Mix Tape Semifinal Battle Dr. Tim Furnish vs Dan Ruppert

Mix Tape Semifinal Battle Dr. Tim Furnish vs Dan Ruppert - #Albumfight A few weeks back we had a number of Break It Down Show family members create mixtapes of cover songs 

The preliminary rounds were done off-line and feature dozens of great songs. Today we're featuring 2 of our semi-finalists head to head. Dan Ruppert's list, featuring Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt, Soft Cell's cover of Tainted Love and Jimi Hendrix's All Along the Watch Tower vs Dr. Tim Furnish's list which also features Jimi's Watch Tower, EWF's cover of Got To Get You Into My Life (a barn burner) and Zeppelin's Dazed and Confused Cover. 

Our judges are host, Mike Lipari, Brian Theis and Todd Nemet. 

Phil Green does his usual double duty providing the corner introductions and the album art. 
Richard Lackie nails down the analysis once again.  
Executive Producer Pete A Turner 
#albumfight #music #coversongs #mixtape #podcast #episode #bestever #GOAT #BIDS
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Transaction

This is Mike Lipari. And I am once again guest hosting the album fight for the break it down show. And we have one heck of a fight lined up here. This is our first semi final of our cover song mixed tape competition. What we've done is over the last month or so we asked for 12 different people to send in 12 different lists. What we have now is our final four, we did a NFL style playoff bracket where we assign each lyst a random letter and a random number. And we use those numbers to come up with seeds. So some lists actually got a first round by pretty interesting and all the matchups were done offline so that we had our final four.

Joel Manzer  0:00  
Lions rock productions

Unknown Speaker  0:05  
This is Jay Mohr and

Unknown Speaker  0:06  
this is Jordan. Dexter from the

Unknown Speaker  0:08  
naked Sebastian youngsters Rick Marotta, Stewart

Unknown Speaker  0:10  
Copeland.

Unknown Speaker  0:13  
Scott Baxter,

Unknown Speaker  0:14  
Gabby Reese, Rob Bell, this is 

Jon Leon Guerrero  0:15  
This is Jon Leon Guerrero

Pete Turner  0:16  
gray and this is Pete a Turner.

Niko Leon Guerrero  0:26  
And now the break it down show with john Leon Guerrero and Pete a Turner.

Mike Lipari  0:32  
This is Mike lipari. And I am once again guest hosting the album fight for the break it down show. And we have one heck of a fight lined up here. This is our first semi final of our cover song mixed tape competition. What we've done is over the last month or so we asked for 12 different people to send in 12 different lists. What we have now is our final four, we did a NFL style playoff bracket where we assign each lyst a random letter and a random number. And we use those numbers to come up with seeds. So some lists actually got a first round by pretty interesting and all the matchups were done offline so that we had our final four. What we have now is lyst I vs lyst be lyst be actually did not get a first round by and has gone through two preliminary rounds to get to the Final Four and lyst I actually did get a first round by and went up against one of our judges in the round two to get through and here it is in our semi final matchup. Before I introduce the judges, I am going to take it out to Phil for our ringside announcement so Phil, take it away.

Phil Green  2:12  
Today's the album fight is a 10 round mixtape semi final battle between two playlists of cover songs and the red corner with a playlist full of heavy hitters including Jimi Hendrix, elton john and Aerosmith. We have a mix tape and they pull it in the corner with more esoteric offerings from the food geez gold finger and soft sell. We have mics KB Let's get ready to ramble. Take it away judges.

Mike Lipari  2:59  
Yeah, this one is gonna be a lot of fun. These are always a little bit more difficult for Richard to do his pre fight analysis. But let's see what the numbers tell us. Richard, give us some math.

Unknown Speaker  3:12  
Okay,

Richard Lackie  3:13  
cover mixtape semi final number one. Now before we get started, I'm going to talk I cannot do the normal patent pending number process because these aren't actual albums their songs cobbled together from multiple albums, it'd be near impossible to the patent pending process. So I came up with a mixtape process, which is basically looking at popularity based on streaming formats. This week we have I vs B. And in this one as far as round versus round song The song becomes out very strong at eight rounds to two now I don't think the fight is going to go that big of a buy that big of a margin. So what I did is I averaged all the rounds together to see just overall how these mixtapes do and on an eight point scale be still comes out when obviously with a 5.15 per round. Whereas mixed tape I comes out with a 4.5 per round. It's a little bit closer margin than the eight rounds to two. But it does show show much favor for be. I think being is going to win this. I think it'll win it probably a lot closer. But it does show that it is the stronger than two mixtapes and just if you're wondering 5.15 that doesn't sound very good. In this particular streaming format, seven, six, sevens and eights are pretty rare. So to get something over five is pretty impressive. So it looks like be pretty strong. We'll be back for post fight analysis later. Thanks, guys.

