Coverage

[vovat]

Okay, here's another dumb music-related issue (and I use that term loosely) that no one will care about. Basically, why do so many bands that write their own songs release covers as singles and/or videos? They Might Be Giants did this with "Istanbul," and Mono Puff's only single was "The Devil Went Down To Newport," a cover of a song by some (probably obscure) band called the Clamdiggers. Then there's "Pictures Of Matchstick Men" for Camper Van Beethoven, "Head On" for the Pixies, and "Hang On To Your Ego" for Frank Black solo. I believe the Young Fresh Fellows did a video for their version of "Picture Book," although (as with most of the videos in question) I haven't seen it. I'm sure people can think of plenty more examples; I was just using ones from the bands with which I'm most familiar. It just seems to me like, when a band is choosing what songs they want to demonstrate to the general public, they'd choose something representative. How is a cover representative of a band that mostly plays stuff OTHER than covers?

Comments

[3x1minus1.livejournal.com]

maybe it's to grab people in... or something.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I guess I can see that. It's kind of annoying when a cover is ALL the general public sees of a certain band, though.

[tisok.livejournal.com]

the style of the song, despite being written by someone else, can still be representative. also, the style they play it in can be representative. and the clamdiggers are so obscure i haven't been able to dig up (heh) a single song by them. the fellow who actually wrote the song is now in The Upper Crust, though.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can see that. I think "Pictures Of Matchstick Men" is a pretty good example of CVB's sound, for instance. It just seems like, if an artist writes songs, they'd want to show that off to the general public, as opposed to their ability to interpret others' songs (not that that isn't a significant feat in and of itself). Now, covering a song so it sounds exactly like the original is kind of pointless, but that's another rant altogether. One problem I have with "Istanbul" isn't that it isn't representative of TMBG so much as that, well, I've seen interviews where the Johns complained that people see them as a novelty band, and prefer the songs they didn't write. If this wasn't an image they wanted, then why would they make a single and video out of a cover of a novelty song? I've never heard anything by the Clamdiggers, either, but I recently found out that some of the members were in a band called Mente with John Murphy, Kim Deal's ex-husband.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Okay, why didn't my line breaks show up in that last comment?