I was listening in on an impassioned online debate recently when preparing this podcast as to whether it’s ever legitimate for a male artist to interpret a female cover. The consensus was yes, when it’s respectful and preferably if it reinterprets the original and throws a new light on its power. No, if the lyrics make it creepy. Or worse.
Fair commentary. All the tracks on this episode add a new dimension to their source material. I’ve long been a fan of bands that you’ll seldom, if ever, hear on this programme in the normal run of things, such as the Carpenters, but I’m not alone there - Sonic Youth, come on down, with their devastating reading of Superstar, a most unsettling anthem to obsessives everywhere.
For me, there was often (but not always) a bristling, suppressed rage at the injustice of how women are treated in the songs of Abba. And, the double twist, Abba songs are written by a man for a woman to sing.
Angel Eyes is a good example. Seen from the pov of a woman who’s been hypnotized then abandoned by a Svengali figure, the song finds a new niche through John Grant’s gay reading. Then we have an exuberant bluegrass rendition of Dancing Queen by Sons of Navarone, which at the same time emphasises the haunting quality of the original. It feels like an outsider observing the local femme fatale – but knowing, for all her power, charisma and charms, that such status is ephemeral.
In fact it’s interesting how many of these covers excavate a haunting and melancholic heartland sometimes absent from the original. Someone should write a thesis on it.
If you’re looking for a companion piece to this edition, dig out the Male Songs, Female Covers episode from a few years back in the episodes list. That’s excellent as well, if I do say so.
Tracklist:-
Walk on by, The Stranglers
Time after time, Iron and Wine
Jeane, The Smiths
Superstar, Sonic Youth
Shack up, A Certain Ratio
I will survive, Cake
Angel eyes, The Czars
I just don’t know what to do with myself, The White Stripes
Can’t get you out of my head, The Flaming Lips
Running up that hill, Placebo
Lost in music, The Fall
Dancing queen, Sons of Navarone