Mike Lipari  4:42  
Thank you, Richard. And I said math, math, math. I said math. So we are getting ready to ramble. Let me introduce our two veteran judges who have put on their tuxedo t shirt. I'll start with Todd limit. Hello, Flo, Todd, what are you thinking pre fight,

todd nemet  5:00  
looking at these songs ticket, it's going to be close. I'm excited to check this out. My List did not make it into the semi finals. Because I think to what a little bit too obscure. And these are really popular covers for the most part. So it'll be interesting to see how they do. Fantastic.

Mike Lipari  5:15  
Our second judge is yet another veteran Brian Theis, who has done move probably an uncountable number of album fights. Brian, tell us your assessment when you saw these songs. I thought

Brian Theis  5:29  
pretty much along the same lines as as what Todd was saying, you know that there are a lot of very popular songs here. And there were a couple that I was surprised were covers I didn't know before this fight but these are solid songs all the way through both lists have very solid songs top to bottom

Mike Lipari  5:45  
and and our third judge is going to be yours truly, Mr. Michael Perry, am hosting and judging for the first time so you all will forgive me if I ramble on a bit. Before we get started here. I'm going to give you guys all a little bit of statistics about our lists both the two that are here in the semi finals and our totals. So as I said at the beginning of the show, we had 10 songs per lyst 12, this 120 songs of those, our participants came up with 78 songs that were unique to their lists, and 42 songs that were on multiple lists. If we look here at lyst, I and lyst be blessed I has six songs that are unique to this list and four that were found on others, while lyst B has half and half five of the songs on here, were only on this list. And five of them were found on other lists throughout the competition. So it's a pretty good mix here. Obviously, when you say find me the best covers for a mixtape, there is going to be a little bit of duplication just because there are some seminal covers that people seemed to gravitate towards. And I'm sure everybody's dying to hear this themselves.

Pete Turner  7:03  
Hey, this is Pete real quick. I just want to let you guys know we are proud to announce our official support of save the brave, a certified nonprofit 501 c three with a charter of helping veterans with post traumatic stress. Here's how you can help go to save the brave calm click on the link on the website. And my recommendation is this subscribe, give him 20 bucks a month. You've got subscriptions you can turn off right now that you're not using that are $20 a month, swap that out get involved. Let's help these folks out.

Mike Lipari  7:32  
And I'm sure everybody's dying to hear the songs themselves. So without further ado, let's move on to round one. Which is all Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix. original artist Bob Dylan going up against can't take my eyes off of you by Lauryn Hill. original artist Frankie Valli and in our random rotation Brian, you drew the first straw and you are up first.

Unknown Speaker  7:59  
I want to start with all Along the Watchtower. You know when we started discussing these cover song mixtape battles on Twitter. I think all Along the Watchtower was a song that they gotten mentioned the most. It's a seminal cover. You know, when I did my list, I picked it from my list and I put it in the final round. I did that because I knew if it was going to be a close fight I wanted to make sure I could win the final round. Jimmy's his voice and his guitar just take this song places that the Bob Dylan never couldn't. He made this the version that people look for kind of the same thing. We can't take my eyes off you, you know, I think Lauryn Hill just blows away the original on this one. She's She's got that smooth flow, her vocals just melt with that voice. She's got the Frankie Valli originals great, but it's a product of its era, and it just doesn't sound the way just didn't carry the way that Lauren's version does. So it was a close round to start off, but I gave it to Jimi Hendrix at 10 and nine.

Mike Lipari  8:47  
Fantastic. And Todd that you are up second. So what do you think of this matchup? All right.

todd nemet  8:54  
Yeah, I think I agree with everything that Brian just said, All Along the Watchtower sort of the quintessential cover song, you know, the artist, Jimi Hendrix, he makes it his own. It's not too long of a song, which I hate about certain covers. And it's just, it's sort of like, if you had a dictionary with cover song, this would be the picture of this song. You know, my only complaint is this just too familiar. You know, it'd be nice to like, if it was somehow obscure, and you're hearing it for the first time, I think that would be the only way to make it better. Can't take my eyes off of you. This is such a great cover as well. It's a good example of a cross genre cover, which is what I tried to do a lot with with my list, which did not make it to the semi finals. But then somehow, it doesn't add a lot to the original except for some updating, as Brian pointed out, you know, you can see Lauren Hill is really the only member of the Fuji is that had any kind of talent whatsoever, and you can really share it with us. That's really good. This is a close one, but I gave it to Jimi Hendrix 10 to nine.

