Here’s the lastest chance to love/hate The Fiery Furnaces. It’s their contribution to the all-star compilation This Bird Has Flown, the 40th Anniversary Tribute to The Beatles’ Rubber Soul.
The Fiery Furnaces – “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” (MP3 link removed)
PREVIOUSLY: Beatles Tribute Album Announced
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ew!
Actually, it’s interesting, but I don’t think it really works. Just my opinion.
i’m surprised that the whole thing wasn’t more like the freak-out near the end, but it sounds less like “your indie heroes sing karaoke” than some of the other tracks.
EF is on a pretty convincing Bob Dylan-circa-1966 kick with this one…
Yeah, I was thinking there was definitely a Highway 61 thing to it. Again, interesting, but not working.
I’ve seen them and really enjoyed them, and enjoy a lot of their other music, but I think this cover is pretty terrible. It’s like they’ve never even heard the song before, someone ust gave them a lyric sheet and told them to go crazy.
Oh, man, that was dreadful.
yeah… i don’t know. it’s interesting, but it has NOTHING of the old song in it.
i like the other ones i’ve heard better.
but who knows, it could grow on me.
I know people like this band a lot, and that those same people tend to like bands I like, but I still don’t understand its appeal. And this cover does very, very little to change that opinion. Sure it’s nice when someone does something different with a song and don’t offer up a straight rendition, but I would gladly listen to Sarah MacLachlan sing this song over this seizure. I agree with the previous poster – it’s like they’ve never heard the song.
There was a great thread about this on Fluxblog a few months back…
http://www.fluxblog.org/2005/08/isnt-it-good-fiery-furnaces-norwegian.html
…where we learn that Matt doesn’t like Dylan?!?!
I like this little experiment; playing Beatles covers are always a risky proposition. I think that this playing with the phrasing is overall successful. Unfortunatley, the approach fails so miserably in the first verse that they pretty much sqander the goodwill of the listeners before they get going. Luckily, I have a short memory so we were good as of the second verse.
that was hideous!!
I also like a good liverwurst, mustard, and onion sandwich every now and again. So I’m used to being completey alone in my opinions…
odious. like most FF stuff, they just don’t get it.
most overrated band ever.
I wasn’t planning on vomiting on that, but well, plans change. FU FF.
Terrible. I don’t require that covers maintain strict adherence to the originals (check out the Red House Painters’ fantastic Cars, McCartney and Yes covers on Songs for a Blue Guitar), but if you’re going to totally re-write a song, you should probably actually, y’know, re-write it rather than winging it with a lyric sheet.
Increasingly annoyed by this band…
Looks like pretty much everyone has decided to “hate” on this one. Would it have been better if it sounded more like the original? I guess I’m just wondering what makes a “good cover” in people’s minds. I really like Cat Power’s cover of “Satisfaction” a few years ago, mostly because, lacking its signature riff and chorus, it sounded nothing like the original.
I actually like it…really goofy and tongue-in-cheek
There should be laws against a recording like that. That was just painful.
the simplest test of a good cover is: is the end result a good song? it’s not that this version strays too far from the original, or some other version follows it with more fidelity; people are hating this because (i suspect) we all think it’s a flat-out crap song, cover or no.
if a cover is good, you should be able to play it to someone who’s never heard the original and have them enjoy it — maybe not as much as if they were familiar with the original, but still find something to like about it. even if i were unfamiliar with the original, this song sould still leave me scratching my head. or more appropriately, my ass.
Crap on Ryvita.
way to ruin a great song…geez.
“the simplest test of a good cover is: is the end result a good song?”
Amen.
This version doesn’t just suffer by comparison. It truly sucks all on its own.
Whether it’s Led Zeppelin radically rethinking Robert Johnson, Husker Du eviscerating “Eight Miles High,” or, as I mentioned above, Mark Kozelek ‘Red House Painters-izing’ pretty much anything he comes into contact with, a good cover should be, first and foremost, a good song. If “different” is enough for a cover to be good, I’ve got a fart, theremin, and vocal version of the entire Blueberry Boat album that doesn’t adhere to the original melodies at all and ditches all verb content in the lyrics, but it’ll blow your fucking mind.
Eh, take it or leave it. Though I’ll definetly take Nellie McKay’s contribution to this record.
it truly takes some effort to take an excellent tune and fashion it into a complete and utter turd, but FF have succeeded admirably in this regard. This solidifies my contempt for this band and I consider them and Deerhoof to be the most-overrated artists in recent memory.
i liked it back when i downloaded it off of fluxblog. i don’t have an overwrought retort for everyone that hated it. just not their cup, i suppose.
you know, i’ve listened to it a little more and i like it a lot more.
but still… meh.
agreed. that was terrible.
I may never understand the complete and total repulsion by many (MANY!) to this band. I don’t think they were ever courting a large audience. Is “not caring about the audience” the reason they are so despised? I mean, there will always be haters. They marry hater bitches and have hater kids. But why are the haters so united on this band? I feel like The Bravery were hated on less. And they wear mascara.
This song is a B-.
There are no rules in cover songs, except maybe make it your own.
This song leaked in mid august i thought?
This album is not suppose to be released until next Tuesday but for some reason, it is already for sale on iTunes. I bought a few of the songs last night. Not this one–I don’t really care for it but there are some other great songs.
Sounds like Sonic Youth, without guitars, doing a send up of Dylan, while some dickwad noodles away on the organ.
I want my money back.
ughhh, fuckin’ puke. shameful and simply, whyyyy?
ughhh, fuckin’ puke. shameful and simply, whyyyy? it only took 5 seconds in to realize this by the way.
Just terrible.
I love it! <3
This song has really grown on me, after I started out hating it. It’s got a William Shatner vibe to it. It’s nothing like the original, but that’s OK.
This sounds like a hispter dosed up on fix before stumbling into an emo parade – don’t like it, pitty it.
I hate the Fiery Furnaces. I Hate Them. They are horrible. They
are posers. I hate hate hate hate them. I’ve never felt this
strongly about an “artist”/group before, postive or negative.
The Fiery Furnaces should be put in jail and not let out until they
promise to burn their microphones and their digital delay machines. Die, Fiery Furnaces, Die!
This is in response to Johnny.. So what bands DO you like?
Can anyone rock the ‘WINTER’ cover by the Fall? Need it for my collection.