Note the slight relation to a recent thread, or did those 25k posts
constitute a skein? <g>
> Cover stories
>
> A tribute to the Clash
>
> I still remember when I stumbled across an LP of various
> artists performing songs by Neil Young a decade ago and
> thought to myself, "Wow, that's a pretty cool idea." These
> days, of course, tribute albums are a common, even
> mundane part of the endless flood of CDs that arrive in
> stores every Monday at midnight, week after week, on
> big labels and small. I'm not sure why major labels
> continue to devote time and money to the tribute album,
> because for all the publicity generated by compilations
> dedicated to new interpretations of the work of, say, a
> John Lennon, in the end the CDs never sell all that well.
> Old John Lennon fans are probably more interested in
> hearing real John Lennon outtakes than new recordings of
> his old songs by Cheap Trick and a bunch of bands they've never
>heard of. And even if you are a
> Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, you may not want to drop 15 bucks for
>only one Chili Peppers tune
> and a bunch of other tracks by bands you don't care about. My guess
>is that the tribute album has
> survived as something of a creative indulgence for fortunate A&R
>types whose jobs otherwise
> consist of chasing new bands around with checkbooks in hand, keeping
>their fingers crossed, and,
> from time to time, getting fired and rehired.
>
> Whatever the motive, I still look forward to tribute discs, mostly
>out of an abiding fondness for
> cover tunes, a pop novelty unfairly discredited by hordes of GB
>(general business) bands who
> specialize in rote versions of Top 40 hits and, of course, the
>Grateful Dead. Back when I was
> playing in bands, it was considered a point of pride not to do any
>covers -- until we heard the
> Replacements' version of Kiss's "Black Diamond" on Let It Be and saw
>R.E.M. open a show with
> the Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale." Suddenly, reinterpreting a
>classic took on a whole new
> meaning: covers became an integral part of a band's musical
>identity, and it was perfectly
> acceptable to judge an outfit by their choices. Those choices are
>necessarily narrowed down to
> material by a single artist on a tribute disc -- which isn't as
>revealing as hearing, say, a band like
> Hole pull a Duran Duran tune out of nowhere on stage. But you can
>still judge a band by the quality
> of their cover.
>
> The new Burning London: The Clash Tribute (Epic; in stores Tuesday,
>March 16) offers a dozen
> or so contemporary artists the chance to do what they will with the
>work of a now ancient punk
> band whose songs have never been as popular to cover as the Ramones
>or even the Sex Pistols.
> That's partly because, with a few notable exceptions ("Train in
>Vain," "Should I Stay or Should I
> Go"), the Clash wrote songs that had some universal resonance as
>anthems but were more often
> than not self-referential ("Clash City Rockers," "This Is Radio
>Clash"). Their best tunes were tied to
> a specific time, place, and situation, whether it was visiting an
>unwelcoming Jamaica as naive young
> reggae fans ("Safe European Home") or simply squabbling with their
>record label ("Complete
> Control"). Their songs are so Clash-identified that they don't leave
>much room for outside artistic
> interpretation.
>
> That's not a problem for Rancid, a band custom-made to play Clash
>covers. They dig their combat
> boots into the rebel rock of "Cheat" as if they'd been born
>auditioning for the part of the Clash in
> Calling London: The Punk Years, with Tim Armstrong singing as if he
>had a copy of Black
> Market Clash caught in his throat. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
>handle the ska-flavored "Rudy
> Can't Fail" with appropriate care; 311 put a Southern California
>spin on the lyrics to "White Man in
> Hammersmith Palais" (and prove that they've been a good band in
>search of a good song all along);
> and some outfit called the Urge do a respectable job with "This Is
>Radio Clash," though it might
> have been cool to hear what Fatboy Slim would do with what is
>arguably the first ever big-beat
> tune. Third Eye Blind had the clout to score an easy hit -- "Train
>in Vain" -- but they sound as if
> they could care less. Same goes for No Doubt, whose stiff cover of
>"Hateful" sounds as if it had
> been recorded to fulfill some sort of contractual obligation.
>Silverchair seem, as usual, like a band
> trying way too hard to sound angry on their roughed-up version of
>"London's Burning."
>
> Burning London becomes more interesting when the Afghan Whigs try to
>turn "Lost in the
> Supermarket" into a sexy soul tune, Cracker reinvent "White Riot" as
>a hillbilly country number, the
> Indigo Girls get folky with "Clampdown," Ice Cube and Mack 10 rap
>over the riff from "Should I
> Stay or Should I Go," and Moby helps Heather Nova create an ethereal
>Sinéad O'Connor-style
> hymn out of "Straight to Hell." Not all of it works -- "Clampdown"
>sounds more sanctimonious than
> cautionary as a campfire sing-along. But in at least a couple of
>cases I did find myself thinking,
> "Wow, that's a pretty cool idea."
>
