Fictionlet

[the_gneech]

"You know," said Greg, "the more I listen to this song, the more convinced I am that they shouldn't have included that sample from You Only Live Twice in it."

"Why?" said Brigid. "You Only Live Twice is a cool enough song."

"Well yes, that's just the problem," Greg replied. "Every time I hear the sample, all it does it bring home to me yet again how much better a song You Only Live Twice is than this one. If I'm going to hear clips from it anyway, then why not just go listen to that, instead?"

"Sort of the pop-music equivalent of groveling and chanting 'we are not worthy', is that it?"

"Exactly so," said Greg, and clicked off the radio.

-The Gneech

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Comments

[kylet.livejournal.com]

Millenium, by Robbie Williams.

You know, you don't like covers that are too close to the original either, based on your comments about No Doubt's "It's My Life." So I'm guessing your solution is to never redo ANYTHING then? ;-p

[kylet.livejournal.com]

Or wait, maybe you weren't the one commenting on It's My Life? I could swear you made an earlier post about some 80's remake...

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Yup, that was me, re: "It's My Life." Essentially what I said was that it didn't have anything to recommend it over the original, or even just instead of the original, so I'd prefer they just played the original.

-The Gneech

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

What is it a redo of? It's certainly not a cover of "You Only Live Twice."

FWIW, there are covers that I enjoy. Half of the Beatles' biggest hits were covers of Chuck Berry/Little Richard (etc.) songs that surpassed the originals, and so far I've liked every version of "From Paris to Berlin" that I've heard.

However, yes, on the whole, I prefer original works to dittos.

-The Gneech

[kylet.livejournal.com]

No, it's not a redo, it's just heavily sampling YOLT.
My point was, B&G were saying (which I assume is at least some reflection on your opinion) that a very obvious sample just makes you realize the original song was better. And earlier you were saying a fairly close cover version also makes you realize the original song was better.
So I was just saying your moral is, the original is always going to be better, no touchy?

[kylet.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I've discovered that, whether I hear the cover or the original first, whichever song I've heard more often first is usually the one I like better. So covers of fairly obscure songs have a better shot with me...

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Well, not always. Just "most of the time." ;)

The performer has to do something to make it better.

-TG

[kylet.livejournal.com]

Somehow I missed your comment about the Beatles 'n' stuff. I think I need to delete my posts on this thread and start over x.x

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

*chuckles*

Nah, it's not worth that. :) Chat via LJ post works well enough! ;)

-TG

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

With sampling in particular, my suspicion is always that the performer just doesn't have an idea of their own, so they crib off of the work that somebody else has already done. "Gah, I just can't come up with an interesting bass riff. I know, I'll take the one from 'Superfreak' and put new lyrics over top of it! I know that one is a popular hit already!"

Of course, the same thing could be said of William Shakespeare, so YMMV.

-The Gneech

[kylet.livejournal.com]

I'll give you that in some cases. In all fairness, I believe Williams is a big Bond fan, and even lobbied unsuccessfully to be the performer of the Die Another Day theme song; so Millennium was more of an homage than a random rip...

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Well, that's cool then. :) I actually barely heard the song that prompted the fictionlet, it was just a handy launching point.

-TG

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I was going to name it as Millennium too, and I quite agree with the Gneech.

I don't like covers that are too similar, because what's the point, and I don't like covers that are too different, because they're never as good!

[wbwolf.livejournal.com]

I would counter with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Tori Amos, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by Devo, and "Hurt" by Johnny Cash. The last two especially I like better than the original.

There's a song called "You Only Live Twice"? Of course, I never heard "Millenium" either.... (I gave up on music radio about in 1997...)

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Well for that matter, I have Don Ho singing "Shock the Monkey" which I enjoy tremendously for the sheer brain-hurt of it. :)

Re: "You Only Live Twice" ... it's the one from the movie, sung by Nancy Sinatra.

-The Gneech

anything by Nancy Sinatra should be shredded and burned...

[mammallamadevil.livejournal.com]

who remade "These Boots are Made for Walkin'" recently? I liked it better than the original. (in fact, I liked the author's version best---heard it on a public radio station traveling in log country).

MLD

[ceruleanst.livejournal.com]

Er...that's Jessica Simpson. I doubt she's never worn anything made for practical use, and she seems to think that the song is about being proud she's a spoiled rich girl who can walk all over people when she feels like it. And you can hear the lack of singing ability even through all the processing.

I didn't say I liked it MUCH more...

[mammallamadevil.livejournal.com]

both her and Nancy had the help of processing...

and I am NOT a fan of Miz Jessica...so thanks for the brain refresher...

MLD

Re: anything by Nancy Sinatra should be shredded and burned...

[exatron.livejournal.com]

That would be Jessica Simpson. It also spawned a couple of Pizza Hut commercials that used a modified version of the song, one of which featured Eric Jacobsen as Miss Piggy.

Re: anything by Nancy Sinatra should be shredded and burned...

[mammallamadevil.livejournal.com]

I must have missed those! But then again, Netflix and pay channels own me...(can you say Weeds and Big Love?)

MLD

normal radios are so passe....

[mammallamadevil.livejournal.com]

missing my XM radio in America's Heartland...MLD

[hossblacksilver.livejournal.com]

The scarey thing was, just a few minutes before I got to read this entry my brain suddenly started playing "You only Live Twice" in my head. Spooky.

BTW, Gneech, have you ever tried or considered AEG's Spycraft RPG?