Hear The Strokes cover Marvin Gaye song ‘Mercy Mercy Me’ with Eddie Vedder and Josh Homme
As far as unlikely covers go, this one is really up there. Released on the 2015 charity compilation ablum Live from Nowhere Near You, Vol. II, this rendition of Marvin Gaye song ‘Mercy Mercy Me’ sees Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Josh Homme, and The Strokes dial up the heat.
Taken form 1971’s ‘What’s Going On’, this sensual Motown record is one of the earliest pieces of popular music to confront the issue of climate change. Though the thought of his most successful artists releasing a song about the environment filled Motown boss Berry Gordy with a distinctly queasy feeling, ‘Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)’ soared the number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and landed the top spot on the R&B chart.
What’s Going On became Gaye’s first million-selling album and won him two Grammy Awards, but by 1974 he wasn’t interested in money or fame. Discussing his ongoing spiritual quest, Gaye told Sounds magazine: “My idea of living is, I would love to become an impeccable warrior, one who has no need for earthly things such as the wine, the women, the clothes and the diamonds, and the fine things to wear. I’d love to develop a distaste for those things and become only interested in knowledge and power that this earth will give us, if we’re only willing to put in the time and effort”.
Gaye’s newfound immaterialism was perhaps a reaction to the wave of environmentalist action unleashed during the 1960s – catalysed by the publication of books like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, in which the author documented the environmental harm caused by pesticides such as DDT. In his lyrics, Gaye paints a portrait of an apocalyptic world ravaged by industry and human greed: “Ah, things ain’t what they used to be,” he sings. “Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas / Fish full of mercury.”
In this 2015 rendition by Vedder, Homme and The Strokes, Gaye’s original Motown backing is replaced by an indefinable blend of choppy riffs, super-compressed drums and screeching guitar solos. Over the top, Julian Casablancas, Homme and Vedder jump in and out of verses, carving up Gaye’s original lyrics equally between them. You can check it out above.
