I managed to catch part of the video for the Proclaimers song ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ while I was channel-surfing yesterday. Unfortunately, that one thirty-second encounter last night has left me with that song running through my head all day today.
Anyway, it kind of got me to thinking. I can’t imagine anyone else trying to cover that particular song. Half of what made it so successful was its sound, which was really built on the accents of the original performers. Anyone else’s version would lack that particular element, and the song just wouldn’t sound right without it.
I suppose that this really goes for almost any artist who has a particular vocal style. Sure, songwriters can put a distinctive stamp on their songs–Jim Steinman comes to mind. But when you’re dealing with an artist with a completely unique sound, like the Proclaimers, the song can become inseparable from the performer. (I suspect that this effect is what made the partnership between Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf so productive–Steinman produced such distinctive songs, and then Meat Loaf owned those songs.)
As a matter of fact, a lot of Meat Loaf’s songs, especially the Steinman ones, come to mind when I try to think of other ‘uncoverable’ songs. Alice Cooper’s work wouldn’t be an easy task to cover either.
The interesting thing, in all of these cases, is that the song actually becomes bound up with the performer, leaving the song incomplete without the original artist.
Related posts:
- Album Review: Hang Cool Teddy Bear
- Random Song: Bat Out of Hell
- Random Song: Los Angeloser
- Random Song: Life is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back
- The ten songs that made me like music
Tags: Alice Cooper, Jim Steinman, Meat Loaf