Thoughts on Covers

Dear Editor,
   I enjoyed Darcie Stevens' article about bands doing cover versions of songs ("Under the Covers: Austin Rockers Return to their Roots") [Music, May 14]. I just had a couple of additional thoughts. To me, covers are most interesting when conspicuously not done in the style of the original artist, such as Kronos Quartet's classical cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" or the Gourds' bluegrass cover of Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice." All kinds of interesting special effects are created by such "against the grain" covers, which, by juxtaposing the listener's knowledge of the original tune with a very different newer rendition of it, create a delicious mental Reese's cup. Just as the tastes of peanut butter and chocolate accentuate one another, so do country and rap when a band like the Unholy Trio belts out a twangy cracker version of Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise." A similar kind of harmonic dissonance happens when the gender of the narrator changes in the cover, as when Evan Dando of the Lemonheads sings Suzanne Vega's "Luka." Lyrics like "I think I'm clumsy; I walked into the door again" delivered in Dando's distinctly masculine baritone make you wonder what exactly is going on: Is this still a song about domestic abuse or is this guy really just clumsy? Finally, when it comes to great "against the grain" covers, two local bands come to mind: the Recliners, who do fun lounge versions of just about everything (Guns n' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" is a favorite) and the Meat Purveyors, who do mean country versions of Ratt's "Round and Round" and ABBA's "S.O.S." among others.