Lost/Forgotten Album #91 (well.....not really)

This week we're taking a departure from our normal postings. Instead of full-length albums, new videos and stuff that just grabs our attention, we're dedicating this week to cover songs.

Love 'em or hate 'em, they're out there and they'll continue to be put out by artists. Granted, some of them truly suck, but there's quite a few gems out there and we'll be posting what some of our favorite covers are.

Note this is really not our idea. We stole it from the fine folks at Decibel Geek. So what we're doing is doing a cover of their show dedicated to covers. Right?

My plan was to post songs that may not be well known from well known bands and vice versa. Don't know if it worked out that way, but we'll see.

Now it's time for me to make a mess of this whole post! First there'll be the song title followed by (original artist/covering artist) plus some groovy album covers just in case you're interested. It'll probably be really ugly, but what the hell. It's my post and I'll do what I want!

Oh, and I saved the best for last, possibly the greatest cover of a song EVER.

1. Mexican Radio (Wall Of Voodoo/Celtic Frost)

2. The Seeker (The Who/Rush)

3. Summer Night City (ABBA/Therion)

4. Call Me (Blondie/In This Moment)

5. Godzilla (Blue Oyster Cult/Racer X)

6. Alone Again Or (Love/UFO)

7. Hocus Pocus (Focus/Helloween)

8. The Sails Of Charon (Scorpions/Yngwie Malmsteen)

9. With A Little Help From My Friends (The Beatles/Kick Axe)

10. Born To Be Wild (Steppenwolf/Raven & Udo Dirkschneider)

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Permalink Reply by Scott on April 22, 2012 at 8:29am

Mexican Radio: All I can picture in my mind is that face coming up through the bowl of beans, yuck! Oh Yeah, and the cover is just ok, interesting to hear once... once!

The Seeker on the other is one of my favorites ever, first because I love the Who and second because I love Rush, so two of my top 3 all time bands in one track! How does is get any better than that!

Summer Night City, and an ABBA track makes it CRB debut! And finale I hope....

Call Me, I think Ive heard this recently on the radio. I liked the original and I like this as well! Nice vocal work and love the down tuned geetar on this (which is unusual for me), it worked!

I may be in the minority on this, but I like Spectres... I could go either way on the cover of Godzilla though, there are parts I liked, and parts that failed, like some of the vocal backing and that "Fame" interlude didnt fit well.

2.5 of 5 are the peaches knees so far! Need to come back to the other half ....

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Permalink Reply by Scott on April 23, 2012 at 9:31am

UFO anything is almost an automatic LOVE!!!

Helloween, love that riff! I like the way they played the tune but the yodels were too, oh I dont... too Helloweeny. hahaha. Musically I liked, vocally not so much!

Yngvie... Really liked this ! Nice choice... I even heard a little Klaus in the higher vocal registers. Who is the singer on this track?

You sure this isnt Kick Axe doing Joe Cockers version versus the Beatles verison? I prefer the original over either cover but at least its funt to wacth Joe sing it!

Raven, eh... Krokus does a way better version of this on their latest release.

But overall I really enjoyed hearing these tracks, fun stuff and great post as usual Jonster!

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Permalink Reply by Jon on April 23, 2012 at 5:12pm

The singer on the Yngwie track is Mark Boals.

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Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on April 23, 2012 at 11:06am

1. Mexican Radio - I'm sure I should know this, but I just can't place it. I don't really like the cover, so I probably wouldn't like the original either.

2. The Seeker - Definitely like both versions of this. I'll give a slight edge to the original.

3. Summer Night City - Never heard this song, that I'm aware of. I actually like the cover, and since I don't know the original, I'm going with the cover.

4. Call Me - Another well known song. The original is okay, but this cover is really fantastic. It's very rocked-up, which I like. Love the guitar. The cover wins hands-down.

5. Godzilla - I've never liked this song. The cover doesn't change anything. This one is a draw.

6. Alone Again Or - Don't know it. Kinda like this version. Wouldn't mind hearing the original. I'll go with the cover (gasp!), but only 'cause I don't know the original.

7. Hocus Pocus - Hocus Pocus, this should disappear.

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Permalink Reply by Jon on April 23, 2012 at 5:13pm

The original "Alone Again Or" is really good, Love was a totally underrated band back in the 60's. I'll see about posting the original in the next couple days.

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Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on April 23, 2012 at 11:24am

8. The Sails Of Charon - Again, never heard it. I don't really care for the song itself, but I do like Yngwie's guitar work. I guess a draw since I haven't heard the original.

9. With A Little Help From My Friends - I can now say I've heard at least 3 versions of this song. I'm gonna say the best version from me is the cover, but not this one. Joe Cocker's. Who knew Kick Axe had so many women in the band?

