Another eclectic mix as we move into the second half of the first round. Listen to the songs here; vote by commenting below before 11pm EST, Friday.
When Danno nominated Metallica’s “Turn the Page,” he lamented its certain defeat. What he didn’t know is that the song grew on yours truly quite a bit freshman year. Stuck with an otherwise excellent roommate who blasted metal until the wee hours of the morning, Turn the Page was part of a “compromise” playlist I struck with Adrock. Finding an opponent was tough- this is the only metal cover in the tournament. That’s why it’ll face a jazz cover, the Bad Plus’s cover of early metal anthem, “Tom Sawyer.”
Will Metallica sue us for including them in this tournament?
Eddie Vedder has a mixed record here at LivingtheDream, but this time he’s got the benefit of a Marvin Gaye track to cover and the Strokes backing him. Let’s see how “Mercy Mercy Me” fares against Cake’s cover of “I Will Survive.” Both the original and cover are pretty well known, so you might come in with preconceived notions, positive or negative. Remember to vote in the moment.
What’s great about Yo La Tengo is that their catalog is deep enough that they don’t need cover songs to fill albums or live shows, but they do it anyway. I almost nominated their version of Little Honda. Tonight “You Can Have It All” takes on “Handle with Care”, Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins’ cover of the Traveling Wilburys masterpiece. I liked the way the two song titles go together.
Slowing it down for our last match up, so grab the one you’re with. This features one of the last tunes to appear in the great glam rock flick, The Velvet Goldmine. “Tumbling Down,” performed by the assembled for the movie band Venus in Furs (pretty sure Jonathan Rhys Meyers is on vocals), will take on one of the more recent covers in the tournament, Linkin Park’s cover of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.” Hard to replace her voice, but let’s see if they bring the soul.
Pastables:
Turn the Page (Metallica) vs. Tom Sawyer (Bad Plus)
Mercy Mercy Me (Eddie Vedder and the Strokes) vs. I Will Survive (Cake)
You Can Have It All (Yo La Tengo) vs. Handle Me With Care (Jenny Lewis and Watson Twins)
Tumbling Down (Venus in Furs) vs. Rolling in the Deep (Linkin Park)
Living the Dream 
Turn the Page (Metallica) 7.5
Tom Sawyer (Bad Plus) 4.5
I kinda wish I could have gotten my metal loving next door neighbor freshmen year to put Turn the Page on a compromise playlist.
Mercy Mercy Me (Eddie Vedder and the Strokes) 5.7
I Will Survive (Cake) 8
Cake’s I Will Survive is one of my bar jukebox go-to’s.
You Can Have It All (Yo La Tengo) 5.5
Handle Me With Care (Jenny Lewis and Watson Twins) 6.5
Some really pretty parts in both of these, think Handle Me With Care will grow on me more.
Tumbling Down (Venus in Furs) 5
Rolling in the Deep (Linkin Park) 2
Haha it would actually be kinda fun to make a metal compromise list. I nominate “Bang Your Head (Metal Health)” by Quiet Riot for that- mostly for the line “got teeth like an alligator”
Or is it “Metal Health (Bang Your Head.)” Either way, that one.
haha I’ll have to check that out too
Turn the Page (Metallica) vs. Tom Sawyer (Bad Plus) 6.5 / 9
Mercy Mercy Me (Eddie Vedder and the Strokes) vs. I Will Survive (Cake) 6 / 7.5
You Can Have It All (Yo La Tengo) vs. Handle Me With Care (Jenny Lewis and Watson Twins) 4 / 5
Tumbling Down (Venus in Furs) vs. Rolling in the Deep (Linkin Park) 5 / 6
Turn the Page (Metallica) 4
vs. Tom Sawyer (Bad Plus) 5
Mercy Mercy Me (Eddie Vedder and the Strokes) 6
vs. I Will Survive (Cake) 7
Good pairing, good match-up
You Can Have It All (Yo La Tengo) 10
vs. Handle Me With Care (Jenny Lewis and Watson Twins) 6
Tumbling Down (Venus in Furs) 7
vs. Rolling in the Deep (Linkin Park) 4 Flat
Turn the Page (Metallica) 8.5
Tom Sawyer (Bad Plus) 4
I do love me some Tom Sawyer, but I want to hear the words!! Really didn’t like what was going on around 2 minutes.
