Creating a show and playlist of cover songs is about as easy as it gets. There are hundreds of thousands of songs from which to select, and many of them are some of the most well-known songs ever written. However, the point of the Faux Show is to learn about music, not present music we all already know. This new series is called Cover Stories because its goal is to present interesting information about covers and the original songs from which they were born. The series will present a mix of familiar and unknown versions of songs, but always with the goal of presenting stories with which you may not be familiar. I’ve included the original versions and the covers so that you can listen to them both and think about the interpretations in terms of artistry, commercial value, and other aspects deemed important by the cover artists. With such a deep pool from which to select, there is no order or importance of songs being presented. I’m just going to dive right in and get started.
Bike
P-Model were a great Japanese band who you have probably never heard. They were born in 1979 out of a Japanese prog-rock band called Mandrake. Their first decade of music was a mix of rock and new-wave, but they found later success in the ‘90s as an electronic-pop band. I don’t know enough about them to say that they are important in the history of Japanese music. Streaming services barely provide access to any of their music, although there are a couple of their ’80s albums available and some ’90s album on YouTube. They may not seem like an obvious choice for starting this series, but their cover of Pink Floyd’s “Bike” is a perfect example of what this series is about.
The original version of “Bike” was written by Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett for their debut album Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. The tragically quick rise and fall of Syd Barrett is a story you can research yourself with a few Google clicks. The song “Bike” is one of his best and most well-known compositions. It isn’t a psych-rock masterpiece like “Astronomy Domine,” which showcases Barrett’s psychedelic guitar mastery. Instead, it is a short, surreal story about a girl, a bike, a pet mouse, and some odd location where he takes her.
This is the type of song that Barrett was much more prone to write. It is similar to his later solo work, and is considered a high-water mark in the history of British psychedelic music. It was also a perfect ending for the album. The final minute or two are musique concrete featuring odd bicycle sounds, otherworldly audio, and backwards laughing. The group’s live shows in ’66 and ’67, this 1967 album, and especially this song had a direct influence on the long list of psychedelic compositions that took over the recording industry in 1967. The song has had a long life and continues to be covered and performed by a variety of artists.
Faux Jr. recently introduced me to the 1984 cover version by P-Model. It is a parodic cover, especially since the lyrics, when translated into Japanese, do not fit into a proper rhythmic structure. This is what gives the cover such an interesting sound. The time signatures are odd because of the way the Japanese lyrics fit into the song. The toy piano is created on a Yamaha synthesizer and the iconic reverb beats at the end of each chorus are clipped, giving the song an interesting flow. They remove the musique concrete ending but provide the dropped tempo last verse of the original, almost like a clock winding down.
This is a perfect example of a cover song recorded merely for the sake of covering a song. P-Model had to have known this was not going to be a hit for them. I doubt it was even a single. It is simply a song that they liked, played live, and decided to put on their album. I imagine that it has introduced some Pink Floyd fans to P-Model and some Japanese pop fans to Pink Floyd.
There are hundreds of thousands of examples of this type of cover, and most of them are forgettable and ignored. This one has lived on for forty years as a song that people continue to discover and enjoy, serving the dual purpose of all great covers – introducing the original to people who have never heard it and introducing the cover artist to people who know the original.
I Love Rock & Roll
“I Love Rock & Roll” is most likely the greatest story of a song working its way through multiple versions and finally becoming an iconic song known by everyone who listens to pop music.
Originally recorded in 1975 by the British rock band Arrows, the song was released as a B-side to the band’s single “Broken Down Heart.” This original version does not have the raw power for which the song is known. The guitars drop in and out from underneath the drums and vocals, and the riff is entirely forgettable. The drums and guitar solo are simplistic, and all of the trademark aspects of the song we all know aren’t included. Even so, it was immediately recognized as the standout track of the single. In order to capitalize on the unexpected success of the tune, the band went back into the studio and recorded their own cover of the song and released it as an A-side with “Broken Down Heart” as the new B-side.
