Tune du Jour: “Christmas” – The Who
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes: The Smithereens vs. The Burrito Brothers vs. Big Fish Ensemble
VOTE, COMMENT, then DO SOMETHING NICE FOR YOURSELF
CoverMeImpressed.blog CoverMeImpressed.blog CoverMeImpressed.blog
The Original
The Who:
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes
The Smithereens vs. The Burrito Brothers vs. Big Fish Ensemble
The Smithereens:
The Burrito Brothers:
Big Fish Ensemble:
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 
I’m a big Who fan—big big—and Tommy is my favorite album of theirs. Yes, I like it better than Quadrophenia. Deal with it, motherfuckers. This track has always been one of my faves. There’s that excellent moment where Daltrey lets out a brief, full-throated “YEAAH!”, a little teaser of the volcanic one we’d get a few years later in Won’t Get Fooled Again.
I’ve always had a soft spot for The Smithereens, so I figured their cover would be solid, and it is. But dang, it’s almost too faithful. It sounds like it an outtake of some long-lost Who session. Nice energy, but no “YEAAH,” which I feel should be a federal requirement.
The Burrito Brothers? I was weirdly intrigued, especially when I saw the runtime of over six minutes. I braced myself for that shouted iconic opener (“DID YOU EVER SEE…”), but instead got a twangy, slow-burn that I didn’t expect to enjoy… yet I did. The vocals are great. The singer sounds truly passionate and desperate. He even nails the “YEAAH.” And then… wtf?!! It morphs into a Sparks/Pinball Wizard/whatever-the-hell medley with a bloated, torturous ending, and the spell evaporated. Sad.
Big Fish Ensemble also bring some good ideas, but the vocals are too subdued—especially on “Tommy, can you hear me?” which comes off more like Tommy, I’m trying not to wake the neighbors. And then… Joy to the World? Again, wtf?! Why? Truly, why? They rally at the end, but it couldn’t be rescued.
In the end, The Smithereens get my vote—not the most inventive cover, but the most reverent.
Not surprisingly, The Smithereens knocked out a fine cover of this tune.
The Burrito Brothers (minus the Flying) did an okay job but it was too long and ponderous making me lose interest in a song that is supposed to be energetic.
My vote goes to my hometown favorite, Big Fish Ensemble, for belting out a smashingly fun rendition that The Who would have been proud of! (and seeing them do it live around the holidays was such a treat … great memories!)
I never bought anything by The Smithereens, and I don’t know much of their material, but I like what I’ve heard. I thought today’s cover was good, but perhaps a little too similar to the original. I voted for them because nobody else outdid them.
I’m dismissive and disdainful of The Burrito Brothers cuz they’re a bunch of nobodies who never met any of the original band members, making weak recordings more than half a century after Parsons’ death. So they get zero points from me. Check that, they get a negative score for featuring Parsons’ photo in the video, as well as a brief snippet of an interview with him from the early seventies. By the way, this cover came out in 2023. Parsons was on board for two studio LPs. Hillman remained for an additional studio record and was featured on a live album. Then a couple of the backing guys hired a few empty suits and limped along for a short time before leaving. It a sacrilege that people still use the name. The latter day material I’ve heard sounds like an average bar band. I’m also still rankled by the fact I foolishly bought a live CD at Amoeba in Berkeley in the nineties. The photo showed the real band from the early seventies, but I got it without reading the fine print indicating the recording was from many years later. Charlatans! Imposters! Fraudsters!
The third act threw me off by inexplicably inserting “Joy To The World” at one point. One of the biggest “wtf” moments we’ve seen on this site since somebody injected “The Candy Man” into an Echo & The Bunnymen cover a couple weeks ago.
I guess I’d call this a pleasant surprise. Not one of the first 40 or 50 songs to come to mind via The Who. Obviously timely. Smithereens very impressively but also pointlessly created a carbon copy. This group calling themselves Burrito Brothers- Chris Hillman wouldn’t let them use Flying – sound like two bands with the drummer and singer playing Rock Band while the pedal steel player thinks he’s with the bygone version of the band. An apparition of Gram Parsons shows up and the whole weirdness lasts over six minutes. Not even sure what to say. They are professional musicians but WHY? Big Fish Ensemble won my vote with the most inventive version. Good memories of those players from my Atlanta days. Always like Sheila on fiddle.