Friday Morning Quarterbacking
Does Covering an obscure Track Defeat the Point? - By Max Higgins
Off the back of Ethel Cain's Like A Version last week, as the video ended and my YouTube auto-play clicked over to a deep dive on the chord progressions in a Limp Bizkit song, my immediate reaction to Mother Cain’s cover didn’t relate to the performance at all. Rather, (aside from scrambling to pause Durst and co.) my mind went rapidly down a tangent about how covering fairly obscure artists and songs feels like a missed opportunity for artists as they’re greeting new prospective fans through big, widely-shared media series. And it goes beyond my simple ignorance of Drive-By Truckers.
Before we continue, I want to clarify that I thought it was a good cover, I really enjoy and respect Ethel Cain’s work, and I want to emphasise that this isn’t directed to her or her cover specifically, but is a broad thought about covers and the role that Like a Version plays in the musical content landscape.
Now, some concessions, offered in the form of immediate self-rebuttal, and phrased as the comment section to which many readers will no-doubt go:
Artists might want to showcase an obscure song, that they love, to a wider audience while they have the space. 100%! I think that's a great part of cover songs, and it allows artists to share what it is about the track that inspired them.
It isn't obscure to the fans that know it, and those fans can be so excited that they can have a shared fandom experience with another artist. Another excellent point, and I would never want to take away from those fans. There have been plenty of times when I have been in that position, felt that excitement, and also felt like my music taste was affirmed by artists I respect.
Take it as an opportunity to discover something cool and new that you haven't heard before, maybe if it spreads far enough, it won't be obscure. I love discovering a new favourite track more than just any other musical experience, no matter where it comes from, and cover versions are an amazing way in.
Not everything has to be for you or to your tastes, so simmer down, you spoon. Yep, I'll cop this one fair and square, no debate. I am a spoon.
BUT, I think that all of the above (except maybe the final point) can be better and more aptly achieved with more broad media placements, or through an artists’ own channels, where they can make a bigger impact with their existing, but let’s hold that thought for a second.
In my eyes (and ears), a cover should be an artist's interpretation of a track, showing how they would take the bare bones of a song and play it out in a way that they would like it to be arranged. The best moments of a cover are often hearing how an existing track that you know and love in one form, has been heard through someone else’s ears and then rebuilt to highlight melodies, textures and moments that you might have missed, or adding in new instrumentation that tells the same story in a different way.
When you hear a cover of a song that you don’t already know, you aren’t getting that recontextualisation, you’re merely experiencing something for the first time. That version of the song becomes the definitive version (until you hear another), and you don’t necessarily get to fully understand what the cover artist was intending to portray, because you have no starting point of comparison. For covers, the difference is a key part of the narrative. It’s partly a reason that Radio Free Alice’s opinion about Usher’s “DJ’s Got Us Falling In Love” was such a flop; they sought to completely disregard the original context of the song and why people might have connected with it or enjoyed it, to instead focus on how their version swanned-up an “ugly duckling”. And shout out to the DJs at the now-closed Our Place Bar in Fortitude Valley in 2014 for giving me plenty of understanding why Usher’s hits go so hard.
There is absolutely space for artists to cover obscure songs, to shout out other creators that inspired them who might be under-represented, and to introduce us to new music we haven’t experienced before. To me, that is best done either across their own channels directly to their fans, in full-blown covers that they release as singles (rights permitting, of course), or by hyping them up broadly in the interviews and questionnaires that they use to spruik their material. These kind of spaces will be scooped up by fans who are hungry to learn more about what makes their favourite artists tick, but who are already familiar with an artists’ overall sound and narrative, and don’t need that extra layer of context added in.
However, when it comes to Like A Version - a series that often reaches hundreds of thousands, if not millions of listeners, many of whom are only now hearing about the performing artist - to bring a track that the vast majority of listeners/viewers won’t know feels like a wasted chance to showcase what you, as the performer, bring to the table. With the modern music landscape so fractured and the monoculture long forgotten like the Dragon Coaster at Brisbane’s former Myer Centre, tentpole series such as Like A Version that do still connect to big audiences can often be the first time a listener is experiencing an artist, or actively listening to something that they have created. And on the occasions that a Like a Version is my first encounter with an artist, I love the chance to connect to their work and the sounds that they employ through an already recognisable song to understand how they hear the world. I can understand where the performer is coming from by uncovering how they hear the same song I’m familiar with, which can cause me to deep dive into their discography.
I’m certainly not trying to impose a rule that every Like A Version must be covering a mid-00s top 10 ARIA hit, but I feel like a general sense of familiarity amongst the majority of triple j’s listeners and social followers should be a guiding light for the kinds of tracks that artists aim for. I feel like there’s happy medium between a complete drive-by of one of Pop/RnB’s biggest names and reaching into obscurity to cover an artist that currently has less than 10% of the monthly Spotify listeners of Hinder (no shade, Hinder). Or maybe that’s just me.
I am more than happy to be told that I am just out-of-touch, so please share your thoughts, and in the meantime, I’ll go back to being a spoon.