Normally with a cover, a group strives to "make it their own". Bring out hidden dimensions. Make style the locus of originality, not content.
But this interpretation is uncommonly faithful, to the point of redundancy
The Bunnymen even got Ray Manzarek to play keyboards on it. Actually, Ray produced the single.
It's like a Medieval illuminated manuscript, a perfect replica of a sacred rock text requiring absolute self-erasure on the part of the craftsmen.
I think it was at that point that I decided what I had suspected had been confirmed -- that the Bunnymen had gone off the rails. I seem to recall a few rock critics back then (for reasons I couldn't fathom) comparing McColloch to Jim Morrison. I took the above as evidence that he'd been paying such stuff too much attention.
ReplyDelete