Mercy Mercy Me (Eddie Vedder and the Strokes) 5
I Will Survive (Cake) 8.5
You Can Have It All (Yo La Tengo) 4
Handle Me With Care (Jenny Lewis and Watson Twins) 4.5
Tumbling Down (Venus in Furs) 4
Rolling in the Deep (Linkin Park) 6
Turn the Page (Metallica) vs. Tom Sawyer (Bad Plus) 5.0 to 6.0
Mercy Mercy Me (Eddie Vedder and the Strokes) vs. I Will Survive (Cake) 2.0 to 3.0
You Can Have It All (Yo La Tengo) vs. Handle Me With Care (Jenny Lewis and Watso Twins) 4.0 to 5.0
Tumbling Down (Venus in Furs) vs. Rolling in the Deep (Linkin Park) 4.0 to 7.5
Turn the Page (Metallica) vs. Tom Sawyer (Bad Plus) 9.0 to 3.0
In the spirit of full disclosure and being the father of Janos’ freshman roommate, I too developed a tolerance for “some” heavy metal, especially on the drives up to Hanover. But I actually love Turn the Page and intended to nominate it until Danno beat me to the keyboard. And in the spirit of the tournament, I will forgive Danno any prior comments about pink shirts. Tom Sawyer didn’t cut it at all as I have a low tolerance for dissonance and random musical passages that have seemingly no cohesion.
Mercy Mercy Me (Eddie Vedder and the Strokes) vs. I Will Survive (Cake) 2.0 to 3.0
Eddie was actually painful (physically) to listen to and Cake apparently has no concept of what it means to sing on key.
You Can Have It All (Yo La Tengo) vs. Handle Me With Care (Jenny Lewis and Watson Twins) 3.0 to 5.0. Jenny would have been better off without the Twins. They took her down instead of boosting her performance up.
Tumbling Down (Venus in Furs) vs. Rolling in the Deep (Linkin Park) 4.5 to 7.5 Liked Linkin Park a lot on this one. Much more believable than Adele’s over performed/produced version.
Re: Handle with Care, I don’t think the twins (who are women) sing on that track, or at least they are seriously backgrounded. The co-vocalists here are three different men.
Turn the Page (Metallica) vs. Tom Sawyer (Bad Plus) 1/3.5
Had to stop both of these early. Tom Sawyer went up to a 6, but I just couldn’t deal with the jam break downs.
Mercy Mercy Me (Eddie Vedder and the Strokes) vs. I Will Survive (Cake) 3.5/5
You Can Have It All (Yo La Tengo) vs. Handle Me With Care (Jenny Lewis and Watson Twins) 4/9
YLT is so hit or miss. This was boring. After this round so far it was such a relief to hear Jenny Lewis (and Ben Gibbard… and M. Ward… and Conor Oberst… huh, I’m realizing that in more ways than one, this song embodies my early 20s).
Tumbling Down (Venus in Furs) vs. Rolling in the Deep (Linkin Park) 10/5.5
(Guillermo, you wanted stories, so here you go:) One odd thing that Janos and I have in common is that “Velvet Goldmine” is one of our favorite movies. Other than my friends in high school with whom I developed a sort of obsession over it, he’s one of the only other people I’ve met who’s seen that movie, much less likes it.
In the last tourney, I tried to pick stuff I liked but that would please a crowd, but with this tourney I just picked stuff I really, really liked. “Tumbling Down” is probably my most esoteric and personal nomination. I love this song because it’s weird and unique and deeply connected to a formative time in my life, when I was about 16 or 17 and obsessively watched my VHS of “Velvet Goldmine,” which had immeasurable impact on my taste in music, fashion, and men. If you’re curious what that impact might be, well, let’s just say that first picture and this song are fairly representative of the movie’s aesthetics. Take that as you will. (PS that is Jonathan Rhys Meyers singing. And in the picture).
On a final note, I was really prepared to despise that Linkin Park cover, but it was okay. It didn’t really go anywhere, but it was okay.
All of the songs are so fun to listen to! I really like this tournament.
Turn the Page (Metallica) 6.4
Tom Sawyer (Bad Plus) 3.5
Bob Seger, don’t get me wrong, you know I love you. But James Hetfield does a pretty good thing here. This version of Tom Sawyer would be really good accompanied by cheap wine, free bread, and olive oil. I like the innovation, but it’s not working for me here.
