B-A-B-Y to Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You

"B-A-B-Y"  Carla Thomas  The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968
"B-Boy Kingdom"  Aceyalone  All Balls Don't Bounce
"B Side Wins Again"  Public Enemy  Fear Of A Black Planet
"R.L. Got Soul"  Jon Spencer Blues Explosion  Now I Got Worry (error in title discovered 5.25.11- fixed)
"B.O.B."  Outkast  Stankonia
"Baadima"  Elie Karam  Buddha-Bar V
"Baba"  Salif Keita  Moffou
"Baba O'Reilly"  Waco Brothers The Who Covered [Mojo disc] (5.25.11 - no link, but learned this is Jon Langford's band)
"Baba O'Reilly"  The Who  Who's Next
"Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You"  Led Zeppelin  Led Zeppelin I

   Carla Thomas is Rufus Thomas' daughter and one of the staples of the early Stax/Volt roster.  She did some duets with her father, which given the content are a little creepy (i.e. - "The Night Time Is The Right Time").  Later, she recorded duets with Otis Redding, and those are less disturbing.
   
   There is a long line of songs about people trying to destroy, outlaw, or regulate music out of existence.  Frank Zappa, Parliament, X, Public Enemy all put forth the notion that their music is dangerous or unaccepted by the masses.  Aceyalone's boisterous rap joins that line - "Welcome to the glory of the b-boy kingdom."

  I feel like I should know more about Jon Spencer than I do.  I remember my girlfriend had this album years ago, but somehow he just kind of went past me.  It is loud, fuzzy, and trashy - I can't imagine why I would not have embraced this earlier.  I asked my older son if he knew about them, and he said, "They have a theramin."

   So a countried-up version of "Baba O'Reilly."  Huh.  I guess it is all right, even though I think there might be a mandolin lurking back there somewhere.  They changed the lyrics though - I don't approve.  I feel about covers the way I feel about remixes.  There has to be a reason.  The Waco Brothers at least try to make this their own - the synthesizer has been replaced by a big ol' bass line, the twang is perhaps too present.  But the other part of it is - does this song need to be remade?  Thanks to classic old rock stations, I expect the original is still everywhere.  What are you going to bring to people by recording this?  The rules are different for covers in a live performance, but did they go into a studio to do this?

Some of this is personal, I know.  The Who are a band that I listened to with an almost religious fervor for a stretch of time.  I can point to four such artists in my life - The Beatles, The Who, Talking Heads, and Richard Thompson (chronologically).  There were periods where I voraciously pursued these artists, sometimes to the exclusion of all other music.  That zealotry passed, but there are remnants of that passion.  When I hear a Who song, I know every note and yet anticipate the next one.  From the start of the synth line, I am rushing along toward Roger's climactic scream at the end.  When I hear this song, or many who songs, it reminds me of my past in a visceral, emotional, almost physical way.   Those feelings that The Who spoke to come rushing back.  For better or worse, this band is my youth.  So regarding covers of Who songs, I may not be the fairest judge.

That said, Led Zeppelin's "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" fits everything you need in a cover.  It is a 1950s folk song that the band converts into a blues workout that is all their own.  (Oh god - the alt-country kids can't touch a "classic old rock" song, but the dinosaurs . . . they did it right.  I really am not that guy, I promise).  Admittedly, I am not hearing this in 1969, so the familiarity of the original (or Joan Baez's 1962 version) at the time of Zeppelin I is unclear.  What is certain is that after 40 years, the band so completely owned this song that I doubt many people know it was someone else's first.  (of course how much of that is the due to the monolithic presence of classic old rock is hard to say.)