Because You Demanded More, The Return Of Versions Galore!

Side 2 of a cassette compilation of cover versions, recorded 26th November 1999.

When I posted Side 1 in July 2024, I remarked "Who would have thought a quarter of a century on, many of these artists would still be recording and touring?"

The more sobering realisation is how many artists are sadly no longer with us since I originally recorded the mixtape at the end of the last century: Brian Wilson, Marc Moreland, Tony Ogden, Charlie Watts, Cathal Coughlan, Rod McKuen...and that's just in the first four songs of Side 2 alone.

The other thing that struck me was the 1993 was clearly a good year for cover versions, as demonstrated here by Spell aka Boyd Rice and Rose McDowall, Barry Adamson and Louise Ness, One Dove (Dot sings Dolly!) and Slowdive all turning in versions that hold up well against the originals.

And despite Frente! having the greater commercial success with their cover of a cover, it's the earlier acoustic driven version of Bizarre Love Triangle by Devine & Statton aka Ian Pinchcombe and Alison Statton that wins hands down every time. 

1) Do It Again (Album Version): Wall Of Voodoo vs. The Beach Boys (1987)

2) She's A Rainbow (Left Hand Blue Mix By Fluke): World Of Twist vs. The Rolling Stones (1991)

3) Shiny Happy People: The Fatima Mansions vs. R.E.M. (1991)

4) Seasons In The Sun: Spell vs. Rod McKuen (1993)

5) Jolene (Edit By Khayem): One Dove vs. Dolly Parton (1993)

6) Some Velvet Morning: Slowdive vs. Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood (1993)

7) Broken English (7" Extended) (Remix By Sunscreem & Phil Bodger): Sunscreem vs. Marianne Faithfull (1992)

8) White Rabbit: The Shower Scene From Psycho vs. The Great Society with Grace Slick (1985)

9) Purple Haze: Soft Cell vs. The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1983)

10) "Heroes": Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie vs. David Bowie (1990)

11) Bizarre Love Triangle: Devine & Statton vs. New Order (1989)

12) Je T'Aime ... Moi Non Plus: Barry Adamson & Louise Ness vs. Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin (1993)

1983: Soul Inside EP: 9

1985: White Rabbit/Cinnamon Girl EP: 8

1987: Happy Planet: 1

1989: Bizarre Love Triangle EP: 11

1990: Love Child EP: 10

1991: Bertie's Brochures: 3

1991: She's A Rainbow EP: 2

1992: Broken English EP: 7

1993: Seasons In The Sun: 4

1993: The Negro Inside Me EP: 12

1993: Volume Seven: 6

1993: Why Don't You Take Me EP: 5

Side Two (46:15) (GD) (M)

Side One here

In September 2022, I posted another all-covers compilation, Hokey Karaoke (Volume One), which repeats some of the tracks from Versions Galore, and can be found here

Bizarre Love Octangle

I love Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order. And clearly, many, many other artists do too. A brief trawl of t'internet will easily unearth over 100 cover versions, a large percentage complete dreck, with some interesting and engaging versions along the way.

Here's eight of 'em, starting with Catherine Anne Davies aka The Anchoress. I'm biased as I think she's a great artist in her own right but she also has a way with a cover version and this take on Bizarre Love Triangle is a fine example. Originally released as part of her monthly Bandcamp exclusive series in 2022, it was given a bright remix by Mario McNulty for a single release earlier this year. You can get both versions, plus her wonderful take on This Is Yesterday on Bandcamp. If you're quick, you can also catch Catherine joining the Manics onstage to perform the latter at Glastonbury via BBC iPlayer.

 

The first cover version of Bizarre Love Triangle that I heard was on the John Peel Show, when he played Devine & Statton's stripped down acoustic rendition of the song, coming in at a lean 2:11. Alison Statton and Ian Devine (aka Ian Pincombe) respectively came from Young Marble Giants and Ludus and released a couple of albums in 1989 and 1990. Bizarre Love Triangle was released on 12" only, the B-side featuring a cover of Crystal Gayle's Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.

 

Australian popsters Frente! were clearly paying attention as they released a similar acoustic take as a single in 1994. The version seemed ubiquitous at the time and I assumed must have been a huge hit but my memory seems to be betraying me as the song didn't manage to crack the Top 75 in the UK. I like it, but not quite as much as Devine & Statton's version.

Someone else who was taking note of the above was Nouvelle Vague, who recorded their version in 2005 but don't appear to have released it until their Rarities compilation in 2019. If you like Nouvelle Vague's approach, you'll love it. If you don't, you won't.

 

I must admit, I'd forgotten all about South, a three-piece rock band who were unusually signed to James Lavelle's Mo Wax label in 2001. I think I've got a Death In Vegas or UNKLE remix of one of their songs knocking about somewhere in my collection. They released several albums in the Noughties and their version of Bizarre Love Triangle appeared in 2006. It's a livelier and largely inoffensive take on the song.

 

I'm going to have to disappoint Ernie from 27 Leggies as I couldn't find a Mandatory Reggae Version that was even halfway decent. Instead, here's Dub Colossus with an, erm, dub that if I'd heard without sight of the title would have been hard pressed to identify as a cover of Bizarre Love Triangle. Good though.

 

What's that? If only someone had recorded a ukelele-led instrumental version of Bizarre Love Triangle? Here's Hawaii's finest, Jake Shimabukuro, to oblige with a Daytrotter Session performed in Davenport, Iowa in 2018 (29th September, to be precise).

