COVERS ALBUMS

2004 was a very big year for artists releasing albums of covers. In my opinion, the only band who was justified in doing this was Rush. To help commemorate their 30th anniversary, Rush released Feedback, a collection of covers of songs each band member played in various bands prior to Rush. Great idea but only a good album (or EP, as it only has eight tracks).

The most pathetic of all was ol' Rod Stewart, who released his THIRD collection of "American standards." I'm surprised he got all the way to three because to me, they were pretty atrocious. I'm sure he wasn't trying to outdo the originals (and it shows!) but to revive your career as a performer by butchering classics, tried-and-true songs which you did not write, is pretty sad. It is not even as though he learned to play any instruments by listening to these songs because he doesn't play any! At one time, he was a raspy-voiced rock and roll bad boy who is now reduced to rehashing great songs and going from selling tons of rock records to kids to selling CDs to old people (or senior citizens). Frankly, I don't need to hear him duet with Dolly Parton on "Baby, It's Cold Outside," especially during the holiday season. Speaking of ruining awesome songs, Michael McDonald released his second set of Motown covers, Motown Two. I'd have to say that these days, Michael has a better voice than ol' Rod (I keep referring to him as that because he is clearly aging with his choice of performance material) but do we really need a white guy to sing "Reach Out, I'll Be There" by The Temptations? (NOTE: Michael Bolton f**ked this one up not too long ago as well) Again, he is reviving his career with covers. His last major label release was 1990 and since then he has been pretty much quiet.

On March 30, 2004, two covers albums were released by far more famous (and more talented) artists. Sadly, both were--once again--white guys performing great songs written and originally performed by black guys. The better of these releases was Eric Clapton's Me and Mr. Johnson, an album consisting of Robert Johnson songs. The average listener probably wouldn't care too much for this. I was fortunate enough to see Clapton last June and when he did the acoustic blues section of the show, it was the first time since the show started when most people sat down in their seats or got another beer or went to take a piss. Basically, this album is best suited for a Johnson fan or a Clapton completist. I did enjoy it, although I think it would have been cool if it were him with an acoustic guitar playing them as Johnson did rather than with a full band. Eric released Sessions for Robert J on December 7, a CD/DVD collection of rehearsals for the tour with alternate "live in the studio" versions of some of the aforementioned album's tracks along with a few blues standards. This tied him with Mike, but still leaves him one behind ol' Rod. Maybe we'll get a Muddy album this year. The other release was Aerosmith's Honkin' On Bobo, which was also a blues covers album. This was totally forgettable. These guys seem to get more pompous with every release. Joe Perry actually had the balls to say in a Guitar One interview that the band "did an Aerosmith album, not a covers album." Twelve tracks and they wrote one....hmm. One other irritation I had with this was how the album artwork was annoyingly sexual. A harmonica with lipstick marks laying on red silk and what a surprise to see the inside jacket had a topless girl with a pierced belly button and harmonica sticking out of the waist of her jeans. They have already proven they are (or were) sluts so there is no need for this, in my opinion.

I understand I'm being really cynical about this subject, but come on. In an age when no popular artists write their own material anyway, we have talented and memorable artists like Eric Clapton and Aerosmith doing covers. Who really cares about the other two anyway? Hey, if Michael McDonald or ol' Rod had died five years ago, there probably would have only been a short blurb on the news about it whereas if it happened tomorrow, it could be considered the world's biggest disaster since Re-Election 2004 (oops, did I just say that?). Maybe this year, I'LL do a covers album....