The 30-Day Song Selection Spectacular: #1, Favorite Cover Version

Singer-songwriter and American Songwriter contributor Paula Carino lives in Brooklyn, NY. Her latest album, Open On Sunday, is available at paulacarino.com.

Now at over a million members, the Facebook 30-Day Song Challenge community page has incited music geeks of all stripes to make torturous daily decisions about favorites–e.g. “a song from a band you hate…a guilty pleasure…a song that no one would expect you to love”–and post them (usually via YouTube clips) with short personal descriptions.

I resisted the meme for months, but found other people’s choices so fascinating, that I eventually got sucked right in. I chose to do an alternate version, the 30-Day Song Selection Spectacular because I thought the questions were a little more interesting. I’ll be posting my answers here at American Songwriter daily, and encourage readers to a) leave comments as to your favorites for each category and/or b) join the Song Challenge yourselves!

The reward for playing? The satisfaction that all your stored-up musical passion, deeply-held opinions, and encyclopedic pop music knowledge will be given an outlet at last. And, like a virtual mix tape, it just may turn some folks on to your favorites.

Day 1. (Favorite cover version of a non-obscure song.)

Husker Du – “Eight Miles High” (The Byrds)

Countless bands have done goof-takes of classic rock numbers, punkily desecrating a familiar song for comic or shock effect. But this cover takes the pretty gloom of the original and expands on it. This is raw exasperation and hopelessness, transformed into something powerful and deeply moving.