Black Clouds & Silver Linings, Part Two: The Covers-listed from oldest to newest

[chaossystem]

I don't really expect any of these songs to be among anyone's all-time favorites, or on a "best-of" list, but I knew that if I didn't give everyone an opportunity to vote on these songs, someone would inevitably say something like "Why didn't you?"

[The Letter M]

The Queen songs, although Stargazer and Odyssey are both amazing, too.

-Marc.

[Orbert]

I had to vote for the Queen medley also.  I was really, really impressed with James' vocals on those tracks.  I really didn't think he could do it.  But they're all great.  I listen to the covers more than the DT songs.

[hefdaddy42]

I don't really expect any of these songs to be among anyone's all-time favorites, or on a "best-of" list, but I knew that if I didn't give everyone an opportunity to vote on these songs, someone would inevitably say something like "Why didn't you?"

I don't think anyone would have said that.  They are just covers.

But I went with the Queen medley as well, although I like all of them a lot other than the Iron Maiden song.

[Tim van Duijn]

Yeah absolutely. The Queen medley does it for me. And James Labrie is doing an AWESOME job on that one too.

[Tim van Duijn]

I'd go for The Shattered Fortress because it's so complete to me. And it's also the concluding part of the 12 step suite. The whole 12 step suite is filled with awesome lyrics. Normally i would say The Count Of Tuscany (hell, that piece made me cry when i saw DT for the first time, also first concert i ever attended) but The Shattered Fortress feels more complete.

A Nightmare to Remember is a song i don't listen to that often, i might spin that one a few times this week and maybe it changes.

Sorry, wrong topic..

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

You can edit your posts.

[Tim van Duijn]

You can edit your posts.

Thank you.

[Dublagent66]

I only listened to the covers once and can't recall what I liked the best.  The chances of me going back to listen to those covers just for the sake of this poll is highly unlikely.

[Zook]

The only ones I care about are To Tame A Land and Stargazer.

[krands85]

Stargazer was always my favourite, though I haven't listened to these covers for ages.

[Skeever]

Queen medley is the closest that any of 'em come to being as good as the originals.

[wolfking]

Stargazer.

TTAL is awful.  They should have re-recorded that at the same time.

[Rodni Demental]

They'll all great. I honestly wish DT would do more polished studio covers like this but too bad I'm probably in a minority that would want more of this. The other 'uncovered' live releases were also fantastic but we obviously won't be getting more of those unless the band actually played covers which they're not really interested in doing at the moment.

Anyway I picked To Tame A Land. But could have easily picked Queen Medley or Rainbow. Even the instrumentals have grown on me and are quite fun once you they become more familiar.

[BlobVanDam]

The Queen one was great, but I went with Stargazer, because I just prefer it to listen to. Both of those are pretty big shoes to fill vocally too, Mercury and Dio, and JLB does admirably on both.

[CharlesPL]

Odyssey- Today's selection.

[TheGreatPretender]

The Queen Medley, although Stargazer is awesome too.
I have to say though, Take Your Fingers from My Hair is one of JLB's finest performances ever.

[jjrock88]

Stargazer

[chaossystem]

Didn't think so many people would agree with me on that one!

[The Nameless One]

Can't pick one, Stargazer and To Tame A Land both stand out for me.

[TAC]

TTAL is awful.  They should have re-recorded that at the same time.

I wouldn't call it awful, but I agree. If it had been recorded in the Black Clouds sesions, it would've been far more powerful. Especially the vocals.


James' vocals steal the show on this covers disc. It is living proof of how underutilized he is in DT. His performance on the Queen medley, Stargazer, and TYFFMH is nothing short of extraordinary.

Oh, and Lark Toungues is a fuc#ing waste of disc space. With apologies to the KC fans here, WTF is the point of that?

[Rodni Demental]

I have to say though, Take Your Fingers from My Hair is one of JLB's finest performances ever.

Fine permanence, I'll give you that. Very impressive aswell actually but I must admit, it takes some getting used to hearing James screech at the top of his lung "baybeh, baybeh,<enter MP with fallseto> baybeh, baybeh.. baybeh". Yeah. 

[JayOctavarium]

Stargazer or Queen.


Queen. By a Freddie Mercury Mustache Hair

[TheGreatPretender]

I have to say though, Take Your Fingers from My Hair is one of JLB's finest performances ever.

Fine permanence, I'll give you that. Very impressive aswell actually but I must admit, it takes some getting used to hearing James screech at the top of his lung "baybeh, baybeh,<enter MP with fallseto> baybeh, baybeh.. baybeh". Yeah. 

Yeah, but even MP's backup vocals on those covers were more enjoyable than what we got on most of the main album.

[hefdaddy42]

Oh, and Lark Toungues is a fuc#ing waste of disc space. With apologies to the KC fans here, WTF is the point of that?

Dammit TAC.

[Nekov]

Oh, and Lark Toungues is a fuc#ing waste of disc space. With apologies to the KC fans here, WTF is the point of that?

WTF? That's an amazing cover, I love every bit of it and I usually hate covers.

[TheGreatPretender]

Oh, and Lark Toungues is a fuc#ing waste of disc space. With apologies to the KC fans here, WTF is the point of that?

