Doing It Their Way: Rock Covers, Genre, and Appreciation

Abstract

In 1979, the Sex Pistols recorded a cover version of “My Way,” a song popularized a decade earlier in a recording by Frank Sinatra. Though their rendition begins in a genre approaching that of the original—with the Pistol's bassist Sid Vicious delivering a grotesque parody of a lounge singer's croon over syrupy strings—a guitar's chugging power chords suddenly announce a shift into punk rock overdrive as the drums kick in and Vicious sneers his way into the second verse. The stylistic transformation the Sex Pistols perform here on Sinatra's swaggering paean to individualism is an example of what I call generic resetting: the presenting of a song in a genre different from that of the original. Though not exclusive to rock music, the practice of genre resetting has a long tradition in rock (for example, Jimi Hendrix's acid rock cover of Bob Dylan's “All Along the Watchtower,” Ike and Tina Turner's high energy R&B take on “Proud Mary,” Joe Cocker's transformation of “With a Little Help from My Friends” into a slow burning soul ballad). It is practiced by a wide variety of artists for a wide variety of musical effects and purposes: modern metal and pop punk bands offer ironic takes on 1980s pop hits (Limp Bizkit on George Michael's “Faith,” Alien Ant Farm on Michael Jackson's “Smooth Criminal,” Reel Big Fish on Aha's “Take On Me”), a variety of novelty bands specialize in covering well known tunes in unlikely genres (Hayseed Dixie does hard rock in bluegrass, Richard Cheese does hip hop in bossa nova, Jah Division does Joy Division in, you guessed it, reggae), while older singers offer their own readings of contemporary rock songs (Johnny Cash, Pat Boone, Tom Jones), and several artists offer entire albums devoted to covering a (sometimes surprising) selection of songs in their own distinctive idioms. Recently, we have even witnessed the man who wrote the lyrics to “My Way”—Paul Anka—bring things full circle from the Sex Pistols by offering his own swinging, Vegas ready version of Nirvana's “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the flagship song of the grunge genre that inherited so much from the punk rock movement, which Johnny Rotten and company helped to ignite. The survey above may prompt one to compare these resettings to similar examples of musical transformation in nonrock contexts. John Coltrane's fiery jazz waltz rendition of The Sound of Music's “My Favorite Things” and Gil Evans's impressionistic arrangement of Kurt Weill's “Bilbao Song” are just two examples of how jazz musicians regularly make Broadway and pop tunes their own through (sometimes radical) stylistic transformation. In many folk and oral musical traditions, it is a regular practice for musicians to make their own alterations to the songs passed down to them. However, despite the obvious surface similarities between these examples and the genre reset cover versions above, there clearly seem to be some significant differences as well—specifically, differences between the ways in which acculturated rock listeners are expected to engage with genre reset cover versions and how their counterparts in other traditions are expected to engage with these similar forms of musical transformation. In the following, I first offer an account of the specific appreciation conditions that must obtain for a listener to engage in a rock appropriate appreciation of a genre reset cover version, drawing upon recent work in the ontology of rock music and genre theory. In making explicit such conditions, I endeavor to demonstrate what makes the cover version (a form, I argue, that is unique to the rock tradition) distinct from superficially similar forms, such as the jazz “standard.” Explicating the appreciation conditions of the genre reset cover allows a different question to emerge for the latter part of the article: given these conditions of rock appropriate appreciation, what is it about hearing a familiar song dressed up in the clothes of a new genre that seems to capture the interest of such a broad range of rock listeners and musicians? Drawing upon work in musical cognition and an analysis of the appreciative practices of rock listeners, I argue that musical interest is generated by genre resetting in rock cover versions in at least two ways. First, at least some of the interest generated by genre resetting in rock covers is produced via a manipulation of listener expectations that is facilitated in part by the generally allusive nature of contemporary cover versions. Second, I go on to argue that, thanks again to this allusive nature, genre resetting in covers can also generate a more hermeneutic brand of interest by providing an intertextual dimension that may serve to enrich a listener's interpretative engagement with the song, a potential that may be exploited for a wide variety of effects by covering musicians. By way of exploring this diversity of effects, I consider a few examples in order to give some sense of the expressive and hermeneutic possibilities of the form of the genre reset cover. These examples illustrate my claim, key to this portion of my argument, that genres function in rock not only as formal stylistic categories, but as culturally significant ones as well. In setting the stage for this project, it will first be necessary to say something about the practice of covering songs and the rock music tradition to which it is unique. In discussing rock music, I adopt a definition of this category first proposed by Theodore Gracyk: “a tradition of popular music”—as opposed to a genre or style—“whose creation and dissemination centers on recording technology.”1 More specifically, Gracyk's thesis is that what distinguishes rock from other musical traditions like jazz, folk, or classical is its recording centered ontology: the central work in rock music is the sound structure captured by the recording (that is, as encoded in its original master)—as opposed to a song, a score, or a performance (all of which may function as works in other musical traditions). Most songs found in the rock tradition are relatively “thin” ontologically (to use Stephen Davies's terminology), in many cases constituted only by lyrics, melody, riffs, or basic harmonic material (for example, a chord progression); in contrast, the work encoded in the recording is maximally “thick,” constituted by the rich set of sonic details that are accessible every time the recording is played back on appropriate equipment.2 The recording centered ontology of rock determines in part the character of the tradition's practice of recording cover versions. A cover version (or ‘cover’ for short) is a rock recording that captures a performance of a song that has already been recorded and released (and thereby often popularized to at least some degree) by another artist and, as such, functions as a remake of the original recording, in a manner somewhat analogous to how remakes of films function in cinema.3 As in film, perfect replication of the original is not generally the ideal according to which a cover version is created or evaluated. On the contrary, the covering artist is expected to depart to at least some degree from the earlier version; in fact, most musicians treat the practice of covering as an opportunity to offer their own unique spin on previously recorded material. For example, Cocker's powerful soul reading of “With a Little Help from My Friends” differs substantially from the Beatles's original recording (track two of their historic Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album): the light and jaunty psychedelic pop of the original is replaced by a much slower, heavier