LOOK WHAT THEY DONE TO MY SONG MA

I'm not sure exactly when it happened, probably around the late sixties. Prior to that, early rock 'n' roll bands covered older songs, but it was basically just different ways of interpreting them. But as soon as big amps started showing up, rather than interpreting songs in a different way, it seems it was all about destroying the songs. Not necessarily with bad intent, just a louder, more amplified way. And a lot of people first heard old blues or jazz songs through whoever the guitar hero of the day was, which could be said to be a good thing. There were some musicians that kind of straddled the line, that really thought they were being reverent (Johnny Winter, a blues guy at heart, comes to mind). But somewhere in there, it got loud, really loud, the covers often unrecognizable, which may have been the whole point. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

It hit me recently when someone posted the Who's version of Mose Allison's "Young Man Blues", which is just about the most stark example of obliterating the original that there is. Given that Allison was so laid back in his delivery, it wouldn't take much, a standard rock 'n' roll band could have done it, but the Who completely destroyed it. Yeah, Clapton, suck on that.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Willie Dixon - Spoonful mp3 at Le Melletron
Cream - Spoonful (streaming) at YouTube
Willie Dixon - I Just Want To Make Love to You (streaming) at YouTube
Foghat - I Just Want To Make Love to You mp3 at Internet Archive
Mississippi Fred McDowell - Good Morning Little Schoolgirl mp3 at Keep the Coffee Coming
Ten Years After - Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (live) (streaming) at YouTube
Mose Allison - Young Man Blues mp3 at Blog Noblat (?)
The Who - Young Man Blues (live) mp3 at ATumblr (?)