Tune du Jour: “Break My Mind” – George Hamilton IV
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes: The Flying Burrito Brothers vs. The Byrds vs. Wreckless Eric
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The Original
George Hamilton IV:
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes
The Flying Burrito Brothers vs. The Byrds vs. Wreckless Eric
The Flying Burrito Brothers:
The Byrds:
Wreckless Eric:
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 
Was gettin’ ready to vote for The Flying Burrito Brothers. I liked how they sped up the original. But then Wreckless Eric ran away with it. A good vocal performance. The full band really cooks with electric instruments., and turns a stereotypical country lament into a rip-roaring run-through. Great stuff.
There’s no competition here. The only reason I featured this song was due to my love for Wreckless Eric. He throws it down here with such contagious energy that he blows away the competition, including the sad original.
Weird. I was going to swear that this couldn’t be The Byrds. I looked it up to find that the ‘69 iteration of The Byrds were pulling people onstage at the end of a show. This is Linda Ronstadt on vocals. They also brought a bass player in since Skip Battin didn’t know the song. Released at some point in Japan.
The Wreckless One: Poorly recorded. Very thin and tinny. Pedal steel way in the back. At the 1:38 mark when the guitar solo starts it sounds like it’s catching some wind. Honky Punk.
Burritos: pure bliss! This is what the song should sound like. With the Burritos consisting of 3 former Byrds it makes a good footnote. Parsons was there at the show that featured Ronstadt but didn’t perform.
Yeah, YouTube has the cut but there’s about two minutes of boring pre-song chatter as they get the players in place for the song, which I edited out for the blog entry.
Usually see eye to eye with you on the covers even when we do not vote the same way. But here I could not disagree with you anymore than I do.
I am unfamiliar with this song, and I can live with that. I didn’t particularly like it. As I said in a previous comment, I’m not a country fan. I didn’t like the Burrito Bros version. The Byrds version was awful. Hard to believe this was the Byrds. Wreckless Eric gets my vote for injecting a bit of gusto into the song.
The Byrds and The Burritos are two of my all time favorite bands, so I almost fainted when I saw them in the same competition.
The song is not a favorite at all, and I don’t care for the original. I had never known The Byrds to cover it; sounds like a loose one-off with guest musicians. I’ll consider this a Linda Ronstadt cover.
The Burritos scooped up the kickoff in their own end zone, then zigged and zagged the length of the field, and took it to the house unscathed for the win.