavy voice, the nasal, and the shouting and the almost supplicating kind of tone of his voice in the song. And of course, it's subject matter is about as 80s as you can get. It's about Armageddon. It's, oh, hey, you know about the potential for nuclear holocaust. Hey, how you doing? And it is explicitly talking about the evil of the military industrial complex and, you know, looming Armageddon and, you know, ultimately winds up. And this is this, one of the things I love about it is that like Ozzy Osborne was to an awful lot of, you know, Christian, you know, white Christian American parents in the 80s, Ozzy Osborne was like the standard bearer of the devil, right?

Yeah, and here he's actually calling out the devil for who it is. Yeah, and, and, and, and. Literally using black masses, I think, as it is. Yeah, yeah, just like, which is, uh, generals gathered in their, in their masses, just like, which is that black masses? Mm-hmm. Which, like, I mean, not the greatest rhyme there.

But it's terrible at that, to be honest, if you look at Iron Man, it's like, oh, you just have to rush through that line. Oh, yeah. But when you say, you know, calling out the devil for who it truly is, and then, and the last line is, you know, Satan laughing spreads his wings. Right. But it's not because, you know, we're here we are, you know, you know, being happy the devil is one. It's, no, no.

All of these people have given the devil what he wanted. Right. You know, and it's like, did you actually bother listening to the lyrics? Like, I'm sorry, Reverend, but like, come on. So it's this, it's, it's, it does that thing that the metal occasionally manages to do of being really on point and, and like almost comedically, like, anvillicious in making a political point. And getting.

And getting is a very famous metal band. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Anyway, sorry. But making a point in a very, very concrete high, how you do and we're not being subtle about this kind of way. And then getting completely ignored because John Righetto, right? Right. You know, well, because, you know, it's a bunch of guys in spandex and big hair, you know, right. Right. Right. So we're not we're not going to take them at all seriously.

So we're not going to take them at all seriously. But so that's the black Sabbath version of the song, which is rightly considered a classic of the genre. It's one of the important pieces within the canon of metal. And then it gets covered by cake of all people. I think it's covered by cake of all people. That's true. And the first time I heard it, it completely bent my brain. Because it is, all of the lyrics are exactly the same. All of the arrangement is, they don't do anything to the melody. It's all there.

But there is this level of, do I have a better word? I'm going to say irony. That they bring cake, of course, is really good at that. Yeah. There is this, there's this very, I'm going to say late 90s, mid 90s, irony, There's this very, I'm gonna say late 90s, mid 90s, irony. That they bring to it that, I don't wanna say elevates it, but it adds a whole new shading to the story that's being told. And the way that they arrange it, the arrangement of it,

is it is not as shrill. And I don't mean that as a, as a, as a critique for criticism of of of of wax Abbott, but it's it's it it is it is lower lower in pitch lowering intensity, but somehow the level of vocal clarity involved kind of makes the satire work better. Or maybe not satires, right? Yeah, but the commentary they sound more bored and less tied to a genre. Yeah. And so it just kind of like, yeah, we're informing you. Yeah. I just, I just like want to tell you like this you, this is what's really going on here.

Yeah. You know, and I mean, it's so very, you know, Northern California in the 90s, it hurts. Like, it is an artifact of its time in a very, very big way. But then so is the original version of Black Sabbath. And like I can listen to either one of them and enjoy either one of them. But the Black Sabbath version of it, I get tired of earlier. Yeah, because it's assaulting the ears for the totality of the song. It is still metal. That's where you're getting you from place to place. That's not for just sitting around.

Yeah. And the introduction of horns and all of the other sonic characteristics of cakes style. Right. Is I think, yeah, I like what you said about, they're just informing you, I don't know if I can go so far as to say bored, but there is a level of self-reference involved

there's a level of self-reference involved that I think makes the pill a little bit easier to swallow because it's like you're in on the joke with them. Right. And you're not just being exhorted by a bunch of screaming guys with big hair and eyeliner, you know? Yeah. You know, and, and so I would, I would argue that as a work of social commentary, I think Warp Higgins by Cake is, is more effective. Okay.

