Coffee Talk #415: Song Covers You Hate (Under Pressure)

“Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie is one of my favorite songs of all time. Freddie Mercury’s vocals are brilliant. Brian May’s guitar playing is awesome. Mercury’s subtle playing on the piano and Hammond organ fill out the song perfectly. And…

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“Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie is one of my favorite songs of all time. Freddie Mercury’s vocals are brilliant. Brian May’s guitar playing is awesome. Mercury’s subtle playing on the piano and Hammond organ fill out the song perfectly. And lastly, there’s John Deacon’s unforgettable bass line…which sadly some people recognize from “Ice Ice Baby“.

It actually pains me that there’s a generation of people that know Deacon’s bass line from “Ice Ice Baby” instead of “Under Pressure”. Vanilla Ice was a crap artist and his song sucked compared to “Under Pressure”. It’s sad that the hook from his only popular song was ripped from another, superior one. I’m offended that he took an integral part of a great song and turned it into a pile of garbage. Next time I’m a hiring manager, I’m going to play Deacon’s bass line and ask the job candidate what song it’s from. Anyone that says “Ice Ice Baby” will be shown the door.

As if Vanilla Ice sampling “Under Pressure” for nefarious purposes wasn’t bad enough, there’s this crap cover version by My Chemical Romance and The Used. It…just sucks. The vocals are so weak that’s it’s like comparing a little league hitter’s power to Albert Pujol’s. (Granted there are only a handful of rock-and-roll singers with Mercury’s power and range.) The arrangement is just awful. There was absolutely no reason for this cover to be released. It’s embarrassing to Queen, David Bowie, My Chemical Romance, and The Used. Ugh.

Anyway, I wanted to hear about any song samples and covers that offend you. Kindly talk about song covers and samples you hate in today’s comments section!

Author: RPadTV

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69 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #415: Song Covers You Hate (Under Pressure)”

  1. Right now I feel overwhelmed by the choices, like having a plethora of games or movies and I have no idea where to start. I think I'm going to gravitate toward the hip hop side of things.

  2. I hate most covers. So instead, let me give you a few I actually like: Versa Emerge does a pretty nice cover of "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones. Paradise lost does an outstanding cover of "Small Town Boy" by the Bronski Beat (yeah, the Bronski Beat). They also do a very good cover of "How Soon is Now" by The Smiths.

      8. *BLEEP *you *BLEEP* all and shove the *BLEEP* in *BLEEP* until you *BLEEP* upside down *BLEEP* giraffe.

        Tourette's McSyndrome

    2. I generally dislike covers. One of the few exceptions is "All Along the Watchtower". Even Bob Dylan says that Jimi Hendrix's version is better than his original.

      1. Dylan = Amazing songwriter and crap performer

        Jimi = Amazing performer and… odd songwriter.

        The math is simple. It's the same reason why Beatles songs are better when covered by good performers.

      2. Wasn't Hendrix mostly tripping on acid when writing his stuff? That may explain his odd songwriting. You'd have to be in a really altered state of mind for it to make any sense, I guess.

        -M

      7. That's fine, I completely get that. My fear is that aomewhere out there there's still that one Monkees fan that believes….kinda like Capr Lou Albano going on The News Hour w/ Jim Lerher to argue that pro wrestling is real on the same day Vince came out and told the world it was all predetermined.

      8. I'm sure there are people that will defend Davy Jones as a musician because they never saw anyone play the maracas with such intensity…or really saw any features musician playing the maracas.

      10. There's alot of rumors but little cooberating facts. We don't know for sure.

        What I see is a poor kid who built his first guitar literally from a cigar box a taught himself to be a bluesman. In the process, he stumbled onto some "unethical" and "unprecedented" techniques since ethics and precedents were never on the table for him to begin with.

      11. I'm sorry… but yet you watch American Idol?

        The person who holds more top 40 hits than anyone else never wrote anything and only did covers.

        And the guy who has more #1's than anyone else wrote every one of them, yet I'll bet you don't have one of their albums nor could you name one of his number 1 hits off the top of your head because this feat in songwriting is overshadowed by the fact that I'm talking about George Straight.

        My point is… The writing is only half of it. Performance is what is in our face. If you turn on the radio and you don't like what you are hearing… you turn the channel and don't have a fair chance at interpreting the writing. It's human nature.

      13. My wife has a phych degree. She uses this as the excuse as to why she watches reality TV. She says it's like watching a control group. I tend to think it has more to do with the normal human reaction to seeing a train wreck and not being able to look away.

