Is The Gourd's cover of "Gin N Juice," the Snoop Dogg classic. Look it up and thank me later.

Science:

Is The Gourd's cover of "Gin N Juice," the Snoop Dogg classic. Look it up and thank me later.

Tru dat.

You beat me to it!!!

Crossed genres or not, it is simply one of the best covers, of any classification, EVER. The groove they set up to back it up (the bass playing is genius), along with the breakdown ('Later on that same night, with my homey Dr. Dre...'), is stunningly good musicianship. Not only that, they do it earnestly and with heart and respect. In other words, they are real artists.

If you do look it up, be sure to listen to it a couple of times. The first time you will laugh, and rightly so, but soon you will realize that it is truly a work of art...

Subjective Honorable Mentions, no genre-crossing needed:

Joe Cocker's "The Letter": THE textbook example of taking a good song, in this case The Boxtops original hit, and remaking it into something better. On his greatest hits album; put in the horns and a female chorus behind him filling it all out and tell me you don't turn it up when you hear it. If you don't, rock ain't for you...

Bruce Springsteen "Blinded by the Light" and Prince's "Nothing Compares to U", the former on his recent live release and the latter on his 'A Night Alone..." live release. Both of these are legendary artist's taking their songs back in a way that proves that they never lost them to begin with. (not to mention of the Boss's writing ability, who cares if it sounds like 'douche' when Manfred Mann sings it: when buried in the lyrics is a line like: "Some kidnapped handicap was complaining that he got the clap from some mousetrap he bought last night"??? NO ONE, and certainly no current top 40 artist, if they write their own songs to begin with, can write like that anymore. One sentence, complete story. Classic.)

And finally a cross genre (arguably) cover that has personal meaning: When I went to college, I went from Vermont to North Carolina, my freshman roommate was from Louisiana; obviously admissions got drunk and decided to put us together for a chuckle. Anyway, we both just KNEW we had nothing in common except beer, which, as 18 year old males, doesn't really count. So we sat in our room trying to get to know each other while sharing a couple. After an ignorant and close minded derogatory comment by me about country music, he put on Garth Brooks and said 'how can you NOT like a guy who does a song called 'Dixie Chicken?' I remember smiling, telling him to put it on, and once I knew I was right, I smiled and said: 'This is a cover man, it's by a band called Little Feat', a staple band of the hippie set in VT in my day, and proceeded to sing it to him over Garth.

12 years later, we are still best friends...

As a parting note, anyone who denigrates anothers art, just because they can and they have the avenue to do so, is a small and bitter person who needs to realize that the artist they are denigrating put their soul into the original, whether it is considered 'good' or 'cool' or not, and to mock them is to simply be a small minded bully who is belittling themselves, by showcasing their limited ability to appreciate art.

That said, a group of gaping assholes like Oasis deserved it and then some. Attacking without provocation is petty, responding to an idiot through satire of his own stupidity is genius

Regards,

Jay Doyle

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Another that deserves mention: Ben Folds, "Bitches Ain't Shit"

Yup, the article commits a horrible sin of omission.

My favorite group for cross-genre covers is The Bad Plus. They have covered some wide-ranging stuff, from "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to the theme from "Chariots of Fire", but their best two are Blondie's "Heart of Glass" and Bowie's "Life on Mars". Their talent lies not as much in the performance of these songs, though they are clearly world-class jazz musicians, but more in their ear for choosing songs with great melodies and then finding a way to let those melodies shine. They serve as a unifying factor in songs from varying genres, reminding us that when all the genre-specific affectations are stripped away, its still the notes on the page that make a great song.

Cassandra Wilson singing the Monkee's "Last Train to Clarksville". And or Hank WIlliams "I'm So Lonesome I could Die". She has such a rich voice she'd sound good reading the phone book.

Well, The Gourds certainly have my vote. But close runner-ups are The Junkyard Dogs' version of Judas Priest's "Breakin' The Law" (they somehow make it sound like Hank Williams) and the Dropkick Murphy's smoking version of the old Irish folk classic "Rocky Road To Dublin."

But I love covers. I even liked Guns 'N Roses covering the doo-wop classic "Since I Don't Have You." The heaviest thing I ever heard was 'Kashmir" performed by Jethro Tull (!) and a smokin' hot 22-year-old violinist named Lucia Micarelli. Man, you had to be there.

Here's a recommendation. If you like the Beatles and you like Metallica, go dig up an album entitled "Sgt. Hetfield's Motorbreath Pub Band" by a bunch of remarkably talented goofs calling themselves Beatallica. I guess it doesn't quite qualify as covers, but you have a band playing songs that genuinely sound like Beatles tunes and Metallica songs thrown into an industrial-size blender, with a singer who sounds exactly like 1991-vintage James Hetfield... only more so.

You'll laugh your ass off, then be amazed at how well it works. "Leper Madonna"? "Hey Dude"? "Helvester of Skelter"?

Oh, yeah.

But anyway, this article could have gone on much longer, especially if it didn't limit its scope to cross-genre covers. When A Perfect Circle covered Lennon's "Imagine," well, both artists fall under the Rock umbrella, but it's hard to imagine a cover that so completely departs from the original. Whereas Lennon sings a hopeful recipe for peace, love and happiness, Maynard Keenan inverts all the hope and optimism of both the lyrics and melody, making the song a bitter, sarcastic dirge. Don't listen on a cloudy day.