All Folked Up: Heavy Metal
(folk covers of seminal metal bands from Iron Maiden to Metallica)
March 16th, 2012 — 10:18 pm
I think of metal and its various forms only peripherally, as some other tribe’s music, acknowledged as valid yet neither understood nor experienced from the outside. But because metal rose in the sixties and seventies, a warped response to blues rock and the psychedelics that raised intensity to a level previously unheard, I have always known it; its culture is largely unchanged in nature, focusing on a core fashion and the shared experience of the live event, even as it attracts new generations.
And, as within our ever-popular 2009 exploration of Punk through coverage, though I can’t claim to be an expert on the various subgenrae or nuances of Metal, I recognize its importance in modern culture, its ability to speak so clearly to the lost, the lonely, and the disillusioned, and its unique folkways.
From the outside, at least, Metal drips with masculinity; its predominantly male, macho stance seems to channel and release acceptance and confidence for the crowds that come to bang their heads. But the particularly antithetical, ironic stance adopted by folksingers looking to tame and temper songs originally formed around violent delivery and angsty screams has more breadth than one would expect. From Evan Dando’s heroin acoustic Fade To Black to Bunny West’s torchsong piano Run To The Hills to a myriad of coopted Crazy Train covers, covers here range from tense to tender, channeling the inner fear and the inner fire, lending doubt and dawn to songs once howled into the night.
Together, they offer a study in ethomusicology: evidence of another folk, in another space that we encounter in bursts of insight, spilling out of cars and bars, and coming to us through coverage, as we pass in the night.
- Ryan Adams: Wasted Years (orig. Iron Maiden)
(live on BBC Radio, 2011)
- EP’s Trailer Park: Holy Diver (orig. Ronnie James Dio)
(from the Cover My Heart sessions, 2011)
- Will Oldham: Am I Demon (orig. Danzig)
(from Ask Forgiveness, 2007)
- Mark Kozelek: Up To My Neck In You (orig. AC/DC)
(from What’s Next To The Moon, 2001)
- Bill Patton: Fairies Wear Boots (orig. Black Sabbath)
(from Gets It On, 2006)
- Jason Heath & The Greedy Souls: Crazy Train (orig. Ozzy Osborne)
(from The Vain Hope Of Horse, 2008)
- Pernilla Andersson: Don’t Let Me Down (orig. Twisted Sister)
(from The Big Cover-Up, 2007)
- Brady Harris: Ace Of Spades (orig. Motorhead)
(from Cover Charge, 2007)
- John Dissed: C’mon And Love Me (orig. KISS)
(from the Secret Covers Blog, 2007)
- Holly Figueora O’Reilly: Snuff (orig. Slipknot)
(from One, 2011)
- Evan Dando: Fade To Black (Metallica)
(unknown source)
- Lissie: Nothing Else Matters (orig. Metallica)
(from Covered Up With Flowers, 2011)
- Ryan Adams: Down In A Hole (Alice In Chains cover)
(live in NY, 2007)
- Bunny West: Run To The Hills (orig. Iron Maiden)
(web release, 2012)
- Beth Patterson: Wasted Years (orig. Iron Maiden)
(live in New Orleans, 2010)