Most people hate cover versions. Well, that isn't exactly correct. Most people only like one version of a song -- it doesn't matter to them that The Animals covered "House of the Rising Sun" or that Hendrix covered "All Along the Watchtower" -- those brilliant covers become the official versions in people's minds (even Dylan preferred what Hendrix did with his song and changed his own reading of it accordingly!).
Things weren't always like that -- once the song itself was more important that the one hallowed recording of it. During the late 1960s, when The Doors had their first major hit with "Light My Fire" practically everybody immediately covered it.
Loadies the world over remember Jose Feliciano's reading of "Light My Fire" as a joke but I've always liked it. So did The People back in 1968 -- it went Top 5 on the pop, jazz and R&B charts! Actually, every cover version on that Feliciano! record is pretty great. They're all covers, so no need to ask which ones I'm talking about.
The lovely Julie London's slow-core crawl through "Light My Fire" is considered a joke too, mainly because it just sounds so swank and uptown (flutes! bongos! John Barry style strings!). But listen to it -- it's fantastic -- London pretty much invents Downtempo with this one, as it sounds like Morcheeba's Big Calm record boiled down to 200 concise, yet still languorous, seconds. Don't believe me? Give it another listen.
Shirley Bassey's version of "Light My Fire"
uses similar James Bond style strings as London's but is more acid rock-y. Also, where as London is seductively inviting you up to her palatial penthouse, Bassey is pretty much demanding you get over there right now and service her or she is going to beat the crap out of you.
The Free Design on the other hand, are about the least sexual band in history. Yet, the FD also do an amazing cover of "Light My Fire." This baroque ez pop-goes-modern jazz reading basically takes the Doors song out of the bedroom and expands it until it reaches some higher plane of spiritual consciousness. Like intergalactic!
And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to groovy "Light My Fire" covers. Everyone from Stevie Wonder to Nancy Sinatra has cut the song (Nancy falls somewhere between a croaky London and a less murderous Bassey on her recording).
Some may say that this is a symptom of these artists being too lazy to write their own songs, but that is just incorrect (after all, The Doors did an awesome cover of "Alabama Song" on their own debut record). What these covers do is show that "Light My Fire" is a really well written pop song and that it's open to many interpretations.
Good tunes used to be the norm. Today, pop songs that have that special, eccentric something are much rarer. That's why everyone from The Raconteurs to Nelly Furtado rushed out and covered Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" when it came out -- because its a solid tune that doesn't sound generic or written by committee yet it's themes are universal. Furtado's acoustic reading of the number is far better than anything on her recent slut-hop hit album.
All of these songs, by the way, are on my Rhapsody radio channel Crazy for Covers -- which is probably the only place in the world where you can find 3 different versions of "Light My Fire" -- and none of them by The Doors.
Song: Aaron and Maria
Song: 
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
Recent Comments