Mike Lipari  9:52  
All right, I will take the last slot in the first round here. And my notes are pretty simple, you guys, we've got one of the best cover songs ever, arguably the best cover song ever going up against a tremendous artist turning in an excellent cover. In my opinion, though, Frankie Valli did it a little bit better, maybe just because he's the original artist, that I can lean that direction. But Lauryn Hill is no slouch. And she really delivers an unbelievable Vocal Performance here. But Bob Dylan changed the way he performed this song after Jamie's version was released. So this is one of those cases where the cover really takes on a new life and becomes the version of the song as I think Todd said that everybody recognizes and listens to, so it's hard to not give the round all Along the Watchtower, even though all Along the Watchtower is the song that appeared on the most lists. It was on four of the 12 lists, which is pretty amazing. But I can't not give it to this. So we're going to have a sweet for our first round here and all Along the Watchtower takes 10 nine. All right, so round one is in the books and we have a fight started here. This takes us to round two, which I get to lead off

and we've got pinball wizard by elton john originally by the who going up against blinded by the light by Manfred Mann's Earth band go, which was originally recorded by Bruce Springsteen. And for me, as I look through this one, this was probably the weakest round of the entire fight for me just sung the song I never really liked blinded by the light to awful match. It's the genre really, very 70s kind of Prague, the disco he and the original who version is the seminal version of pinball wizard. So it was really kind of, you know, one of my favorite songs being covered by elton john going up against a disco song that honestly I didn't even know Bruce Springsteen was the original artist until now, when I researched this for the mixtape battles. When it came down to it, I gave it to blinded by the light because it's a great song for john Mara. And it really does overshadow the original, which are two of the little knits that I had to pick to come up with a winner. So blinded by the light takes it 10 nine for me, Brian, what were your thoughts here,

Unknown Speaker  12:20  
as far as blinded by the light, not quite as bad as you but I know I was at least 30 before I knew that a Bruce Springsteen version of the song existed, and I was quite shocked when I learned that this song came from that one you know, even without the lyrics This is a musically visual song for me. I got the organs you got that song wall on the guitar. The laser beam noises To me it's just it's like you can close your eyes and you're in a planetarium and they projecting that meteor shower up above you. pinball wizard. Hilton's. Great Elton just had a movie made about him. I love elton john, but to me this is more of a tribute than a cover he just doesn't do enough to differentiate it from the original it's probably has to do with the movie. You know Tommy them movie versus Tommy the rock opera and Elton who, but you know, when we're comparing it to other covers, we're hearing there it just it just falls short. So I give this round 10 and nine divided by the light. Okay, Todd,

Unknown Speaker  13:09  
you're gonna make it a sweep here. All right. Yes, I am going to pinball wizard. So actually, by the way, I have an old pin of elton john dressed up as the pinball wizard that says pinball wizard, I don't know some kind of weird artifact from the 70s. Anyway, I admire elton john more than kind of I meant to him as an artist, if that makes sense. Every song he does every cover he does, it sort of turns a rock song into like a show tune with the key changes and the affected singing and the sort of over instrumentation. And I really don't like Elton John's version of pinball wizard, even though I haven't been out of it. And also the covers too long, which is again the cardinal sin of cover songs. I do like the can't explain a little code of that that part kind of harkens you back up, but not crazy about it. Now blinded by the light. The only thing I know about Manfred Mann's our space this that class was in it the the guy who hung out with the Beatles in Hamburg, and the guy did the revolver covered, but he didn't play on this track. And I don't really care for Bruce Springsteen all that much. I've never understood his sort of rabid fan base. I haven't gotten trouble with a boss for saying that. I don't like Bruce. It turns out he'd seen him like 75 times or something like that. So I wanted to keep my mouth shut about Bruce except for just now. The the guitar solo in blinded by the light is fantastic. Like you said with the wah wah pedal. It's just super spacey Super 70s. And I love it. And I hate that chopsticks thing it's like right in the middle of the song it kind of it just pulls you right out of the song. It's like what the hell is this? So they saw is neither one I was crazy about but I'm going to give it to blinded by the light 10 and nine.

