The five greatest Geese covers of all time
No matter what band you’re listening to, what music you’re dabbling in, there are those who understand the sacred art form of the cover, and those who don’t, wherein the lesson that artists need to learn if they want to cover a classic song is that there is no set rule when it comes to approaching a song.
Some people like to stay true to the track they’re tackling, allowing their cover to be a complete replica of the original, while others like to put their own spin on it, taking something outside of their style and adding their own unique style. Both of these approaches can work, but that doesn’t mean that they will always be a success for there’s a factor which, to put it plainly, it boils down to, and it’s the skill of the artist.
There are some artists who nail every cover they put their mind to, and a lot of these are older, given they come from a period where playing covers was a lot more common. Jimi Hendrix is a great example, Tom Jones is another, as well as the likes of Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Joan Baez. However, if you want a modern outfit who can tackle the elusive beast that is playing someone else’s music as well as those listed above, look no further than Geese.
Geese take both approaches to covers, where some are given a makeover, while others are complete copies, and while there is inconsistencies in their approach, the one thing that remains consistent is the quality of each track. Geese are a band who just get it, and these five of the best covers they have put their unique sound to.
Five best ever Geese covers:
Pink Floyd – ‘Interstellar Overdrive’
Roger Waters was never a big fan of Pink Floyd’s early work, and when talking about their album Piper at the Gates of Dawn, he criticised the lack of direction the band had, noting, “I don’t want to go back to those times at all. There wasn’t anything ‘grand’ about it’. We were laughable. We were useless. We couldn’t play at all, so we had to do something stupid and ‘experimental’.”
There’s a lot of fans who would disagree with Waters here, but the fact remains, if you have music made by a band who are trying to be experimental and push psychedelic music to its limit, you can only imagine how hard it must be to cover one of their songs. Geese managed to pull it off, though, as their cover of ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ is great to listen to and they manage to keep the chaos of the track somewhat contained throughout.
Leonard Cohen – ‘Suzanne’
What quality does Leonard Cohen possess that makes his music so effortlessly timeless? Of all the artists on the planet, he’s the one where it really is impossible to properly pin down what it is that makes him great. His ability as a writer, singer, and performer is evident, and yet unspoken, as the moment he opens his mouth, his words touch the hearts of all those within earshot; it’s this appeal that makes his songs such popular covers, but very few artists get it right.
Geese are an exception to this rule, for they understand that Cohen’s beauty lies in the fact that the music exists as opposed to how the music is presented. It doesn’t need jazzing up, you don’t need to exaggerate with the delivery of lyrics, just being in the same moment as that music and those words, sharing the same space as them, is the perfect way to cover a Cohen song, and that’s exactly what Geese do on their take on ‘Suzanne’.
New Radicals – ‘You Get What You Give’
It’s one thing to take an upbeat song and slow it down, but another thing entirely to slow it down by pushing that song into a brand new style. Geese don’t just strip back and calm things with this cover of New Radicals‘ ‘You Get What You Give’, they do a lot more than that.
This isn’t just a slow cover of a popular track; it’s a reinvention of one, and Geese’s cover of ‘You Get What You Give’ is a truly beautiful offering which stays true to the original while existing in a completely different realm of music, making it hard to listen to without a smile on your face.
Justin Bieber – ‘Baby’
The key to a truly great musician is versatility; it’s not enough for someone to just excel in the genre and style that they become famous for, but they need to expand beyond that. When you look at the greats, none of them stayed within one specific style for their entire career, and neither will Geese.
If you want skilful flexibility, just listen to this rock band play an early Justin Bieber song and absolutely nail it. We’ve had plenty of bands cover cheesy pop songs in the past, but there is always a wink-wink nudge-nudge element to it, where they’re playing with a smirk on their face and whispering to their listeners, “We’re kidding”, but not Geese, who took the song seriously, and the result was a truly beautiful cover.
Talking Heads – ‘This Must Be The Place’
When Talking Heads originally recorded ‘This Must Be The Place’, they created an incredibly melodic and fun to listen to groove, with the instrumentation the kind that a band could happily jam to for hours without getting bored. Pair that with the song’s progression and David Byrne’s dynamic vocals, and you have a tune which has earned its place in the hall of fame of bangers.
Big shoes to fill indeed, but it turns out Geese wear the same size. That groove is in full flow as soon as their cover starts, the band executing it note perfect but with their own key and playing style giving it a slightly different sound. Then, once Cameron Winter starts singing, despite not having a Byrne kind of tone, he is able to champion this song in a way that does the original Talking Heads version justice, making for a true treat from start to finish.