WTF? That's an amazing cover, I love every bit of it and I usually hate covers.

The cover is great. I think he's just saying he hates the song itself.

[Stadler]

I don't really expect any of these songs to be among anyone's all-time favorites, or on a "best-of" list, but I knew that if I didn't give everyone an opportunity to vote on these songs, someone would inevitably say something like "Why didn't you?"

Why wouldn't you expect that?  I listen to the covers disk as much if not more than the main album.  I like the main album a fair amount (not one of the people who dislike the last two MP albums; I listen to them a lot), but the covers album is EXCELLENT and IS among my all-time favorites. 

[rumborak]

Definitely the Queen medley.

Overall though, I wish DT didn't treat covers as an exercise in mimicry, but rather in interpretation.
Like, the Queen medley is incredibly well done, but when I feel like listening to the song I'd rather listen to the original, since there really is no compositional difference between the two.

[TheGreatPretender]

Definitely the Queen medley.

Overall though, I wish DT didn't treat covers as an exercise in mimicry, but rather in interpretation.
Like, the Queen medley is incredibly well done, but when I feel like listening to the song I'd rather listen to the original, since there really is no compositional difference between the two.

While I agree with you, and I think it'd be awesome if they had interpreted their covers a little differently, the way they did with Gangland on the Number of the Beast CD, when it comes to their covers, even though there are no compositional differences to the vast majority of them, in most cases, I'd still rather listen to the DT versions. Especially Darkside of the Moon, the original album does very little for me. At least DT's has JLB on vocals.

[rumborak]

Really? The fact that you hear the rendition of the people who created the song has no additional value to you?
Like, let's assume for a second that JLB's vocals were superior to Freddie's (which they really aren't). Even in that case, it would have to be a LOT better to counteract the fact that they're just mimicking somebody else's work.

[TheGreatPretender]

Really? The fact that you hear the rendition of the people who created the song has no additional value to you?
Like, let's assume for a second that JLB's vocals were superior to Freddie's (which they really aren't). Even in that case, it would have to be a LOT better to counteract the fact that they're just mimicking somebody else's work.

Well, DT's version of the Queen medley does have a bit of a heavier edge to it. Maybe it's the mix, of the instruments, or the recording equipment, whatever it is, it's still very enjoyable, and when I'm in the mood for something with a little more oomph to it, I definitely prefer DT's version of that particular song. Same with Stargazer.

But honestly, with Pink Floyd, I think Roger Waters is one of the most unremarkable singers ever. Like, he's not bad, he's not good, there are some songs where he has a bit of a pretty cool swagger to his style, but all in all, I generally find him pretty boring to listen to. Floyd's instrumentation were pretty great, though. But even then, I don't think Dark Side is that amazing of an album. The Wall IMO is far superior. There are still some interesting moments on Dark Side, but between not being my favorite album, and Roger Waters not being a vocalist I'm all that fond of, given the choice, I enjoy DT's version of Dark Side a lot more.

With Number of the Beast, it really depends on my mood. But sometimes I simply feel like listening to JLB doing Maiden. Or Deep Purple, or whatever else we got on the Uncovered CD. I'm not that big of a fan of Ozzy either (I like him, but not that much), so in most cases, I'd rather listen to DT's version of Diary of a Madman.

When it comes to Master of Puppets though... Yeah, no... James just can't do any kind of justice to James Hetfield's particular style, haha.  Or at least, what we ended up getting on the official bootleg, he didn't pull it off very well at all. But I'm not a very big fan of Metallica, or their Master of Puppets album, so I rare listen to either version.

But anyway, yeah, in most cases, I really enjoy their covers, but yeah, it would be cool if they dould have reorchestrated them a little. The problem is that DT is a very versatile band when it comes to styles, so doing the covers in their original style, it's not like I can even say, "Well, that's not like DT do play that soft, or that heavy," because they do traverse both ends of the spectrum, and do acoustic stuff, and piano ballads, etc. So it's not like having a band with a very narrow and particular sound like Disturbed doing their style's versions of these songs.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Really? The fact that you hear the rendition of the people who created the song has no additional value to you?
Like, let's assume for a second that JLB's vocals were superior to Freddie's (which they really aren't). Even in that case, it would have to be a LOT better to counteract the fact that they're just mimicking somebody else's work.

I don't see why. I'm not going to claim DT created the song, but if I like their version better, why should I feel any obligation to listen to a version I consider inferior?

Though as I said before I'm not a fan of DT's covers, this is just a general comment.

[Rodni Demental]

To Tame a Land might not be the most popular track here, but who's heard the original? It's a bit of a drunken mess if you ask me, but the DT version is tight and very coherent. I think that's what's strong about all the the covers is that they're well played, even if mostly replicating the original work, I'd say they play a lot of the material (but not always) better than the originals, and the band as a unit has got a much tighter hold on the timing.

[cramx3]

I chose Stargazer because JLB is on fire there, but really they are all fantastic and well done.  I could have voted other ways, but Stargazer I think edges them.

To Tame a Land might not be the most popular track here, but who's heard the original? It's a bit of a drunken mess if you ask me, but the DT version is tight and very coherent.

Wut? The IM version is amazing, not sure how its a drunken mess.