10. Born To Be Wild - Man, this really sounds like The Darkness. This is so bad to my ears that it's comical. The original by a landslide here.

Nice picks Jon. Good obscure work. I had not heard any of these covers, and I've only heard 5 of the originals.

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Permalink Reply by Niels (Mod) on April 23, 2012 at 1:01pm

1. Don't know the original. Never wanna hear it.

2. Now this is a tricky one, because as I've said before, if you can't make a cover, that's at least as good as the original or at least interesting in some kind of way, keep your dirty hands of the song. "The Seeker" is one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands. Rush IS among my 10 favorite bands, and.....they do an all right cover, nothing special, but it's okay. All most true to the original. Why do it, then?

3. Ha ha ha, that's just you, Jon!! The singer all most sounds like Ozzy. I LIKE ABBA!! But again, keep away from ABBA. I have NEVER heard a good cover of their songs. And this is one of their not very good songs. But this was ......interesting, in a bad way!!!

4. This I like. They are pretty true to Blondie's original song, but it's faster and "rockier" and with an Iron Maiden-guitar-solo, so I can understand why this cover exsist. Best cover so far!! Great song!!

5. I can't say, that I know the original very well. Probably heard it a couple of times. I would guess, this version is some what heavier than the original. The singer is kind of weak, but it's not a bad cover. I don't really like BÖC, as far as I know. I've heard them some times, but they bore the hell out of me, so I can't really remember their music.

6. Don't know the original, and as you may know, I'm not a UFO-fan. This is okay, but I'm bored!!

7. Good track, the original I mean. This is not bad, but as far as I remember, it sounds TOO much like the original, a little heavier, though. The second best cover, so far!!! I like this cover!!

8. I can't say, that I like much about Yngwie Malmsteen!!! Again, I don't know the original, I think. I must say, Malmsteen has made it sound like a Malmsteen-track, and that's not a bad job, even though I hate his solo's.

9. A cover of a cover, huh?!! Don't mess with perfect music, and I DON'T mean Joe Cocker's version!!!!!

10. Heeyy, Raven!!!!! Of course, I bought this album back in '83. I don't really remember, if this track was on the album, or if it was the b-side to a single? I THINK it was the latter. This is good fun, and ha ha ha...the vocals are hysterical!! They really fit together!! Just like, I like me some classic Accept-guitars, I've allways enjoyed Raven-guitars AND drums. I think, I'll put on some Raven-music. CHRASH-BANG-WALLOP!!!!

Nice list, Jon!!

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Permalink Reply by Jon on April 23, 2012 at 5:11pm

The Raven/Udo cover is a bonus track on the "All For One" CD which I believe is long out of print. Shame because therre's also "The Ballad Of Marshall Stack" which is friggin' awesome.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Mills on April 24, 2012 at 9:26am

Wow! What a listen, my hears are still burning from that Raven track. Wow!

1. Mexican Radio - I Love the Original By Wall Of Voodoo (Here I am in Tiuana, eating barbecued iguana), but Celtic Frost rendition is horrible!!!

2. The Seeker - Both versions are great!!!

3. Summer Night City - Admittingy, I do like ABBA (Why won't the keyboard allow me to type my 2nd B backwards?) but. I've never heard this song. The cover was good!

4. Call Me - Always liked the Blondie version & the cover was a harder rock version of that, I liked it as well!!!

5. Godzilla - Love Blue Oyster Cult & this song!!! The Racer X was good, I liked it!!!

6. Alone Again - Never hard this song before, but good song, I like both versions!

7. Hocus Pocus - Oddly enough, I like both versions, but then again I like The Darkness!!!

8. The Sails Of Charon - Not a big fan of the song, but I Love the Scorpions!!! Klaus is the loudest singer, I've ever seen in concert!!! For such a small guy, He can literally, make your ear drums bleed!!! The vocalist did ok, but it's hard to match Klaus! The guitar on both versions was excellent, Love Yngwie!!!

9. With A Little Help From My Friends - The Beatles version is like a staple, something you have to digest every now & then. I agree with Scott, there's nothing quite like watching Joe Cocker's performance of this. As for the cover, I liked it! I thought it was a new & interesting take on an otherwise stale original!

10. Born To Be Wild - Never really been a fan of Steppenwolf (Blasphemy!), but if you're a fan of Classic rock, I think it's written somewhere that you have to like 'Born To Be Wild", so I tolerare it. The cover on the other hand.................What the Dee Snider was that??? (I don't post foul language, so I figured Dee Snider was close enough) Raven was horribly painful to listen to!!!

Thanks John! I loved the opening picture & available pillow, it lured me right in!!! With the exception, of Celtic Frost & Raven, it was a good listen.