What Makes a Great Cover Song?

this video is sponsored by Skillshare the first thousand people to go to sk l dot s h slash polyphonic 28 will get two months of learning free for as long as musicians have been writing songs other musicians have been covering them young musicians often cut their teeth playing covers and even today most major rock groups slip a cover into their live set it's not all that uncommon for people to record entire albums full of covers and in the age of YouTube covers have become more popular than ever there's a wealth of odd and unique takes on beloved songs just waiting to be discovered and it makes sense if you really appreciate a song a cover can be a great way to recognize it and pay homage on top of that fans love to hear their favorite artists take on the songs they already know and love but then again that's the catch with covers you're playing a piece that people already love a piece that people have their own memories attached to a piece that has helped someone figure out who they are or understand the world they're in better so how does an artist navigate the tumultuous waters of cover songs I don't think there's a clear set of rules you can stick to that will guarantee success but I do think there are lessons to be learned from looking at the great covers of the past so today we're gonna explore three of the most successful covers ever recorded and find out what makes them tick let's take a closer look in a 1995 interview with the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel Bob Dylan described the first time he heard Jimi Hendrix's cover of all along the watchtower it overwhelmed me really he had such talent he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them he found things that other people weren't to think of finding in there he probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using in fact Dylan was so impressed by Hendrix's song that his live performances of all along the watchtower began to resemble Hendrix's arrangement more than his own in the liner notes to Biograph Dylan even admits that when he plays the song now he feels like he's doing it in tribute to the late Hendrix if an endorsement like that isn't a sign of a successful cover then I don't know what is but to see why it's so successful we need to start at Bob Dylan's original song released on 1967 s John Wesley Harding Dylan's original is a simple cryptic song it's made of just three different chords repeated in a pattern below twelve lines of lyrics those twelve lines have been discussed and debated for decades and I'm not even going to try to get at what they might have meant what I can tell you though is how they feel they're filled with archetypal figures imbued with religious symbolism and there's a very real air of Apocalypse to them that's evident from the song's opening lines which drop the listener right in the middle of the action then let's do some way jogo Jesus thee by opening on a line like that Dillon imbues the song with tension and desperation it seems that for Hendrix that tension was at the core of the song because he's able to extrapolate it into his musical arrangement just as Dylan's lyrics throw us into the middle of the action Hendrix's music opens up with a loud tense phrase this now iconic intro sets the tone for the entire song it's noisy its powerful and it's dark as we move to the verse the guitar quiets but the tension is still there and the guitar flourishes in the background seem to represent the confusion present in the lyrics [Music] that guitar becomes even more representative of confusion midway through the song the guitar slides up and down the neck as it pans across the mix [Music] Hendrix has always had an ability to speak with his guitar through his playing style and his choice in pedal effects Hendrix's guitar is imbued with a unique personality this allows Hendrix to insert himself into the song through an instrumental voice Alban J Zach the third described this effect in a piece published for the Journal of the American Musical logical society Hendrix assumes the narrator role as he sings Dylan songs but by injecting a new character into the narrative the lead guitar with an attribute clearly identified with Hendrix himself he becomes in effect to persona at the same time narrator and hero the injection of Hendrix's self adds a new dynamic to the song Dylan has spent his entire career deliberately curating an air of mystery he speaks to the press in riddles and rarely divulges personal information so when he sings all along the watchtower his narrative voice is enigmatic but Hendrix his persona wasn't particularly mysterious he was open to the public wearing bright psychedelic colors and he sang honestly about his emotions tracks like the wind cries Mary little wing and bold as love are raw vulnerable and approachable in a way that very few Dylan tracks are instead of trying to force himself into Dylan's mysterious persona Hendricks finds a way to insert his personality into the song all along the watchtower became a personal song for Hendrix and he was very open about this he once sad I felt like Watchtower was something I'd written but could never get together I often felt like that about Dylan I could never write the kinds of words he does Hendrix's empathy with the lyrics transforms the song particularly in the final movement Dylan's song ends in a similar place to where it started it's removed from progress in time seeming ready to launch back into the beginning Hendrix's song on the other hand has a clear direction the finale grows in tension until it explodes into a triumphant [Music] Jimi Hendrix was able to find a new kind of meaning in Dillon song he recontextualized it to his own personal experience and sang it in his voice but he did more than just that he was able to place the song in a new historical context Hendrix released all along the watchtower in 1968 a pivotal year in the Vietnam War in January 1968 the North Vietnamese began one of the most important campaigns of the entire conflict the Tet Offensive it was defined by massive attacks on dense population centers in South Vietnam this shifted the war in Vietnam but it also changed things in America American