When we posted Bad Plus’s tenacious original cut “Physical Cities” from Prog, we promised a listen of their killer cover of Rush’s “Tom Sawyer.” And truly, they pulverize the prog epic, starting true to the tune’s head before delving into a madcap chopped-out piano trio jam. And it wouldn’t be Bad Plus without a tempo-shifted smoothed-out outro, a collective gasp for breath. Drum jock Neil Peart would ? or should ? be proud of BP’s David King’s fills on this one.

Prog is out 5/8 on Heads Up.

Comments (11)
  1. I really thought this sucked and would not sit through this. Geddy lee is what makes this band. Where are the vocals.

  2. Ian R.  |   Posted on Apr 12th, 2007

    all their songs are instrumentals, and also Neil Peart is revered amongst some so to say Geddy Lee made the band seems silly
    that being said I liked it b/c it wasn’t always straightforward

  3. i love this.

  4. Ryan  |   Posted on Apr 13th, 2007

    Dave King is by far the best drummer I have ever seen live.

    Mpls represent!

  5. pianodood  |   Posted on Apr 18th, 2007

    Well, I’m Canadian, big Rush fan. Also a pianist, and I think you have to just appreciate the bands funky interpretation of it.

  6. Geddy Lee  |   Posted on Apr 18th, 2007

    at least one part of their name describes how their band

  7. at least one part of their name describes their band

  8. Dave  |   Posted on Apr 24th, 2007

    Alex Skolnick Trio did an amazing version of “Tom Sawyer” that came out before this. It’s definitely worth checking out.

  9. Everything TBP does has some sort of tongue-in-cheek element to it. Probably because they’re 10x the musicians the artists they choose to cover. If you can’t appreciate this, you’re probably not going to like them. Neal Peart? C’mon, sure he’s a rock god but King smokes him in technique.

  10. I love this version and I love the original. Great job guys. I look forward to picking up the CD and hearing more.

  11. I think it is beautiful. Would love to hear them do different versions. As someone mentioned the Alex Trio, its great to have covers like this.

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