Mike Lipari  14:43  
Okay, so we've got to unanimous round in the books. That takes us to round three where we've got another elton john song two in a row here Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, of course, losing the Sky with Diamonds originally by The Beatles. It's going up against a seminal age the song Tainted love my soft sell original artist, Gloria Jones and Todd, you get to lead us off here in round three.

Unknown Speaker  15:08  
Okay, well, again, elton john, this is too long of a song at six minutes and 18 seconds, and the original from Sergeant Pepper's is three minutes 28 seconds and even that feels a little bit too long. I put this on and I went and did the dishes I got my computer setup and the song was still going so it's just too long. And also that fake reggae ska kind of break in the middle is just is terrible. And I almost took off another point for that. Now Tainted Love is great. I read on Wikipedia that the stem cells were offered the song or reportedly offered this song which would be great to hear stem cells doing that. This is kind of like a Rosetta Stone song between the Motown sound and the new wave sound. You know it's kind of like here's how everything tracks like backup singers and singers and drums But anyway, I love this song. I love just kind of those sneering sort of vocals over kind of life. riff it's it's just super great the juxtaposition This is the best cover of a girl group since maybe since the Beatles did Mr. Post man. Anyway, I gave it to Tina love 10 to nine.

Mike Lipari  16:08  
All right. I'm afraid that I might have to disagree with you here in round three. This was another tough round to me again, mainly due to being a little underwhelmed in both cases. Elton John's version of leucine in the Sky with Diamonds is unique. And it's really hard to take on this song. It really is a seminal Beatles song. I almost give more credit to William Shatner for his most likely drug induced cover version of this than Elton's but at least element delivers the goods as he can. Soft sell. This was a really popular songs in an era where I was just, you know, coming into my own musically as a teenager. So you would think I would go with soft sell. But the fact of the matter is, I have such ear fatigue from the song that I can barely sit all the way through and listen to it anymore. It just got so over overplayed. And even now if you listen to at centric playlist or songs, it's always on there. And for me, it really didn't do much of anything. It was a product of its time, but it hasn't aged well. It's pretty bland when you listen to it versus a lot of other new wave songs from the same era. So I reluctantly gave this one elton john, but this was one of those nine nines for me where it was hard for me to push someone up to attend. But I gave this one doubt in john 10 nine, Brian, your take.

Unknown Speaker  17:37  
All right for Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. You can take everything I said about elton john, in the last round and place it here. You know that his versions of these songs. They don't really make me appreciate Elam they make me want to go and listen to the Beatles and The who as far as Tina love the first time I want to hear the songs that I want to walk her if anybody remembers that Burger King commercial. Like I really like what's ourselves done

todd nemet  17:57  
with this I don't remember that.

Unknown Speaker  17:59  
They took it you know they took a late 60s solo song in the end they made a you know, new wave and fun and danceable electronic synth element and the playful vocals. There was there probably still is a popular 80s cover band in San Francisco named Tainted love. So I think naming a cover band after a cover song is pretty high praise. So I'm giving this round 10 to 910 love

Unknown Speaker  18:17  
yeah I saw Turner love we had them play a couple of corporate events

Mike Lipari  18:21  
who so our first split round, but it did go Tainted love. Let's move on to round four where we got to get you into my life by Earth Wind and Fire. The original artist obviously the Beatles here going up against a blender of a song The House of the Rising Sun by the animals and original artists who knows it's an old folk song I pulled Tom Clarence Ashley and Gwen foster as the best I could come up with for the original artists. We go back to Brian to start this round off Brian what were your thoughts on this matchup here?

Unknown Speaker  18:56  
Alright House of the Rising Sun what let's forget cover song Let's forget this matchup This is one of my favorite versions of any song ever. You know right from the first note I'm right there every time. back before some new jack my iPod I would spend the now the House of the Rising Sun and listen to Dylan the animals and the Gaslight anthem back to back to back coming off a nap on a Friday afternoon. We're thinking about the name changing the name of our Fantasy Football League a few years back I suggested calling us the League of the Rising Sun and they made the three divisions the gamblers the drunks in the horse. Fortunately, they decided to keep the old name. You know several years ago our church was looking for a new organ player and I was considering learning how to play the pipe organ just for the opportunity to play House of the Rising Sun on Easter morning. I probably lose the organ player job and Mike can excommunicated but it would just totally be worth it and got to get you into my life. I really love what Earth Wind and Fire do with the song I love the horns I'm snapping my fingers and swaying along when the songs plan and this song It would win most rounds but it's not going to be house the right in the sun so I

Mike Lipari  19:51  
gave a 10 to nine house. Okay, and Todd that you are up second. So what do you think of this matchup? All right, yeah,

