A Week Under the Covers: Come On Eileen
I am struck to do this week-long series on cover songs for two reasons:
1) Sometimes it’s difficult to come up with ideas for blog posts so when an idea strikes that allows you to do five, you do it, no matter how ill-conceived.
2) I worked for five hours on a video-edit that I just couldn’t find the tools for and now it’s like a coitus interruptus of creativity. I have to unload it somewhere and this is usually where the creativity goes.
I like covers because I like seeing how different musicians approach the work of other musicians. It’s just something that tends not to work as well in other media. Yes, there are remakes and adaptations, but covers are like a make-over. The person remains the same but the look is completely different. And sometimes, the looks is so different, that it can even change the personality. This week I’ll be showcasing five songs and their covers that I believe do this. Chances are you’ve probably heard a couple of these covers (I’m guessing Thursday and Friday’s) but it would be a crime not to include them. But let’s enjoy good music followed by superior music.
“Come On Eileen” - Save Ferris beats Dexys Midnight Runners
You know that scene in That Thing You Do where they’re playing “That Thing You Do” and it’s actually a slow song but then the drummer (Tom Everett Scott) decides to up the tempo and it gives the song the energy and pop it needs to be a hit? That’s what Save Ferris does with “Come On Eileen”. It’s not that the original is slow, but a quintessential 80s one-hit-wonder injected with ska is a lot more fun and worthy of a lot more listens.
Dunno. The cover is hard to get used to, because when Dexys speeds up Save Ferris slows down to meet the original pace.