It’s Paul Simon’s birthday today, and to celebrate, I bring you some of my favorite covers of his songs, both from his solo career, and from his time with Art Garfunkel. Like a bridge over covered water. Here’s what you’ll hear tonight, and it’s only a motion away:
Title | Artist | From the album |
Sound Of Silence | The Bates | intraVenus |
Mrs. Robinson | The Lemonheads | It’s A Shame About Ray |
I Am A Rock | Me First & The Gimme Gimmes | Have A Ball |
Red Rubber Ball | Simon and Garfunkel (The Cyrkle cover) | Live In New York, 1966 |
Cecilia | Suggs | Now That’s What I Call Music, Vol. 34 (UK) |
Graceland | Big Daddy | Cutting Their Own Groove |
The Boxer | Grayson & Wonfor | Bridge Over Troubled Water |
Congratulations | Elvis Costello | Kojak Variety |
Heart Of Gold (pseudo-cover of El Condor Pasa) | Kid Creole & The Coconuts | Hot Cha Cha Cha |
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And check out my other podcast, the Not Lame Podcast for some non-cover goodness!
Yikes — return that new mixer!
Please sort the mixer out – Great Show though
Oh Brian…..now I need to go pull out my Big Daddy CD! Forgot about them for quite a while…good to hear….
–*Rob
I was waiting to hear some of my favorite S&G covers, but I’ll have to wait for next year. “Homeward Bound” by Shockabily; Paul Simon and George Harrison on Saturday Night Live doing “Homeward Bound” and “Here Comes the Sun”; and, if it’s not too obvious, Yes’s version of “America” from their second album, back when they still had some Flash %^{
Also, maybe some archaeology, dig up Davy Graham’s original rendition of Scarborough Fair, as a pre-cover. As I recall, Graham was a fabulous folk guitarist, but singing-impaired. Much of Simon’s guitar work on the first three S&G albums was derived from his stay in London.
I had Yes’ America in the playlist (along with about 10 other songs I had to cut), and pulled it based solely on the fact that I’d played it recently. There will be a Paul Simon Cover Story II – count on it.
And help me out here with the mixer – what’s it missing? Bass? Treble? Reverb? (The hardest thing for me to edit are audio differences in my own voice…)
Brian,
Another great show. I didn’t notice the mixer except when you played with it.
And I got you “on the hook” for the Cheap Trick cover show you promised. Don’t be teasing us now. Thanks for all you do.
David
Your voice sounds much weaker on this new mixer. Beef it up a little.
Thanks, great show nonetheless.
Stephen
Great show! Especially the Lemonheads, though I’ve heard Paul Simon hates that cover.
Except for the new mixer…. As soon as I heard your voice on this one I wondered what was wrong. Then when you played with the mixer settings it got worse and never got back to where it started.
I recommend first killing *all* voice effects, then maybe add a little reverb and bass. Maybe do comparison testing against a recording from the old mixer.
Hey! I’m a big fan of Simon and Garfunkel, and I just wanted to thank you for introducing me to the wonderful version of the Boxer by Grayson and Wonfor. Unfortunately I cannot find out where I can buy their CD…Oh well, at least it got me to write a post on my blog about covers, and an excuse to link to your wonderful podcast. Keep up the good work and all that blabla!
H.
Another Paul Simon cover story you say? See if you can track down Patrick and Eugene’s cover of 59th Street Bridge Song. The album where it can be found (Postcard from Summerisle) has a few other great cover songs that I’d love to hear on Coverville…
I thought the cover of “The Boxer” was weak … it sounded as if the singers had no idea what the meaning of the lyrics was. It’s a stinging, bitter, ironic, regretful song, and they had no sense of that in their singing. I might suggest you check Emmylou Harris’ rendition
Great show! I was hoping to hear one of my favorite covers ever; Hazy Shade of Winter by BodyJar. Pretty cool punk version. I hope you’ll consider it for Paul Simon Cover Story II. Let me know if you are interested in hearing it or need help finding it.