#993. Lineage of Song: “She Loves You”

 

“She Loves You”

“All You Need is Love”

Here’s a twist, the Beatles working their own song into another of their songs. In college I referenced this during a discussion on techniques in poetry (classic literature is full of references, the most famous example being Dante filling Hell with everyone he didn’t like).

#992. Lineage of Song: “Live and Let Die”

Paul McCartney

Guns N’ Roses

Here’s one of the most famous rock covers! Another I can’t believe took this long to list!

#991. Lineage of Song: “Let Me Die in My Footsteps”

 

Bob Dylan

Jason Bennett

Here’s one I’m very proud to include. Jason Bennett was a local folk singer when I lived in Colorado Springs. When I first met him he was merely the husband of a coworker at Borders, and he’d perform in our Seattle’s Best Coffee. He became a friend. He was a big fan of Bob Dylan in addition to his originals, corralling a bunch of local talent to record Positively Pikes Peak, which received interest from the Grammys. Eventually his wife got sick of him pursuing his music, and left him. As far as I can tell he continues to this day.

#990. Lineage of Song: “Now and Then”

John Lennon

The Beatles

Nearly two years ago, when I was reviving this blog and headed toward Lineage territory, I shared this when it was first released. I’m still in utter amazement and filled with gratitude that it happened. What a great coda to one of the great cultural touchstones of the modern era.

#989. Lineage of Song: “Real Love”

 

John Lennon

The Beatles

The second Beatles Anthology single is probably easy to overlook, but it’s probably better. 

#988. Lineage of Song: “Free as a Bird”

 

John Lennon

The Beatles 

The first of the Beatles resurrection songs, featuring the surviving three in the mid-90s building around John Lennon recordings. 

Yesterday I watched Spinal Tap: The End Continues. I never saw This is Spinal Tap, but I don’t think that much matters. My point, here, is that in that context, listening to “Free as a Bird,” it sounds very much like a song an aging band would’ve come up with. Never mind the actual context; it’s very much as if Lennon himself conceived of it that way, and using its bones…Could the rest of the band have come up with anything else? In some alternate reality where Lennon wasn’t killed, if they’d gotten back together, is this how they would’ve sounded anyway? 

The ‘90s were already the beginning of a seismic shift in rock. Everyone seemed to have become convinced that mainstream rock had been shifted on its axis by Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, and that his sudden death effectively killed the genre’s future. And it’s been exactly that diagnosis ever since. At about the same time the surviving Beatles were cobbling together both the Anthology documentary and the accompanying archival albums, an unexpected revisit not just with history but the living remainder of the band many still considered, and consider to this day, the defining rock band, no one seemed to know how to take it seriously anymore. Might in some way that moment somehow pushed the idea of current rock bands, in the mainstream, so far out of orbit it was impossible to reposition? The wild experiments that followed the Beatles, and the push out of the mainstream that resulted, left little ground the general public seemed interested in exploring. The very idea of rebellion had become marginalized, after fueling so much of rock history, and suddenly there’s this new Beatles track, and it’s the calmest the band ever sounded. Where do you go from there?

Anyway, a thought.

#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.