Tune du Jour: “Janie Jones” – The Clash
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes: Babyshambles vs. Songdog vs. The Weaklings
Everybody’s Dressin’ Funny … Cover Me Impressed!
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The Original
The Clash:
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes
Babyshambles vs. Songdog vs. The Weaklings
Babyshambles:
Songdog:
The Weaklings:
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 
Babyshambles and Weaklings both do pretty solid covers. All you need to do is play this song loud and fast and you’re already 90% of the way there. For a tie-breaker I was going to hand it to Babyshambles because Mick Jones himself is featured in the video.
But the something happened on the way to the polls. Songdog’s version started to grow on me. At first I thought, no way. At 3 and a half minutes I can see it’s already a minute and a half too long before even starting. But this version kept my interest the whole way. And by the end I kinda liked it. Maybe it as the acoustic guitar. Or maybe it was that I understood all of the lyrics for the very first time. Regardless, I’m going with Songdog.
If I want to hear a hard and fast punked-out version of this song, I can always listen to the original. I don’t know if the cover by Songdog was really the “best”, but I found it the most interesting listen today. They changed it the most, which also allowed me to understand some lines that are hard to decipher in the original.
The Weaklings for two solid reasons: 1) name of band and 2) album cover art
Babyshambles not only because I liked their version best but because of the video with not only Mick Jones but that’s the real Janie Jones as well with her prison tee shirt on. Also, pretty much everyone in the video is a musician from various British bands. The slow version made me seasick. Janie Jones was a pop singer in the sixties, did three years in prison in the seventies for”controlling prostitutes.” Whether she was a madam or just held sex parties at the home I don’t know.
Babyshambles ripped it up and got my vote. Early on I enjoyed the uniqueness of Songdog’s version but it started to bug me as it meandered on. The Weaklings through it down nicely … just not as nicely as Babyshambles.