Just like heaven

Okay, so I’m back again I think, or at least I think I want to be. I mean I still have so many of these pairs to do. Sorry if anyone was super into this thing, or you know, at least liked to use it to kill a few minutes here and there. I didn’t really mean to bail on it. That’s just kind of what happened.

So this time I’m going to compare the Cure’s Just like Heaven to Dinosaur Jr.’s cover.

Just like heaven was the third single on the Cure’s 1987 album Kiss me, Kiss me, Kiss me. It was their first American hit and reached number 40 on the Billboard charts. It was written by Cure frontman Robert Smith who considers it the Cure’s strongest song.

Dinosaur Jr. covered it in the late 80s. It was released in the UK in 1989 and, 1990 in the US. Apparently Robert Smith really digs this cover. He is quoted as saying, "J. Mascis [of Dinosaur Jr.] sent me a cassette, and it was so passionate. It was fantastic. I've never had such a visceral reaction to a cover version before or since." He was also quoted as saying that it "influenced how we play it live." Wow, that’s pretty good praise right? I first heard it on a special edition of the 1987 album You’re living all over me that included the single, but it did not originally appear as a track on the album.

The Cure:

Dinosaur Jr.:

This is a case where it had been a while since I had listened to either version. I really came into it not being sure who would come out the winner. It’s pretty close for me, but I’m going to have to agree with Smith and give this one to Dinosaur Jr. Yeah, it cuts off in kind of a weird, awkward way at the end, but its other aspects are just so good you kind of forgive it, and just wish that it had kept going. Either that, or you think something went wrong and listen to it again, or go online and look up if was supposed to cut off that way. Man, imagine all the people in 1989 or 1990 who didn’t have the internet and were just like, “what’s going on

Hazy shade of winter

Hazy shade of winter

I’m kind of back from an unscheduled break in blogging. At least I think I might be. I picked this song, because it’s cold outside, and because it’s been like that for a while. I figured I had to post it soon, because it would pretty silly to not post it, and then have the weather warm up. I’d have to post something else instead.

Paul Simon wrote Hazy shade of winter sometime around 1966. It was a single, and then later included on the Simon and Garfunkel album Bookends in 1968. It did fairly well on the charts, 13 in the US, 30 in the UK.

The Bangles covered it in 1987 for the soundtrack to the movie Less than zero. It placed higher than the original on both charts. 2 in the US and 11 in the UK.

Simon and Garfunkel:

The Bangles:

Okay. So I had nearly written off the Bangles version in the first couple of seconds, but then all of a sudden a guitar just jumps out of nowhere. It made me actually stop and consider that maybe I had spoken too quickly. But now the song is over, and it really just wasn’t enough. Simon and Garfunkel’s version is basically flawless. The arrangement is so good, and the vocal is, well come on, it’s Simon and Garfunkel. It’s really tight. The Bangles version has some cheesy production that’s gone of style, and even though their version is actually not bad, it’s just all the little things that are problematic, like the opening, that just end up taking too much away from it, and as a result, it’s noticeably worse.