In praise of compliations, tributes, covers, and samplers

There is nothing I love more in this world than a good compilation CD. Well except maybe a tribute or a sampler CD. I love all the different artists doing different songs on compilations and I really love hearing bands I am not familiar with doing covers of someone elses songs. Also it's neat to hear well known bands or singers do cover songs. And yes I am stealing the idea for this post from one of my new blog bud Beth at A Cup of Coffey. She does a regular mix tape thing and today she her mix tape post was all about covers.

Here a list of some of my favorite compilations, samplers, and tribute and cover CDs:

I used to be a huge Grateful Dead fan until I got burned out on them or maybe I stopped liking them so much because some hippy chick who stank of clove cigarettes and patchouli elbowed me a at street fair, I forget which. But I still love this CD. It's a tribute to the Dead by artists like Elvis Costello, Dwight Yoakam, Indigo Girls and others. These bands and singers really made this music sound more alive than it had previously and I really loved all their different takes on the songs that I had once liked but had gotten tired of.

Check out the size of Nick's base on that CD cover, it's feckin' huge. This was the only CD in the DIY series from Rhino Records that I listened to and I loved every second of it. It's got two great Nick Lowe classics, the great Tom Robinson Band song 2-4-6-8-Motorway on it, and for those of you who may not know or have forgotten Tom Robinson was one of the first openly gay rockers out there, unlike Elton John he did not try to hide who he was by marrying a woman, and it's also got the great song Top of the Pops by The Rezillos. One day I'll give the other CDs in this series a listen but I'm sure this one will remain my favorite.

I've always loved the Kinks but only recently have I started buying their CDs. I got this tribute to the Kinks CD at one of my local used CD stores and man I fell deeper in love with the Kinks after hearing all the great covers on here. Steve Forbert, Cracker, Fountains of Wayne, Bebel Gilberto, Johnathan Richman, Queens of the Stone Age all do great versions of some classic and not so classic Kinks tunes. My favorites though are Tim O'Brien's version of Muswell Hillbilly and Lambchop's creepy version of Art Lover.

It's a crime that Tasmin Archer is not more well known over here in the USA. While technically not a tribute CD, she does cover some Elvis Costello songs on this CD and her version of Shipbuilding is even more haunting than Elvis's and her version Deep Dark Truthful Mirror will move you to tears because it is so damn good. Even if no one else digs you here in the States Tasmin, I always will.


I found this gem one day in a clearance bin in a dollar store. I originally had it on tape but I have since found it on CD and I listen to it regularly. Stanley, Son Of Theodore: an alternative music sampler introduced me to more cool bands than a copy of Hit Parader or Creem ever did. This CD has got some great stuff from people like Public Enemy, Poi Dog Pondering, Big Audio Dynamite, Sun 60, Fishbone, Eye & I, Alison Moyet, and the Indigo Girls. It's also got the song that I used to listen to before auditions to pump myself up, Make It Mine by The Shamen. I owned the first in the series Theodore but I never liked it near as much as I did this one.


I loved this New Wave Hits of the 80's series from Rhino Records but on most of them there was always one or two clunkers that I really hated so I would never buy them. Then one day I found #7 in the series and all of the songs were keepers so I bought it. It's got a great songs by Haircut 100, Laurie Anderson, Musical Youth, Split Enz, Paul Carrick, Fleshtones, Bad Manners and more. My favorites are He Could Be The One by Josie Cotton, Blue Spark by X, and I'm Shakin' by the Blasters. There not a dud in this bunch.

I bought this CD after seeing a VHS copy of Webb's short films, it's called Webb Wilder's Corn Flicks (I'm not sure if it is out on DVD or not but I'm sure that the anal retentive person who left me the anonymous comment informing me that Dave Edmunds was not actually in that Nick Lowe and Rockpile clip I posted yesterday would know.) It's whole CD of covers by Webb. I loved it and I played the hell out of it when I had it, but alas I sold it when during one of my periods of unemployment when I lived in Knoxville in the mid 90's. I'll find it again and me and the last of the full grown men will rock once more.

Finally we come to Revenge of The Killer B's. This was another of those recordings that the record company must have sold literally tens of. I found it on cassette marked down to like a quarter or something. It had a great version Cool Water by Fleetwood Mac, along with Marshall Crenshaw doing Somebody Like You, Aztec Camera doing Set The Killing Free, and a wildly over the top Kid Creole and the Coconuts doing a song called You Had No Intention. My favorite song off this CD however was by Rank and File, it's called Post Office and it has the immortal lyrics that say, "If I can't make an honest buck you'll see my picture on the Post Office wall." Sadly I loaned this tape to a girl in Roanoke who I had a crush on and even sadder still she not only did not reciprocate my feelings, she kept my damn tape too. If you're reading this Diane in Roanoke, I want my feckin' tape back you damn cold hearted vegetarian woman you.