Tune du Jour: “Little Red Corvette” – Prince
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes: Automatic Shoes vs. Paul Kelly vs. Sarah Bettens vs. Gear Daddies
VOTE, COMMENT, then DO SOMETHING NICE FOR YOURSELF
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I was never much of a Prince fan back in the day. But I am kind of learning to respect him a bit now.
The Original
Prince:
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes
Automatic Shoes vs. Paul Kelly vs. Sarah Bettens vs. Gear Daddies
Automatic Shoes:
Where do bands come up with their names?
Paul Kelly:
Sarah Bettens:
If you like Sarah’s cover, there’s another version with her and a keyboard player on YouTube that is also very good. It was hard to decide which one I should feature.
Gear Daddies:
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 
Don’t care too much for this song. So, I would have preferred a radical rework of the arrangement. Instead, all 4 covers take pretty much the same approach. Went with Automatic Shoes for the vocals, which were nice.
Never been into Prince, although I did see the film Purple Rain about forty years ago. When he died about a decade ago, I was playing music trivia once a week at a local watering hole. Between that crowd, and my co-workers, vast numbers of people in my world responded like he was their favorite artist, or very close to it. I knew he was very popular, but that response was memorable. Highlight of the video was his dancing.
I voted Gear Daddies. I had one track by them on a compilation from years ago, but barely knew of them. Then Dubbs, in the first CMI era, urged me to give them more consideration. I ended up buying all three of their CDs and really enjoying them. Thanks for the tip, Dubbs.
🙂
Automatic Shoes and Paul Kelly acquit themselves very well in fairly straightforward covers.
LOVE the raw solo performance by Sarah Bettens. Like I said in the post there is also a more polished version of her doing the song along with a keyboardist at a radio station. Also well worth taking in.
BUT …
The Gear Daddies are one of those bands that you discover (actually discovered by Pete) and are just immediately blown away. These guys wrote beautifully poignant songs, along with some clever goofy ones, and just had such an infectious sound. Apparently, for a while, they were the range of Minneapolis They put out two fantastic studio albums, with one great song after another, followed by an oddities album of great covers and fun live performances. Man I would have loved to have seen these guys. One of a million bands that inexplicably did not hit it big. Obviously, they won my vote.
I’ve always thought that Prince was proof that Jimi Hendrix planted one in Little Richard when he was a sideman in his group. A close vote today, especially between Automatic Shoes and The Gear Daddies. I voted for Automatic Shoes. I don’t know who they are but I like their take. Sarah Betters looked like she could be the offspring of Johnny Thunders and Michelle Malone to keep my vile theme. A bit too hushed and shy to win.