The day David Bowie delivered the greatest cover of The Rolling Stones
A true testament to a song’s greatness is the volume and quality of covers that it yields.
When thinking of all the best songs ever written, with the ultimate, timeless rock and roll classics, each and every one has fostered a lengthy playlist of other renditions. Other artists have scrambled to cover them, borrowing the original artist’s lyrics while also questioning, if something has been said perfectly once, why say it again? Need an example? Look towards The Rolling Stones.
On any given night, in any given town or city, in any given country, someone is singing a Stones song. Whether it’s a drunken amateur at karaoke, a young up-and-comer doing their first open mic night or even a more established artist choosing to add a classic cover to their set, the yearning to tackle a Mick Jagger classic unites everyone.
It’s hard to resist, which is why the band got so big; it’s because of the flawlessness of their hit. With a long line of them as one of the most successful bands in history, there are plenty to choose from to start with. But as they’re built relatively simply, inspired by the greats of blues and rock, it makes them an incredibly satisfying try to take on, but also one that is movable and changeable.
Stones songs allow space for adaptation as throughout the history of other artists covering their tracks, the world has seen everything from exact replicas to musicians taking the original and completely reworking it. Take Devo’s ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ as an example for the latter as the alternative troupe essentially just keep the lyrics and bin the rest of the song, making it completely their own.
But the best Stones cover comes less from a shift in musicality, and more from a shift in swagger. While Jagger always carried himself as exactly what he was, which was one of the hottest frontmen in musical history, David Bowie’s take on the band took that and almost made it a caricature as he sang ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’.
Initially released by the Stones in 1967, this was the band at peak fame. They were international icons and some of the most famous men in music. They were the faces of rock and roll, or, in particular, Mick Jagger was the face of rock and roll as one of the most lusted-after men alive. So when they released this track, putting aside any innuendo or veil to straight up sing, “I’ll satisfy your every need / And now I know you will satisfy me”, they were leaning heavily into their reputation as rock’s biggest seducers.
But then, in 1973, when Bowie got his hands on the track during his androgynous Alladin Sane era, he lent it a knowingness. Not only does he amp up the guitars and add in obnoxious honky tonk keys to start, levelling up the production to a somewhat mocky of what a rockstar should sound like, the slight upping of the tempo and Bowie’s frantic vocals instantly make the whole thing sleazier and more desperate, like the singer is in heat.
Pair that with Bowie’s look at the time: this alien-like creature that had just spawned from Ziggy Stardust, leaning further into this otherworldly sex appeal the characters had, and the result is something jubilant. Arguably, the Stones’ version is the straightest song in the world as a band of pretty boys sing about wanting to bed a girl. Bowie saw that and spun it around, exaggerating it to an extent where his take on ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’ is almost humorous, turning the band’s schtick back on them, while still being truly electrifying.
