Tune du Jour: “Heart of Gold” – Neil Young
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes: Kacey Musgraves vs. Passenger vs. The Vitamin String Quartet
Everybody’s Dressin’ Funny … Cover Me Impressed!
“You would think that a rock star being married to a supermodel would be one of the greatest things in the world. It is.”.”
David Bowie
The Original
Neil Young:
And before it was played six trillion times:
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes
Kacey Musgraves vs. Passenger vs. The Vitamin String Quartet
Kacey Musgraves:
Passenger:
The Vitamin String Quartet:
SPACE
Oh the disharmony! Much like Harlan County there are no neutrals here. It is your solemn responsibility to decide which cover song prevails. In other words … Which Side Are You On?!!?
cover me impressed 
I’ve already gone on and on about how much I love this song. So I won’t repeat it here other than to say that I absolutely love this song.
Kacey Musgraves has a pleasant enough voice, perhaps a tad bit too stereotypical country for my taste. But the use of an electric guitar instead of an acoustic really intrigued me. It gave the song a different feel that I found I liked. So I’m voting for this.
I did enjoy and appreciate the pedal steel guitar in Passenger’s rendition. But his voice annoyed me. He sings on key and in tune. But I just don’t like his voice or singing style. And I was really annoyed that he’s got his capo up on the 5th or 6th fret of his acoustic guitar. What the hell is he doing playing THIS song with a capo THAT high up on the fret board. Geez, that is just ridiculous. I’m sure you all know exactly what I mean.
The Vitamin String Quartet did a very nice cover. But the lyrics of this song are such a big part of its appeal that just about any instrumental version already has 2 and half strikes against it right from the start.
Kacey Musgraves ended up getting my vote. She did a nice, not-overly-twangy, countrified version and she did it well. Nothing stellar, but nothing annoying. Passenger’s version was fine, although his voice shifts back and forth from normal human to cartoon munchkin, and it was disarming. Plus the capo thing was infuriating, so fuck him. Deeply offended by it. The Vitamin String Quartet emphasized what a nice melody the song has, but alas, as Cuspid pointed out, the lyrics make the song.
It appears Dubbs stepped away from the control booth today and allowed one of his interns to take the reins. He provided explicit instructions for page layout and composition, but neglected to inform the intern about the ban on country music. Upon Dubbs’ return, the intern will be destined for internment and the Musgraves clip will be dispatched with great alacrity.
To the left of the page the reader will find a heading titled “Music Genres?” subtitled “We’ve Got ’em Covered…”. There follows a listing of no fewer than thirty-three discrete musical genres, but don’t bother looking for “country”, ’cause it iddent there.
Passenger attempts some strange sort of vocal contrivance that I didn’t care for. The string quartet piece didn’t do much for me.
Kasey’s major label debut in 2013 was widely praised and she was hailed as a bold new force on the Nashville scene. She might be better than most artists you’re likely to encounter on mainstream commercial country radio, but I still tend to prefer the authentic hardcore traditional country of decades past. But heck, on CMI I’ll take what I can get. Kasey for the win!
I wanted to vote for Musgraves. I really did. I had read such positive and intriguing reviews on her. But alas her version was way to countrified and, as we all know, I hate my country. Passenger’s vocals were simply awful. String Quartet by default.
Hey, i could swear i voted and left a reply this morning that actually mirrored yours and cuspid’s.
Went with passenger based on the steel guitar alone, his voice is really annoying and the girl is average at best. What happened to my comment and did my vote shiw up. I may heed to talk to a manager!
I voted Musgraves. I listened to all three this morning through my external speakers and was ready to vote for Kacey, then listened again tonight with headphones and was much more impressed with the string quartet but not quite enough for the win. I think the lyrics to this song are trite. Sounds like he wrote them in under ten minutes.
Trite? OK, so Shakespeare it’s not. But trite?
Ok, Z, you’re right. Sometimes my shoes are too big for my feet. But it makes it easier to taste them.