When Linda Ronstadt Made Mick Jagger Write Down the Words to a Classic Rolling Stones Song

Far Out Magazine ^ | TUE 11TH JUL 2023 | Tyler Golsen

[nickcarraway]

I guess he was under her thumb, her beast of burden.

[wardaddy]

Is it possible for writers today not to virtue signal and view all recorded history prior to last two seconds as morally pejorative?

No is thy answer

It’s not

[SunkenCiv]

That’s one of the problems cover bands have.

[nickcarraway]

You mean knowing the exact words?

[nickcarraway]

Well, if they acknowledge that past songs and movies don’t have to be correct, they might realize their standards are stupid and don’t work. And we can’t have that.

[SunkenCiv]

No, as in, cover bands never write anything.

[nickcarraway]

When Kim Carnes recorded Bette Davis Eyes, she had never heard the idiomatic phrase, Make a crow blush," (same) so she thought it was , "Make a pro blush."

[SunkenCiv]

Now there’s a woman who could pull it off, even though she can’t sing. :^)

[wiki-wacky: “written and composed by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon in 1974.”]

[KevinB]

Not among my favorites of theirs.

[nickcarraway]

The Jackie DeShannon version is very different, so they had a lot of vision to do the Kim Carnes version. (Which ended up being the 2nd biggest hit of the 80s.)

Kim Carnes - Under My Thumb (Live On Fridays)

[KevinB]

...so she thought it was , "Make a pro blush."

One of the most cringe worthy lines in all of music. Right up there with, "Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain."

[montag813]

Taylor Swift would whine about the ‘misogyny’ of such a song and refuse to cover it. Music and musicians suck these days.

[montag813]

Kim Carnes - Under My Thumb (Live On Fridays)

Fridays! That was a great, underrated show.

[nickcarraway]

I don’t think she covers songs, because she makes a lot of money from royalties.

[bleach]

The only covers she does is her own. All her Big Machine catalogue is being redone as “Taylor Versions” . She gets all the royalties.

[AAABEST]

He’s can’t just shut-up and write an article. Moralization where intros once were.

[Boogieman]

Yeah, there were no lyric sheets in “Exile”, and that would have been a difficult track to guess all the lyrics on.

Fun fact: Otis Redding and the Stax band did a lot of covers, but they didn’t have lyric sheets for most of the songs. They would just go downstairs to the record store and stand around a record player listening to the original and trying to write down the lyrics as best they could. This led to some pretty funny misheard lyrics in their covers, including their version of “Satisfaction”, where “I can’t get no girly action” becomes “I can’t get no good reaction”, etc.

[Dr. Sivana]

No, as in, cover bands never write anything.

There is no requirement to write if you can perform. Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra wrote little, but made the songs their own. Artie Shaw did not write "Begin the Beguine", but he sure made it into something much better . (He improved on Cole Porter!)

Christopher Cross could write, but needed a LOT of studio processing for his singing to be minimally acceptable. (Carol King would be an example of someone who could do both. She is the exception.)

Most of the rockers who "write their own" cannot even consistent come up with true rhymes. (Elton John got around this by having a true lyricist, Bernie Taupin, among others to help most of the time).

[NorthMountain]

Some folks try to judge the past by the standards of the present.

I prefer to judge the present by the standards of the past. The present often fares badly by comparison.

[Dr. Sivana]

My sister was the lead singer in a local Country Music band in Connecticut years ago. She would buy the 45. Mishear the Juice Newton lyrics (Queen of Hearts), sing the wrong lyrics, and no one cared.