The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Has anyone here heard A Perfect Circle's cover of John Lennon's "Imagine". I just heard it on the radio and other listeners have had such interesting reactions as: "Sacriligious" and "More depressing than my father's funeral". What does the SF community think?

I haven't heard it, but the idea of someone calling a cover of Imagine 'sacreligious' cracks me up.

We suck at spelling, Jim..... it's "sacrilegious"

I don't know if this link still works:
http://www2.fanscape.com/APC/audio/imagine_win.asp

Sacrilegious. Well, I'll be damned.

The link DOES work, and I think I like the way this sounds. It sounds like it belongs on the Godzilla soundtrack or something.
It sort of misses the uplifting tone of the original, though. The music, while enjoyable, doesn't seem to suit the sentiment of the song.
Of course, The Smiths made a career out of that, so who am I to say?

jimtyrrell wrote:Sacrilegious. Well, I'll be damned.

Yeah, it makes sense because religious is spelled with an e first, then an i.

Freaking english language. Might as well make up your own words.

Upon further investigation*:


SACRILEGIOUS

[From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin sacrilegium, from
sacrilegus (one who steals sacred thing), from scar, from sacer (sacred) +
-legere (to gather, steal).]

The word has no etymological connection to "religious" though its
pronunciation has altered due to its similarity with the latter. It
comes from the same Indo-European root (sak- : to sanctify) as the
words saint, consecrate, and sacred.


...you learn something new every day. Well, I do, anyway. On the days I'm paying attention, that is.

*<a href="http://www.mtech.edu/wimmonen/Departmen ... >Source</a>

Well, might as well pimp my own cover of Imagine from forever ago.

http://www.15-16puzzle.com/songs/imagine.mp3

(many people hate my cover as well)

Fifteen seconds in to APC's version, I'm waiting for Eminem to start rapping...

Alright, this is pretty intense. I like how the "You may say I'm a dreamer" part sounds genuinely sinister. Unforunately, most of the music and instrumentation just feels like APC going through the motions, and industrializing "Imagine." The change from major to minor is the only real adventurous decision they make, and even that seems inevitable, if you think about it. And that makes the cover seem a little unnecessary and self-indulgent.

Hey, if you're into that kind of thing... I'll probably listen to this a few more times. It's not great, but it's well done. So whatever.

You didn't really ask for a review, but this is mostly positive.

15-16 Puzzle: This was back when you hadn't quite found the niche for your voice, and it'd pretty obvious that you're trying to mask yourself. I guess I could take a lesson from my own criticism, eh? I love what you did, instrumentally. Who's the woman in the front? It distracts me when you're just a little off from her most the song. I'd like to hear you redo this now. It's a very nice little cover, somehow heartwarming.

i agree with "music doesn't match words", and not in a good way. also just doesn't seem very inspired to me. it's ok, but i like it better if i don't think of it as a cover.
-bill

i think the APC imagine is fucking awesome. the video for it is particularly compelling.

"dood, it rocks!!! it kicks ass!!!"

"Well, I don't think the music matches the message, and moreover it basically sounds like every other APC song ever."

"But man, it fucking rocks!!!!"

I think I see where this argument is going.


That's right, Disney World.
It's going to Disney World.

basically, any band with maynard james keenan is going to be pretty shitty. just a general rule. in my humble opinion, of course.

I like Tool. And I thought APC's first album was pretty cool. But it just seems like more of the same. I think Keenan's a pretty good lyricist, and a really good singer. Surprised to find Jute doesn't like him. Oh well.

jute gyte wrote:basically, any band with maynard james keenan is going to be pretty shitty.

does that include guest appearances? (yes of course i am referring to the song "three little pigs" by green jellÿ)

He was in that?

green jelly is definitely exempt from the rule.

ehhh just heard that cover the other day oddly enough... it was nice... but i sort of expected it bein' better comin' from a perfect circle...

but it wasn't bad

Generic wrote:He was in that?

yes.. as the story goes, he was the roommate of one of the people in the band or something, at the time... and he was totally the "NOT BY THE HAIR OF MY CHINNY CHIN CHIN" voice.

fun fact: i have the same initials as maynard james keenan.

I'm a bit disappointed by the APC cover - it's pretty dull. I was hoping for and expecting something a lot better. I haven't heard much APC but I got a lot of respect for Tool

I found 15-16 Puzzle's cover of Imagine much more interesting (Generic's review of that pretty much hit the nail on the head - I agree with him completely)

well to state the obvious, a perfect circle is NOT tool, by any stretch of the imagination. however, their "imagine", while sonically pretty vacant, is much more powerful with the visual aspect.

low
medium
high

if these don't work, try going here http://www.aperfectcircle.com/video.html

also, apologies for the "real media" links.. that's all that's on their website. i lost the message i got from their mailing list which contained a link to a windows media video. (i don't even have real player...)