Imagine

Al's Handlink

Project QL Intern
Mar 18, 2004
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Bristol, Connecticut
I meant to post this yesterday, but I forgot.

In The Leap Home Part 1, Scott sings Imagine. I have always thought that he would have made John Lennon proud with his rendition of it. On my cd of the Quantum Leap Soundtrack, Scott singing Imagine, it's one of my favorite tracks. Now that being said, the reason for this post.

Yesterday morning, I saw something that was just............. wrong. I woke up and put the TV on CMT and what I saw just defied explination. Dolly Parton was doing a cover of Imagine. She had old video of Lenno and Yoko Ono in the video, but still, there are just some things you don't do.

There are occasions where when someone else does a cover of an old song, it actually ends up sounding better than the original.

Case in point, The song Last Kiss. When J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers origionally did the song in 1964 (or there abouts), the singer just sounded way to happy that his girlfriend was just killed in a car accident.

When Pearl Jam redid the song in 1999, it blew the original away. Eddie Vedder's voice and style are absoulutly perfect for the song and they did the song proud

This was not the case with Dolly Parton doing a cover of Imagine. I mean, if they wanted to put a country twist on Imagine, They should have had Brad Paisley, Garth Brooks, Toby Kieth, or Tim McGraw do it. I think one of them could have done the song justice, just like Scott did.

I don't know, I just had to mention that because I know that there are people on this board that like Imagine as much as I do, and it annoyed me to see Dolly Parton singing it.
 
I can do one worse. Rapper Ludacris has recently sampled the song "Georgia On My Mind" by Ray Charles and made the most utter, lazy, piece of crap I've ever heard in my life with it. He raps throughout it and for the chorus you hear Ray Charles in the background singing, "Georgia, Georgiaaa." After listening in horror I had to change the station. Yes, there are some things YOU JUST DON'T DO!
 
QL Nut said:
I can do one worse. Rapper Ludacris has recently sampled the song "Georgia On My Mind" by Ray Charles and made the most utter, lazy, piece of crap I've ever heard in my life with it. He raps throughout it and for the chorus you hear Ray Charles in the background singing, "Georgia, Georgiaaa." After listening in horror I had to change the station. Yes, there are some things YOU JUST DON'T DO!

I heard that version too Chris, and it about made me cry. It was like blasphemy!

Tom, that's horrible! You know how much I hate country and to have any song I like (ESPECIALLY "Imagine") redone in a country way or sung my a country person....*shudders*. That "Last Kiss" remake was soooo much better than the original, completely agree. The singer WAS way too happy in the original, and the remake really did make me cry.

Samantha Beckett
 
Someone rapped over another Ray Charles song too. I don't remember which one, but it was just wrong.

Another song that really annoys me that was remade is Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing". Makr Chestnut remade it and absoulutly butchered it. I have always hated the fact that it was redone
 
Al's Handlink said:
Someone rapped over another Ray Charles song too. I don't remember which one, but it was just wrong.

That was "Gold Digger" by Kanye West. Jamie Foxx is also in the song and actually does an imitation of Ray Charles' voice (as a nod to his role as Ray Charles in the movie Ray) in the opening. I never heard the original song so it didn't seem as butchered to me as "Georgia On My Mind."

Al's Handlink said:
Another song that really annoys me that was remade is Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing". Makr Chestnut remade it and absoulutly butchered it. I have always hated the fact that it was redone

I never heard about that but it sounds horrible. I don't think any song is safe! It's one thing for a band to do a cover song from another band (all bands do it anyway), as the case was with Pearl Jam, but it's another to take a song and dissect it for a rap song. Although, I have to admit sometimes it doesn't sound that bad...but overall they really just need to leave things alone.

There's also another cover version of "Imagine" done by the band A Perfect Circle. But their take was to turn the song into a much darker and depressing version (which it is) with lower chords. It was interesting to hear at first, but I don't like it at all.
 
QL Nut said:
That was "Gold Digger" by Kanye West. Jamie Foxx is also in the song and actually does an imitation of Ray Charles' voice (as a nod to his role as Ray Charles in the movie Ray) in the opening. I never heard the original song so it didn't seem as butchered to me as "Georgia On My Mind."

"Gold Digger" is a Ray Charles song? I never heard the original song either, and I love that Kanye West song!

QL Nut said:
There's also another cover version of "Imagine" done by the band A Perfect Circle. But their take was to turn the song into a much darker and depressing version (which it is) with lower chords. It was interesting to hear at first, but I don't like it at all.

When Tom posted first about this, I knew there was another version of Imagine that was done and I nearly killed myself trying to remember who remade it, and it was A Perfect Circle! I love that group so much and I love that version. Of course, I am a die hard to the death Beatle's fan, and most remakes of their songs would make me cringe, but I really like the way A Perfect Circle did it. Plus, the Beatles remade some songs of their own too..."Twist" being one that I can remember.

Samantha Beckett
 
That was "Gold Digger" by Kanye West. Jamie Foxx is also in the song and actually does an imitation of Ray Charles' voice (as a nod to his role as Ray Charles in the movie Ray) in the opening. I never heard the original song so it didn't seem as butchered to me as "Georgia On My Mind."

Trust me on this. It was enough to make me want to puncture my ear drums.

Originally Posted by QL Nut
I never heard about that but it sounds horrible.

Do you know how Steven Tyler sings:

"I Don't wanna close my eyes. I don't wanna fall asleep, cause I'ld miss ya baby, And I don't want to miss a thing. Cause even when I dream of you, the sweetest dream would never do. I'ld still miss you Baby, and I don't want to miss a thing."

In Mark Chestnut's version, he doesn't say the word baby, and it is noticably missing. For me, the Baby makes the song, and it's not there. Therefore, I can not listen to Mark Chestnut's version.

Another song that was redone, that I really like how they did it, Cake redid "I Will Survive" in 97 (or again, thereabouts) for their Fashion Nugget Album and they put their own twist on it and it sounds excellent.

*And with this post, I get promoted to a Pulse Communications Tehnician

WOOHOO
 
Samantha_Beckett said:
"Gold Digger" is a Ray Charles song? I never heard the original song either, and I love that Kanye West song!

I don't know what the original song is, but "Gold Digger" is all Kanye's. He just uses a sample. And I liked it for a bit too, until it became the most killed song on the radio!

Samantha_Beckett said:
When Tom posted first about this, I knew there was another version of Imagine that was done and I nearly killed myself trying to remember who remade it, and it was A Perfect Circle! I love that group so much and I love that version. Of course, I am a die hard to the death Beatle's fan, and most remakes of their songs would make me cringe, but I really like the way A Perfect Circle did it. Plus, the Beatles remade some songs of their own too..."Twist" being one that I can remember.

Yes, they had an interesting take on the song, even though I don't like it all that much. But I love their song "Passive" which is on that same album. I never heard the rest of it, though.