"Coldplay - The New Jonestown Kool-Aid"

Here's a great post from a blog called Kid B that pretty much sums up what I think about the whole Coldplay thing. Check it out. Feel free to leave comments on his post here, if you like. I don't know how I found this... I probably couldn't get back there if I tried.

Salty Dogma

I saw this a few weeks back, and meant to say something, but what with the switching of the blogs, and the success of the last post... I didn't get around to it/want to interrupt the flow. Either way - this is probably one of the most freakin' cool articles I've seen in a while. It's a World Magazine interview with Bono from August 6, 2005, where he details exactly what he believes, as if those of us with any sense at all had any doubts about where Bono stood on the whole Jesus thing. You've heard it before, but - if the previous era was defined by the scholars, scientists, and theologians, the next era is going to be defined by the poets, musicians, philosophers and painters. I think Bono has known this for a while, and has been writing the spiritual soundtrack for a generation. Do us both a favor, and check out this article.

This post, article, title and all... ripped cleanly and without permission from Josh Cohagen's blog. Thanks Josh!

Scattered, Smothered, And Covered

Everybody knows that there's only a finite number of really good songs. Great songs, like electricity, or precious gems, are discovered, not created. They are not a renewable resource. Sooner or later there's going to come a time when every good song is simply a remake of a song that's already been recorded by somebody else. I, for one, am okay with this idea. I don't necessarily like it, and I can understand how it would be difficult for others to accept but it is, nevertheless, fact.

Cover songs rule. They rule because it's cool to hear a band you like, playing a song that you already know the words to, but haven't heard them play a million times before. I don't understand why bands like the '80's cover band The Molly Ringwalds haven't become the most popular thing ever. Basically, when you do a cover song, you can go one of two ways:

1) You can try to sound as much like the original as you possibly can.
or
2) You can try and totally go your own way with the song and drastically reinterpret it in your style.

Both options are equally perilous. I personally prefer for bands to go the first route, because there's a reason the song was great in the first place. If you try to mess with it too much, you can really piss people off about what you did with their favorite song (see U2/Jars Of Clay - All I Want Is You). Grrr.

Anyway- I have compiled a list of my favorite cover songs, and decided to include them here for you. There's a bunch. Look through these and see which ones you've heard, haven't heard. Perhaps there are some versions of your favorite songs here that you didn't even know existed. Perhaps there are some you know of that I didn't list. As I said, this is a list of my favorites, which means it is highly subjective, and necessarily limited to the catalog of songs I am actually aware of. If it's not here, it's probably because I either don't know about it, or know about it and don't really like it all that much. Still there are bound to be some I just didn't think of. This is where comments come in. I would love nothing more than to hear your opinions on my list, and your own additions/amendments to it. FIRE AWAY!

These are listed in an Original Artist/Cover Artist - Song Title format.
In some cases, the cover actually surpasses the original. These cases will be identified by bold print.

Stryper/ Steve Hindalong – To Hell With The Devil

Stryper/ Klank – The Way

Stryper/ The Blamed – Soldiers Under Command

Stryper/ Deliverance – Surrender

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins/ Marilyn Manson – I Put A Spell On You

The Rolling Stones/ The Sundays – Wild Horses

The Cure/ Anberlin/ 311 – Love Song

David Bowie/ Deliverance – Beauty And The Beast

David Bowie/ Nirvana – The Man Who Sold The World

Bloodgood/ Mortification – Black Snake

Bloodgood/Tourniquet - The Messiah

Trouble/Tourniquet – The Tempter

U2/Echo Hollow/ Pillar – Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Five Man Electrical Jam/ Tesla – Signs

The Tremoloes/ The Mavericks – Here Comes My Baby

Pete Townshend/ Audio Adrenaline/ Pearl Jam – Let My Love Open The Door

U2/Starfield/dcTalk – 40

U2/ Tobymac – Mysterious Ways

U2/ Tait – One

U2/Grits – With Or Without You

U2/ Chris Tomlin – Where The Streets Have No Name

U2/ P.O.D. – Bullet The Blue Sky

Charlie Peacock/ dcTalk – In The Light

Terry Taylor/ Deliverance – Sanctuary

Paul McCartney/ U2 – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Clash/ One Bad Pig – Rock The Casbah

Petra/ Galactic Cowboys – Not Of This World

Petra/ Die Happy - All Over Me

XTC/ Sarah McLachlan – Dear God

Deep Purple/ Vengeance Rising – Space Truckin’

TV/ Relient K – Charles In Charge

TV/ Matthew Sweet – Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

TV/ Sublime – Hong King Phooey

Radney Foster/ Hootie and the Blowfish – Fine Line

Led Zeppelin/ Hootie and the Blowfish – Hey, Hey, What Can I Do?

R.E.M./ Hootie and the Blowfish – Driver 8

New Grass Revival/ Hootie and the Blowfish – Let Me Be Your Man

The Smiths/ Hootie and the Blowfish – Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want

The Doors/ Stone Temple Pilots – Break On Through

The Doors/ Aerosmith – Love Me Two Times

The Doors/ Days Of The New – The End

Rich Mullins/ Reflescent Tide – Hold Me Jesus

Veggie Tales/ The Channelsurfers – God Is Bigger

The Police/ Blackball – Message In A Bottle

Imperials/ Atomic Opera – Water Grave

Billy Joel/ Garth Brooks – Shameless

Bob Dylan/ The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man

*edited 8-15-05 to add:

Bob Dylan/Billy Joel/ Garth Brooks - To Make You Feel My Love

Simon and Garfunkel/ The Lemonheads/ Pennywise - Mrs. Robinson

Mark Cohen/ Cher - Walkin' In Memphis

Rufus Wainwright/ Jeff Buckley/ Kmax - Hallelujah

also, check out this site for their list of the 100 greatest cover songs of all time.

Greatest Hits

Every morning, one of the first things I do is check all the blogs I read, to see if anybody has updated. Sometimes, alot of people will go a long time without updating, or saying why. It's those times when I actually start to wonder if the rapture has happened, and I was left behind. You think I'm kidding, don't you? I'm not. But then I think - nah, one of those people was Bill, or Shane, or Nathan Dewberry... and there's no way they're going and I'm not. And then I feel better.

So - you may have noticed that I've moved the blog, and you're probably wondering why. Well, I would say that a good example is probably the paragraph that you just read right above this. My other blog was compromised by some younger, more impressionable minds, and I wouldn't want to subject them to some of the stuff you see here. Not that it's raunchy, or tasteless, or anything like that - but just because some of it is raw, and questioning, and me just trying to process and work through things. Things I'm not quite ready to teach, necessarily, which is the unfortunate byproduct of influence and association with more impressionable minds. So, for their protection and mine, I decided to relocate. Also because about 10 months ago, some random kid left a comment on the old blog that said something like, "Aren't you a little old to have a Xanga site?". Probably so, kid. Probably so.

I have painstakingly migrated all of my favorite stuff from the old blog over to this one... Xanga's Greatest Hits, if you will. I have even kept their original dates and times. Blogger is cool like that. And there's no need for the chatterbox because here you can post comments without signing up for anything! Let's DO avoid posting anonymously, though, can we? Now, I only know 2 things about HTML - jack, and squat. But I am open to suggestions, tips and tricks. If you made it over here to the new blog, congratulations - I consider you an adult. Now do me a flavor and don't mention it on the old one.