Unknown Speaker  19:59  
got to get you into my life. This is exactly the way I cover should be right you break the song down. We reassemble it in your genre or in your band sort of thing and this is this is great. It's like it's just a song being broken down and we assembled and then it comes out even better I think then then the original though revolver is my favorite Album of the Beatles it's a little bit too long again, but I love this cover. Now how's the rising sun there's a part of me that doesn't really trust Eric Burdon sincerity if that makes sense. There's something a little bit poser a about the way he sings and I know all these like all these white guys like ripping off, you know, blues and ripping off like black music as much as they could. But there's there's something grating about the way he sings this. But I do agree the keyboard is incredible. And the with the way just builds and builds and builds. And then pretty soon, it's just kind of doing these crazy arpeggios. And I love the keyboard in this song. My favorite cover is the Dave Dave unranked version of it. But I don't know for some reason I just I never really cared for the animal. So I gave it to Earth, Wind and Fire 10 and nine.

Mike Lipari  21:04  
Okay, fair assessment. And that puts me up last in this round. I so love this version, I've got to get you into my life. And I've always thought it was actually better than the Beatles version, which it is so hard to cover the Beatles and steal the song bon Oh, definitely didn't do it when he said he was gonna steal it back. And first one on fire just really owns this. This song. I actually chose this for my cover lyst I like it so much. And then it runs into a blender. And I say this when I'm doing judging an album fight quite a lot when a great song runs into great or song. And that's what I think about the House of the Rising Sun. The vocal performance in house is just tremendous. And kudos to the singer Eric Burdon, he just kills on this song he really does. And you guys know me I key and I'm the singer. That's just what I do when I'm doing album fights. And I can't do that. I can try and I've showed embarrass myself. But how's the Writing Center redefines the song a little more than got to get you into my life does and you know, both versions surpass the original. I really have to nitpick and where I get picked on this one, as Pete always put to cut the baby. My kids unprompted. Listen to house in the rising sun. I heard it in rotation when my kids had a party during the summer, and they'd never even heard got to get you into my life. So the fact that this song has bridged a generation without my prompting, was the deciding factor for me and I gave it to House of the Rising Sun by the slimmest of margins 10 nine. And that takes us to round five. Where we have you really got me by Van Halen, original artists, the kinks going up against I love rock and roll by Joan Jett and the black hearts, original artist arrows. And once again in our rotation, I get to go first here for round five. Now, this was another one to me that came down to having to pick nits. This is a song that made Joan Jett in the black car, it's a household name. And I didn't know it was a cover for at least a year after the first time I heard it. So that's impressive work to own a cover to the point where people don't know it's a cover.

It's a pure rock or through and through and then you've got you really got me which I knew from the second I heard it that it was a cover because I had heard the kinks version before I'd ever heard the Van Halen version. But Van Halen just flat out stole this song from the kinks. And for me when I had to pick nuts, the winner here came down to performance and while Joan Jett is a great vocalist, and a good guitarist in her own right the black hearts was never really that great a band they're damn good band. But they're not Van Halen. You listen to you really got me this is just a flat out ownership from from a performance perspective. The base is really driving through the entire song. You've got Eddie shredding on the guitar, you've got David Lee Roth doing what he does and just doing vocal acrobatics. It just is flat out ownership from a performance versus performance perspective. So to me, this one goes to Van Halen 10 nine based on the performance of the song itself, Brian?

Unknown Speaker  24:32  
Oh, yeah, you really got me. Yeah, you know, this version. It doesn't venture too far from the kinks original, but it's just absolutely Van Halen. You know, you got Eddie's guitar. And you got you got David Lee Roth vocal stylings, but the you know, the song is faster, it's harder and just sounds more dangerous. You know, these are the guys they roll into town. They drink all your booze, they steal all the women. Or maybe I'm just thinking of that, you know, mid 90s Nissan commercial Barbie ditches can for the tough guy and a red convertible. Yeah, okay. I knew blinded by the light was coming long before you did, but apparently you knew I live rock and roll was a cover because I didn't know until a couple weeks ago, Joan Jett, she just owns this song. You know, it was our first big hit after the runaways broke up and, and she totally made it into this snarling tough girl anthem. I love it. It's a great sing along just stadium rocker. But yeah, in order of having to pit nits on this one night, I just had to give it to Eddie and the voice just by a hair in a really close round. I just get this 110 nine that you really got me.

Mike Lipari  25:24  
I could not agree more. Todd, how do you feel about this matchup?

