Covered, smothered, and chopped

Despite the title, this post has nothing to do with Waffle House hashbrowns. Although, they do sound pretty good right about now. Actually, this has to do with something that happened yesterday that bothered me a little. I was in a bookstore and, over the store's speakers, I heard a techno-dance-remix cover of Don Henley's "Boys of Summer." The original song is a radio classic. It was covered a couple of years ago by the Ataris. While their version wasn't nearly as strong as the original, it wasn't bad. But now, we have a techno-dance-remix version. Where does this end? Shouldn't there be a statute of limitiations on the number of times a song can be covered in a certain period of time?

Don't get me wrong, not all covers are bad. In fact, I've heard several covers that are better than the originals. For instance, if you've never heard the late, great Johnny Cash's cover of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt", I advise that you do so as soon as possible. The cover blows the original version out of the water. But this is the exception rather than the rule. It doesn't mean that the music industry should stop churning out covers, just that they should use more discretion in choosing which ones they do.

I've read several times that "Yesterday" by the Beatles is the most covered song in the history of rock n roll. I'm sure there are a few good versions of it floating around. But I'm also sure that none of them even come close to the original. Seriously, it's hard to improve upon the Beatles. But that hasn't stopped several bands from trying.

Maybe some people like techno-dance-remix versions of songs. I'm sure there's a place in this big world for it. But in my world, I'll take the original version any day.