arrangement that provides an apt setting for Cocker's passionate vocalizing. In characterizing a cover version as a remake of an earlier rendition of the song in question, it is my intention to contrast it with performances or recordings in other musical traditions (such as jazz, classical, or folk traditions) that are of works previously performed or recorded. A given jazz performance of a “standard” such as “Mack the a new take on a song that has been performed and recorded previously by other jazz but as a jazz acculturated listeners will it as a remake of other specific performance or in the of a given performance of in classical will not it as a remake of or version of this one of these performances is one many of the work in question, the to that work as the other In contrast, Joe Cocker's cover of “With a Little Help from My Friends” is, at least cover version, by acculturated rock listeners as a remake of the Beatles's original version, not as just another of the song in covers in have more allusive in to the of their By this I that it is for a cover version to make what has a is, an by a not just a or portion of the earlier recording it In presenting an allusive the artist the with an earlier recording of the song in question and makes an to it, thereby of the to on that in ways that have the potential to enrich the listener's in may in at least two different listeners may be to engage in an appreciation of the cover musical as contrast with that of the may be to make the (that is, the recording to which the cover with the of an interpretative reading of the allusive forms of are in at a in the As an example of this consider an acculturated rock listener version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” a cover of the allusive variety I that a and appreciation of version the of its to Nirvana's original recording of the song, a with which most acculturated rock listeners will have at least some degree of The of here is a part of the song a and that with the grunge rock of the well known original. of a stylistic setting that so with that of Nirvana's well known recording clearly that at least one of here is to a generic As the of resetting is not an original an to that setting is this is to be In this the allusive cover its own as a the of its and the listener to with this version into in appreciation of the In making a to Nirvana's version, makes an to Nirvana's version by the song in allusive (for example, a musical or that the be in the cover in order to this a how is it that a song may a to another performance of the unique ontology an given recording centered it not be that listeners generally to songs through and thereby to form song recording the of an acculturated rock a performance of a song has the to function also as a to the recording with which of that most that song not the version or in to For a to the Beatles's song will generally to the acculturated rock that recording of the In presenting allusive cover rock musicians are this in their listeners, such song recording as to the appreciation of their own versions. In contrast to this practice and its conditions, consider how recorded performances of well known works are in other musical traditions, for example, jazz or classical The recording, it does a part in these traditions, does not the of in of their work that it has been to other (for example, in the classical to the sound that are by the rock listener's to tradition's works with recorded versions of is not as listeners in these other for this it is in the classical or jazz traditions for a performance it recorded or of a given to to a performance of the or is not to say that this is or for in a well known performance of “Mack the to popular recorded performance of that Though one may to other works (that is, works of classical music (for example, for makes an to works that to performances or are of in that tradition (to the of my at on the other has a well work is, the allusive cover of which just take a here to genre resetting from another musical of musical is a in which some of a original musical example, its time form, and so in a new version it a cover or be genre resetting be as a form of the musical of the original are in with the stylistic of a new this is not to say that a generic resetting: a musical may be about a in genres rock music and are generally by several different musical many or most of which must be a arrangement in order to it as in that an original is generally not to a shift in offering an analysis of how genre resetting functions a listener's appreciation of an allusive cover version, I first to say something about genre and how it functions in the rock I use the in a more or to an category at least in by a set of stylistic In the of musical be of the rock tradition or the stylistic in question are a of such things as distinctive and harmonic and performance and so In these not function as necessary or conditions for genre as many of genre have genre are and genre often of genres are a set of or cases (that is, recordings or the entire of a which stylistic that have to be of that In order to just how one a song as performed in a given I call upon that in his of that of and of As by a of an is to a category of in it is in of which works in that category to that is, just in the of that or to a work from that example of such in rock music be the to the genre of or the more and song forms to folk a is one to works as of a given in this a rock genre (for example, the use of an generated is to the genre of a is with to a given its in a work in that at we may a of listener to a to be with genre is to be to a given of as such, and to so to a of as or to that this appreciation does not the of as such, by an that the song is a of genre makes this drawing upon of to how one a given work as to a to so is a of of that category in the In we may say that a listener in the genre music is to an example of that genre by its or not is to or which of its are to that a one does not a at but over the of its hearing a of music as a genre must also a often in of for has that a of of a work as a genre is the of expectations one to have by of with the of that For one is a one as a of the one will to into the of its (for example, on and so while (for example, the of and so In with this of I that a genre listener's of a recording genre is also by of such genre for such a listener at some of a as to a genre (for example, the distinctive to will the work to to that genre as it and to not to it (for example, a or a shift to waltz this in we are to consider in some examples of genre reset cover versions from the of of listeners of as These examples illustrate the two forms of interest that generic resetting provides in such a First, consider the genre reset cover of on My cover makes a to an earlier recording, in this The here is to making sense of the project, which is a genre resetting of a The function of the in this is not only to the listener to the version that is the of the but also to the listener to engage in what I will to as the appreciation of the cover as it with the I that this brand of appreciation is one of the things that covering artists are to in their listeners engage in genre A listener will be to engage in this appreciation just in makes the by the to the (that is, the recording to which the artists to has a degree of with that version to be to the cover in contrast to it, and is with genres in question to be to as that the above conditions and the to engage in appreciation, listener's of the cover will be by a set of genre expectations that contrast with that of the original. 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