Bad Cover Version 1 – Idlewild v the Bunnymen

Covers are a staple of these sort of blogs but I thought I’d take a slightly different angle when going down this well trod path.

We all know the feeling of hearing a song we love massacred by some talentless oiks (Busted and ‘Teenage Kicks’ anyone?) But usually the bad cover version is the sort of thing you don’t end up owning. I’m not going to buy a record by someone I don’t like just because they’ve covered, say, Bob Mould, the Bunnymen or the Triffids.

But every now and again you buy something by somebody that you like covering somebody else you like and end up with a train wreck. Like this one from Idlewild’s ‘These Wooden Ideas’ CD2.

Idlewild – Rescue

Now I love Idlewild but they just knock the stuffing out of this Bunnymen classic. The backing’s OK, pretty much what you might expect, slightly faster and a little punkier than the original but the whole affair runs aground with the vocals, which can only be described as painful. We all know that Mac can sound a bit rough at times these days but even on a bad day he doesn’t sound half as bad as the boy Woomble does on this one. Idlewild do a lot of covers for B-sides, most of which are more than serviceable, but this one sucks!

Contrast that version with this one by the originators, even after they reformed, taken from :

Echo & The Bunnymen – Rescue (live)

No competition really is there? This ‘Rescue’ is taken from the ‘Don’t Let It Get You Down’ CD single although the original, of course, can be found on the debut LP ‘Crocodiles.’

You probably should own at least some records by Echo & The Bunnymen and Idlewild – if you don’t you can buy records online here or here. The Bunnymen’s remastered early LPs ‘Crocodiles’ and ‘Heaven Up Here’ are particularly worthy of your attention as is Idlewild’s ‘100 Broken Windows’.