I just heard the new Transatlantic album, and the 2nd disc is a covers disc. They do a great version of the YES classic And You And I and King Crimson's Indiscipline and more. Can anyone turn me on to other good prog song covers? Sometimes I like the covers better than the originals. A non-prog example would be Jimi Hendrix' version of Bob Dylan's All Along The Watchtower. Thanks...
Day dawns dark...it now numbers infinity.
Jeff Buckleys Back in N.Y.C springs to mind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AS4-cxhsJI
...and there you go.
Thanks Mattias! Good Version!
Day dawns dark...it now numbers infinity.
have a look at the numerous tribute albums (ELP, YES, GENESiS, J.TULL) on the magna carta label. there is some good and surprising material on there. i know that billy sherwood produces many for cleopatra/purple pyramid (?), no idea about their quality though.
Aside from the Magna Carta tributes, Mellow records (Italy?) has put out a number of prog tributes covering the likes of VdGG, Camel, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Yes, Steve Hackett (there's a thread about this one currently out there). There's also a King Crimson tribute (Schizoid Dimension) which is not on Mellow but some other label.
Magenta has released two individual tribute tracks: Wondrous Stories, Lucky Man.
Not quite prog but there are some interesting cover versions of Kate Bush songs out there. On her first album, Pat Benatar does a slightly more up tempo Wuthering Heights for instance.
this might get me thrown in prog jail, but... http://www.amazon.com/Official-Bootl...de+of+the+moon
Panic Room do a great cover of 'Bitches Crystal'.
This is the best DSOTM cover version I've ever heard.. http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Side-Moon...de+of+the+moonOriginally Posted by davis
I'm partial to this one
That was nice... I've got a version of SSOTS that came with a DVD / CD release from Spocks Beard I believe that captured the song quite well..I'm partial to this one
I completely agree with the OP, AncientChord. I often find covers reveal new aspects/avenues to the music. I give below examples of prog songs being covered and of non-prog songs being covered by prog artists.
Many of the Magna Carta tributes are very good. Tales from Yesterday is good, with some great versions, notably Kevin Gilbert/Mike Keneally doing "Siberian Khatru" and Steve Howe/Annie Haslam doing "Turn of the Century". Others appearing include Peter Banks, Patrick Moraz, Billy Sherwood, Robert Berry, Steve Morse &c. I also love Encores, Legends and Paradox, A Tribute to the Music of ELP, particularly "Bitches Crystal" with Pat Mastelotto, John Wetton, Igor Khoroshev and the Gardner bros., and "The Barbarian" with Khoroshev, Simon Phillips and Robert Berry. And there's Working Man – A Tribute to Rush, largely led by Mike Portnoy and with guests including Sean Malone, Steve Morse and James La Brie.
Mellow Records' recent Yes tribute, Tales from the Edge—A Tribute to the Music of Yes, with Jon Davison on one track (recorded shortly before he actually joined Yes) is rather fun. I've not tried any of their other releases though. They tend to use lesser known acts, whereas Magna Carta went for bigger names.
Cleopatra Records churn these things out for all sorts of acts. Their model is also to go for big names, but often it's more about the name than the performance! (There's one track on one release where the guest musician listed only plays for about 8 seconds on the track.) They'll use a core musician/band to do most of the track and have the guests stars email in their parts. That core musician is often Billy Sherwood. I think the results of this approach are often disappointing. There are occasional tracks that work: Keith Emerson/Billy Sherwood doing "Black Dog" on Led Box: The Ultimate Tribute to Led Zeppelin, for example. But I didn't think much of Pigs & Pyramids—An All Star Lineup Performing the Songs of Pink Floyd (there's an OK "Comfortably Numb" with Squire/White/Sherwood), Led Box: The Ultimate Tribute to Led Zeppelin, Abbey Road: A Tribute to The Beatles, or Who are You: An All Star Tribute to The Who.
Then there are more focused projects, one artist exploring another artist's work. Steve Howe's Portraits of Bob Dylan (with Jon Anderson and Geoff Downes guesting) is nice. Son Dylan Howe's new Subterranean: New Designs on Bowie's Berlin is gorgeous.
Henry
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My favorite cover is still Stanley Snail's (Kevin Gilbert, Mike Keneally, Bryan Beller and Nick D'Virgilio) version of Siberian Khatru from the Tales From Yeeterday album.
I was just playing some of Kenso II, and it's actually an instrumental live track of them playing PFM's "Four Holes In the Ground" or "La Luna Nuova" if you prefer the Italian version. I also have the Gerard version of this song, also instrumental. Both quite good. Are the covers better than the orignal, no, but the instrumentation is much different and makes them quite enjoyable.
For entire albums, I'd suggest the two Keyboards Triangle discs. The first is split between Gerard and Ars Nova, the 2nd is all Gerard. Very high energy versions of a lot of classics. I especially like the Ars Nova takes on "Birds" by Trace, and "Epilogo" by Il Balleto Di Bronzo. Plus, it's what turned me on to those classic albums.
Tribute or cover, not sure which, but this is interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBrgCUBAHcg
Michael Hedges -
All along the watchtower- Hendrix
Eminance front- The Who
Tommorow never knows- The Beatles
Pinball wizard- The Who
I don't live today-Hendrix
A love bizzare- Prince
while the artists he covered were not true prog artists, his versions were.
Not by a prog band so much....
The Bad Plus - Prog album of covers
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
Anekdoten - Mars
Like that one a lot.
Kevin Gilberts cover of Back In NYC is amazing....
www.canvasproductions.net
I enjoy Transatlantic's covers a lot, just as I've also enjoyed lots of Neal Morse's covers (sometimes more than actual parent albums from which the sessions are taken); I think his versions of 'Starless' and 'Crazy horses' (ok, that's not originally a prog song...) are great.
I've always had a soft spot for The Flower King's "Cinema Show".
Also, there's a great live album by Marillion called "Friends", which is a set of mostly cover versions. Not much prog there, but it's taking good songs and progging them up Marillion-style.
Shame that Frost's madcap cover of "Fanfare for the common man" got blocked by the Copland estate and couldn't be released. Rumour has it that it was pretty off the wall! ;-)
I can't get enough of this one:
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
Actually, Watchtower is a Dylan song. but now I'm really curious so will have to check out Hedges & his versions of those songs.
Great cover! Different enough to be interesting, and faithful enough to not be jarring.I'm partial to this one
Some of TA's covers of on their new album are very well-done, but probably aren't ones I'll revisit. They're cool for a bonus disc, though.
Mark Kozelek (aka Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon) is the master of the cover song. And he's covered several prog songs:
Yes:
Onward
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbW-8yu-h0U
Long Distance Runaround
Version 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XYDlC0kE4Y
Version 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SljliRIPgU
Genesis:
Follow You Follow Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAYupCNy53A
Carpet Crawlers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7QSlJUV6H0
He's also covered Rush "In The End," BOC "Don't Fear The Reaper" and tons of other classic songs. He even did an entire album of Bon Scott-era AC/DC covers.
^^ I just heard the cover of Follow You Follow me, and it's rather good. Not better than the original, but interestingly different.
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