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To hear the theme song of Woodstock as recorded in 1928 seems incredible, especially as the brilliant Canned Heat version copied that panpipe melody note-for-note. And as magical as it is to have that recording on Youtube, it was itself performed by an aged itinerant musician in Texas who probably first encountered it in the previous century.
Cover versions can go from the terrible to the sublime depending upon the intentions and quality of the subsequent artists so there’s probably no one correct answer to that one.
But the previous link does show a direct connection from Victorian times to the modern musical festival (for which Woodstock was so very much the prototype). All of which proves that music is timeless of course.
:shock:
If Mozart had stipulated no cover versions……..
on the other hand.. we will never know exactly what his music actually sounded like…. played or conducted by him! Maybe all the millions of covers are better than the original!
I once met someone who said that there was no value in music that wasn’t performed by the artist(s) who wrote it. I disagreed vehemently. He gave up being a musician because he never made it big…. he could play, but not write. He stopped playing.
Now that’s just plain daft in my book.
I heard from someone far cleverer than me that there are only a limited number of notes, or musical chords, that can be played for effect and enjoyment according to the human capability for hearing frequencies of sound.
Or summat. :D
It’s only the new arrangement that seems novel but even that is simply a variation on a theme. Dogs and cats have a different Top 40.
Every artist is a plagiarist to some degree or other and it takes a work of genius to obscure the sources. Like Picasso borrowing from Cezanne and subsequently re-inventing what actually already existed.
but anyway, back to that theme song . . . . . . . . .
.
OK, its late and i’m a little tired…. but, surely there must still be the potential for originality. To find that special sequence of notes that make the soul soar that haven’t been found before?
It isn’t the range of notes, but the way those notes are played that makes something truly special.
Or maybe we like particular songs or pieces of music because they remind us of something. Familiarity is often the reason people like a certain tune.
Anyway, enough of the pretentious twaddle….what is the ultimate cover version?
I like the Jeff Buckley version of Hallelujah. But if you exclude classical music for obvious reasons, then in the top ten most covered songs.. i think Me First and the Gimme Gimmes did the best version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow! :lol:
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