Tune du Jour: “Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town” – Talking Heads
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes: Formula 5 vs. Catwalk vs. Beyond the Red Room
VOTE, COMMENT, then DO SOMETHING NICE FOR YOURSELF
CoverMeImpressed.blog CoverMeImpressed.blog CoverMeImpressed.blog
First song on their first album and they had me right there! One of my favorite Talking Heads’ songs.
The Original
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes
How’s this for some interesting band names …
Formula 5 vs. Catwalk vs. Beyond the Red Room
Formula 5:
Catwalk:
Beyond the Red Room:
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 
Such an underappreciated, but great, little song. Sadly, I could find precious few covers of it. But I love the song and pretty much insisted on its inclusion. Digging deep, I had to rely on some pretty lesser-known bands. My covers tend to typically be from well-known artists, but I do find it fun to also include some more obscure bands. Broadens the musical horizons and, as an added bonus, they have a much higher likelihood of responding to me when I reach out on Facebook and Twitter 🙂 ,
Not really all too impressed with any of these efforts. Stating the obvious, Formula 5’s version goes on WAY to long. Catwalk? Okay, I guess. By default, Beyond the Red Room wins my vote today.
The first song from the first Talking Heads album. What a fresh sound it was at the time. Excitingly original. Not knowing anything about the cover artists today gave me a sense of freedom to imagine what I was listening to. I decided that Catwalk was the moniker adopted by Hans Schpitzel whom recorded this in the showroom of a car dealership in Germany with a $50 pawn shop keyboard accompanied by his nephew Rolf on percussion. Beyond The Red Room gets filed under Chaotic Roller Rink music. Entertaining to watch but….
I voted for Formula 5. A lot going on in this lengthy evolution. So many bands and influences ran through my head upon initial listen. The first thing that occurred to me was a new wave Little Feat. The vocal section ended quickly but the overall track was just getting started. A prog rock Robert Palmer stuck his head in, then a Robert Fripp guitar line cut through the slippery funk. The jam started heading towards Phishland with some Zappa and even a little Herbie Hancock sprinkled into the percolating stew. Possibly too long or too weird or unlike The Heads but I really liked it.
I’ve been a fan of Talking Heads from the very beginning. I heard good things about them, so I bought their first album when it came out, and have bought every one since, plus compilations, live stuff, and now all these re-released deluxe editions, which are loaded with all sorts of gems. Can’t get enough of this band.
I wasn’t too thrilled with any of these covers, though. Formula 5’s version is pretty spirited, but it’s just tooooo long. Beyond the Red Room’s version is meh. Kinda sloppy. Catwalk’s version was pretty good, but the fidelity of the recording was pretty awful. I ended up giving it to Catwalk because I like cats.