Thursday, April 14, 2011

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes "Go Down Under"

(Fat) MFFATGG make records where they do pop punk style covers of popular songs in different genres/themes, and the albums are usually fun and sound like they're fun to make.  But what I really like on these records is when one of the songs they choose to cover reveals itself to be so powerful and well crafted that not only is the cover version something special but it actually proves incontrovertibly how great the original artist was. While nothing here approaches their cover of Dolly's "Jolene" (certainly the song in the Fat catalogue that gets the most consistent spins in the house) the winner here is definitely Rick Springfield. The Air Supply song shows how that group's harmonies are as important as the composition, the Olivia Newton-John song proves her to have a pretty lucky lady to have ruled the charts with that material, but the Working Class Dog himself, Mr. Mission Magic, Dr. whatever his name was on General Hospital, proves himself to be punk-worthy, kickass, and inspiring, and after Springfield hears this version I bet he adds to "I've Done Everything For You, You've Done Nothing For me," the poignant postscript, "...fuck you!" Sorry to report no Pendulum, Kylie Minogue or Rolf "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" Harris included.

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