Mercy Mercy Me (Eddie Vedder and the Strokes) 5.9
I Will Survive (Cake) 7.8
Better than the original. Back in the Gloria Gaynor IWS days of the first tournament, my sister said something to the effect of “I don’t want to listen to this unless it’s on a break-up CD and I am going through a break-up.” That doesn’t apply to this version, in a good way.
You Can Have It All (Yo La Tengo) 6.5
Handle Me With Care (Jenny Lewis and Watson Twins) 8.2
Traveling Wilburys –> Jenny Lewis + Indie Dude Crew = just lovely.
Tumbling Down (Venus in Furs) 6
Rolling in the Deep (Linkin Park) 6.5
I just recently watched the first season of the Tudors. So I know who Jonathan Rhys-Davies is. That’s about all I got on this one, sorry AA and JM- I will look into Velvet Goldmine for sure. Props to LP for trying something new and doing it pretty well. I can’t remember the name of one of their songs though, I try to remember one and I just remember Limp Bizkit songs. They did that Jay-Z thing right? That song. I am blathering in a very Friday way.
Turn the Page (Metallica) vs. Tom Sawyer (Bad Plus)- 7.5 : 5
Turn the Page is rock solid. Tom Sawyer reminded me of Derek Smalls’ “Jazz Odyssey” from This is Spinal Tap.
Mercy Mercy Me (Eddie Vedder and the Strokes) vs. I Will Survive (Cake)- 6.2 : 4
Other than Short Skirt Long Jacket I find Cake incredibly grating.
You Can Have It All (Yo La Tengo) vs. Handle Me With Care (Jenny Lewis and Watson Twins)- 7.3: 7.6
Both very pretty.
Tumbling Down (Venus in Furs) vs. Rolling in the Deep (Linkin Park)- 9.2 : 4.8
Rolling in the Deep dragged on after a decent start.
It’s hard to disassociate Tumbling Down from this epic video:
Turn the Page (Metallica) 9
vs. Tom Sawyer (Bad Plus) 4
Mercy Mercy Me (Eddie Vedder and the Strokes) 2
vs. I Will Survive (Cake) 7
You Can Have It All (Yo La Tengo) 6
vs. Handle Me With Care (Jenny Lewis and Watson Twins) 9
Tumbling Down (Venus in Furs) 10
vs. Rolling in the Deep (Linkin Park) 7
Add me to list of Velvet Goldmine lovers for sure!
Turn the Page (Metallica) vs. Tom Sawyer (Bad Plus): 8/4
Turn the Page was really good. I like the piano intro to Tom Sawyer. It went downhill from there.
Mercy Mercy Me (Eddie Vedder and the Strokes) vs. I Will Survive (Cake): 4/7.5
I concur with Guillermo’s sister.
You Can Have It All (Yo La Tengo) vs. Handle Me With Care (Jenny Lewis and Watson Twins): 4/8
Una canta fue muy excelente!
Tumbling Down (Venus in Furs) vs. Rolling in the Deep (Linkin Park): 7/5
Rolling in the Deep was a weak rendition of a nice song.
Turn the Page (Metallica) – 6.5
I do like it better than the original.
Tom Sawyer (Bad Plus) – 9
I think this is jammin’, and I’m glad at least one person agrees. Among the rest of you…I have to think at least a few simply don’t like jazz. I acknowledge it’s a bit out…but figured I might as well pick something like that…Anyway, it was certainly worth a try! I wanted to nominate Jason Moran’s theme to Yojimbo or Greg Osby’s ‘Joga’, but figured the source pieces were too obscure.
Mercy Mercy Me (Eddie Vedder and the Strokes) – 5
Underwhelming
I Will Survive (Cake) – 3
The spunky bass line and addition of a vibraslap don’t make up for the singers total lack of rhythmic sense.
You Can Have It All (Yo La Tengo) – 7
Maybe it was just my speakers but the ostinato vocal overwhelmed the lead, which was frustrating. I don’t think it was though…the lead is just so whispery…otherwise nice, I guess.
Handle Me With Care (Jenny Lewis and Watson Twins) – 5.5
Tumbling Down (Venus in Furs) – 6
Rolling in the Deep (Linkin Park) – 3