- William Faulkner, The Wild Palms

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Introduction – “Nature”

—————–

I wish I was down in Savannah
Where the spanish moss hangs from the trees
I see all these people in pairs on the street
And wonder, “Why can’t that be me?”

This man stops me and asks for a quarter
And I wish that I had it to give
I tell him, “Money ain’t everything, man”
Riches can be culled from within

That doesn’t help his situation
But it illustrates my personal plight
And I wish I was back in Savannah
Watching all the crows taking flight

This girl, she stops me on the sidewalk
Says, “Hey mister, could you give me the time”
“Honey, time is just an illusion,
Can’t be ignored, can’t be escaped, can’t be denied.”

She ponders my words for just a second
“In that case, can you buy me a drink?”
“There’s a bar down the street and around the corner,
Where I go when I just need time to think”

And I wish I was down in Savannah
Where the spanish moss hangs from the trees
And I wish I had someone here
To put this lonely mind of mine at ease

And I wish I was back home in Nashville
Where the leaves are turning colors on the trees
My friend, I hope your heart is never broken
By a woman who just up and leaves

To get the full effect of this blog, I recommend reading it in “stream-of-consciousness” style, reading it as quickly as you can possibly comprehend the words presented to you on the screen (or on the page, if you’ve chosen to print this blog out for some strange reason). By doing so, you’ll get sort of close to the thought process, although, from what I understand, we think faster than we read by a significant margin and I probably think a little bit faster than most. (I’m not bragging about that, It’s kind of a problem. I take pills for it. Which reminds me, it’s about that time of night.)

One thing leads to another. I started out adding the Old 97′s “Barrier Reef” mainly because I like the “My name is Stewart Ranson Miller and I’m a serial lady killer” and because I sometimes wish my last name was Miller simply because of that song.

So, then I get over to some Son Volt, which isn’t a far cry from Old 97′s, really. Not as rowdy, but still “Alt-Country”. That kind of takes me over to Ryan Adams and I’ve been playing “La Cienega” on guitar obsessively for about three weeks now. That leads me, of course, to Ryan Adams’ “Down in a Hole” cover. That, in turn, reminded me that Nirvana’s “Scentless Apprentice” has been stuck in my head (best drum intro ever!) for a while, so I added that, too. BTW, that song is based on the book “Perfume” by Patrick Suskind (the “u” is supposed to have an umlaut but I’m too lazy to look up the ASCII code for it). I haven’t read it yet, but it’ll be on my list.

Anyway, so I found my way back to the alt-country genre and added some Jason and the Scorchers. They did a cover of “Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town” (which The Killers did better, IMHO). It was made famous by Kenny Rogers, which reminded of “The Big Lebowski” scene. So I had to add “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)”. That, in turn, lead to the addition of Gipsy Kings’ cover of “Hotel California”, CCR’s “Run Through the Jungle” (beautifully dark song there, one of their best, I’d say) and then, of course, “Viva Las Vegas”. I was looking for the Shawn Colvin version that plays at the credits, but I had to “settle” for Elvis. Well, that brought me to my favorite Elvis song, “Fever”.

Now, not only is “Fever” a really hot song, but when I hear it, it reminds me of the Muppets skit with Rita Moreno trying to sing “Fever” and Animal playing drums. That skit is in the YouTube playlist. Hilarious. One of my favorites, both as a kid and as whatever I’m considered now… Well, I again got distracted by my favorite Muppets skits on YouTube. Bunsen Honeydew’s Gorilla Detector is a classic (it’s in the YouTube playlist, too). I wound up on the “Mah Nah Mah Nah” skit, though. That reminded me, Cake did a version of that, too. Oh yeah, and Cake did a cover of “War Pigs”, too (which has a SWEET groove to it). Oh, and then Cake did a cover of “Strangers in the Night” by Frank Sinatra, which is also the name of a song from their Fashion Nugget album. Speaking of Fashion Nugget, I have to add “The Distance” because, well, it’s “The Distance”.

