AlphaLackey
Registered User
Greetings, one and all, it's ya boy Alpha Lackey here with another Game Day Thread for your information, amusement, and general game day chatter. Now before we start, I'm gonna ask you to smash that like and subscribe button to get all the best in pop c...
"This is HF Jets, not YouTube, you stupid idiot"
FINE, fine.. so yeah, as you can see, Chris Jericho is still around with his unique brand of content supervision. And since Casey Kasem is still recovering from getting a little worked up in our last GDT, I'm gonna be doing the DJing to get us ready for the Rangers.
Ahem.
They Might Be Giants is a alternative rock band, first formed in 1982 and going strong for 40+ years, who got their start after moving to Brooklyn together in 1981. And far from merely hailing from New York, their working styles are an eclectic mix as diverse as the people of the Big Apple -- at times indy darlings, then mainstream darlings, then producers of TV themes and children's music, and back on tour in 2024, they've done it all.
But for all their originality and musical innovation (Dial-A-Song is STILL just a regular phone call to Brooklyn), and as revered as they are among geek subculture, it was the most banal of things that launched them into mainstream fame:
A cover song.
"Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" was originally performed by the Four Lads in 1953, and was received about as well as novelty songs of the time were. The song itself was a 'response' to another song, "C-O-N-S-T-A-N-T-I-N-O-P-L-E" by Paul Whiteman decades ago, and would largely have been forgotten had it not been covered by They Might Be Giants.
Between this song, and the incredibly catchy "Birdhouse In Your Soul", it left the album "Flood" indelibly in the mind of a generation. Yes, I almost even called this the "(Not Mark) Flood" edition.
And part of this is because their version of "Istanbul" really is just that good. It's a marked improvement over the original. Staying on topic, TMBG would also help put Canadian 'cuddlecore' band Cub on the map with a cover of that band's song, "New York City"; again, theirs is an amazing version.
And this is where the Jets come in.
As you know, people have been accusing us of being (gasp) frauds. Liars. Pretenders. Counterfeit fakers, if you will. Nothing but a discount store simulacrum, destined for a first round brooming.
A cover version of a real contender, in other words.
And sometimes, yeah, the cover version sucks. Last GDT, y'all saw how much I loved Styx, but may the earth swallow me whole if I'm lying when I say Dennis DeYoung's cover version of Hendrix's "Fire" is the worst cover version of any song, ever, bar none.
Like, I can't even say it's bad.
"MacArthur Park" is bad. "Run, Joey, Run" is bad.
DeYoung's "Fire" is proof that Jesus died in vain.
But sometimes, the cover version is AWESOME, and frankly, just better than the original. And I'll go on record saying that that's us right now -- the fraudulent contender that's better than the 'real contenders' that Sportsnet is wetting themselves over.
Look, I'm just telling it like it is -- we're currently first in our division, and we're currently getting all-world goaltending, and the new additions are starting to gel at the right time. The Jets are good this year, no doubt about it.
They might be giants, in fact; they just might.
One thing's for sure: tonight's game will go a long way to helping us answer that question.
To conclude this GDT and get some game day tunes in your head, I'd like to present my list of cover songs that are better than the original. If you have any not on the list, just smash that reply button and put them in the com..
.. I mean, link them in a reply post, because this is not YouTube.
So without further ado, here is the Alpha Lackey "Top 10 cover versions better than the original" playlist:
10. Vitamin C's cover of "Volare"
Yes, I'm aware I may well be flushing away all of the grumpy boomer cred I've spent many a year here accumulating, and that Dean Martin and the Gypsy Kings should probably be drawing straws to see who gets to kick my ass first for this, but I said what I said.
It's a love song, right? It should be punchy, it should be upbeat! Isn't that what being in love's like? Or at least, what it's like for a while, in that pleasant interval between meeting a beautiful person and discovering they look like a haddock?
And they absolutely respect the original by including some flawless Italian. Works for me.
