At the Calexico show a couple weeks ago, the band threw a few lines from Bob Dylan's Silvio into the middle of "Victor Jara's Hands," turning the song a little sideways with a borrowed and entirely new vibe.
It's a trick I've always liked - not exactly a cover song, but a bit of an homage. Calexico just borrowed the "Silvio" chorus, weaving it seamlessly with their own song. I've seen other bands break out of a jam to perform the entiretey of another song within two halves of their own tunes, like Counting Crows do with Springsteen's Thunder Road.
But it's also a trick I don't see too often. I only find a handful searching through my iTunes library, and I wonder how much else I might be missing. Below are all of the live performances I have that use part or whole of another band's song. What am I missing? What other bands have done this? Is this cool or a gimmick? Does it spice up a song, or is a band better off just playing a whole cover?
DOWNLOAD:
Calexico - Victor Jara's Hands (with Bob Dylan's 'Silvio' insert)
Counting Crows - Rain King (with Bruce Springsteen's 'Thunder Road' insert)
Pearl Jam - Daughter (with Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick In The Wall' insert)
Pearl Jam - Yellowledbetter (with 'Star Spangled Banner' insert)
Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers - Girly (with The Who's Baba O'Reilly insert)
1 comment:
Thanks for posting the Calexico song - I've love the way perform that live. I never knew exactly what the "Silvio" was borrowed from. Was that Jairo Zavala on the Spanish verse?
In answer to your question, the first example that comes to mind is by Genesis: "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway". They go into "On Broadway" (a hit for the Drifters, George Benson, etc).
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