Boys of Summer [cover]song question.

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Strongo, I had to look up what song Limp Bizkit covered on their debut ("Faith," yes?). I must admit, I wasn't really paying attention to popular music much when that came out. However, I now remember the other new song I was thinking of: Blank Theory's cover of Portishead's "Sour Times." I need to think about this more, but I'm struck that all of these covers are of very popular songs well outside the nu-metal or pop-punk genre. Obviously, It's a great tactic for a band to use, because it's a built-in audience, whether they genuinely like the song or are merely struck by the novelty factor. It's also somewhat depressing, though. I'm curious how this will play out in the future.

jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 22 August 2003 20:27 (twenty years ago) link

I think the biggest risk of debuting with a cover (especially with a seemingly incongruous cover like Alien Ant Farm's take on "Smooth Criminal" or Limp Bizkit's "Faith"....though the latter wasn't their debut) is that you'll swiftly be tagged as a gimmick band with no tricks of your own. Probably the worst tactic is to follow a slump with another cover (ala Quiet Riot's "Mama We're All Crazee Now").

Didn't the Ataris have a succesful single pre-dating the Henley cover, though?

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 22 August 2003 20:49 (twenty years ago) link

(alex sorry if i offended you. you're right about the mutual incomprehensibility of people who are devoted to different genres/eras.)

amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 22 August 2003 20:51 (twenty years ago) link

I can't wait til some dumbass band covers the Pixies, Sonic Youth, Jane's Addiction, etc. for a breakthrough single. That will be retarded. A Motley Crue cover would really get on my nerves, too.

Scaredy cat (Natola), Friday, 22 August 2003 22:16 (twenty years ago) link

Just because I can't resist saying it anytime someone mentions "Boys of Summer" -- Mike Campbell! What makes "Boys of Summer" Don Henley's best song is that the music is not written by Don Henley.

JesseFox (JesseFox), Friday, 22 August 2003 22:50 (twenty years ago) link

(as for the issue at hand...I think the reason the line works in the original is that it sounds like an actual observed detail. I don't know for sure that Henley saw a deadhead sticker on a Cadillac, but I can believe it. I seriously doubt the Ataris saw a Black Flag sticker on a Cadillac)

JesseFox (JesseFox), Friday, 22 August 2003 22:53 (twenty years ago) link

Perhaps it was what gave them the idea to sing it!! No, it wasn't.

Scaredy cat (Natola), Friday, 22 August 2003 22:59 (twenty years ago) link

What's particularly lame is that the didn't change "Cadillac" to "Lexus SUV" or "Mini Cooper" or something.

Sam J. (samjeff), Friday, 22 August 2003 23:29 (twenty years ago) link

And they didn't change "Wayfarers" to "Black Flies" or "Oakleys" or whatever it is the kids wear today.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 22 August 2003 23:42 (twenty years ago) link

And that they didn't just write their own damned song.

Salmon Pink (Salmon Pink), Saturday, 23 August 2003 00:12 (twenty years ago) link

Jesse OTM--the joke only works the first time. Also OTM re. Mike Campbell, who played guitar and synth on a bunch of Henley songs and was the best thing about them.

amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 24 August 2003 04:51 (twenty years ago) link

How about a Bob Dylan stcker that says "Don't Look Back"? To me the only appeal of BOS is the Mike Campbell guitar.

Speedy Gonzalas (Speedy Gonzalas), Sunday, 24 August 2003 06:00 (twenty years ago) link

They are cheeky little bastards. The first time I walked past a radio playing their cover I thought I heard "Black Flag sticker..." so I actively sought out the song, to verify. I don't think it makes them "cool" to name drop but I am more offended by their video; smashing your gear is just stooopid and a sure sign that you get it free from your major. That was more annoying to me then their cover, their music and their affected hipness.

Brandon Welch (Brandon Welch), Sunday, 24 August 2003 13:57 (twenty years ago) link

Shortly before "Boys of Summer," the Ataris told us that being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up.

My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Sunday, 24 August 2003 14:56 (twenty years ago) link

The Eagles sound like the Blue Oyster Cult? Or is there another BOC?

I think it would be great if a nu-metal band covered Sonic Youth.

sundar subramanian (sundar), Sunday, 24 August 2003 15:07 (twenty years ago) link

The fury of the guitars provide a wall of noise, pushing the chorus along of course but it does something else. Don Henley's orginal is a paen to middle class nostalgia--it is a way to remember that warm summer nights occured. This single moves so quicky as a way to avoid the same kind of nostalgia. It is a way to forget that these summer nights will ever end.

The young sing along, drinking along with friends, driving along in the first car, the lust of bikini clad pretty girls, the lies that come from the innocence of first love--no one ever thinks the fun will end at 17--this is why the cover is more poignant then the boomer classic.
from nyplm

as for black flag, the only genre left who hasnt sucked artifices cock dry is punk, and pop punk attempts to do that, with the quick efficeny of a wet/dry vac.

the line about black fly is both a genre signifier and an apology--we are "real" punks, even with our love of don henley, and we are sorry that we have had to make this cover...but for emotional/finical reasons we did.

anthony easton (anthony), Sunday, 24 August 2003 15:12 (twenty years ago) link

fly=flag

anthony easton (anthony), Sunday, 24 August 2003 15:13 (twenty years ago) link

Guiltily I kind of like the cover because it has more distorted guitars and pop-punk vocals and less 80s synth junk and Don Henley vocals. (Though, admittedly, it took me some time before I realized that it was in fact a cover. At first I was all "This song is rockier than I remembered. I totally understand why people think this is a great song!") I don't give a shit about either the Grateful Dead or Black Flag so that line is a moot point to me. I kind of like that "Black Flag" is in there because it's weirder to hear someone singing about Black Flag on mainstream radio. (x-post with Anthony. Missed his first post.)

sundar subramanian (sundar), Sunday, 24 August 2003 15:14 (twenty years ago) link

Which means that I guess I do find the cover 'poignant' in a way that the original never really was for me.

sundar subramanian (sundar), Sunday, 24 August 2003 15:15 (twenty years ago) link

Ugh. The lead singer of the Ataris makes a cameo wearing a Clash shirt in the new vid by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. ALRIGHT, WE GET IT, YOU LIKE PUNK ROCK!!!!!!!

