Broccoli For Miles And Miles And Miles And Miles And Miles … Oh Yeah!
The Original
The Wailing Souls:
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The Cover Songs Competition
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The Blackstones vs. Stiff Little Fingers
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The Blackstones:
Stiff Little Fingers:
Oh the disharmony! Much like Harlan County there are no neutrals here. Only one cover tune will live to play another day and it is your solemn responsibility to decide which one prevails. So tell me … Which Side Are You On?!!?
Also, keep in mind that if you should spontaneously self-actualize while playing a cover then you could – and probably should – nominate it for Top 10 (i.e. “Impeccable”) consideration.
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Votes can be cast up to seven days from the day and time of the original post.
Disclaimer: Votes cast from Florida may or may not be counted.
cover me impressed 
Stiff Little Fingers! Bright, crisp, energetic…not just a copy of the original…
When Mr. Fire Coal Man came up in CMI’s proprietary “random-subjective” song selector algorithm I only had one cover, Stiff Little Finger’s gem. I subsequently found two more, both falling within the reggae genre. So the winner of this bout will have to defend its title at some point down the road.
As for today’s competition, I could happily listen to any one of the three cuts. They all sound great in different ways. The original sounds so dated, yet classic, that it is absolutely a cool listening experience. The Blackstones were a real find, producing an excellent version in their own right. But SLF’s rendition? Damn it soars, seamlessly mixing punk, ska and reggae genres as it builds towards it crescendo. Bad Sign’s spot on. Gotta go with SLF on this one.
As much as I love SLF (and I have the 45 of this song, on vinyl), it’s a reggae song, and SLF’s reggae on this one is just not reggae enough for me.
Really only one solution here; create an alter-ego second account and vote twice …
Wailing Souls original dominates for me. The Blackstones version was similar but inferior and the fidelity killed it for me. Sounded like it was recorded by a half-held 1980 cassette held 75 yards away from the band. Stiff Little Fingers version features some nice bass and drums but the vocals are weak compared to the reggae versions.