Um, and, and I think it's a really strong example of, okay, we're going to take this thing from one genre and we're going to throw it into a completely different area of the sonic landscape and make it work. I'm not after, after now having heard the Cures cover of purple haze. I can't say it's as good as that, because holy crap. Right. Like, again, that made me almost like want to become a fan of the cure. Yeah, me too.

I'm not really a fan of their work, to be honest, but that song I like. Yeah, holy cow. Yeah, okay, I understand why people call these people geniuses. Like, all right. But yeah. And otherwise I'm a big fan of cakes. Uvra. There are other stuff anyway. So for me, them covering it is just like, okay, well, you know, I'm biased in their favor. Yeah. But yeah, I genuinely do think for for those reasons that I

mentioned, I think, I think it is a more effective piece of social commentary than than Sabbath's original. Yeah, I would definitely agree with all that, but not the least of which because you know, it was easy to shoot the messenger. Yeah. You know, yeah, yeah. And you don't expect Ozzy to get, it's so funny because he's actually a very intelligent man. Oh yeah. But you don't expect him to get political in his music. Yeah.

And when he does, you dismiss it. Yeah. And like, it's, you know, I mean, the most partisan I've ever seen and be obviously is at WrestleMania two when he backed the British Bulldogs against the dream team. But I mean, yeah, you kind of has to, right? Yeah, you know, but but like he, yeah, he was there. Um, and total, total side note, but I admire

Ozzy Osborne for his self understanding. Yes. Yes. You know, as you see in the keeping up with the Osborne's or whatever, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you want, you know, confronting, confronting a son about his drug use, looking him right now. Do you want to end up looking like me? Exactly. I'm 50 years old and if I hop around to energetically on stage,

I break shit because I've abused my body so bad. No, no, no, I have an example of what not to do. Right. So, you know, honorable mention and I don't think it's in the same league as either of the the original or the cover that you're mentioning. Yeah. But Faith no more did war pigs on on their album, I think epic. Oh, yeah. Sparrow on their times. The real thing. Yeah, yeah. It's been a long time stuff heard that one. But yeah, I'm sure you're checking out again. Same kind of like reading voice. Yeah. Yeah. Ozzy has. So not as good, but there you go. But, but worth worth checking out.

I would. Yeah. All right. Cool. All right. Here's one all along the watch tower by Bob Dylan, as covered by Jimmy Hendrix. Well, yeah. Yeah.

This is a sign like this is another one. And it's like how did it take you this long to get to it? Well, I, okay. So here's, here's one of the reasons I think that a lot of people may not support this is because they don't know about it, because everybody just thinks it's Jimmy's song. Yeah. Like, so Bob Dylan released it on his eighth album in 1967, which I didn't realize he was so prolific that early.

Yeah. His eighth album was called John Wesley Harding. He'd gotten in a motorcycle accident in the summer of 1966, which is I think shortly after one of his kids was born. And he was recuperating at home for the next year and a half. And by the way, another kid was born during that time.

And he basically was getting recuperating. Right, well, he was cooperating. Yeah, I know, I know, I've just been inspired. But also having sex with his wife. Yeah. But he was getting better. He was writing songs. This was written during that spate of songs.

Everything actually ends up getting recorded at the end of 67 because he'd twice over become a father and he's kind of getting used to being a dad. This particular song has some biblical imagery. As I was researching it, I found people kept referencing Isaiah 21 verses 5 through 9. So I just copied and pasted those verses. So I think we have a first where Damian quotes the Bible. So Isaiah 21, 5 through 9, prepare the table, watch the watch tower, eat, drink, arise, eat, princes, and prepare the shield. For thus hath the Lord said unto me, go set a watchman, let him declare what he sees, see it. And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of

asses and a chariot of camels. And he harkened diligently with much heat and behold, here come at the chariot of men with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen is fallen. And all thy graven images of her gods has our half broken unto the ground. You can kind of hear a little bit of, you know, lyrically, it's definitely an interesting song. Yeah. musically, it's fine. But his performance is standard Bob Dylan or what I kind of consider to be