This second version provided the well-known structure of the song, with the familiar riff that everyone knows. The drum production packs a punch, the guitar adds the “yow-oh” after the chorus, and the song ends with handclaps, shout chorus, and that fantastic single note repeated guitar line. The song didn’t chart in the U.S., but it was a big enough hit in England to get the band a weekly television show. On its own, this is a great story and places the song in a wonderful subcategory of songs in which a band re-records its own tune in order to have a hit and/or to regain ownership of their material. The most successful songs in this group include Tommy Edwards’ “It’s All In The Game” (hit #18 in 1951 and #1 in 1958 after re-recording) and Taylor Swift’s recent re-recording of her entire albums Fearless and Red.
While touring with The Runaways in 1976, Joan Jett saw Arrows perform the song on their television show and stored it away as a song to be covered when she had the chance. Three years later in 1979, after both Arrows and The Runaways had become defunct, Jett recorded the song as a B-side to her single “You Don’t Own Me” from her self-titled debut (later released as the album Bad Reputation). Both sides of this single included Sex Pistols members Steve Jones (guitar) and Paul Cook (drums). This first Jett cover version of “I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll” follows the structure of the Arrows second version, but much like the original version it is raw and simplistic. Not to disparage the musicianship of Jones and Cook, but their playing has always been very basic. The guitar solo on the track is forgettable and the drums are minimal. The handclaps are there but don’t add much to the overall production, the shout chorus is thin, and Jett doesn’t imitate the “Yow-oh” found on the Arrows version.
As a B-side that isn’t even included on the album, there is nothing wrong with this cover version, but Jett clearly felt that there was something missing and that the song deserved a second chance. Pulling together all of the best aspects of the first three versions, she once again covered the song and made it the title track of her second album. This fourth version of the song was the charm, and it finally got the attention that it had always deserved. It was a #1 Billboard hit for seven weeks, it is one of the most successful videos of the early days of MTV, and is now a rock and roll standard. Since 1981, the song has been recorded by hundreds of artists and has been a hit for Britney Spears and LadBaby, not to mention Weird Al’s “I Love Rocky Road” parody version.
The reason the song is now a classic is due to Jett, her band, and her production team finally realizing something that should have been evident with the original version, but was mysteriously ignored. That is, when you write and record a rock and roll anthem devoted to loving rock and roll, you need to treat the song like an anthem which shows how much you love rock and roll! Jett’s final version finally does this. Listening to the song now, and watching that iconic black and white video, makes anyone from the original MTV generation who likes rock and roll stand up and raise a fist for the love of rock and roll!
Bruce Springsteen and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
Sometimes a cover version can provide success to both the original artist and the cover artist. There are thousands of examples of this, especially in the early days of R&B, blues, country, and rock and roll. If a songwriter can write a song that another artist can turn into a hit, it can often launch their own career. In the early ‘70s, this was especially true for songwriters such as Jackson Browne, Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, Carole King, and others. It was also true for Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen’s first album, Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, was not as successful as it would become years later. It was locally recognized but did not provide any chart success or national popularity, even though it was critically successful. After recording two albums in 1973, neither of which produced any hits, Springsteen spent the next two years working on his breakthrough album Born To Run. That album is now about as famous as a rock record can get but its success in 1975 was not enough to prove that Springsteen had any staying power. He was just one of dozens of rock artists trying to sell albums in 1975, and there was no promise that he would become BRUCE! Therefore, it can’t be overstated that his success was impacted by an incredibly well-timed cover of one of his first songs. However, the link between the two artists is not as simple as it may appear.
In 1975 Manfred Mann’s Earth Band needed material for their new album, and someone suggested a song by Bruce Springsteen. It was originally released in 1973 on Springsteen’s debut but is NOT “Blinded By The Light.” The song was “Spirit In The Night,” which Mann renamed “Spirits In The Night.” Springsteen’s original is now a classic of his early period. Instead of the guitars upon which much of his debut album is focused, the song is driven by a Clarence Clemons sax riff, piano, bass, and drums, the song is the most soulful on Springsteen’s debut. The story is the least obtuse of the entire record. Opting for a straightforward lyrical technique instead of the Dylan-inspired poetry found on most of the other songs on the album, Springsteen guides the listener through a nostalgic tale of youthful lust and discovery. As a song to cover, it is the most obvious choice on the album, especially for a ’60s pop band turned ’70s arena rock band.
