FAO GreenMachine - PSB Springsteen Cover 'Last To Die'
- Thread starter Smurf
- Start date
Greenmachine
Private Member
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2004
I heard this cover of Last to die a year or so ago, and I quite liked it. At first it did seem to me to be a strange
choice of Springsteen song for the PSB's to cover but they done quite a cool version of it with their own style and
to be honest I felt their arrangement added a different perspective to the overall message of the song. I don't see the point in bands/singers doing cover versions of other artists songs and just doing them in more or less the same way. At least the PSB's made a genuine attempt here to put their own style onto a song in a very different way to the original.
In the original song (from the album Magic released in 2007), Bruce quoted the words used by his friend John Kerry upon giving evidence to the Vietnam War hearings in 1971 for the chorus. The whole album was actually a savage commentary of
not only America's foreign policy during the Bush years and in particular the Iraq war, but also the way he felt the
American people had been tricked and deceived by their government regarding the loss of many civil liberties and human rights
which he believed were fundamental to the American way of life. It's fair to say that his public endorsement of both Kerry's and subsequently Obama's presidential campaigns divided his fanbase in the US somewhat and it's never quite recovered to be honest.
Personally I feel he should have kept out of the political side of things...but then I think all celebrities/rock stars etc should just stick to what they do best and keep out of politics.
choice of Springsteen song for the PSB's to cover but they done quite a cool version of it with their own style and
to be honest I felt their arrangement added a different perspective to the overall message of the song. I don't see the point in bands/singers doing cover versions of other artists songs and just doing them in more or less the same way. At least the PSB's made a genuine attempt here to put their own style onto a song in a very different way to the original.
In the original song (from the album Magic released in 2007), Bruce quoted the words used by his friend John Kerry upon giving evidence to the Vietnam War hearings in 1971 for the chorus. The whole album was actually a savage commentary of
not only America's foreign policy during the Bush years and in particular the Iraq war, but also the way he felt the
American people had been tricked and deceived by their government regarding the loss of many civil liberties and human rights
which he believed were fundamental to the American way of life. It's fair to say that his public endorsement of both Kerry's and subsequently Obama's presidential campaigns divided his fanbase in the US somewhat and it's never quite recovered to be honest.
Personally I feel he should have kept out of the political side of things...but then I think all celebrities/rock stars etc should just stick to what they do best and keep out of politics.
Smurf
Private Member
- Joined
- May 15, 2003
I agree totally on your point that cover versions should be to do something very different with the original version of the song. But I also think it should be to retain the integrity of the song. Brandon Flowers of The Killers is a massive PSB fan and it sounded more to me that they were almost doing the cover in the style of The Killers.