Just back from England — cheerio — with what might be the best cover album ever in my grubby American mitts: Radio One Established 1967.
See, back in the dark ages before the iPod, the BBC actually banned rock and/or roll from its airwaves. Which led to pirate radio broadcasting from boats in the English Channel. Eventually, the BBC decided to create a radio station just for the long-haired kids, and BBC Radio One was born.
Forty years later, they’re commemorating the occasion with a 2-disc CD of today’s pop stars covering yesterday’s Brit-pop year by year. And it’s pretty freaking awesome.
You’ve got Steve’s GF Amy Winehouse covering Johnny Nash’s “Cupid,” a song my mom put on the permanent soundtrack of my childhood. Franz Ferdinand doing Bowie’s “Sound and Vision.” KT Tunstall belting out a joyful version of Bryan Ferry’s “Let’s Stick Together.” McFly does the Jam’s “A Town Called Malice;” James Morrison imitates Paul Young on “Come Back and Stay.” Mika re-engineers the Police’s “Can’t Stand Losing You” for the club-kids.
And that’s just disc one.
Sure, there are some covers that are just workmanlike — the Fratellis’ “All Along the Watchtower” is both pretty by-the-numbers, for instance. But even those songs are worth the effort, either because they were pretty good the first time, or because you can enjoy the sheer incongruity of Foo Fighters paying tribute to Wings’ “Band on the Run.”
Besides, the world can’t have too many covers of Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure.” It just can’t.
(Crossposted to Big Action!)