Okay, so at this point, I still have YouTube open and I remember when I was a kid watching the Sesame Street movie (“Follow That Bird”) and it had Waylon Jennings in it singing a song called “Ain’t No Road Too Long” (or something along those lines…) Well, I couldn’t find that specific song but I did find some other Waylon Jennings stuff, Luckenback Texas, for example. Willie Nelson sang that with him. So I pulled up some Willie on playlist.com and found “Blue Skies”. I’ve always liked his version so I added that and a few other good Willie songs. (Yeah, I know what you’re thinking… You have a dirty mind. Say 40 Hail Mary’s now.)

Okay, so Willie and Waylon and Johnny (Cash, that is) and Kris Kristoferson were in a band, “The Highwaymen”, I think, but the song was definitely called “The Highwaymen”. It’s kind cool because it’s one of the few country songs where they used phasers on their guitars (gives it kind of that wooshing, watery sound). Anyway, so then I think, “I’ve gotta put some JC on there”, JC being Johnny Cash, not Jesus Christ, because as far as I know the latter has not yet been signed to a major recording label, though if he were to put out a demo, I’d imagine it’d get picked up pretty quick because he’d have the most perfect riffs ever crafted.

Okay, so somehow I make it over from Johnny Cash to good ol’ Hank Williams Sr. Not a very big jump there. So I add a couple of Hank’s best. Then I close out that window and my Willie Nelson window was still open, so I’m scrolling through the songs and I see that Clutch has a song called “Willie Nelson”. Added. But wait, what if I search for Clutch? I love their stuff (will definitely be catching them at Cannery Ballroom in October), so I’m scrolling through and there’s 10001110101, which is the geekiest song ever written, so of course, I must add that to the playlist. (And now “Barrier Reef” is playing. “She wasn’t makin’ eyes.”) But, get this, okay… CLUTCH did a cover of MONEY by freakin’ PINK FLOYD. Sweet? Nobody grooves like Clutch and Money was about the grooviest thing PF ever did, I’d venture. Added. Maybe twice for posterity, whatever that means. I have to be careful with big words sometimes. That’s why I have synonym.com on speed dial.

“… Her on top and me on liquor…” :p

Anyway, so where was I? Oh, okay, so The Old 97′s are from Austin, TX. You’ve probably heard of Rhett Miller (“Am I gonna be lonely for the rest of my life?”) He’s the lead singer. They put on one helluva show at Mercy Lounge a couple of weeks ago. High energy. Anyway, so speaking of Austinites that put on high energy shows, there’s Bob Schneider. So I added some of his stuff. In the meantime, I remembered that Bob (“My name is Batman, but you can call me Bob…”) did a really cool cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. But, there was an even better cover done by a guy whose first name is Israel and whose last name even my copy and paste doesn’t know how to spell. I think it was at the end  of a movie a while back. “Finding Forrester” maybe? The one with Sean Connery in it as an old hermit in, was it Brooklyn? Queens? Let’s just say in New York. So, even though it says that S.O.T.R. is Willie Nelson, it’s not. It’s the Israel guy. Which reminds me, Busta Rhymes was in that movie, too. He played the main character’s big brother. So now I’ve got the urge to add “Woo-Ha I’ve Got You All in Check”, which I’ll probably do. And “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See”. And then that reminds me, for some reason, of DMX’s “Ain’t No Sunshine”. Don’t know why. Some distant memory that connects the two together. I’ll have to ask my therapist if that’s something I need to work through. But Busta also leads me to Snoop Dogg, so now I have to add “Drop it Like It’s Hot”. (I’m calling these rap songs by the only name I know them by because I’m not really a rap fan. You’ll have to excuse my whiteness.)

Then there’s the Gin Blossoms. I have NO clue where that came from. My mind does really wierd things to me sometimes. Also, the Hootie and the Blowfish cover of Led Zep’s “Hey, Hey, What Can I Do” was inspired by their cover of “Fine Line” by Radney Foster, which was an early 80′s country song, right about the time that “The Highwaymen” was hitting charts. I couldn’t find “Fine Line” on playlist.com but I did find the Zep song, which is on the same album of covers and B-sides. (“Scattered, Smothered and Covered” – which has an INCREDIBLE (better than the original) version of “Driver 8″ by REM and also has a good version of “Renaissance Eyes” and “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want”.. Well, their cover of that is better than the Deftones’ cover of it anyway. Although, it’s undeniable that the Deftones’ version of “No Ordinary Love” by Sade is probably the best cover they’ve ever done. They did a pretty kickass cover of  “Simple Man”, too. (BTW, people, it’s “Lynyrd” and NOT “Lynard”. Also, please excuse my Faulkner-esque use of parenthetical statements within parenthetical statements which are sometimes paragraphs long…) And “Sinatra” by Helmet. It’s all on their B-Sides and Rarities disc. That reminds me that, going back to the rap thing, Helmet did a song with House of Pain. But I can’t find it, so “In The Meantime” will have to suffice. Ah, wait, “Just Another Victim”. That’s it.) …

(Oh, yeah, and the Deftones… They did this song called “Passenger”. One of my favorites by them. It was on both setlists when then played Nashville last April and the December before that. Can’t rock more than that. Maynard James Keenan, of Tool and A Perfect Circle fame, made a guest appearance which adds a wicked tone to the whole thing. That reminds me, Maynard also guest-starred in Rage Against the Machine’s “Know Your Enemy”. He and Tom Morello were college roommates or something. Right around the time Tom Morello was perfecting his pickup-switch-flicking technique. And then Tom Morello was in Audioslave with Chris Cornell, of Soundgarden and Chris Cornell fame. He did the kickass James Bond theme for whatever the last Bond flick was… The first one with Daniel Craig. “Casino Royale”, I think it was. Chris Cornell also did a really great cover of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”. (MJ did a cover of The Beatles “Come Together”, which was also covered by Aerosmith whose “Walk This Way” was remixed by Run DMC. But I’m not even going to go down that road… Also, as a side note, Weird Al parodied “Bad” and “Beat It” by MJ and he later parodied “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, which makes a nice little loop back to “Scentless Apprentice”. AND… Here’s the connection I was looking for, Weird Al also parodied Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy”, in style, at least. So now I can add “When Doves Cry” to the playlist. Woohoo. BTW, Prince is one freaking insane guitar player. [My favorite Prince song - note the switch to brackets here]) He (Chris Cornell) was also in Temple of the Dog with Mike Mccready and Jeff Ament, who went on to form Pearl Jam with Eddie Vedder. Also, McCready was in Mad Season with Layne Staley from Alice in Chains. (That swings us back around to Ryan Adams by way of his aforementioned “Down in a Hole” cover.) I’ve officially lost track of my parentheses. Where’s my editor?) 

Anyway, the H&B cover of the Zep song was the only thing I could find from that particular album and I can kinda relate to it at this point in my life… Well, that’s probably saying too much, but it strikes a certain chord.

Okay, I’m gonna go back to that whole Michael Jackson -> The Beatles -> Aerosmith -> Run DMC line of thought anyway because I think it could go somewhere. Bear with me. Okay, so Run DMC had a song on the Beavis and Butthead Experience soundtrack album. (I know what you’re thinking: This is going to go south really quickly…) [Run DMC also performed the theme to "Ghostbusters", so if we wanted to tie them over to Dan Akroyd and John Goodman, we'd have a natural jumping off point. That would again lead us back to The Big Lebowski, because, ya know, all roads lead to The Dude.] But I digest. Another side note, Nirvana also had a song on there, “I Hate Myself and Want to Die”. Someone probably should have taken that as a red flag. RIP Kurt, you are missed. Interestingly, Aerosmith had a song on that album, too. (“Deuces Are Wild”) They were accompanied on that disc by White Zombie, Megadeth, Anthrax, Primus, Sir Mix-a-Lot, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jackyl. Time (and space on the playlist) will not allow us to explore the possibilities here, but I want to follow the Red Hot Chili Peppers because they can loop us back to some different places. We’ll start with George Clinton. Flea, well known sock enthusiast, bass player for RHCP and, yes, trumpet player for The Mars Volta (oh, the places we could go!), appears as an instrumentalist on the obscure, horribly named and really all-around horrible, “Hey Man, Smell My Finger” which also features songs co-written and co-produced by Prince. Nice loop. The album was released on the Paisley Park / Warner Brothers label. Paisley Park, as in, Prince’s label.

Okay, so we’ve got a Prince tie in. From here, we can tie him to Bob Dylan (via his incredible, and somewhat phallic, Super Bowl performance of “All Along the Watchtower”. [You really have to wonder if he selected that song for a reason... I mean, after "Rainbow Children"...] Through the same performance, we can tie him to Creedence Clearwater Revival (“Wouldn’t hold out much hope for … the Creedence.”) So that nicely wraps up that loop. But, it doesn’t end there. We can also tie Prince to the Foo Fighters through the SAME Super Bowl performance. And, quite obviously, the Foo Fighters can tie right back to Nirvana. Wow, this is really coming together. I need to diagram this. Such a nerd… Now, Prince may have been giving a nod to the Foos for covering his “Darling Nikki”, which may be a dirty song, but the Foos totally rocked it.

We can also, btw, tie Prince to Radiohead through his notoriously terrible cover of “Creep” at the… um… some music festival in Europe, I think. Too lazy and overstimulated at the same time to look it up.

Anyway, the Foos can be tied back to other bands they’ve covered. Dave Grohl at one point performed an acoustic, and hilarious, version of “Stairway to Heaven” on the Craig Kilborn (?) show. They’ve also covered Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street” (now synonymous with “The Dave Ramsey Show”), Pink Floyd’s “Have a Cigar”, Ace Frehley’s “Ozone” and The Dead Kennedys’ “Holiday in Cambodia” (along with Serj Tankian of System of a Down fame).

Dave Grohl can also be found behind the drumset on the rock remix of “All About the Benjamins” by Puff Daddy. He was joined by Rob Zombie (I think all Rob did on that remix was scream “Yeah!”, though.) Interestingly, it’s not the first time we find Dave on drums and Rob doing vocals on the same album. (See the Beavis and Butthead disc previously referenced.) Dave can also be found behind the drums for Trent Reznor on the Nine Inch Nails album “With Teeth”. (Check out the insane intro to “You Know Who You Are”. If I’m not mistaken, that was Grohl recording LIVE drums.) From there, we could loop Trent Reznor and company all over the place, connecting him easily to Maynard James Keenen (Tool/APC), The Smashing Pumpkins (James Iha played guitar for APC, so there’s an indirect link) and it seems like somehow you can even tie it back around to Marylin Manson, but I can’t seem to find that link…

Also, another side note, Paramore, hailing from our own Fieldstone Farms in Franklin, TN, covered “My Hero” by the Foo Fighters on their album “The Sound of Superman”.

Now, Foo Fighters are easily tied to Rob Zombie. Rob, can in turn be tied, easily and obviously, to Black Sabbath with the “Children of the Grave” cover. That in turn ties them back to Cake, who, as was mentioned (or will be mentioned, I have no clue where I am right now, physically or mentally) covered “War Pigs”. [Oh yeah, and Black Sabbath can be tied to Busta Rhymes - check out "This Means War", basically "Iron Man" with Busta rapping and a Ozzy singing the chorus.] Okay, but, it gets crazier from there. We can tie White Zombie to KC and the Sunshine Band through their cover of “I’m Your Boogie Man”. We can also tie him to Lionel Richie via “Brick House 2003″ from the “House of 1000 Corpses” soundtrack. (And yeah, its freakin’ sweet. WARNING: It’s a bit explicit.) Oh, and if you’re really interested, I could very easily tie Rob Zombie to Jimmy Kimmel in less than six degrees. (Three, maybe?) In fact, I can tie myself to Rob Zombie in two, which is frightening.