      14. Some TV reality shows are more edited than their scripted counterparts! Sound effects, clipping, splicing, and out of context edits are all the norm for the overwhelming majority of reality TV shows obviously to make things more interesting/controversial than they really are.

        -M

      15. ironically, anything on "TRUtv" is the most scripted shit you'll ever see

        now, ALL reality tv is scripted to some extent, but there are certain shows like "Lizard lick towing" that are on television, and that people actually believe are real.

        For the record, the worst show on all of television is Southern Fried Stings

  4. When anybody tries to cover the Sex Pistols, it comes out very poorly.

    There's too many bad covers to be fair and pick one, but I do want to mention that Puff Daddy tribute to Biggie where he sampled the Police. I know it was a tribute and all… But the song sucked and the Police are awesome.

    I heard a "mash up" on the radio the other day where somebody took the vocal tracks of The Killers "Somebody Told Me" and placed them on the music track of the Clash's "Rock The Casbah". I didn't know if I liked it or not and my brain is still trying to decide.

      1. That's…strange. I'm not sure what to make of it yet either. I like both bands, but "Rock the Casbah" is such a classic. It's definitely interesting and oddly mesmerizing.

  5. I'm generally loathe to call any sampling a "cover." For example, it's not like Kid Rock actually covered both Werewolves of London and Sweet Home Alabama in the same song, he just ripped them both off.

    For the record, I saw a werewolf sipping a pina colada at Trader Vics. His hair was perfect.

    1. That's your fault. You should know how Amazon's "key word" advertising program thing works. (I don't know the technical name of it).

      Next time, make comparisons to porn stars in your coffee talk articles.

      -M

  7. Although I cold be considered N8's polar opposite when it comes to music knowledge and intelligence, one of my favorite (if not my only favorite) cover albums of all time is Metallica's Garage album. Their version of Whisky in the Jar is amazing ear candy.

    As far as Vanilla Ice goes; I was one of those people that would relate that bass line to Ice, Ice, Baby because I used to listen to that song a lot when I was a kid, and I was not yet familiar with David Bowie. It wasn't until the advent of the internet age that I was able to look up "Under Pressure" and realize that Vanilla Ice was ripping off Bowie after some person told me about it.

    … and of course, there's the interview with Ice, himself:
    [youtube RDAfFvYYZzs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDAfFvYYZzs youtube]

    See? It's not the same (*rolls eyes*) I would also like to add with great shame that Vanilla Ice is from Miami and he is even wearing a University of Miami sweater in his Ice, Ice Baby video. To balance out this atrocity, our city also gave birth to 2 Live Crew, so the balance of the universe has been restored.

    -M

      3. I always did like Metallica's cover of that song. Thought they did an excellent job of that one.

    1. this song is pretty awful in that it is white boys trying to rap, but the songs they cover are pretty awesome lol

      1. True, but I would not listen to the original over the cover. I like the genre sift more than anything.

    3. A friend of mine who's a drummer actually got a gig opening up for these guys once.

      My friend however, is not the most… compassionate nor does he see the big picture very clearly. Because upon meeting the band, my good friend actually said:

      "It's good to meet you guys. I like your band alot, but it sucks that your only good song is a cover song"…

      Yes… he actually said that to the band's face. I'm not kidding.

      2. It so happens that this guy is a very good friend of mine and one of the first friends I made in CA. I seriously straight up love this dude… but he has this glitch where certain obvious things just don't make sense to him. VERY unique dude.

        I heard this story through a third party and laughed my ass off. He has a show coming up soon with Hed PE… I hope he doesn't say "Damn Jarrod, you're a great singer and all, but you were WAY better before you stopped doing tweak."

    5. This one is ok simply because the style is pretty different, but I like MJ's version. Besides, MJ did the lean better.

  12. My theory is that nobody plays the Sex Pistols right because everyone who tries actually knows how to play their instruments.

    Johnny Cash is another hard one to cover, mainly because of the keys and range he sings in. Most people I know who do it passably change the keys to a higher register.

    Walk The Line has 3 key changes in it and then changes back 3 more times. Cash songs are easy to play, but hard to sing.

    1. I have a friend who covers Johnny Cash songs on youtube. He's good on guitar, but I've never heard anyone (my friend specifically though) get the vocals close.

      And that is always my assumption about Sex Pistols covers. Anyone who is doing a cover that actually gets mass distributed has more ability than the Sex Pistols ever did. It's always fun listening to the tracks and trying to hear both basses playing, Sid Vicious and the good version they added over his attempt at playing. Also, if I were ever in a band I would be the Sid Vicious of the group; no talent or ability, just able to put on the image. haha.

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