Intros & Covers

In an e-mail yesterday, my higher-order life-liver sister Jilly (in what must've been some sort of study break as I think she has finals this week--which I haven't exactly figured out how studying fits in the higher-order life-living) asked me a couple of music related questions:

The first was along the lines of the introduction to songs that, when you hear the first few seconds just kind of gets you going. She brought up Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love," Van Halen's "Unchained," and AC/DC's "Back in Black" as the songs that more or less make you want to crank up the radio when you're driving (although, interestingly, for all those bands I would've gone with either "Communication Breakdown" or "Immigrant Song" for Zeppelin, "Hot for Teacher" or "Runnin' with the Devil" for Van Halen. I can't argue with the AC/DC choice, though).

So, here's a few "intros" to songs that make me grab the volume knob and crank it up within the first five seconds:

First, a few surprising "honorable mentions"...

"Rockefeller Skank" by Fatboy Slim
"Firestarter" by The Prodigy
"Funky Cold Medina" by Tone Loc
"Play that Funky Music" by Wild Cherry
"Walk This Way" by Aerosmith-Run D.M.C.
"The Humpty Dance" by The Digital Underground
"52 Girls" by The B-52's
"You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi
"White Wedding" by Billy Idol

Here's a few that probably won't suprise you, but this is the "official" list (limiting myself to 10, and only one song by each artist, otherwise this would just be as many Ramones/Nirvana songs as I could list until I ran out followed by about 100 other songs) and they aren't in any particular order other than the first one:

(Predictably) "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana"
"Teenage Labotomy" by The Ramones
"Holidays in the Sun" by The Sex Pistols
"Bad Luck" by Social Distortion
"Alive" by Pearl Jam
"Drown" by Son Volt
"Blister in the Sun" by The Violent Femmes
"Shiv" by Stavesacre
"Runnin' Down a Dream" by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
"Wild Side" by Motley Crue

The second question she brought up was of my favorite "cover" songs. You know, when someone wrote a song and then another band did it really well (if not better) than the original version. This is actually a very difficult question because I think it's very rare that someone does somebody else's version of a song better than the original. This all started when, about 7 years ago, Kid1 told me, "Dad, you have to admit Britney's version is better" after I'd played her The Rolling Stones version of "Satisfaction" when I heard Ms. Spears' re-make.

But, here are a few, again in no particular order:

"Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" by Nirvana (covering Leadbelly's version).
"American Woman" by Lenny Kravitz (covering The Guess Who, who were also covered by Bachman-Turner Overdrive)
"Personal Jesus" by Johnny Cash (covering Depeche Mode)
"Something To Believe In" by The Pretenders (covering The Ramones...Chrissy Hynde's soulful brilliance actually was better)
"What A Wonderful World" by Joey Ramone (yes, I know. How do you do it better than Louis Armstrong? But Joey Ramone was my John Lennon so I'm asking for a little latitude here)
"When Love Came to Town" by U2 & B.B. King (yes, I know that B.B. King played on their version, but U2's arrangement puts the original to shame)
"Smokin' in the Boys Room" by Motley Crue (covering Brownsville Station)
"Sweet Home Chicago" by Robert Johnson (there's some debate as to who wrote it, Kokomo Arnold likely did so and was certainly a source for it if not). No one has done it better since then and everybody has tried.
"Live and Let Die" by Guns & Roses (covering Paul McCartney)
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" by Pillar (covering U2)
"All I Can Do Is Cry" by Mike Ness (covering Wayne Walker and/or Otto Bash's classic country song)

Well, there you go...

...the best intros & covers as The Diner Management sees it.

Something tells me this me this might stir it up a bit.

*pours coffee & waits*