citizens had been led to believe the war was nearly ending but now they were saying footage of death and destruction in Saigon this shocking turn spurred anti-war activism and things in America got tenser and more confusing amidst this all along the watchtowers lyrics took on new meaning the Joker and the thief could suddenly be read as soldiers in a desperate situation and the images throughout the song applied all too well to the Vietnam War this is especially true with the opening lines there must be some kinda way out of here Hendrix's bombastic guitar and the sharp rattle of the percussion leaned into this reading and Watchtower quickly became synonymous with the Vietnam War it became Hendrix's biggest song and was played frequently both in America and on the ground for the troops in Vietnam this air place cemented Hendrix's song as an important piece of music history and as one of the greatest covers ever recorded [Music] Trent Reznor was in a dark place when he wrote hurt he was fighting a losing battle with depression and addiction a battle that became the basis for the downward spiral his second studio album has Nine Inch Nails hurt was the conclusion of that album a meditation on drug use mental illness and self-harm it was Reznor laying himself bare at the lowest moment of his life but when Reznor watched the video for Johnny Cash's cover of hurt even he admitted a quote that song isn't mine anymore Johnny Cash's version was recorded in 2002 just a year before his death at the age of 71 and so it became an unlikely swan song for one of music's all-time greats but cash himself was actually hesitant to record the song it was only through the persistence of his producer Rick Rubin that the cover came to be Rubin told the Rolling Stone about the kinds of covers he was trying to encourage cash to take on he was at a time where his health was failing and I tried to pick songs that made sense lyrically for the way his voice was sounding there were times when his voice sounded broken that broken voice strikes you early in the song Cash's voice still has its signature depth and power but it's wavering Scratchy I heard myself today it's a stark contrast to Reznor's original which was sung much higher in a near whisper Cash's voice is accompanied by wide open sparse production as the song grows the music swells behind cash giving the kind of gravitas that can only come with a legend of Tasha's stature Ruben told broken records that Cash's age added a new level of depth and pain to the lyrics totally different song and much more hopeless usually by the time you're that age you've found resolution so to have sort of twenty-year-old angst in your 60s and 70s it's brutal but the power and hurt doesn't come exclusively from Cash's age it also comes from knowing who cash is Ruben wrote about this on genius what I came to realize about that whole Johnny Cash experience was that he was a great storyteller the song didn't matter all that mattered were the words all that mattered was if the character of Johnny Cash the mythical Johnny Cash the man in black would say those words if that's what you would want to hear him talking about then that would be a good song to do it's powerful to see a figure like Cash made vulnerable the myth of Johnny Cash is that of a hard man an outlaw who famously sang I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die and while some aspects of Cash's persona were fabricated many of his darker sides were all too real throughout much of his career cash struggled with alcoholism and addiction to amphetamines and barbiturates cash even called hurt the best anti-drug song I ever heard after reading its lyrics it's a struggle that cash shares with Reznor but when cash gets to the chorus the song takes on a whole new level and you could have it all [Music] dirt the image of an empire of dirt is made more powerful when sung by a man who towers over music history cache truly did have an empire he once even had an entire museum dedicated to his life that museum derelict by 2002 provided a stunning set piece for the mark romanek directed video the video depicts Johnny Cash sitting amidst the remnants of his triumph it calls to mind Percy Shelley's Ozymandias a meditation on the futility of empire in the second verse cash makes a small change to the lyrics but one that adds a whole new weight to the song he changes Reznor's crown of into a crown of thorns suddenly Cash's devout spirituality is called to mind and a secular song becomes religious with that line cash becomes a martyr and a messiah he understands the role he holds in the eyes of many and he understands his place in music history that's the power in Cash's take on hurt it's a legend sitting on death's doorstep and using the words of another musician to open up and explore the pains of his life and in doing so it starts a wider conversation about the nature of legacy and it begs a vital question do fame and fortune really matter if you can't take them with you in the end in 1967 Aretha Franklin was at a turning point in her career she spent most of the 60s gaining acclaim and had even been crowned the Queen of Soul but she had yet to cross over into the mainstream then in April she released her take on Otis Redding's respect the song caught fire and rocketed to the top of Billboard's Hot 100 it would eventually go gold Franklin's first single to accomplish this and to this day if you asked a random person to sing any Aretha Franklin song they probably starts spelling out respect at the top of their lungs by October of that year Otis Redding himself had already acknowledged that the song belonged to Franklin despite it being a favorite of his a song that a girl took away from me good friend of mine this girl he just took this song I'm still gonna do it anyway Redding wrote the original song from the perspective of a touring musician one who doesn't care what his wife does when he's away as long as she gives him respect when he gets home from the road Franklin heard and appreciated Redding's version but she felt she had a new perspective to offer a distinctly female perspective she made some slight changes to the lyrics and sang it in a woman's voice rather than a man offering up