what I would just call just kind of there. It's really rare for me for Bob Dylan's performance to be what brings a song through. The one song I can think of is it ain't me bad. It ain't me bad. That one actually works. The rest of them, somebody else could do when I would probably be happy. I think that music songs specifically have like three legs. The first leg is the music, the second leg is the lyrics, and the third leg is the performance of those things. And Bob Dylan is a master of two of them, but the last one is really. He doesn't need you. Yeah. Okay. But Hendrix's version, that is what we call the choke codifier, right? Like it becomes so much the thing

that it becomes everybody's, that's the thing. It couldn't be more different than Bob Dylan's version. And in that difference, it becomes Jimi Hendrix's song. Most folks, like I said earlier, would have identified as Jim Jimmy Hendrick's song. There is a music historian, music critic named Albin Zach, and he states, quote, there are three basic strategies apparent in this transformation of Dylan's version. One, the intensification of essential musical gestures and formal divisions.

Two, the introduction of pitch material, dissonant with the pentatonic collection of the original and three, the tracing of a long range, gold directed melodic line over the column response structure of the arrangement. It is in the latter that Hendrix asserts most forcefully his protagonist claim. Now, I mean, duh, obviously all of those things. That's what I was saying.

Yeah. But okay, Mr. Smart Guy, you wanna say it that way. Fine, I'll put you in here. But seriously, like, more stripped down to Damien version, the dude was way above my ability and it comes to understanding this stuff. So I will say production wise, it took 16 tracks to get the original Hendrix version laid down

because he was dissatisfied with it at every step of the journey. Yeah, well, he, part of his reputation in addition to being amazingly skilled on the guitar, like super genius level. He was a perfectionist. He had a very clear idea in his head of what he wanted to hear. idea in his head of what he wanted to hear.

Yeah. And he, and he leveraged every bit of technology he could in order to get that. And what's wild to me to hear that is that if you hear the song, it sounds so perfectly complete on its own like it was just one take. Oh, yeah. Like, well, he put a lot of work into sounding that good on the floor. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, it's got hard hitting opening riffs, you know, just that first part and then the rattle between them. Yeah. And then the amazing use of the drum before the guitar begins to wail. Yeah. And then he starts belting out the words all along like midway through the song. You know, he's really driving that point at home. And it sets the tone for like half of the

movies that are set in the 60s and 70s. Oh yeah. You know, and the song itself like many other covers that I've looked at was the B side of Jimmy Hendrix of an album, right? So it's the B side of a single for burning the midnight lamp. And it came out, which nobody like, yeah, nobody remembers, like, bring, bring them in night lamp. Okay, that's, that's what they all thought. Okay, this is going to be a signal and okay, the B side is, you know, this cover of Dylan, like music historians are the only ones who can mention And like music historians are the only ones who can mention burning them in night lamp. Right. You know, in popular culture, it's that B side cover is the one that's like, oh, well, that's the soundtrack in the 60s.

Yeah. And the single came out in advance about a month in advance of electric lady land, right? Yeah. But everybody jumped to this and Bob Dylan actually reviewed it pretty positively he said quote and that that meant a lot to Jimmy Hendrix actually he said quote it overwhelmed me really he had such talent he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them he found things that other people wouldn't think of finding in there he probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with

the song from his version actually and continue to do it to this day. This is in an interview after his death. But Hendrix actually, so he was glad that because Dylan signaled, oh yeah, I like this version. This is really good. But Hendrix stopped playing it live pretty quickly after like a couple months. He did play it at the Isle of White festival. Okay. Lion large. He took it out of his playlists for live performances. And I couldn't find out why.

