Duck and Cover (Songs) Part Deux

My initial reaction was that I was holding out yesterday, but there are some damn good songs on yesterday's post. However, one plus for today, none of my blathering!



R.E.M. - Academy Fight Song (This is a Mission of Burma song that I have long thought the Foo Fighters could absolutely own)
Ryan Adams - Revelator (This Gillian Welch tune was recorded in 2000 with Gillian & David Rawlings just before the Heartbreaker sessions. Nowhere nearly as powerful as the original, but an interesting listen nevertheless)\
Scott Miller & the Commonwealth - Hawks and Doves (Scott and the boys really open it up on this fairly obscure Neil Young tune. This is one of my favorites)
Ben Folds - Golden Slumbers (A gorgeous rendition for the I Am Sam Soundtrack. As an aside, supposedly they wanted to use the original Beatles' tracks, but Tito Jackson's younger, crazier brother wanted $300,000 per song - greedy bastard)
The Twilight Singers - Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair (One of the highlights of the the Greg Dulli fronted band's 2004 She Loves You is this version of an old traditional)
Nick Cave - I'm Your Man (Nick Cave tackles the title track to 2006's Leonard Cohen tribute film with the cabaret debauchery you would expect)
Toots & The Maytals - Take Me Home Country Road (Just a fun reggae spin on a dusty old John Denver classic)
Dolly Parton - Stairway to Heaven (Unlikely and surprising good. She received the approval of both Robert Plan and Jimmy page after hearing her version)
Iron & Wine - Waiting on a Superman (Sam Bean creates a vulnerability to this song that the Flamings Lips just couldn't fully obtain)
Gillian Welch - Black Star (The raw emotion in this live version with David Rawlings has all the melancholy of the Radiohead original. I seriously think that Thom Yorke and Gillian Welch could team up to write and record the saddest song of all time)
Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah ( This song has been recorded by a number of artists, including Mr. Leonard Cohen himself, and none have come close to matching the sadness and devotion that Buckley committed to this track)
Johnny Cash - Hurt (I don't even consider this a cover tune anymore. If ever a song was unwittingly written by a artist for another artist to later record, it was this one. I can't even listen to the original NIN version anymore. Cash took a good song, and made it brilliant. By conjuring his own demons he took this song and made is his own. And I'll be damned if I don't get chills and teary eyed every time I see the video. Frankly, I believe the constitution should be amended to recognize this and only this version of the song, and that it should be a federal crime for anyone to deface it by recording another version)