Boys of Summer Under Cover

I was driving home from work the other day, punching through my radio pre-sets in search of a tune, when I heard something very familiar. But very different.

It was 'The Boys of Summer' - but not as recorded by Don Henley. This version was done all punk rock like - right down to exchanging the 'Deadhead' reference to a 'Black Flag' reference. I can't stand Don Henley's music (and anything by The Eagles makes me scream in horror) but this version simply rocked. So I did a little internet digging, because I wanted to know who was behind this cover. Turns out a band called The Ataris covered Boys of Summer and though they never intended the song to be released as a single, it's been getting a lot of airplay.

So very soon I'll be heading over to Newbury Comics to get the Ataris' album. Because I love cover songs. Not cover songs as performed by your generic bar band in a generic imitative fashion though...I mean covers where one artist takes another's material and puts a different spin (for lack of a better word) on it. These are some of my favorite covers, in no particular order. (Yeah, another list! Can you dig it?) The original artists are in parentheses.
1. Fortunate Son by Sleater-Kinney (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
2. Don't Think Twice, It's Allright by Mike Ness (Bob Dylan)
3. One by Johnny Cash (U2)
4. I Got You Babe by Chrissy Hynde and UB40 (Sonny & Cher)
5. Breathless by X (Jerry Lee Lewis)
6. Fairy Tale of New York by No Use For A Name (The Pogues)
7. Just What I Needed by The Billroys (The Cars)
8. You Dirty Rat by Letters To Cleo (Scruffy The Cat)
9. Lake of Fire by Nirvana (Meat Puppets)
10. Ring of Fire by Social Distortion (Johnny Cash)

Given time and enough jogging of memory, the list could easily go on. Think I've omitted a well-turned out cover song? Send me an email, since the comments seem to be down at the moment.