If there is one defining song that marks my very late teens, it is Love will tear us apart. If I hear it on the radio, it transports me back to the spring of 1980, when the world was ripe with possibility and music was the urging of me.
Everyone seems to want to cover it, as if it imbues you with some grave-robbing chic or supposed coolness, so beloved of anyone who currently nods towards Nick Drake. None of you nod at John Martyn, do you? This bloody song – everyone seems to want to chip away at my enduring memory of it, to replace Ian’s version with theirs. “Look at this” they say “this is a great version of this song”. I’ve lost count of the attempts, but I’ve listed some of the extremes that youtube has to offer below. Even the subtle remixing of it on “Closer” riles and irritates me, and makes me question my own audio ability.
I think that if you are going to cover the song, you should take something of it, and work forward from there. You’re never going to capture the animalistic thrash of the 12 string in the intro, and I defy you to find that synth sound on your garageband setup – you need a proper Yamaha SK10. No, if you want to cover this song. you need to begin with it’s USP – the emotion expressed in the lyric – and take it from there. We’ll come back to the only version that I hold as dear to me as I do the original at the end of this. For now, let’s have an amusing walk through the villainy – those that would try and fail publicly. You have to admire their bravery.
Paul Young
I think Paul was the first out of the traps to cover this, and establish himself as Mr no-original-material of the 80’s (have a look at the writing credits on ‘No Parlez’…). It is at least a different interpretation of the song, and I grudgingly admit that he manages to convey emotion in it. What you might call a valiant attempt. I have to say that calling your backing singers the “Fabulous Wealthy Tarts” is always going to affect the way you view the subject matter of the song.
6/10 – taking different roads…
Mark Owen
Oh <insert deity of choice here> – this is utter trite shite.
I have ALWAYS hated the sound of the Ovation Balladeer guitar I have always hated Take That. I’ve never understood his mis-pronounced r’s and the only time I’ve ever had a sneaking admiration for him was seeing him with a dustbin in the front seat of his merc, driving home from a DIY store. Can’t he find better things to do with his time – this is as appropriate as polar bear at a penguin convention…
1/10 Resentment riding quite high indeed
10,000 Maniacs
Natalie is never averse to a spot of cover stuff, and I have been bowled over, in a bad way of course, at how similar to Steve Harley’s ‘Come up and see me’ she manages to make this sound. Yes Natalie, your timing IS that flawed.
4/10 – ambitions are low
Nouvelle Vague
It’s a nice frock and suits her, but my daughter could come up with a more interesting arrangement than this.
3/10 – bedroom quite cold….
New Order
You’d think they’d know better, wouldn’t you. No, this is a pedestrian slog through the song that you just wouldn’t expect from the makers of “The Perfect Kiss”, it shows the difference between the two groups vocal affectations though. Ian could sing this song, and that is an end to it.
4/10 – Failings exposed.
The Cure
I had high hopes of this – Robert Smith should really have ‘got it’. Instead, it sounds like a song played as if he is going through the motions. A shame – strip it bare and play it in the manner of ‘Killing an Arab’ and it might have worked – but we’ll never know..
2/10 – Desperation taking hold
Simple Minds
I said that you have to take a flavour of the song and run with it, didn’t I? I want to hate this so much but my feet just get persuaded by what sounds like a John Digweed/Sasha type remix. But Simple Minds? Surely not – this sounds nothing like the band I knew and variously loved and hated through the 80’s. I score this highly, because there is nothing recognisable about the music other than the chord progression, and that I think perhaps this has some merit as a dance track. The problem there is, that if you remember the original, this is an abomination, but to the children of the 90’s, this isn’t that bad. Someone has written in the comments that they should be tried in the Hague for crimes against art. If it polarises you to that extent, it must have some merit?
7/10 – Taking different roads.
Dave Gahan
You did read that correctly. I’d love to have a soundboard copy of this, because it is exactly what you wouldn’t expect from Basildon’s premier Barstable Baritone. Dave takes the song and makes it his own – even though this is a live rendition. I think it benefits from not being over-thought, too.
8/10 – There’s still this appeal
Susanna and the Magic Orchestra
Sublime. This is deconstructed to the point where you are forced to listen to the words, and the nuances and meanings behind them are bought into a sharp focus. The spartan musical backdrop adds an ethereal quality to the song – it no longer relies on the adrenaline reaction of the original; this song requires that you engage with it on a cerebral level. If this song were a work of art, it would be behind alarmed glass doors in the Louvre.
10/10 Love of this version tears me apart.
richardsandwell 