![]() ![]() It’s a lawnchair gem that would fit in on any of the band’s last three albums. The flirting organs of Leroy Bach and the late Jay Bennett allow lines like “Have you ever seen a squonk’s tears?” to go down like honey. Unsurprisingly, Wilco best pulls off the Dan’s sugar-coated subversiveness with their take on “Any Major Dude Will Tell You”, most likely due to their own experience with burying weird-ass lyrics beneath laid back arrangements. But like the film itself, there’s a disarming pathos beneath the surface, mainly in the form of eight–count ’em, eight–Steely Dan covers. Packed with ’90s radio mainstays – from Third Eye Blind to Hootie & The Blowfish – the soundtrack to Me, Myself & Irene seems no different from any other early Farrelly Brothers movie. “Any Major Dude Will Tell You” Me, Myself, & Irene (2000) Ah, who are we kidding, this movie’s still hip as hell. They were a bunch of local losers trying their darnedest to be, as Rabbitte later says, “the hardest-workin’ band in the world.” That “try” fuels their Robert Palmer-esque cover of “Mustang Sally”, a bluesy culmination of all their sweat, energy, and emotion, the likes of which are led by Andrew Strong’s Kentucky bourbon-glazed vocals and Glen Hansard’s silver licks. They were a total mess, but that’s what made their story so intriguing. For nearly two hours, you could escape overseas and hang out with larger-than-life characters like Deco Cuffe, Outspan Foster, or Jimmy Rabbitte as they got their shit together to create great music. Back in 1991, Alan Parker’s Irish-British-American musical comedy was one of the hippest movies around. ![]() “Mustang Sally” The Commitments (1991)īefore there was Sing Street, there was The Commitments. Yet for whatever you might have to say about Zach Snyder’s interpretation of the medium-defining graphic novel, it’s hard to say that the furious opening riffs of this modern update aren’t immensely satisfying over the final image of Rorschach’s journal, waiting to destroy the false new social order that the titular group of heroes chose to leave in their wake. In a film full of musical choices both pitch-perfect (“The Times They Are A Changin'” over the world-setting prologue) and highly suspect (slow humping to Leonard Cohen!), My Chemical Romance’s cover of another Dylan classic sits somewhere squarely between the two. Whether it’s XTC or CTD, it’s fair to say that we like this song a lot. There was such hope for the single that Jeff Daniels even reprised his role as Harry in the music video, which relates Peter’s story. Most memorably, backup Dummies vocalist Ellen Reid sings lead – with Brad Roberts’ three-testicle baritone surfacing on choruses - and absolutely smashes it. They chop a verse from XTC’s original hit from two years prior, but keep the song’s ironic spirit intact. However, one thing we do know for sure is the filmmakers were wise to invite the cover-friendly Crash Test Dummies along for arguably the stupidest road trip in film history. As far as wisdom, eh, they’ll have to write you an IOU. Fans of classic Farrelly Brothers comedy Dumb and Dumber know that dimwitted Harry Dunne and Lloyd Christmas also came to Aspen dropping Benjamins. “Peter Pumpkinhead came to town/ Spreading wisdom and cash around,” or so the story tells us. “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead” Dumb and Dumber (1994) ![]() So, grab your headphones, heat up some popcorn, and relish these 50 covers.ĥ0. For instance, Hole song might be the only redeemable part of a film, an Eagles song made into a rumba might define scene, and a Neil Diamond cover might just become the quintessential version of the song. Keep in mind that there are essentially three kinds of cover songs in this list: songs the movie desperately needed, songs the movie helped make, and songs that transcended the movie altogether. Ahead, you’ll find songs that (mostly) go beyond contractual obligations and, with the movie, help to carve out a nice little niche for each other in the pop culture canon. If you recall the ’90s, countless covers were contributed to movies just to fulfill some bureaucratic record contract quota, which is why you saw all kind of questionable punk, ska, and nu metal covers padding out these soundtracks and bands’ setlists. All of a sudden this song that we’re pretty sure we’ve heard before is chewing the scenery and the actors fade into the background.Īll too often, the cover song is tailor-made for the movie itself. It can actually elevate the drama - ascribing meaning and sentiment to the music being played. But a cover song in a movie is different. Say Anything has “In Your Eyes”, Goodfellas has “Layla”, Apocalypse Now has “The End”, and Fight Club has “Where Is My Mind”. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |