Cultural Note
Posted on December 16, 2004 Posted by John Scalzi 21 Comments
The Scissor Sisters version of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” is as close to a musical atrocity as we’ve had in the last year. I pronounce jihad on the lot of them, and after they’re rounded up, they should be forced to listen to non-stop playings of Triumph and Fastway.
That is all.
Scissors Sisters?
Yup. Fixed.
Oh thank heavens…here I am googling for the atrocity, much like a yokel rubbernecking at a car wreck or a pinhead watching reality TV. Scissor Sisters makes much more sense than a 1970’s era movie.
Yeah. One of my friends loves them. I threatened blunt force trauma if the CD was not removed…
I caught about one minute (before I turned it off) of the Scissor Sisters on Saturday Night Live last week. WTF? Seriously, how do acts like that get signed???
I take issue with Triumph as punishment, though…
The who now?
Your right about the Scissor Sisters, but man, way off base on Triumph and Fastway (but I’m glad to see that you at least know those old school bands). Maybe you should have suggested somthing like Sepletura.
No, not The Who, I think they are talking about the Scissor Sisters. :)
Yeah, I’m getting flak from the Triumph and Fastway fan clubs, apparently. But come on. FASTWAY. They’re who you settle for when Y&T is unavailable for your Brats & Beers party.
Ah, but check out Korn’s cover of The Wall…disturbingly good!
Most predictable cover of the year: Marilyn Manson doing Personal Jesus. I think I called that in ’98.
Korn’s Wall cover made me like Korn, for just a minute. The Scissor Sisters should be abandoned on an electricity-free island. And, just to be sure, their vocal cords should be removed and all trees, shells, rocks–and anything else an instrument could be made of–should be carted away too.
That was the single most ghastly thing I’ve heard since… since… since I last heard a really ghastly thing.
See, here’s the thing that I really, really, REALLY disliked about Korn’s cover of “Brick in the Wall (Parts I, II & III) (other than the facts that their lead singer makes Roger Waters sound like Pavarotti, their guitar falls laughably short of Gilmour’s nimble fretwork, and the song lacks the context of the Wall album as a whole): it actually started off kind of well before devolving into atrocity.
The remake that I started off thinking, “WTF?” and ended up really, really, REALLY liking? A Perfect Circle’s cover of “Imagine”. The minor key gives it a nicely cynical tone.
What is it with all the bands doing covers these days, anyway?
Isn’t disco dead again yet?
That “cover” of Comfortably Numb is done as if it’s a tribute to the Bee Gees at the same time… it’s a sin against nature.
Wow. I wonder if this is as bad as the Cardigans’ trip-hop cover of “Iron Man,” a cover so godawful I only heard it on the radio once.
That really is bad (at least the 30 second free snippet on iTunes Music Store, which is about 29 seconds too long for me).
Yes, that is even worse than my previously-considered-worst cover (Madonna’s “American Pie”).
(I just went through a several post long run of blogging about cover songs, so this is quite timely.)
I guess discophobia came back with disco.
Yeah, the cover of “Comfortably Numb” sucks (but so did The Wall, zing!), but have you heard “Take Your Mama Out”? Great single. And even the cover is nowhere near a “musical atrocity”.
Pfttt… y’all ain’t experienced Tha’ Floyd till y’ve heard it in the original Bluegrass! Yee-Haw!!!!
http://www.lutherwright.com/mp3s/luther_wright_&_the_wrongs–Rebuild_the_Wall–Goodbye_Blue_sky.mp3
Oh my. Now I’ve gone on Rhapsody to listen to the whole “Rebuild the Wall” album. I blame you, has.
I think the needle got stuck near the beginning. Do they think any phrase worth repeating is worth repeating twice too much? Have they taken Steven Reich (come out to show them) lessons? Can I do anything other than post rhetorical questions?
They took that song, which was drifting into a heroin nod, and injected cocaine directly into its heart. Then they covered it in rhinestones and glitter and sent it down the runway on roller skates.
I don’t think it was meant as a tribute, but as a perversion. And they did a fabulous job of that.
“They took that song, which was drifting into a heroin nod, and injected cocaine directly into its heart. Then they covered it in rhinestones and glitter and sent it down the runway on roller skates.”
Just what the world needs: A prog rock disco speedball.