Without wishing to step on Martin's toes (his recent chain series over at New Amusements entitled Cover Charge is really rather good), I'd like to write about a brace of singles, separated by 20+ years, each in turn covered by another artist. My modus operandi being simply to showcase two blinding songs that no longer get the airplay they deserve. Oh, and the band being covered on track one is the band doing the covering on track two. Confused, you will be...
Spaceman was the song Levi's deployed to great effect in 1995 to advertise their latest 501s. They used all of ten seconds of what would become Babylon Zoo's debut single released in January 1996. It went straight in at Number One. Of course it did.
This version is a rather spartan affair yet captures the essence of the song quite perfectly. It's brought to you by Derwood Andrews who, if you were paying attention last week, was playing some tasty homespun blues with a twist.
Derwood Andrews - Spaceman (2021)
Babylon Zoo belong to that not so elite club known as One Hit Wonders. Being a member is generally not something you brag about but would, I'm sure, get the odd drink bought for you if it ever came up in conversation (should the conversation veer down that particularly lonesome cul-de-sac.)
But it is from that very cul-de-sac that I'm going to pluck The Zoo and drop them in a rather more salubrious part of town. Mott Street, to be precise. (If you know, you know.) Ian Hunter admitted from the get go that you'd be wasting your time looking on a map trying to find Honaloochie. It only existed in his head. In a parallel universe their cover of Mott the Hoople's follow up to All the Young Dudes was released as a single and it too went straight to Number One. No, of course it didn't.
No comments:
Post a Comment