COVERS

Debating between Alanis Morissette's hilarious cover of "My Humps" and Gary Jule's cover of "Mad World" among other songs, I decided to do Cake's cover of "I Will Survive".

The original: Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive":

The cover: Cake's "I Will Survive":

Released in 1978, Gloria Gaynor's song "I Will Survive" was an incredibly huge hit,  and is still widely known even in our generation. This makes is a perfect song to cover, especially from the perspective of a different genre (considering disco died a long time ago....). With my experience with all the Punk Goes Pop, Punk Goes Crunk, etc. albums, what makes a good cover song is the level of Contrast and Affinity the two songs have between each other. If they're too similar, the cover is rendered irrelevant- you might as well just go listen to the original, but if they're too different then it can't be considered a cover song really. What makes Cake's rendition of "I Will Survive" so great is that it is clearly founded in Gloria Gaynor's song, however it takes on a life of its own through the differences.

The glaring difference between the two songs is the different instrumentations and speed. While Gaynor's song is a fast-paced upbeat disco song, Cake uses the vocals and bass to slow it down, which encourages the listener to lean back and bob their head to the tune rather than get up and dance like Gaynor's. With the different instruments and vocals used, the timbre of each aspect of Cake's song is different than the original, even the guitar and trumpets would have different timbre due to being probably being different models, and possibly with different settings or tunings used (You can hear the difference, although it's obviously more subtle than the timbres of two completely different instruments.)

The affinity between the songs is what is probably the most conspicuous aspects of a song: the lyrics, melody, and rhythm. The only difference in lyrics is where Cake switches out "stupid lock" for "f***ing lock", which is a very noticeable difference that gives Cake's song more personality. The melody is the same, it would be hard to identify it as a cover if it weren't. It's a little hard to tell that the rhythm is retained, however when you ignore the fact that Cake's vocalist characteristically sings with not much inflection in his pitch, and focus on the rhythm of the lyrics itself, you can tell that they're the same. The pitch is also essentially the same, he just takes it an octave down.

One could argue that the contrast and affinity between a cover song and it's original version causes tension and release in the listener. I say this because when you hear a cover song for the first time you're constantly thinking "oh, I wonder how they're going to do the trumpet solo" or "hmmm that's weird. They're screaming the lyrics to a Britney Spears song. I wonder if they're actually going to sing at all?". While listening to a cover song, you're adventuring into the unknown, yet it still remains somewhat within the realm of the familiar, so you're constantly developing expectations and discovering if they're met while listening to a cover.

Although I feel bad for liking a cover song more than the timeless original, I'm going to have to go with Cake's rendition as my favorite of the two. The reason I just have to go with Cake is the brilliant bass line in it. Despite the grammar, I have to agree with one youtuber's comment (that 68 other people liked): "The bass drove me crazy, omg is so great! i just had an eargasm!" It's simply my favorite bass part from anything I've ever heard (and this includes a good deal of Red Hot Chili Peppers stuff, just so you know I'm not ignorant of good bass lines).