Ah, and on the Black Sabbath note, we can tie Ozzy Osbourne to The Bee Gees through his cover (along with Dweezil Zappa) of “Stayin’ Alive”, which, I believe, is the way God intended that song to sound. Well, it’s a little cheesy, but the guitar riffs were made Dweezil Zappa.

Serj has his own self-titled album out, in addition to his work with System of a Down. Further, though, he can be tied to Wyclef Jean (“Riot”), hed PE (“Feel Good”), Flea, Brad Wilk(RATM/Audioslave), Tom Morello (RATM/Audioslave) and Pete Yorn (“Where the Streets Have No Name” – Axis of Justice: CHECK THIS OUT!).

Along the Wyclef Jean line, we can follow him, obviously, to The Fugees and then to Lauryn Hill. Lauryn did an amazing cover of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You”, the 1967 Frankie Valli tune, which was interestingly performed by The Pet Shop Boys in their medley of “Where the Streets Have No Name/Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You”. She also covered Queens’ “Bohemian Rhapsody”, unwittingly tying herself to Dana Carvey and Mike Myers, but also to Ours who covered the same song. (Both versions, by the way, are incredibly well done.) She performed Ben E. King’s ”Stand By Me” as well, which was also done by John Lennon.

Lennon’s “Imagine” has been covered by pretty much anyone who’s anyone, including: Blues Traveler, Joan Baez, Neil Young, Live, A Perfect Circle (terrific version), Dave Matthews Band, Queen, Our Lady Peace and Ray Charles.

Queen also, btw, covered “Jailhouse Rock” by none other than Elvis Presley and “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin. Dwight Yokam covered “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, so that ties us right back around to the country genre that we left oh so long ago. We can hook Queen to Zep to Hootie and then from there to REM, Radney Foster and Morrisey. We can then trace Queen to Elvis, who also toured with Johnny Cash and recorded on the same label, Nashville’s own Sun Records (historically in Memphis, but now found on Belmont Blvd in the 37212). From there, we trace back to Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. OH, Gin Blossom, yeah, I forgot, they covered “Folsom Prison Blues”. I think it was on the 20th Century Masters “greatest hits” disc as a live track. So, that’s where they came from. Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson AND Jerry Lee Lewis all covered, individually, “Cold, Cold Heart” by Hank Williams. (Thanks coverproject.com.) We can also tie Ray Charles to Hank through his (Ray’s) cover of “Hey Good Lookin’”. That can then be tied back to John Lennon’s “Imagine” and through “Stand By Me” can be tied back to Lauryn Hill, to Wyclef Jean, to Serj Tankian, to the Foo Fighters (Dave Grohl) to Rob Zombie.

So I’ve tied Hank Williams to Rob Zombie in seven degrees (I think). If you can tie them together in six or less, I’ll buy you a beer the next time I see you.

Onward and upward: Metallica covered “Stone Cold Crazy” by Queen on their Garage Inc. album. (They also covered “Tuesday’s Gone” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, tying them back to Deftones (remember, they covered “Simple Man”) and any band who’s ever actually responded to the ubiquitous “Freebird” cry at any concert below the Mason-Dixon line, of which I’m still very unclear as to the location.) We could go on, really, all night, with Queen covers. Just look them up on www.coversproject.com/, which was a prime source of research for this particular blog.

Anyway, so that’s where the playlist came from. And where the YouTube videos came from. (That seems like it was so long ago, huh?)

Elvis’ “Suspicious Minds” just came on and the intro reminded me of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” for some weird reason. So I think I have to go add that one now. That’s probably gonna have to be a “Yeah, about the playlist… Part Deux” because I’m getting a headache…

Okay, I’ve got 94 songs and I’m out of steam. It’s almost 3 AM and I think I’ve been at this for about 5 hours now. Time for a shower and a nap.

In case you’re wondering, about 80% of this blog is from memory and the other 20% is from a combination of www.coversproject.com and Wikipedia.