Monday, June 30, 2025

If you want more cool Bowie covers...well, we've got you covered...

Round two in our round-up of cool Bowie covers, and there's quite a number of 'em. Now, I wouldn't have bet that one of them would come from Dead Or Alive, who I only know as a slightly ridiculous-looking one hit-wonder with "You Spin Me 'Round (Lie A Record)". Then again, I wouldn't have figured that Culture Club would bring one of the highlights of Volume One in this We've Got You Covered series. The other unexpected and 80s-related joker in the pack is Midge Ure's cover of "Lady Stardust". 

The love of Brian Molko for Bowie (and Bowie's embracing of the band) are well-documented, his acoustic cover of "Five Years", done for French television, is still a really nice tribute. As for a less obvious fan, I wouldn't have figured Seal for a Bowie-fan, but his lovely unplugged take on "Quicksand", one of the lesser known Bowie classics, is a personal highlight of this set. Speaking of underrated songs that rarely get covered: Native American rock'n'rolller Stevie Salas covers Diamond Dogs-era obscurity "Dodo". "Little Wonder", from Bowie's little-loved Earthling drum'n'bass album is also a little on the obscure side, Run Toto Run's cover is a lovely, decidedly less noisy reading of the tune. "In The Heat Of The Morning" is one of Bowie's realatively unknown numbers from the pre-stardom Decca era and gets a fabulous reading from The Last Shadow Puppets. Another lost gem from that same era is "The Gospel According To Tony Day", covered exquisitely here by Edwyn Collins. 

The other possibility is of course to take a known number, but give it an unusual new coat of paint. That happens when bluegrass combo Iron Horse cover "Under Pressure", while also unwittingly launching me down the Pickin' On...rabbithole. Unusual is also the word for the cover of "Ziggy Stardust", not so much because it's an acoustic unplugged version, but because it's done by the decidedly un-acoustic Def Leppard in the middle of a rowdy pub audience! And also unusual: Choir!Choir!Choir! and David Byrne, helped out by a ton of bystanders, making a huge sing-alone cover of "Heroes"! Covers from, among others, Fury In The Slaughterhouse and Hugh Coltman, are close to the originals and more workman-like, but still very fine additions to the series, bringing in some as-of-yet not covered songs to this second volume. 

And that's it. Eighteen high quality covers covering the spectrum of Bowie's music. Nothing more, nothing less. Yup, we(ve got you well covered again, David.  


4 comments:

  1. We've Got You Covered, Again, David!

    https://workupload.com/file/5KrWHZ2BQWN

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  2. Folks, what's your favorite Bowie cover?

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  3. Wow. Good Question. Had to go through my archives. Barbara Streisand -Life on Mars (yeah, really), Seu Jorge -Rebel, Rebel and Placebo-Five Years (2-27-04 ? live version found somewhere on the internet

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    1. The Placebo one is on the comp, though since it's just Brian Molko an acoustic guitar, it is credited to him. It's definitely from a tv show, might be Taratata on French tv, which is what I remmeber, but I might be wrong on that...

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If you want more cool Bowie covers...well, we've got you covered...

Round two in our round-up of cool Bowie covers, and there's quite a number of 'em. Now, I wouldn't have bet that one of them wou...