Well, I mean, what, what kind of makes sense based on what you said is in order to get it right to his ear in the studio, it took all that work and like live, you can't, you might not be able to create that. Yeah, you can't, you can't create that the same way. I'm, I'm 99% plus certain that like anybody listening to it live would have been blown away anyway. Oh yeah. You know, but I think complaints coming out of the aisle of white of like good concert until he started playing all on the Start. Yeah, but nobody said that. Yeah, but but again, when you get to the level of skill level of talent, I don't know, I you, level of level of connection to the music. Sure. That somebody at Hendrix's level is operating with, like I can understand, if you're that level

of perfectionist and you've worked that hard to get something to be this specific thing, it could be really frustrating. Yeah. Yeah. That like anytime you try to play it live, you're just chasing that and you can never get it. Sure. You know what I mean? Yeah. So. So later in the 80s, Dylan was interviewed about it again. He gets interviewed about it, fairly frequently for a while. Um, and he says he quote, liked Jimmy Hendrix's recording of this. And ever since he died, I've been doing it that way. Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way. Like that's proved in all the ways that this is a better version than the original. Since the 1970s, Bob Dylan has played that song closer to Hendrix's version, which makes it feel like Bob

Dylan is covering Jimmy Hendrix's cover of a Bob Dylan song. Yeah. So, I mean, that's pretty amazing. So, you got one more that we can get. I got one more and it's interesting because it's Bob Dylan again. But this time it creates good stuff. Yeah. And this is knock on on the heaven's door. Oh, really? By guns and roses. Okay, I got across that off the bottom

of my list. Well, there you go. Yeah, damn it. Well, I mean, yeah, you're not wrong. Clearly. And and I think based on what you said about a three-legged stool of a song, I think the major key bit of this cover is, and God, I hate to say this, but it's Axel Rose. Also Slash's guitar. Well, I mean, yes. Slash and Duff did a great job with that. Oh, yeah. You're right, though. Axel Rose's vocal dynamics made that song.

Yeah. Yeah. His ability to go from kind of, not growling, but the kind of. It's almost like a weird crooning. Yeah. not growling, but the kind of. It's almost like a weird crooning. Yeah. Or a hero in our, like the weird kind of like Texas country. Yeah, kind of thing.

Going from that to. Every teenage boy wanted to imitate that, by the way. Oh, yeah. Because there's a little deeper than their voice. But your voice wouldn't crack when you were doing that for some reason. Yeah. Well, it's because of whatever the mechanics whatever the, the, the mechanics are,

the way you get that effect, it helps you avoid that. But him going from that to his really high, high register, whale kind of kind of notes, the, the, the, the, uh the pitch of emotion involved in that vocal performance. Because like you say, Bob Dylan writes some amazing songs. And the lyrics to this one are really good. And the arrangement is amazing. But Dylan just isn't quite committed enough. Like emotionally you don't feel the same level of loss and regret and, you know, finality. Yeah. For lack of a better word.

You know, it's, it's, it's all delivered in this. I mean, it's very earnest, but there's, there's not, it's kind of bloodless. Whereas you give it to a completely drama queen like Axel Rose and, and the pitch goes up like, you know, to 11. Yeah. Um, you know, he just turns the gain up on everything. Oh, yeah. And, and, and he vamps all the way through it. Oh, yeah. and it's he vamps all the way through it. Oh yeah, and it's amazing

Well, you know, it's this thing he does with like when he does with the rhythm of it So like the Dylan version is like this this almost cheerful white I am a Tating reggae It's the light that I always got from it. And then when Russell does it, he's grinding his hips into the rhythm of knock, knock, knock. Like you're like, oh man, he's doing it. Right, and he's just grinding his hips into it. And it's, again, it's, I mean,

it's got all the shock was lit up. Like he's nailing you with that kind of leaning, you know. Yeah, yeah. Buddy Holly called it and was like, that Kundalini, you know, yeah, buddy, Holly called it. It was like, Oh, good percussion, you know, nice callback. Nice. Well done. Well done. But yeah, I mean, there's so much viscera in there. Whereas Bob Dylan feels like he's on the porch with friends at a dinner barbecue. Yeah, you know, long like, low, coming down. Yeah. Yeah, whereas like, yeah, um,

Guns and Roses turned that song into the death area of an opera. Hmm. Wow. That's, that's my where you placed it in the album, where they placed it in the album is right before getting the ring, which is where he just hurling the vectors at Bob Gucci O'Neill from Spin in the most childish bullshit like bullshit, stupid, yeah, Axel Rose, petty little bitch drama queen. Yeah, like, it's like, like, did you, the dichotomy there?

