In this Discussion
- Aleatory September 2011
- Dances With Dingo September 2011
Lyrics I'd Have To Change If I Were To Cover An OK Go Song
I realize whenever I hear "Do What You Want" I couldn't sing that song intact were I to cover it...I'd have to make a slight lyric change toward:
Anybody else? Any lyrics YOU'D have to change if you were to cover an OK Go song?
That's just one of those things the idea of OK Go freed me from...I never could quite figure out why nobody in Nashville was interested in a bluegrass cover of "Helter Skelter"...I thought it was a phase I was going through.
I was raised in the "can't do that days"
Anybody else? Any lyrics YOU'D have to change if you were to cover an OK Go song?
Comments
I feel like changing the words to a song sort of damages the integrity of the original writer. Maybe sometimes I'll change the words in a popular song to make a joke or some sort, but never in a way that actually changes the song's meaning, and never with OK Go, partially because I respect Damian so much- I know there was a reason behind the lyrics that he and the boys wrote, and I think changing the lyrics in even a minor fashion is almost an affront to that. Gender changes I'm okay with, because hey, sometimes that's a bit awkward. But as a rule I don't like changing the content of the song for the reason that it mars the original intent of those specific lyrics.
Also another reason is that if someone's never heard that particular song before, if you change the lyrics, they may come away with a different impression than was originally implied by the song, or even start singing the wrong lyrics based on the performer's change, and we all know how irritating that is.
Just a thought.
I'll not bore anyone with my resume in the business before my premature retirement from therein. At the time I would not (nor would I now) change lyrics in a cover performance, live or studio (other than flubbing a line which we've all done too many times to count). I have steadfastly refused to censor explicit lyrics for ANY reason (gosh-darn-it). Changing gender depends on the song and balancing whether changing gendered lyrics would change the songwriter's intent or the song's meaning. (My most favorite early example: Cyndi Lauper's cover of Prince's "When You Were Mine"...she INSISTED on keeping the pronouns the same gender, and ultimately won over the execs...in the end, eyebrows were raised...but in a good way.)
IMHO, the audience should have no role in whether lyrics are changed. If the audience wouldn't like a word in a song, don't do that song. How could one do "WTF?" without changing it to "WTH?"...that's just silly.
With that said, I more cautiously resubmit my original question: hypothetically speaking, are there any OK Go lyrics that, if slightly changed around add any form of irony to the musical setting as juxtaposed against your own life?
To restate my example, I was not raised in the trickle-down days...those days came in my 20s. But I WAS raised in an era where record companies told anyone with a new paradigm, "YOU CAN'T DO THAT" (which coincidentally included my own refusal to censor lyrics).
So the other day when I was listening to "Oh No" I realized that this was my personal life's "customization" of the feeling Damian had when he wrote the words. That's all.
Anyone else?