Mark Ronson - 'Stop Me'
Anger a Smiths fan with a poor cover version...and you probably won't know anything about it. But rest assured that your name is MUD in various bedrooms across the country, not to mention the hearts of a considerable portion of the Guardian's readership.
A risky strategy, some might say. Only someone very, very special will get away with bastardising the Work of Morrissey. Leading us to this - not so much the bastardisation as the Gnarls Barkleyfication of one of my very favourite songs.
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As someone who knows every Smiths record (RECORD!) so well that she can remember each skip in the vinyl (VINYL??) of each treasured album, you'd imagine that instead of releasing this cover version, Mark Ronson might as well have stolen into my room at the dead of night, taken my diary, defecated on it, then published my picture on the internet, inviting people to print it out and puke on it.
But halt! The one rule of cover versions - note to Matt Willis and Mel C (yeah, her again) - is that it's only worth doing if you've got something to add to the original. And Ronson's touch is to transport the song across time, race and genre, thereby exposing the incredible breadth of Morrissey's songwriting talent.
To write a song that works for a bunch of skinny white indie boys is something, but to write a song that wouldn't have sounded out of place in the soul vaults twenty years before (well...with a few lyrical twists and some brass and hand claps....how good would that be?) and again twenty years later, that's something special.
Now add to this the prospect of having the lyric "I crashed down on the crossbar/and the pain was enough to make/a shy, bald buddhist reflect and plan a mass murder" in the charts. Well, that's just priceless.
Download: Out now
CD Released: April 9th
(Nickie Latham)
Comments
Heyyy x
I Love This Song!!
And I Have Been Brought Up Listening To The Smiths Because Of My Dad... But This Cover Does It Justice... So Its Okay =P
Bastardisation? Is that a swear word? xD
[Nope. Neither is spatchcock. That's the beauty of words. - Fraser]
I also like the cover, not as good as the original however.
Strange how radio1 are giving the cover airplay but they never played the original when it came out in 1987.
John peel aside Radio1 never played the Smiths and they never play Morrissey either, too busy playing Plop Idol rejects.
[Er...er...anyone wanna point out what Anon has wrong here? That's right, the Smiths never released 'Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before' as a single, so why would Radio 1 play it at the time? They were playing 'I Started Something I Couldn't Finish' instead. And then they went on to play all the Morrissey solo singles until he went off the boil a bit. THE EVIL CORPORATE SWINE THAT THEY ARE... - Fraser]
"Set me free, why don't you, babe?
Get out my life, why don't you, babe?"
Did the Ronner really need to include that line?
REALLY?!?!
No, he didn't.
This cover version is poor, poor, poor.
One cheap preset beat, a string sample and one vocal line sampled a dozen times does NOT a good cover make.
2 out of 10 for style.
Minus 25 for originality.
My mistake. however I was right in that Morrissey desperately wanted to release it as a single but because of the line "mass murder" and the Hungerford incident about the same time, radio1 said they would NEVER play it.
Yes, Morrissey has had some poor singles especially during Southpaw Grammer/Maladjusted era, however I think recently Irish Blood/You have killed me have been very good, but wheres the airplay for them.
Corporate Swines , cemented minds indeed.
[Irish Blood, You Have Killed Me...both played on Radio 2. A lot. And that's a 91Èȱ¬ station, y'know. On the whole, Morrissey does OK out of the 91Èȱ¬, I'd say. Certainly every website I've been involved in has covered his recent output. - Fraser]
this is a great song the man who sings has a amazing voice too, should go to number 1 i think all these people complainin bout a poor cover version well its NOT!! how many other songs have been cover versiopns and most of them have been poor this is a good version if ya dont like it dont listen to it an shut up moanin bout it xxxxx
I know it's not possible for many many people, but let's pretend this isn't a cover version. ...You still with me?
Ok, good. Because otherwise the sheer irony of the words "Stop me if you think that you've hear this one before" will certainly kill you.
I don't like to think of it as a cover because... really, how much has it to do with the original? Nothing much, in my opinion, so I think it's possible to enjoy this one just for the funk , and yes, there might still be people out there, like, young people, who don't even KNOW Mozzer, Marr and the lot. They should have their own "bastardisation" *lol* Maybe they will KNOW take interest in the Smiths. There is worse stuff out there, ask Eric Prydz. And even he was funny in a way.
I heard this song for the first time yesterday (yeah we're a sheltered mob in Oz) and I quite liked it.
Not from an originality point of view, it's a cover and it's suspiciously in the style of Gnarles Barkley (who I also like), but from the point of view that you just don't hear enough work or re-workings of Smiths tunes.
The Smiths were, and probably still are, my favourite band of all time. Of the 8 albums they released I had 14 of them (imports and single sleeve/gatefold sleeve versions) I also went to Smiths conventions, bought 7 and 12 inch singles, the lot.
For someone to cover their work, means that the Smiths also meant something to others and cover versions like this mean that others will no doubt discover their work and understand just what a special band they were.
For me that's enough to forgive any alterations in the song the new artist has made.
Cheers, Lamb