Treading-water enthusiasms of the late ’80s

During periods in which nothing is going on, what are some people listening and paying attention to?

Neville Brothers

NRBQ

Rhythm Kings

Cowboy Junkies

Indigo Girls

Tuck & Patti

Comments on Covers, Covers Ideas, 3. Cover of a cover – better if it seems like the third artist isn’t aware that the song they’re covering was itself a cover

There’s something about this category. Neil Diamond wrote “Red Red Wine” and a song called “Cherry, Cherry” (which itself uses the Latin-influenced chord progression of “La Bamba” and “Twist and Shout”). “Red Red Wine” and “Cherry Oh Baby” were done by the above artists presumably because of their reggae versions.Then the execrable Red Red Meat, whose parody band name I imagine comes from “Red Red Wine.” I don’t know if they recorded it but in the mid-’90s I saw them perform “You Don’t Miss Your Water,” piling on the Gram Parsons bandwagon. It didn’t seem to me like they knew that it itself was a cover. The funny thing about hipness that people covering obscure reggae are searching for is that when it works the other way and reggae artists look for covers, what they come up with are pretty friggin’ “unhip” in their cover choices – Neil Diamond? I have reggae covers of Chicago’s “Hard to Say I’m Sorry,” John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” Cat Stevens’s “Wild World.” This category leads into Covers, Covers Ideas, 4. Covers of lame songs by people who don’t seem to grasp that they’re lame.