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 12:02 (twenty years ago) link

Didn't the Ataris have a succesful single pre-dating the Henley cover, though?

Depends on what you mean by successful...

ModJ, Tuesday, 2 September 2003 12:34 (twenty years ago) link

Heh.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 13:52 (twenty years ago) link

Thinking about it more, the Ataris guy could have dignified the line if he actually sounded conflicted about it. After all, Don Henley's synthed-out trax and Eagles lifestyle didn't exactly gel with the Deadhead sticker anymore than the Caddy, but he sounded CONFLICTED. It told him he could never look back. The guy from the Ataris doesn't sound like the Black Flag sticker bothers him at all. Hell, he's smiling for part of the video!

The funny thing is that the Atari's "In This Diary" is even worse, and it's an original.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 19:25 (twenty years ago) link

six years pass...

(also, side question: which has been covered more by mediocre pop punk bands, this or "take on me"?)

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Friday, August 22, 2003 12:43 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

99 luftballoons

i got nothin (deej), Saturday, 10 October 2009 19:11 (fourteen years ago) link

^^^^

sunn o))) successor (Curt1s Stephens), Saturday, 10 October 2009 19:27 (fourteen years ago) link

one year passes...

i don't know crap about this cover version, but the original is one of the best songs of the 80's.

akm, Thursday, 12 May 2011 03:08 (twelve years ago) link

I still want to hear the original demo.

brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 12 May 2011 03:17 (twelve years ago) link

why? it probably wouldn't have the cool drum machine or the synths or anything that makes this song rule. it would probably just have don henley wheezing all over it

akm, Thursday, 12 May 2011 03:26 (twelve years ago) link

a song that cuts deeper every year

always have time for the crystalline entity (contenderizer), Thursday, 12 May 2011 03:48 (twelve years ago) link

also, it's strange that young people in the 80s were so hung up on nostalgia and the loss of youth. "forever young", "young turks", "glory days", "jack & diane", etc. if they only knew...

always have time for the crystalline entity (contenderizer), Thursday, 12 May 2011 03:57 (twelve years ago) link

pretty sure the original demo is all drum machine & no henley. This is discussed somewhere here or Wikipedia or ?

brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 12 May 2011 04:16 (twelve years ago) link

eight years pass...

Bat for Lashes does this on her current tour and it's beautiful. Here it is.

https://youtu.be/bQ_TnYlvcR8

This made me think of the concept of an unimpeachable song, a song that everyone likes. Everyone I know fucking hates the Eagles and thinks Don Henley is a piece of shit, but everyone loves this song because it's so fucking good. The only other song I can think of right now that has that level of acceptance is probably God Only Knows.

akm, Friday, 14 February 2020 17:44 (four years ago) link

maybe this will embedd:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ_TnYlvcR8&feature=youtu.be

akm, Friday, 14 February 2020 17:44 (four years ago) link

well fuck that, you can click the link above

akm, Friday, 14 February 2020 17:45 (four years ago) link

It's the transitive property of Mike Campbell. Everyone loves Mike Campbell, Mike Campbell makes everything better, Mike Campbell wrote and plays on this, Mike Campbell makes Don Henley better.

Josh in Chicago, Friday, 14 February 2020 17:47 (four years ago) link

Wow, I didn't even realize that. Maybe I should have given fleetwood mac with Mike Campbell a shot before dismissing them completely. Clearly he made everything he did with Petty pretty excellent.

akm, Friday, 14 February 2020 17:53 (four years ago) link

JiC absolutely otm.

Οὖτις, Friday, 14 February 2020 17:55 (four years ago) link

xpost Also Neil Finn, who is nothing but class. I would have loved to see a Finn tour with Mike Campbell, it's the rest of Fleetwood Mac that turned me off that outing.

Josh in Chicago, Friday, 14 February 2020 17:57 (four years ago) link

yeah Finn is excellent. I probably should have bit the bullet on it but I'm still a Buckingham stan.

akm, Friday, 14 February 2020 18:06 (four years ago) link

Out on the road today, I saw a Bright Eyes sticker on a Cybertruck
Tried to share a pic, but Insta was down, I was out of luck

You have seen the heavy groups (morrisp), Friday, 14 February 2020 18:51 (four years ago) link

four years pass...

Out on the road today
I saw an Andrew WK sticker on a Highlander (Hybrid)
A little voice inside my head said
"Don't get wet, you can never get wet"

https://i.imgur.com/O7NHdyB.png

citation needed (Steve Shasta), Friday, 29 March 2024 16:11 (three weeks ago) link

Out of the road today I saw a Tackhead sticker on a Chevrolet
Little voice inside my head said, "Right on the edge. We were walking right on the edge."

President Keyes, Friday, 29 March 2024 16:21 (three weeks ago) link

Basically, same as the last post: a guy in his 50s walking out of the grocery store yesterday wearing a Skinny Puppy T-shirt, enough to activate that little voice inside my head.

clemenza, Thursday, 4 April 2024 15:26 (two weeks ago) link


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