Unknown Speaker  25:28  
All right, this was probably my favorite round with with two really awesome songs I could, I could just listen to these two and repeat over and over. So you really got me. Like I love the kinks. I love Van Halen, though I came to them a little bit later. You know, I'm coupling this with eruptions. If that's if that's legal. It just, it feels like you know, somebody has a source code for rock and roll and then you're watching it get compiled and then and then get, like, mixed in with a bunch of other libraries. It's just so much better. So much. Louder. It's Pete Van Halen peak, Eddie peak, David Lee. It's just, I love it. And I love rock and roll is really good. I had no idea this was a cover. Before we started doing this. I went back and checked out the arrows. There's an album Spotify called the arrows and friends. I don't know what that means. But that's really really good cover to you know, it's like kind of base here in LA but but the Joan Jett cover is actually better, I think, I think Joan Jett best covers crimson and clover, I love that. And I also like how she didn't switch the genders on that, like the Beatles never did. So both the songs are great. And I just gave it to Van Halen, just by whisker 10 to nine.

Mike Lipari  26:37  
So guys, we have just hit the halfway point here. And before we move on, from round five, we have basically a statistical tie, we have a one point difference in favor of lyst be versus lyst i. So Todd, at the halfway point with us being in a statistical tie, what do you think needs to happen for one lyst to really take the, the

Unknown Speaker  27:01  
bank? Yeah, I don't know, you know, these, these are all really, really strong songs. You know, again, my only complaint would be that they're all super popular, I would love to hear, like 20 cover songs that I've never heard before that are really, really good. You know, this has been really just a great batch of songs, and really good covers, and a lot of them especially coming up. I wasn't even aware that they were covers, you know, and again, you know, the reason I think that my list didn't do that was I went the other way around, I went for songs that are super popular, and then had, you know, obscure covers, so sort of REM Superman vs like butt hole surfers, American woman, you know,

Mike Lipari  27:43  
Brian, what's your thought halfway through on on what we've heard and what we're yet to hear.

Unknown Speaker  27:48  
You know, I think the second half of this fight, it's probably going to hinge on on the steak. I think, you know, both of these lists so far have been so solid. And the selections that I've heard so far been so solid, I just think there's going to be one song and it just kind of doesn't sound right. And I think it just going to swing it one way or the other.

Mike Lipari  28:06  
Yeah, I gotta say, being the person that's putting these together and being behind the scenes so much. When I went through 12, lyst and 120 songs, I built one killer playlist out of all of the songs that are on all 12 of these mixtapes. And Wow, I've got a lot of songs that have now made it into kind of my personal, regular rotation playlist after listening to this, some real obscure stuff. These two lists are definitely two of the stronger lists that I saw as I pulled this together. So it doesn't surprise me that they made it through. Yeah, they are a little bit predictable, and that they've got some pretty strong popularity. They do have some interesting tangents. They both also have some big standards. And, and I think, in the end, looking at how scores came out, seems have been the mics that have gotten lists into the semi finals here. So let's get back into the fight and we will go into round six. Todd will lead us off here. We've got dazed and confused by Led Zeppelin original artists Jake Holmes, going up against Smooth Criminal by alien ant farm and of course Michael Jackson was the original artist here today.

Pete Turner  29:24  
Hey, this is Pete a Turner from blinds rock productions, we create podcasts around here and if you your brand or your company want to figure out how to do a podcast, just talk to me. I'll give you the advice on the right gear, the best plan to show you how to pick a podcast that makes sense for you that's sustainable, that scalable and fun. Hit me up at Pete at breakdown show. com Let me help I want to hear about it.

Mike Lipari  29:45  
Todd will lead us off here. We've got dazed and confused by Led Zeppelin original artists Jake Holmes, going up against Smooth Criminal by alien ant farm and of course, Michael Jackson was the original artist here.

Unknown Speaker  30:00  
Right, dazed and confused. This is another song I didn't realize what was a cover. I figured maybe it was just like a traditional sort of blues song. So I went back and listened to the original and Wow, it is super wild. You know, especially because you see a picture of this kind of square like I on the cover and then it's just the song is completely bizarre and Led Zeppelin I see listening to the original I kind of see where they were going with their cover. You know it's weird this written by the same guy who wrote the be all that you can be jingle you know, for the army and Dr. Pepper jingles and stuff. But anyway, I love this song. I love everything about it. It's super cool, Smooth Criminal. I gotta admit, I wasn't even familiar with this song. I've I'm not a fan of Michael Jackson. Alien ant farm is super, that's a cool cover. Like it's super cool how they, you know, they rock it up, but especially the double bass drum, which I'm a big sucker for, but I did have to give it to Led Zeppelin, 10 and nine.

