Sunday, October 08, 2006

Prog Not Frog Radio Presents: The Voice of The Moon #016, With The Herbalist (Covers: renditions, reinterpretations & reconstructions)

In 1844 Dr Henry Jekill invented a potion that was able to transform him into another man, a man deeply different to him in every possible way.

More than a century popular musicians used a similar process. One band can become another totally different band. Monsters of all kind started to appear everywhere in the sonic spectra.

Today's show is about covers. The magic of transformation. The art of rebuilding a song.

There are many way of covering a song. Some try to keep things safe and go for the fully respectful cover or even the blatant copy. They are the ones that use similar instrumentation and try to mantain the original mood of the song.

Others prefer to throw in a personal touch to the covered songs or add "their band's style to the original style".

In other cases covers become the result of a complex process of deconstruction and total reconstruction of a song.

As you can see there are no simple rules. And the results of the Art of Covering are never guaranteed. I must say that, sadly, in most cases, covers are no better than the original, (and I must also admit that in many cases the results are awful), but it must be said also that getting a better song is not always the cover's goal. Sometimes a song is covered just for the fun of playing it, or as a tribute done out of pure admiration, with no pretentions at all.

I love covers. I believe that even in the worst cases, it is always interesting to listen to the consequences of the travel of one band's song into the realm of another one.

This show is dedicated to those happy interactions.

I hope you like the selection.

Enjoy, be well, and...

Keep Listening...!!!


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