The Greatest Hit 2.0 - One song and why - The Bear and Badger

Diluted Dante

Both I guess. I hate her songs and I classed her in the Pete Doherty waste of fucking space category as a person.

Boolitt

Great wee version a good Ice Cube song

poprock

Covers of Bob Dylan songs. One of the all-time great songwriters with one of the all-time worst voices. So a good Dylan cover almost always eclipses his original.

Brandi Carlile, doing The Times They Are a-Changin’.

davyK

Diluted Dante wrote:

Both I guess. I hate her songs and I classed her in the Pete Doherty waste of fucking space category as a person.

I'm with you re Doherty but Amy was a once a generation deal.

Moot_Geeza

Any objection to film scores as Monday's topic change? Would do solo frontperson the week after.

RedDave2

Are we talking scores, songs or both?

Diluted Dante

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.

Done.

Moot_Geeza

RedDave2 wrote:

Are we talking scores, songs or both?

Just scores, songs would warrant its own week at some point. Although now I'm typing this I have a vague recollection of doing one or the other in liv's thread so I'll check.

poprock

Back when I used to DJ at burlesque clubs, cover versions were a huge part of the repertoire. Nothing I’d class as true greatness, but sprinkling a few of these in early on to get the dancefloor going was absolutely essential for atmosphere.

Here’s a few examples. Not necessarily my favourites, but covers that were guaranteed to fill my dancefloors. Just a flavour.

Dick Brave & the Backbeats - Get This Party Started

The Baseballs - Chasing Cars

The Big Six - 20th Century Boy

The New Morty Show - Enter Sandman

Veronica Martell - Your Mama Don’t Dance

Flash Mob Jazz - Get Lucky

poprock

And, y’know, anything by Postmodern Jukebox, who made a whole career out of this.

Moot_Geeza

poprock wrote:

Covers of Bob Dylan songs. One of the all-time great songwriters with one of the all-time worst voices. So a good Dylan cover almost always eclipses his original.

Tried not to bite but the impulse is to divert all power to the Dylan shields was too strong. I get it...I just don't hear it. His (thin, nasally, whiny, etc.) voice suits his own songs so well I don't rate many Bob covers as superior. My 'not superior' list includes Watchtower, so no doubt this will be dismissed as a moot point post. Dylan songs can't be perfect without the imperfections.

Having spent many hours listening to covers and covers comps over the years, I'd probably have the following as the best:

All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix
It Ain't Me, Babe - Johnny/June Carter Cash
Farewell Angelina - Joan Baez
Make You Feel my Love - Adele
Absolutely Sweet Marie - Jason and the Scorchers
Ballad of a Thin Man - Steven Malkmus & the Million Dollar Bashers
Goin' to Acapulco - Jim James/Calexico (love this one)
Dark Eyes - Iron & Wine/Calexico
Masters of War - Eddie Vedder/Mike McCready
Foot of Pride - Lou Reed (the last two from the same live album)
Ring Them Bells - Sufjan Stevens
Restless Farewell - Mark Knopfler
Quinn the Eskimo - Manfred Mann
4th Time Around - Yo La Tengo
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go - Miley Cyrus
Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again - Cat Power
Times They Are A-Changin' - Brandi as above (or Tracy Chapman on the 30th Anniversary tribute)

...but I'd only hang my hat on maybe three of those as being 'better' than the original.

The best Dylan tribute album, imo, was an Uncut freebie from maybe ten years ago with different artists taking a track each for 'Highway 61 Revisited Revisited'.

Deliberately left out Emmylou's Every Grain of Sand to annoy G.

poprock

It’s all good Moot. I know you’re not alone in having a special appreciation for Bob. I just don’t share it.

Moot_Geeza

Totted up the votes. Seems to be a win for Johnny Cash's undeniably definitive take on Hurt, which makes the Reznor version roughly as redundant as that Channel 5 version of The Shining.

poprock

Film scores!

I’m going straight in with a definitive vote, because I actually have a favourite.

The Requiem for a Dream OST, by Clint Mansell and Kronos Quartet.

Lux Aeterna being the standout track, if you can really call a soundtrack element a ‘track’. It’s more of a theme that recurs throughout at different levels of urgency and tension. And it’s fucking awe-inspiring to listen to on decent headphones while walking through a silent city after dark.

You’ll find a million versions of this on YouTube. It was hijacked and used to soundtrack the original trailers for Lord of the Rings, for example.

But here’s the unvarnished original.

And, because it’s timely, here’s the Kronos Quartet performing it just last week for the film’s 20th anniversary.

Moot_Geeza

Next topic is movie scores - specifically, pieces of music written for a film. We've done songs written for films I think, and this isn't tracks selected for movie soundtracks either. So we're talking Morricone, Nyman, Jarre, the safe hands of Brad Friedel, Hermann, Horner & co., not Stealers Wheel or Strauss...

mistercrayon

Moulin Rouge has to be in there.

By score - is it the songs or the background music? I have made that error before buying CDs.

Fucking hell i should learn how to read.

In which case

Also the whole of fight club has this weirdness about it.

I think this one has a neat embedded twist.

afgavinstan

Easy choice but by fuck did it grip me so damn tightly when I saw the flick on the big screen

But then also, this:

Moot_Geeza

Yep, mostly instrumental stuff but you can have [Are you ready to go back to Titanic?] choral selections if you want to be a boss.

Gremill

Plus one on the Requiem for a Dream OST - it's superb. My own vote goes to the soundtrack for Arrival and specifically the opening and closing use of Max Richter's 'On the Nature of Daylight' which I'm listening to a lot at the moment. Here the amazing Elizabeth Moss going for a walk and realising she's forgotten her Oyster card:

mistercrayon

Inception is a weird one because yes the song existed but nobody knew what that “Parp parp parp” was really.

Moot_Geeza

Underrated (and disowned, apparently):

Roujin

Amazing shouts in here, Lux Aeterna, Nature of Daylight and Candyman are all on my top tracks list already so I'll link a bit of Basil Pouledoris of Robocop Theme fame, but the absolute banger that is Klendathu drop from Starship Troopers. PREPARE TO GET PUMPED!

regmcfly

2010 a good year for OST

mistercrayon

Trons is good yep.

LivDiv

It is clearly the Imperial March from Star Wars.

hylian_elf

Yes, best track.

Star Wars is in with a shout for best overall sound track. But I love Godfather too.

Roujin

His superman theme hecka underrated these days as well IMO.

Diluted Dante

I'm confused by this. Is it an entire soundtrack, or an individual theme?

Armitage_Shankburn

Gonna plump for the Third Man

https://youtu.be/2oEsWi88Qv0

And Amelie de Poulin

https://youtu.be/2W_G3xmSGfo

davyK

That bloody 3rd man track - my Dad used to vocalise that every time he won a game of anything.......Rummy, Chess, Mastermind....

Every. Fucking. Time.

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