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Original vs. Cover


Beerad12

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Posted

Alright fellas, I need help settling an ongoing good natured disagreement I have had with a few co-workers and figured I reach out to some folks I know have good taste in music. The current "disagreement" centers around one of my favorite songs of all time, Simple Man by LS. Two of my co-workers swear the Shinedown version is better (hold your laughter) than the original Skynyrd version. So a little all in good fun / informal poll here, tell me which one you prefer so I can at least have some backup for my next conversation or tuck tail and acknowledge defeat!

Thanks guys!

 

Posted

Not even close.

I just watched the video from Shinedown. I was not impressed.

Perhaps that singer is technically a "better" singer than Ronny, but I like Ronny much more.

One of the reasons I like LS is because of the way RVZ sings. It's authentic. It's real. I grew up in the South. I know what a Southern man sounds like.

I didn't feel that way when I was listening to the guy in Shinedown. I felt like I was listening to a cheap copy. [sad]

Posted

Everything gets compared the original, and Shinedown's is good...  but not as good as the original.  Not just the singing, but LS guitar as well...  it has a sound.  Being an old guy growing up with the original I may be a bit biased.

Posted

 

30 minutes ago, brad1 said:

Not even close.

I just watched the video from Shinedown. I was not impressed.

Perhaps that singer is technically a "better" singer than Ronny, but I like Ronny much more.

One of the reasons I like LS is because of the way RVZ sings. It's authentic. It's real. I grew up in the South. I know what a Southern man sounds like.

I didn't feel that way when I was listening to the guy in Shinedown. I felt like I was listening to a cheap copy. [sad]

Absolutely! As a fellow Brad and southerner I couldn't agree more. Plus that song has to have the solo!

Thanks man!

Posted

Well, I had never heard the song before. So both versions were new to me.

I preferred the arrangement of Shinetown but not the faux energy of the vocal.

Overall I slightly prefer Skynyrd. Though TBH I think the song itself is pretty dull. 

Posted
7 minutes ago, merciful-evans said:

Well, I had never heard the song before. So both versions were new to me.

I preferred the arrangement of Shinetown but not the faux energy of the vocal.

Overall I slightly prefer Skynyrd. Though TBH I think the song itself is pretty dull. 

Well, the song came out in 1973. That was 46 years ago!

It was a different time then. It was a different song then too.[smile]

Posted
33 minutes ago, merciful-evans said:

...the faux energy of the vocal...

 

I agree completely, very good description. 

I also agree that this is not the greatest Skynyrd tune, but, the original is way better.

How old are these co-workers of yours?

Posted

I prefer ours, ours being anybody I'm in a band with at any given moment.  Currently in two bands, I sing it in one, other guy sings it in other band.  It is duller than dull, so it needs some action somehow, so we try to pump it up a little.  To be honest, doesn't go over all that well most of the time.  We keep it in our back pockets for lots of Skynyrd asks.  Three Steps and Breeze are much better examples of the genre.  Yes, Skynyrd is great enough to merit it's own genre!

rct

Posted
3 hours ago, Black Dog said:

 

I agree completely, very good description. 

I also agree that this is not the greatest Skynyrd tune, but, the original is way better.

How old are these co-workers of yours?

This is the ironic part. They are both 50. I'm 34 so you would think it would be the other way around. They are more into 90's rock which should tell you something!! 

Posted
1 hour ago, rct said:

I prefer ours, ours being anybody I'm in a band with at any given moment.  Currently in two bands, I sing it in one, other guy sings it in other band.  It is duller than dull, so it needs some action somehow, so we try to pump it up a little.  To be honest, doesn't go over all that well most of the time.  We keep it in our back pockets for lots of Skynyrd asks.  Three Steps and Breeze are much better examples of the genre.  Yes, Skynyrd is great enough to merit it's own genre!

rct

I agree with you on this. Gimme three steps, call me the breeze, etc. are more crowd pleasures. You ever cover the Needle and the Spoon?

