Sometimes You Get Nowhere

Half a dozen cover versions in a little under half an hour. The springboard for this (again) was the Love Is.... guest mix posted last week on The Vinyl Villain. The gift that keeps on giving and another excuse to plug Jez's own music blog, A History Of Dubious Taste.

The mix included Little Boots' cover of Love Kills (originally by Freddie Mercury), which appeared on the gargantuan 89-track compilation Buffetlibre DJ's Rewind Mixtape 2 back in 2009. And no, I don't have the complete album. 

 

Originally available as an MP3-only download via the Buffetlibre website, it's long since gone but a trawl around the internet should unearth a good selection of the track list. It's pretty much 1980s songs covered or remixed and I've plumped for an unexpectedly delicate cover of Whitesnake's hairsprayed middle-aged pomp rock hit. 

 

This selection opens with a song that Roger Waters wrote for Pink Floyd in 1969, but never recorded. Crystal Kerr sings and plays piano, Ken Langford provides guitar and backing vocals and that's about as much as I know about either of them. Beautiful song, though.

 

Likewise, I'm pretty unfamiliar with Richard Walters, although Discogs tells me he's recorded more recently as LYR, a three-piece including current Poet Laureate Simon Armitage. Faultline aka David Kosten was already on my radar, after picking up 2002 album Your Love Means Everything in a Bristol record shop bargain bin and being pleasantly surprised, despite the inclusion of Chris Martin from Coldplay. I like this version of the David Bowie classic. 

The closing half of the selection takes in songs by Lou Reed, Nick Cave and, in a last ditch attempt to swerve away from an exclusively male singer/songwriter focus, the wonderful Martina Topley-Bird. The latter, courtesy of Neneh Cherry & The Thing, bucks the gentle themes of the preceding songs with a raucous, jazzy vibe, with Cherry sounding like she's punching her way out of a cardboard box. I love the original, but this version takes it in an interesting and different direction.

 

I did initially think about carrying on, as I'd sidetracked into listening to several potential inclusions by Micah P. Hinson, but that's a selection for another day. and this is as good a point as any to hop off. Happy Wednesday!

1) Seabirds (Cover of Roger Waters): Kerr & Langford (1991)

2) Here I Go Again (Cover of Whitesnake): The Botticellis (2009)

3) Be My Wife (Cover of David Bowie): Richard Walters & Faultline (2008) 

4) Pale Blue Eyes (12" Version) (Cover of The Velvet Underground): Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins (1984)

5) Breathless (Cover of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds): Cat Power (2008)

6) Too Tough To Die (Cover of Martina Topley-Bird): Neneh Cherry & The Thing (2012)

1984: Pale Blue Eyes EP / Punk Rock Hotel OST: 4

1991: Moving Soundtracks: 1

2008: Jukebox: 5

2008: Life Beyond Mars: Bowie Covered: 3

2009: Buffetlibre DJ's Rewind Mixtape 2: 2

2012: Neneh Cherry & The Thing: 6

 

Sometimes You Get Nowhere (25:03)