Let’s discuss any and all music here. You’ve got a new artist who’s rocking your boat that you want to talk about? Post a video! Found out about that unearthed Coltrane album that has the jazz freak in you losing your mind? Lay it out for us! Do you have a theory about what your favorite band might do for their next album? Let’s hear it! Anything and everything music-related goes here.
As anyone who read last week’s post may recall, I first got into music in a big way in the early nineties (right around the time Nirvana blew up). However, living in rural Nova Scotia pre-Napster or any form of the internet as we know it today, there wasn’t a lot of music available. In those days, the only ways to hear music were listening to the radio, watching Much Music (Canada’s equivalent of MTV), buying tapes and CDs, or borrowing tapes and CDs from other kids at school. I used to read about bands like Joy Division, The Stooges, Hüsker Dü or the Minutemen and be intrigued, but had no way of finding out what they sounded like – the albums weren’t stocked in any of the record stores I had access to, and they were either out-of-print or prohibitively expensive for me to special order as a high schooler.
So, when I got The Crow soundtrack from Columbia House at some point during 1994, I was finally able to hear a Joy Division song – as covered by Nine Inch Nails.
Around the same time, a friend of mine lent me his copy of The Beavis & Butt-head Experience, which contains a surprisingly faithful cover of “Search & Destroy” as performed by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
I was more than happy to move on to the original versions once I was finally able to track down albums by Joy Division and the Stooges some years later, but I’m still grateful that I was at least able to hear those songs in some form prior to doing so.
Which leads us to this week’s discussion prompt: Tell us about a time where your first exposure to a song was a cover version – and when you finally heard the original, which did you ultimately prefer? I know we’ve discussed cover versions here and elsewhere before, but I thought this slightly more personal take on a topic that has already been well-covered (ahem) might be interesting.
Of course, any and all music-related posts are welcome.
So have fun, and as always: rock out with yr guac out!