It seems like songs are covered by everybody now-a-days. A lot of people say, “ Oh he’s covering their song, please.” A lot of people think it is very unoriginal to cover a song. Most of the time yes is very unoriginal. Before you judge a cover you have to know it’s context. Is it a young musician trying to cover a great song that one of their idols have sung? Is the song a tribute to a musical influence? Or Is it just simply the same song sung by a different band? In this case Jack Johnson is paying tribute to an huge influence on him, a enormously great band, and a deceased lead vocalist Bradley Nowell. This is one of my favorite covers, Jack Johnson's cover of Sublime's Badfish.
Sublime's lyrics were very diacative. They were known for talking about partying, girls, drugs and getting drunk. Their lyrics were never what some people may call "poetic". Sublime was a reggae/ska/punk/ alternative rock band. Sublime's song Badfish is a very reggae almost soulful song. This song is perfectly described by the music video, friends, music, the beach, a nice sunny day and a few pints of booze. What really keeps this song moving is the bass guitar and the cymbals. Bbass guitar and the cymbals push the melody forward to make this song something you can just let loose and dance too. The rhythm is very simple and constant which lulls the listener creating tension to the song. The tempo slows and an acoustic guitar breaks the song down creating release. The song kicks back with ha very echoing electric guitar solo that once again creates the tension again for another break later on in the song.
Now listen to the Jack Johnson version. Jack brings an easier melody that is more relaxing than Sublime does. The biggest difference in Jack Johnson's cover over Sublime's is that Jack's voice is a higher lighter pitch than lead singer Bradley Nowell's. Nowell's voice is very blues filled timbre and is a deeper pitch while Jack Johnson's voice has a softer more acoustic timbre. Jack Johnson also changes the lyrics at the end of his version. He adds in another Sublime song called Boss DJ but keeps the same melody and pitch but the rhythm changes. The speed of Sublime's song is faster than Jack Johnson's. Jack's version seems to let the song slowly flow together while, like I said before for the Sublime version the Melody and rhythm seemed to be led by the cymbals and bass guitar.
I personally love both versions of this song. I think Sublime's original version is better than Jack Johnson's because I like the more up beat reggae dance party song that they created. Bradley Nowell's voice is one in a million. He seemed to create the most perfect ska voice. Although, I really do like Jack Johnson's version which is is more mellow. I don't think there is anyway anyone can cover a Sublime song and make it better to listen too.
No comments:
Post a Comment