From the sublime to the completely terrible, covers albums have been around for decades but very few artists got it right – until now. Peter Gabriel, in his 60th year, has reinvented the genre
TONY CLAYTON-LEA
FREEING THE lyric from the restrictions of the beat and rhythm – that's what, ideally, cover versions should be all about. When did that start? Well, in pop music terms we can thank (or blame) Beatles producer George Martin, who, a year after he worked on it, remoulded the Fab Four's A Hard Day's Night as a monologue in the style of Laurence Olivier's mannered performance as Richard III. As theatrically intoned by Peter Sellers, the track became less a tousle-haired pop song and more a word poem that stands up very well indeed, as an endearing if slightly sexually charged love letter.
Covers albums can be divided into three categories: they can be a calling card from the artistically impoverished (Duran Duran's appalling Thank You,Westlife's abysmal Allow Us To Be Frank); a golden opportunity to highlight psychological shortcomings (Kevin Rowland's bewildering My Beauty, William Shatner's bemusing The Transformed Man); and a zealous, but not always successful attempt to pay tribute to pivotal influences (David Bowie's sketchy Pin Ups, Ozzy Osbourne's lamentable Under Cover).
Over the years, though, a fourth category has surreptitiously made itself known: the covers album as a valid art form, wherein the singer attempts to alter the tone and, occasionally, meaning of the song but not just for the sake of it. While cover versions have been a staple of popular music for many, many years – most notably, perhaps, in jazz, where “standards” such as Summertime and Mad About The Boy were covered by many artists – it is only in the past four decades that rock and pop figures have considered tackling the beast in an individualistic and idiosyncratic way.
From Bowie's Pin Ups(1973), Bryan Ferry's These Foolish Things(1973) and Another Time, Another Place(1974), to Tori Amos's Strange Little Girls(2001) and this week's Scratch My Backby Peter Gabriel, the covers album has gone through an interesting time.
Gabriel's album is a case in point, in that it has numerous interesting moments filtered throughout its dozen songs. As a package, the album represents a masterclass not just in songwriting (including Bowie's Heroes, Randy Newman's I Think It's Going To Rain Today, Elbow's Mirrorball,Neil Young's Philadelphia, and Regina Spektor's Apres Moi) but in interpretation, as Gabriel digs for a depth and dignity that some of the original songs merely hint at. Even the missteps (notably Lou Reed's The Power Of The Heartand The Magnetic Fields's The Book Of Love) are invested with grace and tenderness.
Ultimately, there are no lows on Gabriel’s album, unlike the pitiful level of quality in various charity and tribute albums (too many to mention) and shallow cash-ins (of which probably the worst instance is Robson Jerome’s 1995 self-titled karaoke-style debut, which was overseen by none other than Simon Cowell).
Highs include Mark Kozelek's 2001 album, What's Next To The Moon(acoustic renditions of AC/DC songs) and – to bring an Irish flavour into the mix –Emm Gryner's 2005 album, Songs of Love and Death(often startlingly different versions of Irish rock/pop songs).
CANADA-BASED GRYNER is something of an adept hand at the covers album concept. In 2001, she released Girl Versions, which retooled songs written by men (including Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar On Me, The Clash's Straight To Hell, Robert Wyatt's Sea Songand Fugazi's Waiting Room) in her astute indie-pop manner. She has also hosted Canada-based radio programmes that looked into the history and creative development of the cover.
She views the covers albums approach as "an experiment, to see how far you can go to change the songs and moods of other people's music. In the case of Songs of Love and Death, I wanted to tackle a handful of songs that had only one common thread – they are by Irish artists. Never mind that the songs Moorlough Shore, Dearg Doomand Breathlesswould or should never be put on one album together by a normal person!" Gryner also found the experience to be more cerebral than simply making an album of original material.
What with the research and discussions in preparing the album, she says, it felt like going to college. “It was nice to use my brain after 10 years of dormancy and self-obsession.” Why does an artist/musician/songwriter, however, choose to make a covers album? Is it for the challenge of uncoupling the lyric from the yoke of the rhythm, a break from writing lyrics or to hide writer’s block? Sometimes, says Gryner, doing so helps an artist in terms of where they fit into the musical landscape. “Often the choice of covers makes a very strong statement that might not be so easy to make otherwise. I know from interviewing, say, Ron Sexsmith, that playing other people’s songs also comes from being on tour and finding yourself in hotel room after hotel room. Instead of playing his own songs, Ron found much more fun and solace in learning everybody else’s. As for writer’s block, well, in my case, it’s never been that because I write all the time.”
Covers albums seem to work best when – and this is the case of Gabriel's Scratch My Back, which Q magazine described as having reinvented the entity –the songs are altered, if not quite radically, then certainly fashioned in the guise of the singer. Something new and unique in the rendering helps, then, as well as honouring the original versions, whether that means exploring a crucial motif within the song, delving into the lyrics more, or adding a new sense or feeling to the song that might make up for what the singer is removing.
THE CREATIVE IDEAL, then, is for an artist to re-imagine the songs. Laziness enters into the frame, asserts Gryner, when songs are learned note for note.
“I find it interesting what songs they choose – it often reveals their sense of humour. And the decision to group certain songs together – whether it’s an album of AC/DC covers or an album of all Irish songs – also tells you something about the artist.”
Scratch My Backby Peter Gabriel is on Virgin/EMI
