[punkrockmonday #28] Nirvana/Terry Jacks/Jacques Brell, and Beck/Them/Bob Dylan

I came across this gem today, Nirvana covering Terry Jacks in Brazil:

I think they had to trade instruments to keep just a smidgeon of ironic distance from the schmaltzyness of the original. This kind of necessity is the curse of my generation.

Here's the version Nirvana is covering (Rod McKuen actually did the original adaption; but it only became a huge hit in 1974 with Terry Jacks version):

And here is the Jacques Brel song that McKuen adapted.

Jacques Brel is a God.

I'm trying to think of other kinds of trilogies like this, where you such a short series of borrowings and where the end terms are radically different. The only one I could think of where you get three songs like this involves Beck's Jack-Ass.

Jack-Ass is an essential song for the growing up of Generation X. It was abundantly clear from Beck's initial album that he could do sincerity, but he always kept this kind of mocking, ironic distance. Then Odelay was similar, brilliant melodies and poetry, but always maintaining just enough distance to where it could still be a joke. He tried to keep that distance by calling the song "Jack-Ass" and making weird science fiction references, but ultimately failed. The performance and melody just pack too much non-ironic emotion.

The positive reception of Jack-Ass completely freed Beck up to do non-ironic music (though he is obviously still a master of irony). Indeed, Mutations is often described as the album by the guy who wrote Jack-Ass.

Here's a weird thing. Jack-Ass samples Them's 1970s cover of Bob Dylan's It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. This is absolutely clear from listening.

And if we listen to Dylan's version, Them's song is clearly the same song. But you'd never otherwise be able to tell that Dylan's is the grandfather of Beck's song.

I'd like to say something preachy about the copyright regime in the United States that the Walt Disney Corporation purchased a few decades ago (strictly speaking, they purchased the Congresspeople), and how it's just about killed popular music. But I'm really just racking my brains for any other trilogies like these two.

In traditional blues and folk there are lots of of sorites series (I meditated on some here) where different versions of the same song end up creating different songs at the ends of the series, but I can't think of any other ones where there's a clear influence yet the first and third in the series are so different.

1. [Punkrockmonday #1] The White Stripes - Jack the Ripper (orig. Screaming Lord Sutch), Black Math, and the Big Three Killed My Baby
   
2. [Punkrockmonday #2] Roy Cook - Saint Paul Cathedral, Minneapolis Capitol Building, Aayla Secura Mosaic, and Firefly Class Spaceship
3. [Punkrockmonday #3] El Général- Rais Le Bled (President, Your Country)
4. [Punkrockmonday #4] Charlie Patton -High Water Everywhere, Part 2
5. [Punkrockmonday #5] Henry Rollins- What Am I Doing Here; Willie Nelson- Me and Paul; Rainbow Connection (orig. Kermit the Frog)
6. [Punkrockmonday #6] Philip Larkin - Church Going
7. [Punkrockmonday #7] David Bowie - Time
8. [Punkrockmonday #8] P.J. Harvey - When Under Ether; White Chalk; Broken Harp
9. [Punkrockmonday #9] Allison Kraus and Robert Plant - When the Levee Breaks (orig. Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie)
10. [Punkrockmonday #10] Doog - Famous Blue Raincoat (orig. Leonard Cohen); sElf - Back in Black (orig. AC/DC); Johnny Cash- Down There By the Train (orig. Tom Waits)
11. [Punkrockmonday #11] John Lee Hooker - Hobo Blues; Weird Al Yankovic - My Sharona; Edgar Cruz - Bohemian Rhapsody
12. [punkrockmonday #12] Pixar Studios - Cars 2; The Bang Bang - Sitting in a Car; Angry Samoans - Hot Cars; Black Flag - Drinking and Driving; Gary Numan - Cars; Queen - Bicycle Race
13. [punkrockmonday #13] Betty Bowers - Betty Bowers Explains Traditional Marriage to Everyone Else
14. [punkrockmonday #14] Sesame Street - Sure Shot (orig. Beastie Boys)
15. [punkrockmonday #15] Neil Degrasse Tyson - Stupid Design
16. [punkrockmonday # 16] C.M. Punk - run up to Money in the Bank victory
17. [punkrockmonday #17] Dead Kennedys - Riot
18. [punkrockmonday # 18] Cookie Monster - God's Away on Business (orig. Tom Waits)
19. [punkrockmonday # 19] The Legendary K.O.- George Bush Don’t Like Black People
20. [punkrockmonday #20] Mance Lipscomb- Ella Speed
21. [punkrockmonday #21] Iggy Pop - Lust for Life; Iggy Pop - The Passenger; Iggy Pop - I'm Bored; Iggy Pop (orig. The Stooges)- I Wanna Be Your Dog; Iggy and the Stooges - Search and Destroy
22. [punkrockmonday #22] Iris Dement - Easy's Gettin' Harder Every Day
23. [punkrockmonday #23] Louis C.K. - Are You a Lizard?; U2 - Maggie's Farm; Pink Floyd - The Post War Dream; Morrissey - Maggie on the Guillotine; Newtown Neurotics - Kick out the Tories
24. [punkrockmonday #24] The Maria Bamford Show 01 - Dropout; The Maria Bamford Show 02 - Maria Gets a Job
25. [punkrockmonday #25] Blind Willie Johnson
26. [punkrockmonday #26] Some songs about Death
27. [punkrockmonday #27] Gillian Welch - Look at Miss Ohio; Iris Dement - Easy's Gettin' Harder Every Day; Fiona Apple - Oh Sailor