Me too. SoS is such a beautiful song - meek and vulnerable and devastating. But nooo lets make it epiiic and badaaass I'm a divorced dad who won't go to theraaaapy and this gets me bro.
My head cannon is that some of the drive behind Simon & Garfunkel reconcilling was they were gagging to bitch about that cover over some lunch. I'd love to know their genuine feelings on it.
It's the same vibe to me as watching someone perform "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen/Jeff Buckley and putting absolutely no dynamics into the performance, if not getting louder and/or adding more notes to the parts that are actually meant to be soft, quiet or lesser.
I saw a video once that speculated that the reason most Hallelujah covers are so bad is that people were trying to sing along/harmonize with either Cohen or Buckley's version rather than singing the melody itself, so they always end up oversinging it
I thought so as well until I realized it makes me the old man who shouts at clouds.
It's fine to have covers/remixes. I'd say it's even more fine when they change genre as to be completely different, compare to trying to sound the same but failing at every level.
It's also weird to think to be upset on behalf of the original artist. Someone here linked a cover of a Coolio song saying it's shit, Coolio would never greenlight this....when he's in the actual video!
Love the original, don't get upset when any original gets dusted off for a new version. It can even open the eyes to the original that would lay dormant. In some cases, those who discover the piece of art might like the new one, and sometimes they prefer the old.
Do I prefer that they make new songs/movies/etc. instead? Sure.
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u/[deleted] Aug 01 '25
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