Mike Lipari  30:54  
Okay, and I'll have to say Todd that I'm more or less agree with you. For many of the same reasons. Alien ant farm just came out of nowhere and then went right back to nowhere after this cover went out. I don't think we heard from them since. But I remember when this song came out and hearing what was unmistakeably Smooth Criminal because I was familiar with the original, but basically being shredded on the guitar. So I always thought that this was a tremendous, tremendous cover. Really, in my notes, I put Grand Theft MJ because they really stole this song from Michael Jackson. And that's not easy to do. They owned this cover really transformed into their style. Too bad it goes up against dazed and confused. Which Zeppelin. Again, this was one that I did not know was a cover until way, way, way, way, way later, probably just a couple of years ago is when I discovered looking through liner notes that oh, this isn't flat page is plant page a couple other people. So I think they actually got writing credit for the changes that they made to it. What's up man did a cover they did it right? They they really convert it into a zeppelin song even if it was someone else's. Originally, they did the same thing with when the Levee Breaks, which is one of my all time Zeppelin favorites. When Zeppelin does a song they do it right. Even their bad songs are good. So from that perspective, I have to give this one to Led Zeppelin 10 nine. Brian, take us home on this round.

Unknown Speaker  32:25  
Sure. As far as from criminal with alien and form. I do prefer this version to the original, but I have a hard time not thinking it was an ironical cover. I just I just never took alien and farmers the types to take themselves too seriously. But I do love the way the song with its paces and that shredding guitar, like you mentioned, I do think they would be better without doing the MJ sounds the O's spr inkled throughout.

Mike Lipari  32:46  
Yeah, you're right,

Unknown Speaker  32:48  
dazed and confused. It actually took a lawsuit for this island to be recognized as a cover. It was until like 2010 that they actually gave a Mr. Holmes some writing credit on it. But you know, you listen to the song and it certainly is that you got Jimmy soaring guitar. You got the psychedelic bombs, crashing drums, and plants just screaming vocals, they're all highlights of the song. Part of me thinks it's a little long, maybe can use a haircut, but I listened through it and I can't find where I would cut from. So yeah, definitely takes us around pretty easily. 10 nine. Okay. And looks like we do have another unanimous round here. This fight is going to be close. We move on now to round seven.

Mike Lipari  33:29  
And Brian, you start us off in this round, we have Twist and Shout by The Beatles in the style of the Isley Brothers even though they're not the original original artists versus 99 red balloons by Goldfinger originally by Nina. Ryan, what are your thoughts here?

Unknown Speaker  33:48  
Oh, yes, watch, twist and shout. I don't think the Beatles do a whole lot to differentiate their version from the eyes, please. But at the same time, it's just so dang fun. The recording of this and the you know, towards the end of the night John's vocals are trash and he's having to just scream the vocals. But at the same time, you know, if you saw the Beatles live in that era, they had to shout because their sound system was so meager that the girl standing in the front screaming you could you couldn't hear actually hear the Beatles. Like I think I you know my mom in there a few times. As far as 99 red balloons. I do appreciate a nice book cover some 80s pop cheese. I like the thrashing guitar. And I like how they do they do the switch to German for the homogenized Lyft loans. It's a fun cover of a fun song with Lincoln beat the Beatles. So I give this round 29 to push out.

Unknown Speaker  34:36  
Okay, Todd, let's hear your thoughts on this match. I agree with pretty much everything that Brian just said. I think you know the Beatles it sounds a little bit tame now but you know if you could get in a time machine and go back to Hamburg, which is actually what I would do if I had a time machine and listen to them play this song I'll bet it would be amazing. So you know this is a really famous story that john This is like the the end of the police please many sessions and he drank he had a cold and he had a bunch of drank a bunch of milk just just to get his like full quarters going a little bit you can hear him shredding his vocal cords. He's probably in bed for like four days after this. But this is you know, this is like peak Beatles and peak like rock and roll Beatles anyway. And it's such a great way to close the first album, and I love it the 99 red balloons, you know, somehow my son found this song, like through Spotify and figured out the chords and he was walking around singing this and playing on guitar which is which is hilarious to me. You know that he knows that through this cover. I can't tell if this is an ironic cover or not, you know, sort of like cake doing I will survive. I can't figure out if they're if it's a tribute or if it's a mistake. But one thing I admire is is that they they kept in sort of the base snaps which I think is the best part of that song anyway, so this is a close one, but I gave it to the Beatles, tendonitis.