money to a woman the song became one of social and financial independence [Music] Franklin took reading song and reinterpreted it based on her own personal experiences navigating life as a black woman in the world she further injected herself in the song through its arrangement Franklin and her sisters spiced the arrangement with pieces of slang they'd heard in their neighborhood they inserted TCB which stood for taking care of business and the lines sock-it-to-me in an interview with Terry Gross Franklin explained that she and her sisters had overheard kids in West Detroit saying that phrase some of the girls were saying that to the fellas like sock it to me in this way or sock it to me in that way it's not sexual it was non-sexual just a cliche line and then there's the most iconic part of Franklin's arrangement by spelling out the title of the song Aretha Franklin turned it into an eminently singable anthem when you hear her deliver those lines with honesty and power it's difficult not to empathize with her and to sing along the final result of all of this is a song that's drastically different than Redding's original Aretha Franklin took the song pulled it apart to find its core and reassembled the pieces around that and this new version had a whole new meaning it took a song that was a playful take on the social norms of the time and turned it into a defiant rally against those very same norms though Franklin's version was inspired by her own personal experiences it tapped into something much bigger than that because the world was shifting in 1967 all kinds of marginalized people's were standing up and demanding change the long fight for civil rights in the United States was reaching its pinnacle and second wave feminism was emerging as women everywhere demanded to be treated as equal members of society at the same time youths worldwide were standing up against authorities and institutions that had denied them a voice at their core all of these movements really of people demanding the same thing respect Aretha Franklin herself credited the success of this song to the universal message saying everyone wants to be respected Franklin's music provided a unique kind of soundtrack for those demands it had fire and anger but it also had joyous horn arrangements and a groove that made you want to move and it was a song about empowerment a song about standing up to those who would keep you down both on an individual level and on a systemic level it became a key part of the soundtrack to one of America's most tumultuous eras and even today it lives on beyond that by taking Otis Redding song putting her own arrangement behind it and modifying the lyrics to reflect her own experience Aretha Franklin created not just one of the greatest covers of all time but a civil rights anthem that endures to this day though each of these three covers may sound disparate from each other their similarities at the core each one is musically distinct from the original whether that's a new vocal performance new instrumentation or an entirely new arrangement in each of these cases the cover artist personalizes the song singing it in their own voice and putting their personality into it and perhaps most important each of these covers changes the social and historical context of the songs in doing so these artists elevate the songs claim them as their own and turn them into something that will withstand the test of time as you might have noticed this video is probably one of my most visually ambitious projects to date part of the reason I've been able to expand my visual style so much lately is Skillshare I've been spending some of my quarantine time taking new Skillshare lessons on After Effects and honestly they've paid dividends if you're looking for somewhere to start a great course is Jake Bartlet's animating with ease and After Effects even though I already knew the basics behind easing that course helped expand my knowledge and gave me a much better idea of how to make my animations look like I really wanted them to and that's the great thing about Skillshare whether you're a beginner or a seasoned veteran you'll be able to find courses to learn from Skillshare is an online community for creatives where millions come together to take their next step in their creative journey however far along they are they've got thousands of courses on all kinds of topics so if you give it a look I'm sure you'll find something that works for you one course that I think everyone should check out is Thomas Frank's course on mastering habits everyone has habits and personal goals that they want to develop and this course will help you do just that so if you feel like honing your creativity or just generally improving your life you can start today by going to sk l dot s h slash polyphonic 28 the first thousand people to click that link will get two months of Skillshare premium for free after that an annual subscription is less than ten bucks a month so it's a really affordable way to improve yourself so why not try it out while you've got the time if you do make sure you click the link in the description not only does that get you a really great deal it also shows skills share that I was the one who sent you and that's a really big help to my channel thanks again for watching

Channel: Polyphonic

Views: 201,201

Rating: 4.966167 out of 5

Keywords: polyphonic, music, video essay, covers, rock, soul, classic rock, bob dylan, jimi hendrix, all along the watchtower, johnny cash, aretha franklin, respect, hurt, nine inch nails, trent reznor, cover songs

Id: oQkS-fvOBLE

Length: 21min 44sec (1304 seconds)

Published: Thu May 07 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/THUNDER-PUNCH]

Sorry for the weird title, my spellcheck screwed up on me while I was posting and I didn’t catch it until too late.

I love Polyphonic videos on YouTube. They do cool breakdowns of music. This video is all about what makes a cover song iconic, and they chose “All Along the Watchtower”, “Hurt” and “Respect” as the greatest examples of how a cover song can be reinterpreted rather than just copied. I thought it was awesome that they chose Hurt alongside two other iconic hits!

[u/iSurvivedThanos18]

Nice!