Yeah. Like, you know, you, you, you have this level of talent and you're doing this with it. Well, and it's just, you know, look what they did with it in terms of like, building the momentum through that song. Like you said, it's the, what you say, the death Arya? Death Arya. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and yeah, it is, it is, it's, it's pitch and it's, it's intensity or operatic in, in nature. And if you remember the song

on that album, it's Civil War, which is a serious song. And it's not whistling in nature. And if you remember the song on that album, it's Civil War, which is a serious song, and it's not whistling in it, and it's got a bit of a banjo flair to it. And then they go to, I forget the next song, it's kind of verbiteble, but then they go to yesterday's, which is not the same as yesterday. Yeah. Because they do cover Paul McCartney's song onure Illusion 1. Yeah, live and like die. Yeah. Which I think is better. Yeah. Well, that's high. Yeah. Well, the next next episode we can, yeah. But in Usure Illusion 2, like it pretty much those first four songs are all you need to listen to, and you just hit skip until you get to the song that was on Terminator. Yeah. Like you really, yep, I'm trying to think if

there's anything else worth a damn and not really. No, it's just yeah, oh, but then you get to don't cry because they did two versions of don't cry and both were good. Yeah, wow, I might need to bust those out and give them a listen again, but, but it's this operatic thing, like you said, and they just fuck it up where they put it on the album. Yeah. I would argue that putting the mistake wasn't so much where they put a knock on an heaven's door. It's that they put get in the ring anywhere on the album. Like just like why don't you just undercut yourselves completely, right? You know, just tell you what, here's what you do.

Have like three or four kickass songs on an album and then undo all of that by just revealing that, you know, at the very least, your lead singer, and maybe the rest of you two are just whining bitch babies. Like, come on. Yeah. And I remember there was there was a friend of mine in high school who loved the album, like because it's a good album, but like he really, he, he, he, he got a kick out of getting the ring. And I was like, really? I was 12. Have you considered therapy?

Yeah, there's all the naughty words. Yeah, okay. And yeah, the bravado, I guess, but like, and just the phrase, fuck you, you pissed off because your daddy gets more pussy than you. Like, yeah, okay. When you're 12, that's funny. Yeah. All right. But whatever. Okay. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. Knock on an heaven's door. Guns and Roses knocked it absolutely completely out of the park. I'll agree. Yeah. It was also, I don't know if you ever saw them live in concert. I went to the Yeah, it was also I don't know if you ever saw them live in concert. I went to the the GNR Metallica

Yeah, and I nearly I missed that one because yeah, I was I was within within Very close distance of going to that one, but but should happen. I went to head field got burned in Montreal and actually I remember I burned off and caused a riot. But then they, because originally I believe Faith No More was supposed to open for them. Midway through some that stopped and it, or that fellow part, I don't remember, but then body count opened for them when I saw them. And we were in Oakland in 1993. Yeah. 92 93 as my freshman year of high school. But the cool thing about knocking on heaven's door is there's a part in the middle where they do a phone call. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, okay, you could have left that out. Yeah. But that part in the middle, it's just the same thing over and over again. Okay.

And Axel found like a bullet on the stage and he's holding it up and they're all just talking and he's like, look at that and he gets them to zoom in on it. And it turned into a jam session for like 15, 16 minutes. Oh wow. What was cool is it's absolutely a good, calling response song. So yeah, we're gonna do, you know, we got him doing this. He's got doing that. I'm gonna sing one

then you sing one and then he did that. You know, nice. Not as cool as when Tom Petty did it with yeah, well, but nothing will ever be that cool. Yeah, but, uh, but it was really cool. Like, it was, and it lends it so nice. And I think I don't think going at the speed that Bob Dylan went with it that you could have gotten that. Oh no, no. Yeah. A world of no. Um, in, in relation to, uh, that, that reminiscence, um, I was actually kind of glad. Uh, I mean, now I'm not, but at the time my buddy who went to the concert,

I kind of wrote off, well, you know, it doesn't sound like it was a great time. Number one, now is a 48-year-old much less right-wear than I was at, you know, 18. I regret not being there to see, uh, body count play cop killer. In front of, in front of like half of the San Diego police department who were there providing security. So we had the Oakland PD who had a history of being problematic with black people. Yeah. And he basically, before he started the song, he went into iced tea dead. He went into a, by the way, their bass player wore a hockey mask and a parka. How cool is that? Like, yeah. No, it was an amazing group. Like I wish they'd gotten more traction. He went into a, a die tribe against the police.