 

Last but not least is a version that I discovered and heard for the first time when preparing this post. Here are the brilliantly-named Fukushima Dolphin, busking on Brighton beachfront in 2022. Eight minutes of pure joy. Keep an eye on the couple to the right of the band, they are clearly having a whale of a time.

 

After all that, it seems a bit mean not to include the original and best, doesn't it? Oh, go on then.

Hokey Karaoke

Volume 1 of a CD-R of cover versions recorded for my friend Stuart on 19th August 2008.

 

I love a cover version and my forays into cassette compilations included many made up of people singing other people's songs. Many of the songs featured here have cropped up on previous mixtapes but I quite like the flow of this CD-R that I made for my friend's birthday a decade and a half ago. Always one for overdoing things, this was the first of three volumes that I gifted him at the time.

My Bloody Valentine start off with their version of the key song from the sixth James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, originally recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1969. If you're expecting a typical MBV wall of noise, you'll be disappointed; unexpectedly, it's a faithful and rather lovely cover version.

A few cover versions go acoustic. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly deliver an urgent Northern take on Gallic dance duo Justice. Devine & Statton aka Ian Devine (nee Pinchcombe) from Ludus and Alison Statton from Young Marble Giants and Weekend team up for a beautifully stripped down version of a New Order classic. I remember hearing this on the John Peel show back in 1989. Australian band Frente! were clearly paying attention. Deacon Blue aren't particular favourites of mine but anyone willing to have a stab at a Julian Cope song gets a thumbs up from me. 

Several versions take the song in interesting directions. Whilst not surpassing the originals, they've come up with a different approach that makes the song their own. Primal Scream are the first in line, with an amped up, dirty version of The Clash's Know Your Rights. Tunng go all folky with club classic Naked In The Rain by Blue Pearl, whilst Locust offer up an almost jazz lounge duet on Depeche Mode's Master And Servant. 

 

I'm also a big fan of Mark Eitzel's uptempo but downbeat run through Move On Up by Curtis Mayfield. Associates' bold debut in 1979, covering Boys Keep Swinging weeks after the original was released, is every bit as good as David Bowie. If I had to choose between the two, Anita Lane's unique take on Sexual Healing, ably assisted by Mick Harvey and Barry Adamson, surpasses Marvin Gaye's original.

Ciccone Youth aka Sonic Youth take things to the natural and extreme end with a version of Robert Palmer recorded in a karaoke booth. The video - recorded in the same booth for $25 - is a striking send up of the overblown original, Kim Gordon's deadpan singing and lacklustre dancing against a backdrop of images from the Vietnam War. I vaguely recall watching this on a late night TV show and the studio guests ripping the song and video to shreds, but they were woefully missing the point.

Speaking of overblown, sometimes the only way to do a cover is go even bigger and louder. Stairway To Heaven is one of those songs indelibly etched in the memory of my childhood listening to music on the radio and has been covered countless times over the last half-century. I remember being subjected to a version during a school assembly in the 1980s by a 'supergroup' made up of my Biology, Geography and P.E. teachers. It wasn't pretty.

Like many, seeing Aki Kaurismäki's 1989 road movie Leningrad Cowboys Go America was my first introduction to the titular Finnish band. Leningrad Cowboys continued to release records up to 2013 but they appear to have disbanded some time after. Their version of the Led Zeppelin song came from a collaborative album with The Alexandrov Red Army Ensemble aka The Alexandrov Ensemble aka The Red Army Choir, the official choir of the Russian armed forces. Tragically, on Christmas Day in 2016, 64 members of the Ensemble were killed when their plane crashed into the Black Sea.

The world has changed dramatically this year and collaborating with the official choir of the Russian armed forces is unlikely to be on anyone's wish list, now or any time in the foreseeable future. How different things were in 2008 when I compiled this collection.

 

1) We Have All The Time In The World: My Bloody Valentine sing Louis Armstrong (1993)

2) Know Your Rights (Full Length Version): Primal Scream sing The Clash (1994)

3) There's A Ghost In My House: The Fall sing R. Dean Taylor (1987)

4) Naked In The Rain (Rob Da Bank Session): Tunng sing Blue Pearl (2007)

5) D.A.N.C.E.: Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly sing Justice (2008)

6) Move On Up: Mark Eitzel sings Curtis Mayfield (2002)

7) Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime: Beck sings The Korgis (2004)

8) Bizarre Love Triangle: Devine & Statton sing New Order (1989)

9) Addicted To Love: Ciccone Youth sing Robert Palmer (1988)

10) Making Plans For Nigel: Datassette sing XTC (2006)

11) Boys Keep Swinging: Associates sing David Bowie (1979)

12) Master And Servant: Locust sing Depeche Mode (1998)

13) It's A Man's Man's Man's World: Natacha Atlas sings James Brown (2003)

14) Some Velvet Morning: Slowdive sing Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood (1993)

15) If You're Lookin' For A Way Out (Album Version): Tindersticks sing Odyssey (1999)

16) Sexual Healing: Anita Lane ft. Mick Harvey & Barry Adamson sings Marvin Gaye (1993)

17) Trampolene: Deacon Blue sing Julian Cope (1989)

18) Stairway To Heaven: The Leningrad Cowboys & The Alexandrov Red Army Ensemble sing Led Zeppelin (1994)

Volume One (1:19:43) (GD) (M)