Pretty Much Pop #129: Wherefore the Cover Song?

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Is re-playing or re-recording a song written and performed by someone else an act of love or predation? Mark is joined by Too Much Joy's Tim Quirk, the Gig Gab Podcast's Dave Hamilton, and the author of A Philosophy of Cover Songs Prof. P.D. Magnus to talk about different types of and purposes for covers, look a little at the history, share favorites, and more.

A few of the many cover songs we mention include:

• Too Much Joy's "That's a Lie" and "Seasons in the Sun"
• Otis Redding's "Respect" (not a cover; this is the lesser known original adapted by Aretha Franklin)
• The Clash's "Police and Thieves" (the original is by Junior Murvin)
• R.E.M.'s "Superman" (much more famous that the original by "The Clique") 
• Bitter Bill (Dave's band) "Minnie the Moocher"
• Poison's "Just What I Needed"
• Willie Nelson's "American Tune" (original is by Paul Simon)
• Tom Jones' "Kiss"
• Sid Vicious' "My Way"

This playlist includes most of the songs mentioned in P.D.'s book.

To prep for this, in addition to reading P.D.'s book (which is free), we looked at various lists of best and worst cover songs of all time: from timeout.com, bestlifeonline.com, Rolling Stone, Radio X. Also check out this episode of the Ghost Notes Podcast.

Follow us @news4wombats (for P.D.), @tbquirk, @DaveHamilton, and @MarkLinsenmayer.

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This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network and is curated by openculture.com.

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