#987. Lineage of Song: “God”

John Lennon, “God”

U2, “God, Part II”

John Lennon, “Instant Karma!”

Bruce Cockburn, “Lovers in a Dangerous Time”

U2’s response takes in a couple other songs, but this is another in the spinoff Lineage sequel songs. 

#986. Lineage of Song: “One”

 

U2

Mary J. Blige

I used to have difficulty with this one mostly because Blige had U2 itself collaborating on her version. I guess I just wanted her to go at it on her own. But it’s still a great song, and I’m glad it happened.

#985. Lineage of Song: “Star-Spangled Banner”

 

Whitney Houston 

“To Anacreon in Heaven”

Jimi Hendrix

A fairly well-known song, right? I read a book that got into the history, and how there are people who insist it be a certain way (very fast, matter-of-fact), but it’s arguably the most interpreted song at least in American culture, the most versatile, and it famously began life as something else entirely…Easy to take for granted, and perhaps a sign of the times it really has been, recently, which would be a bizarre reality for a lot of people dating back the hundred years or so it’s been a bedrock of national lore (composed more than two hundred years ago, during the War of 1812 but didn’t become the anthem until 1931), down to the moment Jimi Hendrix performed his radical reinvention at Woodstock.

#984. Lineage of Song: “I’m a Believer”

 

The Monkees

Smash Mouth

Here’s one that’s surprisingly good twice. The Monkees were a TV creation that produced a few classic songs, one of which the seemingly one hit wonder Smash Mouth turned into a second hit for themselves in the early huge success for Shrek.

#983. Lineage of Song: “American Pie”

Madonna

Don McLean

Gosh, I guess I’m not really a fan of Madonna, but I still found it interesting for her to do a cover of “American Pie,” of all things, in one of her periodic drastic reinventions to find acceptance once the last thing was no longer working. Kind of a shame that eventually she just gave up, which is weird because there was about a quarter century where the act was endlessly successful. And now you never hear about her. Unlike Elvis, she did disappear into Europe.

#982. Lineage of Song: “Last Kiss”

 

Wayne Cochran

J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers

Pearl Jam

Here’s another one that bugs me. I love the Pearl Jam version. I see no reason for critics to clutch pearls over these things. 

#981. Lineage of Song: “All Summer Long”

 

“All Summer Long,” Kid Rock

“Sweet Home Alabama,” Lynyrd Skynyrd

“Werewolves of London,” Warren Zevon

Here’s yet another that I hesitated to include in the Lineage because it’s essentially a mash-up and I used to think it was just lazy nostalgia for an artist trying to extend a legacy that was over at that point. But the radio loved the result. And it keeps great music in the mix. In recent times, that’s kind of how this works.

#980. Lineage of Song “American Woman”

The Guess Who

Lenny Kravitz

Here’s one I always thought was ridiculous; ridiculous in how classic rock fans tried so hard to reject the Kravitz take, which is kind of how classic rock fans in general (the journalists especially), downplayed the achievements of the last several generations of rockstars and bands, which was probably the leading factor in rock’s current status as close to invisible in pop culture, which for years seemed utterly impossible. History doesn’t end just because you wish your favorites always maintain the status you assigned them when you were young. Music, as with everything, keeps moving forward. If your favorites remain good in new context, great! But don’t sit there denying good new things because you’re scared the good old things somehow can’t compete, because that’s the actual message you’re sending posterity.
 

#979. Lineage of Song: “Wanna Be Startin Somethin”

 

Michael Jackson, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”

Rihanna, “Don’t Stop the Music”

Here’s one that’s more remix than remake, but it all works, the way music can organically evolve, like anything, given the right inspiration.

#978. Lineage of Song: "Everybody Knows"

 

Leonard Cohen

Sigrid

This is kind of funny timing (I obviously didn’t do so well with a certain national anthem that’ll show up well past, say, Independence Day). (Here I should remind readers out there I generally compose these things well in advance as far as selecting songs and compiling videos.) I just saw Superman last night, in opening weekend. It’s pretty great, though certainly a very different cinematic vision of the character than we’ve ever seen, a huge contrast with its immediate predecessor, last officially depicted in Justice League (though he cameos in Black Adam, very very ironically similar to the new film). The complicated production of Justice League famously led to different cuts. The theatrical version, which this song opens, was completed by Joss Whedon, though the song and moment feels very much like Zack Snyder’s work. In Snyder’s version the song has been omitted.

#977. Lineage of Song: "Desolation Row"

 

Bob Dylan

My Chemical Romance

My Chemical Romance doesn’t get nearly enough love, being a latter day rock band (seriously, The Black Parade is great). Gerard Way also made a great career for himself in comics.

#976. Lineage of Song: “Wild Wild West”

 

Stevie Wonder, “I Wish”

Will Smith

When Will Smith’s movie career exploded, initially he kept his rap career going steady right beside it, this time as a solo artist (he was originally the Fresh Prince alongside Jazzy Jeff). The success of Men in Black in particular led to Wild Wild West, a movie that proved there were limits to his appeal. But the song was still good!

#975. Lineage of Song: “People Are Strange”

 

The Doors

The Dead South

This one’s here strictly to showcase how awesome the Dead South is. Obviously the Doors. Both. It’s a great one-two punch.

