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From: e I am)@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Cover Versions
Message-ID: <6221@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 30-Nov-84 09:31:03 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.6221
Posted: Fri Nov 30 09:31:03 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Dec-84 05:56:08 EST
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Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
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Mike Pawka claims that "...in order for a song to qualify as a 'cover' version,
it should get the artist more fame and fortune than the original, or at the
least as much as the original."

Wrongo, Mike -- you're confusing esthetics (or, at least, the judgement of the
buying public [about which Frank Zappa once commented that "Bad Taste is
Timeless"]) with the basic fact of what a cover version is, to wit, a re-make
of any song originally recorded by another artist, no matter how good or bad
the remake may be.

Fame and fortune are totally irrelevant to whether or not a song's a cover
version -- all that matters is whether or not it's the original.  That's not
to say that originality can't be used in creating a cover version, especially
as regards vocal style, instrumentation, and arrangement, but those are matters
of taste and don't make the song any more or less a cover version.

--Dave