Heroes

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain's trademark is well done and humorous covers of pop and rock songs.  In this case, they do a serious, straight, and very well done cover of David Bowie's Heroes, that captures well the song's sentiment. Bowie wrote the song in the late 1970s while in West Berlin.  The last verse refers to a moment when he observed a couple kissing by the Wall.

I, I can remember (I remember)
Standing by the wall (By the wall)
And the guns shot above our heads (Over our heads)
And we kissed as though nothing could fall (Nothing could fall)

And the shame was on the other side
Oh, we can beat them forever and ever
Then we could be heroes just for one day

Ukelele Orchestra Of Great Britain

The UOOGB began performing in the 1980s but it was only with the 20th century that it saw its popularity peak.  We've featured their funny takes on music a couple of times before (see, The Truth About the Davey Safety Lamp in which they play Shaft, and Smells Like Teen Spirit).  Even when their version start out sounding fairly normal, they eventually add a unique take. Here are some more favorites:

Theme From The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Sex Pistols' Anarchy In The U.K.
 

Should I Stay or Should I Go? from The Clash

David Bowie's Life On Mars (with bits of My Way, For Once In My Life, Substitute and Born Free thrown in the mix)

I Feel Stupid & Contagious

I first heard it on my car radio. The musical landscape was grim at the time.  A solo guitar, then the pounding drums crashing in along with the full bore electric guitar assault, which then subsided into a subtle guitar and bass line. Who is this?  What is this?  This is incredible, this is exciting, whatever it is!  All I felt was a sensation starting in my spine and moving up into my brain.  It was only a few days later when I saw the video and found out who'd done the song and its title (FM radio was too cool to reveal those essentials).

Smells Like Teen Spirit was released 25 years ago tomorrow, placing it on the midpoint between the release of Revolver by The Beatles and today.  Nevermind, the Nirvana album containing the song was released two weeks later.

It's still a great song; it gets the same reaction from me it did all those years ago.  Nirvana was a talented band.  Kurt Cobain could actually compose melodies and the group had a sense of sound dynamics so they weren't always just bashing away.  But it was still difficult to listen to a lot of their music at one time - Kurt was also a sick puppy, and it was just too depressing except in small doses.

Anyway, here's Smells Like Teen Spirit, followed by an outstanding cover by The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain (on which you can actually understand the lyrics).  

The Truth About The Davy Safety Lamp

After this morning's post we may need a little musical pick me up.  Here's the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain doing its cover of Shaft.  As an extra bonus, if you listen to the video you'll understand the reference to the title of this post - it's part of our mission to expand your educational horizons as well as to provide a continuing stream of meaningless entertainment!  You can also watch the Orchestra do the definitive version of Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Smells Like . . . You're A Teenager in Love

Hey, now you can understand the lyrics to the best song of the 90s!  And, yes, these are the real lyrics.  Courtesy of The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain.