#945. Lineage of Song: “Walk This Way”

 

Aerosmith

Run DMC

This one’s here because it’s such an iconic moment of its time but kind of gets lost in the shuffle. It elevated both acts and foreshadowed what both genres needed to do to push forward. Arguably one of the most important songs in American pop history as a result.

#944. Lineage of Song: “I Shot the Sheriff”

 

Bob Marley

Eric Clapton

The legend as to why this one happened is that Eric Clapton thought Bob Marley deserved more exposure. He did, and he did!

#943. Lineage of Song: “She Said She Said”

Beatles

 

Mark Mulcahy

This one’s really interesting. Mojo, one of those music magazines that attaches CDs to the cover, underwent a whole project of compiling Beatles cover albums for their most famous releases about a fifteen years back. Since I never subscribed to Mojo it was a constant treasure hunt checking the shelves for a new release. “She Said She Said” is from Revolver, and the Mark Mulcahy cover is how I fell in love with the song (the whole cover album is great), since it’s otherwise one of the more obscure Beatles tracks.

I don’t know, and since internet coverage is sadly never really complete it’s been tough trying to verify over the years, if I got the whole collection (as far as I could tell there was only one other, from just before I first saw the project’s results), so here’s the albums Mojo covered: Revolver (as Revolver Reloaded), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (since most of my collection is in binders and the disc itself isn’t labeled I don’t have titles for this or the next one), Magical Mystery Tour, The White Album (as No. 0000001 and No. 0000002), Abbey Road (as Abbey Road Now!), and Let It Be (as Let It Be Revisited).

#942. Lineage of Song: “Viva la Vida”

 

Coldplay

Weezer

“Viva la Vida,” full of strings and chiming bells, gave new dimensions to Coldplay, and was embraced as a major new addition to rock lore, which led to a cover version by Weezer included as a bonus track on its Hurley album just a few years after its release. (And yes, Weezer named its album after the character from Lost, which is why he appears on the cover.)

#941. Lineage of Song “Seven Nation Army”

White Stripes

Oak Ridge Boys

C. W. Stoneking

Living Colour

Audioslave

Flaming Lips

KT Tunstall

Metallica

Maroon 5

Kind of went all out with this one. “Seven Nation Army” might be considered the last hurrah of the rock era. It was hailed instantly as a classic. Jack White and Meg White (not siblings but exes) were the epitome of the garage band, the last innovation of the rock formula. Fans have been decrying the death of rock ‘n’ roll since at least Nirvana lost Kurt Cobain, and while there are still significant acts with hit songs (Imagine Dragons are the leading contenders), there’s minimal mainstream awareness compared to rock’s heyday, when it was inescapable. Jack White continues as a solo artist these days, and has also transformed into the last historian, still actively pursuing his passion for the form and music in general. 

#940. Lineage of Song: “Minnie the Moocher”

 

Cab Calloway was one of the classic artists to show up populating the Blues Brothers music landscape. He’s included here mostly because it’s him performing the same song in two different eras, and at least for my dad, who loves him in the movie, when I got him a CD of vintage Calloway, was utterly indifferent. Sometimes artists age to perfection, having performed the same material for years. That was my dad’s opinion, anyway.

#939. Lineage of Song “Theme from M*A*S*H”

As a kid who grew up with a dad who loved M*A*S*H, listening to the instrumental theme song was just a fact of life. It was years, decades, before I finally saw the movie (both were based on a book by Richard Hooker, which I read a few years ago), and found out the theme song had lyrics! The film’s director, Robert Altman, contracted the job of writing the lyrics to his son, who subsequently, as the legend goes, raked in perpetual piles of cash when the song played weekly and then forever in syndication, thanks to the 

#938. Lineage of Song: “Theme from Rawhide”

 

In Blues Brothers, the boys are challenged to play Country/Western music, an archaic term at this point (my parents always used it, too), but historically relevant. Western was basically traditional American folk, the original pop music (“Oh My Darling, Clementine;” “Home on the Range,” “Oh! Susanna”), part and parcel with the genre being a longtime staple in film and television, the classic cowboy way. So they didn’t do a Country song, of course, but a Western, the theme to the classic TV show. Today, like cowboy movies, Western doesn’t really exist in the pop culture, and Country is associated most with Southern living. Probably the cowboy hats the guys invariably wear are a relic of the Country/Western days.

#937. Lineage of Song: “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”

 

Blues Brothers

Solomon Burke

Wilson Pickett

Rolling Stones

Here we enter Blue Brothers territory. John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd first portrayed Jake and Elwood Blues on Saturday Night Live before filming the movie (which also happens to share the basic plot of most Muppets movies), although “the Good Ol’ Blues Brothers Boys Band” plays a lot more actual blues music in Blue Brothers 2000 (and a lot more played around them).

Bit of housekeeping this edition…As of this one Blogger isn’t just letting me watch the videos in the post. Not sure if it’s just me. But they still populate once I go to YouTube itself to play them. 

#936. Lineage of Song: “With a Little Help from My Friends”

 

Joe Cocker

John Belushi

I’m including the Belushi version because I love that it exists, it’s Belushi doing a straight version of Cocker, from the first season of Saturday Night Live, which for those who’ve never seen it, it’s amazing how little time the original cast really had; it was originally much more a spotlight for the celebrity host. Belushi, and Chevy Chase’s Weekend Update, was pretty much the exception. That’s exactly why things played out the way they did. Belushi and Chase were the breakout stars for a reason. But to be fair, they had a little help from their friends. So to speak…

#935. Lineage of Song: “Respect”

 

Otis Redding

One of the most famous songs originating with one artist but ending up owned by another is undoubtedly “Respect.”

#934. Lineage of Song: “That’s All Right, Mama”

 

Arthur Crudup

The song that launched Elvis’s career, “That’s All Right” was originally composed by Arthur Crudup on the bones of earlier blues music, and wasn’t particularly successful for his own career (he actually did another song that was basically the same thing just to get a little more mileage out of it).

#933. Lineage of Song: “Hound Dog”

 

Big Mama Thornton

Dipping back into the Elvis playbook…

It’s become somewhat popular in recent years to claim Elvis simply ripped off black performers, but the counterargument is that his willingness to sing their songs made it widely acceptable to appreciate them. Either way, great music was happening.

#932. Lineage of Song: “Ring of Fire”

 

Anita Carter

Johnny Cash

Here’s part of music lore! Cowritten by June Carter and originally recorded by her sister (somewhat forgotten and/or overshadowed by the much wider reputation of the guy June ended up marrying later, the Carter family had a considerable reputation of its own).

#931. Lineage of Song: “Layla”

 

Derek and the Dominoes 

Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton’s career and legacy tends to be downplayed somehow, possibly because there was a time he leaned into the stereotype and then when he pulled back and just leaned into the music. I’m not sure there’s a lot of people who understand the difference. But you can probably hear it in these two distinct versions of the same song.

#930. Lineage of Song: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”

 

Here’s one of the most legendary songs, and covers. Great voice, difficult name to remember: Israel “Iz” Kamakawiwo’ole.

#929. Lineage of Song: “Hallelujah”

 

Leonard Cohen

Jeff Buckley

John Cale

Father Ray Kelly

Pentatonix

Here’s one of the most famous songs of the modern era, and cover songs. 

Back in college I took a class in Canadian literature, and the professor was a huge fan of Leonard Cohen. In fact I learned Cohen’s poetry before knowing, really, about his music career, but then I had a look around and found his style was very close to spoken word accompanied by instruments.

Anyway, John Cale covered “Hallelujah,” setting the style for how Jeff Buckley would achieve immortality. It’s the Cale version included in Shrek, but aficionados still adhere to Buckley. Cohen’s can be heard in Zack Snyder’s Watchmen.

But for my money, once I discovered it on YouTube, my favorite is probably Father Kelly’s riff.

#928. Lineage of Song: “Testify”

 

Russell Crowe 

Alan Doyle

So when people deny Russell Crowe his musical accolades, I’ve got at least one song to make the counterargument: “Testify.”

It’s easy enough to find on YouTube, usually a performance he gives at an awards ceremony he’s otherwise hosting. Between that and the Alan Doyle cover with the video starring Crowe, I assumed for a long time that it was a cover. It’s a great song. But as far as I can tell (the always reliable Wikipedia), it’s a song Crowe and Doyle wrote. Both sound great singing it. Anyway, it deserves a wide audience somewhere, and should elicit many covers through the years.

#927. Lineage of Song: “Beautiful Girls”

 

Sean Kingston

“The Beautiful Boys”

A peculiar thing happened along the way to Sherwood…

In the last twenty-odd years Russell Crowe’s public profile has undergone a remarkable series of twists. He went from being the most acclaimed actor of his generation with the Oscar-dominating one-two punch of Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind to a perennial punching bag for any number of reasons, whether an on-set “behavior challenge” that led to South Park famously lampooning him or critics somehow being more interested in his waistline than his talent. Then of course people discovered he really just wanted to…sing! (That last sentence works better if you have a bit of Monty Python in you.)

Which is hilarious because in his native Australia, Crowe was a pop star in the Eighties. Seriously. Guy has been doing music his whole life.

It got to the point, once he became famous as an actor, that Crowe went out of his way to cultivate a relationship with Alan Doyle from the Canadian band Great Big Sea, leading to a series of collaborations, both musically and onscreen. Doyle showed up in a number of Crowe’s movies in minor roles, the most significant being Alan-a-Dale in Robin Hood.

The rest of the Merry Men, Scott Grimes (with legitimate vocal training behind him) and Kevin Durand (otherwise known for tough guy roles), as it turned out, liked singing, too.

The four of them ended up singing Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls” on the publicity tour, and I’ve spent many hours YouTubing the results over the years. Crowe minimizes his contributions during these performances, giving all the space to Doyle, Grimes and Durand, but he clearly enjoys himself singing backup and clapping along.

With apologies to Kingston, they’re the reason the song is never that far from my thoughts.

#926. Lineage of Song: "Make You Feel My Love"

 

Garth Brooks

Billy Joel

Bob Dylan

Here's one of those instant miracles, Bob Dylan's popular comeback "Make You Feel Your Love," adopted by Garth Brooks and Billy Joel in rapid succession.