Posted
3 minutes ago, Beerad12 said:

I agree with you on this. Gimme three steps, call me the breeze, etc. are more crowd pleasures. You ever cover the Needle and the Spoon?

 

Not since back then.  Doesn't seem most know that song any more, not for a long time.  3 Steps, Breeze, and Tuesday's Gone, they are the three we normally will do.  Freebird on occasion, outside usually, big flatbed thing or something.  Sweet Home Alabama whenever asked for it.

rct

Posted

Original, hands down. That band just continued to get better and better up until the plane crash. I saw them in Johnson City Tn., shortly before that event, and they were at the peak of their powers. I was in a band in Alaska 20 years or so ago, and we covered "I Know a Little". I have yet to hear a decent cover of that one, including us. 😄

Nice job by Shinedown, but it doesn't have the feel.

Posted

Yet another vote for LS. I thought the arrangement of the Shinedown version was boring but even worse was the style of the vocalist which I found to be very irritating. I could only bear to listen to about the first minute-and-a-half before I had to skip to the end to see if git got any better. But it didn't.

The Warren Haynes version's a pretty good effort but at 8 1/2 minutes it's too long by far for one of Skynyrd's less interesting tracks IMO.

As far as Tekboy's mention of 'I know a Little'; I remember trying to learn the Steve Gaines bits and.........[lol].........well, let's just say that it was a bit of a 'reality-check'.......

Pip.

Posted
3 hours ago, IanHenry said:

This is a good cover:

 

 

Gov't Mule is probably the only band outside of LS that kicks that song! Awesome band!!

Posted

I saw Lynyrd Skynyrd do it last Thursday, they were very good but I don't think they needed to keep telling us that they are the best band in the World. They had Status Que as "special guests" and they were surprisingly very good. 

Posted

I find that most originals are better, it is rare to find a cove better than the original.  I like Shinedown's version however, I agree there is no contest.  Skynyrd by a landslide.

Posted

No question LS was way better.  Thought Govt Mule's version was a great live performance - such excellent sound all around.

Old band I was in before I moved down here used to do Three Steps and I know A Little (fortunately I mainly played rhythm on that one).

Posted
3 hours ago, kelly campbell said:

I find that most originals are better, it is rare to find a cove better than the original.  I like Shinedown's version however, I agree there is no contest.  Skynyrd by a landslide.

I think it has a lot to do with which one you hear first.  A lot of times I like a song; only to find out later it was a cover. And when I hear the original I don't like it. That happens with me a lot.

Especially if there is a lot of time between the recordings of the two songs.  And if the arrangement is different. [smile]

Posted

I'm with Brad above. 

I don't mean to try and hijack this thread, but some things are too funny to not share. Last week my buddy and I did an acoustic gig at a local bar. We ended the night with Simple Man. As the song ended Steve went into the outro from Free Bird and I just jammed on it. Well, that earned us a t*tty shot, cause a girl (woman) at the bar stood in front of us and pulled her shirt (no bra) up for us to see . 😍

Also, it's hard to believe that over 10 years have gone by since I crudely edited a video of us jamming Simple Man and getting rained on at a cookout. I don't think we had ever played this before that time. The other thing I remember about this was that the guy who was originally playing drums that day got up for the 10th time to go piss after slamming a bunch of Natty Lights, so I told my buddy Ed to hop on the drums. When the other dude came back and saw Ed on the drums he got an attitude and then I got pissed at him and it went downhill from there. 

Good time. 

   

 

Posted

“No one will ever cover a Skynyrd song and do it better than Skynyrd.” This the Lord said when he handed the Ten Commandments to Moses.

Case closed!

Posted

Not bad at all SRV version is nice. The only cover that I thought was better than the original is Manfred Mann’s version of Blinded by the Light. I like it much better than Springsteen’s 

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