The Manfred Mann’s Earth Band cover was sung by vocalist Mick Rogers and released on their 1975 album Nightingales and Bombers, one month before Born To Run was released. The success of Born To Run led the band to release their cover as a single in 1976, and it peaked at #97. The single version is edited to remove the extended Mann keyboard solo, but the keyboards are still prevalent as they are used to replace the Clemons sax riff of the original. There are other notable differences from the original as well, including the use of violins and female backing vocalists on the chorus. Overall, the song has a more soulful feel to it, although Rogers’ vocals aren’t as compelling as Springsteen’s from a storytelling aspect. Still, this single brought attention to Mann and Springsteen, along with the dollars created by a Hot 100 hit on US radio.
This moderate success was enough to make Mann realize that there may be something more to gain from Springsteen covers, so in 1976 they recorded “Blinded By The Light” for their new album The Roaring Silence. The original version of the song was the world’s introduction to Bruce Springsteen. Driven by Springsteen’s now trademark guitar-work and the sax and keyboard sound of this first version of the E Street Band, the lyrics weave a Dylan-esque story of characters attempting to succeed in a world built to destroy them. The song was not a hit, but Mann’s production team clearly saw that if they could arrange the song similarly to how they reworked “Spirits In The Night” then maybe they could have a Top 40 hit. Replacing the guitars with Mann’s keyboards and handing vocal duties over to Chris Thompson instead of Mick Rogers, the cover took on a life of its own. They might have thought they had a hit on their hands, but amazingly, to both the band and Springsteen, this cover was a #1 hit – the first for Springsteen as a songwriter. The controversy around the mispronounced lyric of “douche” instead of “deuce” has since been explained by the band as an error due to recording technology, but that odd pronunciation, the brilliance of the original, and the new arrangement have made the song a rock and roll classic. As for what Springsteen thought of the cover, one thing is for sure – he loved the royalty payments. The combination of Born to Run’s success and this #1 hit finally gave him the financial freedom to demand future albums be recorded and promoted as he wished. He was able to move away from the “future of rock and roll” label with which he was unfortunately tagged, and start to work without such ridiculous expectations.
Amazingly, the connection between Springsteen’s debut album and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band does not stop there. After scoring their #1 hit, the band decided to re-record “Spirits In The Night,” this time with Chris Thompson on vocals. This version hit #40. There is not much difference between the two Mann covers of the song, but this version provides just enough changes, including the superior vocals of Thompson and better use of the female vocals, that it was able to capitalize on the success of their #1 hit.
Still not through, the band recorded yet another cover of a song from Springsteen’s debut album, the wonderful “For You,” and released it as a single in 1980 for their new album Chance. By 1980, the band had moved into an ELO-inspired new wave period, much like other ’60s acts who found success with this sound such as Moody Blues and The Kinks. The Mann synths and the production of an actual video place the song firmly in the realm of 1980 rock and roll, but it was sadly not a hit.
Also of interest, Greg Kihn covered “For You” (before Mann) on his 1977 album Greg Kihn Again, a cover which Springsteen found to his liking. This makes sense because Greg Kihn’s form of rock and roll was very similar to Springsteen’s.
Anyone who likes Springsteen but has never listened to Greg Kihn would be wise to search out his first few records since there is more to his band than the early ‘80s new wave MTV hits.
This marked the end of the magical Springsteen cover success for Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. In all three of these Springsteen covers, the band did not stay true to the original. Their cover versions all provide new interpretations of the songs, and all work as well-produced singles. This quality of greatness in a song is what makes cover versions such an important part of the popular music canon. When a song is good, it is good, no matter how it is presented.
That wraps up Part One of this series. There will be many more to come. In the meantime, as always, thanks for listening (and reading)!
As always, there is a playlist of this show’s songs.
The Radio Faux Show 
One thought on “Radio Faux Show Volume 3, Number 11: Cover Stories (Part One)”