He's like, yeah, some, some, some of the police have called us and said, we don't want to provide security for you. So see how basically little bitch boys they're being. He says, you know what I want everybody to do? Raise your finger in the air and give the chief the salute. He says, but a bunch of police did show up and all y'all motherfuckers are cool with me. So everybody give him any flashes of peace sign. He's like, these guys are the real ones

they're holding it down, they're doing the things for us. They're doing their jobs. Okay, so I'm not singing about you. And then he wants it into Cop Killer. It was nice. Yeah, no, they, the San Diego Police Department sent him a formal letter before the concert. That is so San Diego Police Department sent him a formal letter before the concert. That is so San Diego.

Demanding or well, asking air quotes that he not played that one. And yeah, he called that out. But so I, I, number one, I wish I'd been there to witness that. Sure. I wouldn't have appreciated it in 18, but 48-year-old me would be like, yeah. Yeah. Ah.

But also, the San Diego concert was one of the occasions on which Axel fucked off. Oh, really? And the, because they were supposed to be taking turns, you know, which band was coming out first, you know, that they had, they had, they had the opener. Okay. And then, you know, it was supposed to be like, okay,

on this date, it's gonna be guns and roses next concert, bleemontalika first, next one will be whatever, right? Well, Axel apparently, you know, flounced off in a fury about something. Gotcha. Because that was the documentary crew that honked about it and interviewed them all. Metallica was always second. And Lars talked about how he really, like at first, he was a little upset. He's like, well, at the fire, we're getting, you know,

second billing for, but he's like, honestly, it's kind of cool because we played during twilight. And like, you, you look down to drum while it's still light up and then you look up and it's dark and you're like, oh, let's get it going. And so they really liked being in that liminal spot. Okay. So that makes sense. Yeah. Well, so anyway, there's there's I don't remember which recording it is, but there is a concert recording that I believe came from the San Well, they didn't fucking make it. Ah. Ah. Ah.

Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah.

Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah.

Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. It is one of one of the few things I really regret about my adolescence was that I didn't manage to make it to that concert. Yeah, when I thought head field was still recovering, he still had the full cover Yeah, yeah, and so the guitars from metal church was playing his his part. Oh, good to find right? So yeah, nice. Honestly, it gave him a chance to kind of run around instead of being made a mic and it was fun to kind of filling that out. Yeah. Well, cool. This will definitely not be the only one we do, but I do encourage people to find

us in the ways that you can. It can people find you right now on any kind of social media or no. Because I'm not at the moment. No, I'm not currently. I'm going to say you can find us for the moment. We still have a Twitter account at Geek History Time on Twitter. Yeah, but I'm checking. So if you check it, then they'll find you. Yeah, but I am checking. So if you check it, then they'll find you. Yeah, no, I do. Okay, I do.

I do. I'm going to check it out. Yeah. And of course, our website is www.geekhistorytime.com. You have somehow found us because you're listening to us right now, whether that's on our website or on Stitcher or Spotify or the Apple Podcast app. Wherever it is that you found us, please take the time to give us a five star review and

hit the subscribe button if you haven't done it already. There you go. Is there any place you, anything you want to plug? Well, this will come out while we're on hiatus. So if you see me in the local comedy scene, do an open mics, cool, but capital punishment is on hiatus for a bit, we'll be back likely in the spring. New new new us, you know, watch our spaces for that.

But if you want to suggest covers that were better than their originals to me, you can find me on threads at duh harmony. So that's probably the best place to find me is on thread harmony. So yeah, and yeah, if you recognize we got more in the hopper, but always happy to take suggestions on things like this because it gets me listening to music, which is something I should probably do more of. So, all right. Well, for a geeky history of time, I am Damien Harmony.

And I'm Ed Laylock, and until next time, keep rolling 20s.