Tune du Jour: “Out of Time” – The Rolling Stones
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes: Elvis Costello and The Imposters vs. The Ramones vs. The Winstons
VOTE, COMMENT, then DO SOMETHING NICE FOR YOURSELF
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The Original
The Rolling Stones:
I’ve always loved this song. Such attitude and verve! It really epitomizes The Stones and how they’ve tried to represent themselves. Highly under-appreciated in my opinion.
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes
Elvis Costello and The Imposters vs. The Ramones vs. The Winstons
Elvis Costello and The Imposters:
The Ramones:
Kerry bought me this cd for which I am eternally grateful …
The Winstons:
This was just a little side project of Frankie and me in our teenaged years …
SPACE
Oh the disharmony! Much like Harlan County there are no neutrals here. It is your solemn responsibility to decide which cover song prevails. In other words … Which Side Are You On!??!
Disclaimer: Votes cast from Florida may or may not be counted.
cover me impressed 
Wasn’t crazy about the bland, lo-fi version by The Winstons. It came down to Elvis vs The Ramones. I think if the Ramones had really given the song the Ramones treatment, it might have snagged my vote. But they do a short, surprisingly un-Ramonesy version that fell kinda short. Meanwhile, Elvis really belts this one out, hitting all those high notes. Elvis has always been a good live performer, and he doesn’t disappoint here. He got my vote.
I like the original a lot, and I’ll agree it’s under-appreciated. I never heard it on radio as much as many of their other early songs. It wasn’t on Big Hits (High Tide and green Grass) or Through The Past Darkly or even Hot Rocks, although that was a two record set.
The Winstons’ version sounds similar to the original and the sound quality isn’t the greatest.
Tough call between Elvis and The Ramones. That Ramones album is atypical of their usual sound, but I still really like it. I’m gonna vote Elvis in a close call.
This was not a fair fight. Ramones and Winstons, thanks for playing but Elvis and his boys have the gravitas, in-your-face attitude and pure energy needed to pull off a song of this nature.
Thanks for this one. I just re-watched the film “Coming Home,” an Academy Award winner from 1978, with my son who had never seen the film or jrsrd about its exceptional soundtrack. You may recall that the original of this song launches the film and plays as the opening credits roll. I have always thought that Hal Ashby’s use of period Vietnam-era music in this film was brilliant. I also understand that the Rolling Stones have hardly ever performed it in their many decades of live shows which makes no sense to me given the song’s brilliance.
As for these covers I give my vote to The Ramones although Elvis Costello does pack emotion into his live version.
I voted Ramones over Elvis mostly because I think the song sounds better at 2:41 than 5 minutes. Rich told me this Stones version came from the UK Aftermath edition. Much longer than the 3:46 version from Flowers.