“Great Dream from Heaven” was recorded by Bahamian musician Joseph Spence. I knew it first from Ry Cooder’s 1972 cover version. Check out the Bloomfield version which is similar to Cooder’s.
Category: Music covers
Covers: Every Little Thing
“Every Little Thing” is a lesser known Beatles song from 1964 that was covered by Yes in 1969. I’m sure there are covers of virtually every Beatles song and it’s smart to cover one where the original version is not as well known as their hits.
Covers: Connection
“Connection” is a Rolling Stones song on their 1967 album Between the Buttons. It was never a single but it’s an excellent brisk two minutes of rock.
There are several covers. I knew the one by Ramblin’ Jack Elliott from 1968.
Covers: Bull-Doze Blues/Going Up the Country
Henry Thomas recorded “Blue-Doze Blues” on the same day in 1928 as “Don’t Ease Me In” and “Fishing Blues”.
The most famous cover is by Canned Heat who played it as Woodstock in 1969.
from Wikipedia:
“Bull-Doze Blues”, another of Thomas’s Vocalion recordings, was reworked by the pianist Johnny Miller in 1927, who rewrote the words and gave it to Wingy Manone, who recorded two versions titled “Up the Country” in December 1927 for Columbia and September 1930 for Champion Records.[15][16] Except in jazz circles, it remained an obscure blues number until blues-rock group Canned Heat recorded “Going Up the Country“. Though rearranged, the Canned Heat song is musically the same, down to a faithful rendition of Thomas’s quill solos by Jim Horn. The lyrics also borrow from Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues” (1928). Fellow band member Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson rewrote the lyrics entirely and received credit on the song’s original release in 1968 on Canned Heat’s third album, Living the Blues. The next year, the group played at the Woodstock Festival. The live performance of “Going Up the Country” was featured in the motion picture Woodstock and appeared as the second cut on the soundtrack album.
Covers: Don’t Ease Me In
Henry Thomas recorded “Don’t Ease Me In” in 1928 on the same day he recorded “Fishing Blues”, The Grateful Dead did a fine live acoustic version in 1970 that is in the film Festival Express. They originally recorded it in 1966 in a brisk, electric version.
Covers: Fishing Blues
“Fishing Blues” was first recorded by Henry Thomas in 1928. Taj Mahal’s1968 version is one of many covers.
Covers: Girls Talk
“Girls Talk” was written by Elvis Costello and made popular by Dave Edmunds. Costello released it as a B-side, on Taking Liberties and on the expanded version of Get Happy!! Linda Ronstadt covered it, too.
My posts on music covers
If you want to see all of them, here’s a link. I have posted about all types of music. I figured it would be a good break from the political stuff.
Covers: Night Train
The beginning of the instrumental “Night Train” was based on a riff recorded in 1940 by a group led by Johnny Hodges. Duke Ellington also used it. The first version of “Night Train” was by Jimmy Forrest (1952) who had played with Ellington. There’s a fine cover by James Brown from 1961.
Covers: Everyday People
“Everyday People” was a 1968 hit for Sly and the Family Stone. Probably the best known cover was Arrested Development’s reimagining of it as the basis for 1992’s “People Everyday”.
Sad! 