Imagine I used the word "cover" in a clever pun

eg "Under the Covers," "Covering Them," "Cover Up," etc.

Jun 30, 2025

I had a thing for cover songs, for like, decades.

I mean, I knew people sang other people’s songs all the time. But in the 80-90s era of rock and/or roll, there was such a high priority put on cranking out one’s own original work, it seemed to be more rarified air to me than it maybe really was .

(This was before I realized how many bands and artists performed and recorded songs they didn’t write themselves. Again, not revelatory to anyone but me, but you have to understand, in the post-Beatles, post-Dylan era, you were supposed to grind out and perform your own shit to show how original and authentic you were, and when I came of age, it was standard practice [and more lucrative] to write your own full repertoire, leaving room for MAYBE one cover song.)

There was just something about a modern band doing an older song that I got a real kick out of, especially if they re-interpreted the song in their own style, not just did the thing the way it originally sounded. Something like “Boyz N the Hood” by Dynamite Hack would be a perfect example, a gangster rap song performed in a folky lilt.

Or Axl Rose crooning on a fifties ballad, while an electric guitar screeched and wailed in the background.

It probably started when I was listening to Dr. Demento, because as a music historian and fan himself, he was really good about laying out where songs sprouted from. And of course, being it was mostly novelty records, the cover songs were usually done in quite a different style than the originals, and I learned to appreciate the art of it.

Demento would often pull the rug out from under me, revealing that, guess what sparky, the new Motley Crüe song on the radio that you thought sounded bitchin’, “Smokin’ In the Boys’ Room,” hadn’t started as a Crüe song, but is actually a tune the same age as you are. Color me shocked.

Anyway, imagine my delight when I’d discover whole albums of artists doing cover songs. Guns ‘N’ Roses doing punk. Metallica’s “Garage” albums. Johnny Cash’s “American” albums. Bowie’s “Pin Ups.”

Then there were the bootlegs. There was a series at one point, “Covering ‘Em,” that collected live recordings of bands doing cover songs. I only found Guns ‘N’ Roses and REM in that series. The quality of the recordings was 100% ass, but again, I was so squee over the notion of it, that I spent years looking out for others in that series.

It’s not terribly interesting in aggregate, my love of cover songs, but that was one of those things I liked to keep in my back pocket when people were throwing out trivia at parties. “Hey, didja know that ‘Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon’ song in ‘Pulp Fiction’ was a Neil Diamond song?!”

(No, John, and what’s more, we don’t care.

But *I* did.)

Now, this will surprise absolutely no one, but after years of collecting cover songs in my brain, when I realized something was a cover song, I quite often would dig up the original, and as I grew older and embraced more varied musical genres, I began to realize that I tended to favor the originals more than the covers.

That might’ve started around Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.” That fuckin’ song was everywhere when it came out. And it took me a good while of it bouncing around before I learned Dolly Parton had written it. At the time, I didn’t seek out the original.

But eventually, years and years later, I did hear the song, randomly, with no prelude or warning. Instantly recognized it, of course, and at first, was shocked at how simple and spare it seemed, compared to the lush production value of Houston’s version.

And of course, Dolly didn’t have the big silent pause, with the kick drum coming in and the music swelling and a powerful voice singing “and IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-eeIIIIIIIIIIII…” which is the quintessential moment of that cover. You could play just that five seconds of the song, and most humans of a certain age, even those who don’t like it, will immediately know it.

I didn’t care much about that song, but even I wasn’t immune to goosebumps when that part came on. I’m only human.

Now, maybe it’s because I heard the Houston version a thousand times when it was popular. It was pretty inescapable. Maybe it’s because even when the song was popular, and I didn’t mind hearing it, I didn’t consider myself a fan. But when I heard the Dolly Parton song, years later, it was probably because the song didn’t have the bombast or production value the Houston version did, that I fell in love with it.

Well, that, and it’s a pretty amazing song.

Skip to the here and now. Thanks to podcasts like “A History of Rock & Roll in 500 Songs” and “Cocaine & Rhinestones,” I’m learning just how many of the songs I’ve taken for granted over the decades were technically cover songs, whether credited or not, and before the British invasion, an artist could make a fabulous living doing not one single song they actually wrote themselves. Again, I already knew that, cerebrally, but the sheer volume of songs that weren’t original to the artist that made them famous sorta dimmed my love of “cover songs” as their own amazing and unique thing.

I still enjoy them. I just don’t, y’know, lose my shit over ‘em.

So, basically what I’m saying is, a thing I used to focus on, I don’t focus on anymore.

Except to write a newsletter about.

Please love me.