Friday, September 09, 2005

Beatles Cover Alert!

So, I'm a Beatle freak. The group stuff; the solo stuff; the guest appearances on other artist's album--I eat that stuff up.

One thing I keep an eye out for is cover versions of Beatle songs--group or solo--the more obscure, the better. Well, we've got a pretty unusual one to listen to this time.

Eric Clapton, on his new album, "Back Home", has covered a song from George Harrison's self-titled 1979 album. Any Beatle fan knows that Harrison and Clapton are old buddies, even sharing an ex-wife between them. And Clapton has recorded several of Harrison's songs over the years (Harrison even co-wrote the song "Badge" for Clapton's group, Cream). Clapton was even the musical director for the Concert for George, held one year after his untimely passing.

So, it's no shock that Clapton would cover a song by his old, fallen, comrade. "Love Comes To Everyone" is a nice mellow little tune that has aged pretty well. It's one of those reassuring song about how cool love is. What's interesting is that Clapton's recording is slavishly faithful to the original version. With the exception of Clapton's lead vocal and guitar solo, and some female backing vocals, this is almost a note-for-note recreation of Harrison's recording. Clapton even brought in Steve Winwood, who played the synthesizer solo on Harrison's album, to recreate his performance on what sounds like the same '70s-vintage keyboard.

It's not an Earth-shattering new version of the song, but it is a nice revival of a forgotten gem from the quiet Beatle.

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