#974. Lineage of Song: “You Are My Sunshine”

 

Pine Ridge Boys

Gene Autry

Bing Crosby 

Doris Day

Ray Charles

Johnny Cash

The Dead South

Here’s a little old school. 

#973. Lineage of Song: “Thunderstruck”

 

AC/DC

2Cellos

This one’s just one of the fun ones. Instrumental covers, especially ones outside of the box, will always be worth it.

#972. Lineage of Song: “Raspberry Beret”

 

Prince

Warren Zevon

Here’s another I can’t believe I didn’t include earlier. I became a hopelessly devoted fan of Warren Zevon very, very late in his career, when David Letterman invited him on in his last days. But I guess in my family I was the only one to listen to “Werewolves of London” as a kid and remember it fondly. It was a classic for me, no idea when or how I originally heard it. Still can’t believe the rest of the world hasn’t caught up with his genius.

#971. Lineage of Song: “Piece of My Heart”

 

Janis Joplin

Melissa Etheridge

Here’s another I hesitated to share in the early period of this thing, even though I love it. Again, I have no particular interest in Joplin, and I was genuinely confused that Etheridge didn’t emerge from her version a bigger star. In fact the opposite seemed to happen. But by that point a lot of cultural observers seemed intent to downplay anything that could compete, at the very least, with earlier memories. Which I don’t get. In the longterm you hurt all of it. Later generations (now) are robbed of the lineage. It’s kind of why we currently have a much less rich and celebrated music scene now. You can’t stand out if your predecessors were downplayed. You can’t build on a foundation somebody removed. I get that some of this is jealousy, that so many of the icons of yesteryear died young, that they never had a chance to take victory laps. And maybe in a lot of minds that actually somehow became preferable, since we now have the tendency to punish longevity. Doesn’t make it any less screwed up.

#970. Lineage of Song: “Landslide”

 

Fleetwood Mac

Dixie Chicks

Here’s another song I lost resisted including, even though it was a personal favorite. I didn’t grow up with much awareness of Fleetwood Mac, so I had no particular reason to have affection for the original version of “Landslide.” When the Chicks came out with theirs, I just knew I loved it. Then they had to go and sacrifice their popular career on the altar of political approval. Well.

#969. Lineage of Song: “This Land Is Your Land”

 

“When the World’s On Fire,” Carter Family

Woody Guthrie 

Bing Crosby

Bruce Springsteen

Obviously still on my A Complete Unknown high, I came up with this post, this is the song Edward Norton’s Pete Seeger pretends to sing innocently (and here I really am just realizing the subversiveness about Bob Dylan Seeger eventually completely forgets is in the spirit of what Seeger himself is doing at the start of the movie and in the spirit of the man who wrote this song, and the song itself, differentiated mostly because Dylan is fighting to be himself).

“This Land Is Your Land” is probably Woody Guthrie’s most successful song. It sounds plainly patriotic in the chorus, but when you get into the meat of it (it’s not as clear cut as Springsteen’s later “Born in the U.S.A.”) you realize Guthrie is protesting private despoiling of the country’s natural bounties (specifically when he reaches a fence). Guthrie became an icon best known by reputation and name rather than his bountiful output, so it certainly needs reminding that he really does have an iconic song to his credit. If there’s a failing to Complete Unknown, it’s that it doesn’t make it explicit that Seeger is using the song in a roundabout ironic fashion. Really, it’s the lynchpin to the whole movie. Once you see it you realize the depth of it. It’s one thing to see Dylan visiting Guthrie at the clinic repeatedly, another to realize that it becomes symbolic of the private lives they’re leading. Anyway, that title has a lot of context.

#968. Lineage of Song: “Turn, Turn, Turn”

 

Pete Seeger

The Byrds

Ah, so this is definitely one I composed in the aftermath of A Complete Unknown, where Seeger is played by Edward Norton, who has been able to settle into doing exactly what he wants after very uncomfortably existing in the early parts of his career in the mainstream. His starring role in The Incredible Hulk, the second entry in the MCU, was the definitive tipping point. He became known as “difficult to work with,” mostly stemming from taking over the production of his masterpiece, American History X. Seeger, meanwhile, seems to have been the last of the true believers in the folk music scene, the bridge between Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. That aspect of Unknown is alone worth savoring, how Dylan navigates his early career, clearly enthralled with the dying Guthrie while forging ahead with Seeger, Joan Baez, rejecting their attempts to pigeonhole him, theirs and fans. Music as we know it would be poorer had he agreed. His legacy will continue to evolve over the coming decades. I’m currently working my way into a country act named Colter Wall, who sounds like a young version of the older Johnny Cash. He keeps denying it, but it’s absolutely there. His music seems to have been unearthed, like he’s tapping what Cash was always trying to mine. Bob Dylan is and was a more complete phenomenon than Cash. Just imagine the Bob Dylan version of Colter Wall. It’s going to happen. Wall plays in obscurity. He’s another Canadian act tapping into traditional American sounds, like the Dead South. Maybe the Bob will emerge from that, too. Or just show up in the anonymous music circuits most of us will never experience. Radio doesn’t look for these acts, and the expanse of the internet hides everything it finds. Such is what we have to navigate.