9. Ugly Kid Joe's cover of "Cat's In The Cradle"
About the only other thing I remember about Ugly Kid Joe is that their name is apparently a parody of "Pretty Boy Floyd", a glam band I also know next to nothing about. But this song got a lot of airplay in my youth. To me, part of the reason why I'd call it better than the original is that bumping the original tempo up a notch to slow rock is like watering down the syrup just a bit, turning what could be a cloying and treacly mess into something that's still sweet and emotional without trying to be soul crushing.
It still does anyways, of course. I miss the old man.
8. Naya Rivera (RIP) and Grant Gustin's cover of "Smooth Criminal".
At the risk of incurring Mr. Jericho's wrath with a Glee reference, and with ALL due respect to Michael Jackson, this version just "bodies the original" as the kids say. In no small part because of the video, where even the cellists look like they're ready to throw down, and in what is probably a damning indictment of the show itself, a lesbian woman and a gay man exhibit more sexual tension than any of the show's actual couples.
I don't even know if it SHOULD work as a duet, with one person singing the forensic report; it just DOES.
7. Amy Winehouse's (RIP) cover of "Valerie"
Aha, this one's kind of a trick; but yes indeed, Amy Winehouse's version was a cover of a somewhat ponderous original by a somewhat unknown indy band, The Zutons. And is really no doubt that, as it stands now, this is Amy's song.
And the video is fun and fresh; classic Mark Ronson.
6. William Shatner's cover of "Common People"
(not the official music video, but in the theme, it's better than the original
)No, seriously, hear me out.
The song is supposed to be about the singer's frustration and annoyance with a rich woman's faux-pretentious interest in 'the poors', right? And while the lyrics definitely convey that meaning, Bill adds a lot of emotion of the kind you can really only add in a spoken-word version, especially in the chorus where the singer is most sharply rebuking the woman's vanity.
And it's not like he's even covering Pulp's best song.
5. Jag Panzer's cover of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"
This might be a controversial choice, because I know that Gordon Lightfoot is protective of this song, out of respect for the souls lost in that tragedy. But I really do think this version is doing justice to the original, and the emotion in the sound of the lyricist's voices are appropriate.
And frankly, any song that mentions church bells chiming really should have church bells in it. I don't make the rules.
4. Magnus Carlson's cover of "Oh My Darling, Clementine"
Why did this make the list?
Because this version takes the original --mind numbing dreck in even the most charitable evaluation-- and treats it FAR better than it deserves, turning a barely tolerable folk song about posthumous mineshaft infidelity into a poignant ballad about love and loss, set to a music video with a somewhat misplaced theme of a non-custodial lounge singer in a Swedish casino squeezing in precious time with his daughter.
Deserves a spot just for "turning chicken shit into chicken salad" value alone.
3. Freddie Mercury's (RIP) cover of "The Great Pretender"
Obviously going to be highly ranking, because first of all it's Freddie; the man could cover Dr. Jay's vasectomy rap and I'd listen to it on loop for an hour. But more than that, can you think of a song that's a better fit for the singer covering it? Freddie went on at great length about how he used his over-the-top stage presence as a way to cover up his insecurities.
He really was The Great Pretender, and music is so much richer for it.
2. Chris Thorburn's cover of "Jesus Christ, Hockey Star" (or something like that)
I mean, what would YOU rather spend 1.77 hours watching: 106 minutes of Andrew Lloyd Webber's most self-indulgent conceit, or this clip 187 times?
Easy choice for me.
1. Daniel Vasconcelos's cover of "Amazing Grace"
Okay, I know that some of the choices have been irreverent, or a bit cheeky.
I'm not kidding on this one.
It's five minutes of your time that I promise *will* change your life. This version is amazing, like "play this at your funeral" amazing. After all, if the purpose of such hymns is to move the soul, you can't go wrong with the full-blast lung power of a heavy metal singer.
But if that's not your speed, Al Bundy's cover version is pretty good too
Go Jets Go, that is all. Show the world we ain't no damn frauds.
Jets gameday lineup:
TDB
Rangers gameday lineup:
TBD
News and rumours and social media blather heading into tonight's game:
TBD
Last edited:
Let's hope the Jets can beat the Rags tonight...
