a little ways back the bastard had a conversation with the mad russian about cover songs. you see, he makes his own music and has a little release party and we all get drunk and fall down. anyway, mad feels that one really shouldn't do cover songs when you have your own material. on the other hand the bastard feels that if a cover song stands up or is god forbid better than the original (bob dylan even now performs all along the watchtower live the way hendrix remade it) than it should stand. movies are this way too sometimes. kurasowa's "yojimbo" is to "last man standing" and it works pretty good as opposed to "enemy mine" not doing so good being remade from "hell in the pacific" but then again lou gosset jr. and dennis quaid aren't exactly toshirô mifune and lee marvin. anyway speaking of mifume, this brings me to the bastard's latest favorite thing to watch. samurai 7. it is a not the first time kurosawa's seven samurai has been re-made. we have the magnificent seven which gives alot of game to the myth and has become a fine piece of film history that makes the bastard wonder how yul brenner and steve mcqueen managed to not kill each other. anyway, samurai 7 is turning into a beautiful post apocalyptic adaptation of kurosawa's work and if you have cable, you can check it out on IFC. 
right about now my only complaint/funniest thing about it is the fact that mifume's peasant samurai, kikuchiyo is a mechanical man that used to be a peasant. but then again, the mechanical man makes for a great deal of comic relief in the series. also, while i knew that there is no french word for weekend, so the french are forced to lower themselves to say, "le weekend" i had no idea that there was a japanese phrase for "in your face"
along the way i began to find that kikuchino keeps it lighter for the audience due to the fact that most of the samurai have to be stiffs by right of their station in this story so i guess it all works out. in your face!—the bastard
4 comments:
On cover tunes....When someone who I regard as a talented songwriter does a cover tune AND releases it as a single above their original songs on the album - well knowing that they only get to release 2 singles every few years - then this means that the artist has lost faith in his/her original stuff and has decided to stop being a creative force. Instead, they have decided that they are better off being an "entertainer". And we all know that entertainers are worthless. I do grant a free pass on cover tunes if it's done as part of a charity album or a soundtrack (U2 comes to mind here), but never sweep your original stuff under the rug when releasing an album all your own. Some examples of artists who've jumped the shark by doing covers include Guns n Roses, Alannis Morrissette, Counting Crows, and Judas Priest.
Agreed, cover tunes are for the live show, and should be encouraged. In fact, I think anytime you go to a show, you should expect to hear a cover tune. I mean, how many times can a band go on tour and play the same shit? Shouldn't they be allowed to expand their setlist to include songs that influenced them. I'll tell you this, I've been working on some material lately, and not that that really means anything at all but if If I ever get to the point when I'm on a stage performing material you best believe a cover of "She's Calling You" a la Bad Brains, or "When the World is Running Down" a la Police will be part of the set list.
i will truly bever get that awful priest cover of johhny b goode out of my head whereas their cover of diamonds and rust totally rocks
i think you should go with the youth are getting restless
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