I Was Swimming In The Caribbean - Covers.

Right; We're going back to a music oriented post, the topic of conversation that is so nonchalantly teetering atop your' tongue is as the title would suggest: covers.
I think what is important when looking at music is its longevity, I don't think that the fact that a song is "still around" is a hallmark of a "Classic": take for example Nirvana's Teen Spirit, a song that by way of accident rip roared its way into the mainstream, Kurt himself admitting to taking massive inspiration from the Pixies:

"I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band- or at least a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard."

As the band and the music became more popular Kurt began to detest playing the song, he began to exclude it from concerts and the band as much resented playing it.

"The band felt tortured to play this song over and over again once it had become popular. Uncomfortable with how successful it had become, they often excluded from playing it at their concerts. By 1994, Kurt's thrust into popularity and his natural instincts to avoid it had collided. He killed himself in 1994 by shooting himself in the head."

A digression perhaps; but to explain: One could argue a song is much more about the moment, is it possible that anything can necessarily be enjoyed again and again and be consistently satisfying, it's hard to re-capture the moment you first listened to a song that really blows you away? As glorious as it is to sit back in nostalgia and retrospect and re-kindle your love for a particular verse, you'll never have it back, the moments, the emotions. I think it is most often the best idea to jump out whilst you can in a blaze of glory rather than slow-burning away whilst a panel show snigger at what became of the embers. To think, should Kurt still be with us would his legacy remain? Is it doing the song justice that it is still around, being thrown in front of new audiences like a stale finger buffet.

My question though, which I myself cannot begin to answer: Is the churning out of covers of "classic" songs a way to re-kindle peoples fondness for the original by way of preserving what we had, or is it more a quick cash in?

For example, I'll return to the Pixies - Where Is My Mind, quite possibly my favourite song, though I know that I don't feel the same sense of "ey up" when it happens to come on shuffle, but then I found a cover of it by The PeteBox, a beat-box-esq performer (who has recently released a live studio album that I highly recommend) and I fell in love with it again, it was... perfect.

So, I leave you with that, I don't have an answer, these are just my thoughts and feelings but at the end of the day music is an art, something that can by its very nature be enjoyed again and again, though I think it is something to be felt, as much as a work as a moment, be it one that you share with other people, or a cheeky treat you scoffed on your own of in the midst of a Saturday's eve.

Hmm.

Anyway; for reading this far, you can have a snack:
The Pixes: Where Is My Mind