Mike Lipari  35:51  
Okay, fair enough. My take on round seven is this. This is another lesson in owning the cover from from my personal. The Beatles really did steal this song after several artists, notably the Isley Brothers had recorded it earlier. I don't know if you guys ever karaoke I know I do sometimes. And Alvin mentioned that I was a failed singer back in my college days. I have shredded my voice to this song on more than one occasion, usually have to drink quite a bit first. But there's nothing more fun than trying to imitate john lennon just wailing on this song. And he really really does. This is this is maybe one of his best Vocal Performance is certainly in his Beatles days, and Goldfinger does a good job staying on their feet going up against such tremendous Beatle song, but I can't help like you, Todd think that there's just a little bit of irony here. And I hate musical irony. I really do. There's nothing ironic about a successful song. And somebody poking fun at it. So I really think that there was a little bit of irony, which is kind of my little tiebreaker here in deciding which way I'm going to go. I went with the Beatles, 10 nine here.

Unknown Speaker  37:11  
Yes, speaking of irony, so, you know, we're all children of the 80s and 90s. Like, like we live through that kind of, you know, nuclear holocaust, you know, day after kind of stuff. So there's irony is not appropriate here.

Mike Lipari  37:26  
Yeah, yeah, I agree completely. I always think to to Jay Moore's bit where he talks about he hates irony when people are making fun of like Neil Diamond or journey and, you know, damn good songs. You don't need to be ironic about them. So yeah, no irony for me and my music. Let's, let's give homage were to do this moves us into round eight, which may very well be half of our Burford ground in this fight. We have the First Cut Is the Deepest by Rod Stewart, originally by Cat Stevens, and that's taking on a second appearance in this fight by all Along the Watchtower by the Jimi Hendrix Experience originally by Bob Dylan, and once again, I'm up first in this round, and my first cut might be the deepest here. Haha. If Sheryl Crow does a better cover than you did, then you might just find yourself taking the knee during the round, especially when you're up against a generation defining song like all Along the Watchtower, Hendrix delivered and all time greats. We talked about it earlier when it was on the other mixtape, so I don't want to go too deep into it. But just kind of repeating what I said he did everything you're supposed to do to win around in this format. You're going to do a cover you need to own it. You need to put something new something different, but take ownership paying homage while you steal. Rod Stewart did none of those things he didn't steal this from Cat Stevens the Cat Stevens version is this is far far better than the Rod Stewart version. And again, if I'm picking a version of the First Cut Is the Deepest. I lean towards the Sheryl Crow version out of all three the original this one and hers. So not only does Hendrix win this again, but this time he put poor Rod Stewart on me I'm scoring this one I'm not down to Jimi Hendrix. Ryan Yeah, let's

Unknown Speaker  39:26  
start with Along the Watchtower you know in round one already he preys on this on this one for Jimmy. You know, I guess the mixed masters they get to cancel each other out they each get around out of the song. As far as the first cut of the deepest. I might disagree with you a little bit. I think Rod Stewart's distinctive vocals add a little bit more to the song than Cat Stevens vocals due to the original. It's a sweet song. I like the guitar break. It's Nicely played, but it's not going to win this round. That's easy. 10 nine for Jimmy.

Mike Lipari  39:51  
Okay, cool. Todd, you get to take us home on this round.

Unknown Speaker  39:55  
Yeah, so I'm gonna agree with you guys. I do not like Rod Stewart for aesthetic reasons. And I hate Cat Stevens for kind of historical girlfriend reasons. So I had to give this one a regardless, I hate the production on the song. I hate singing. I hate the sappy violence. I've just I've filled with hate play like a fiery son when I listened to this all along the Watchtower. That's a fantastic cover. You know, you know, I was thinking about you know, Jamie even makes Dylan's stupid lyrics sound profound was like Parliament dig my earth or whatever or dig my herb. You know? So that's that's a really good cover. If you can kind of you know, get away with lyrics like that. So this is 10 to eight for Jimi Hendrix.

Mike Lipari  40:37  
Okay, to knock downs in this round. That does not bode well for lyst I will see how things go as we head into the penultimate round. We have round nine. With got my mind set on you by George Harrison. with James Ray being the original artist, and it's going up against Killing Me Softly by the food. Geez. Originally by Roberta Flack. Todd, you get to lead us off here and the penultimate round. What you got?

Unknown Speaker  41:08  
All right. Yeah, so I'm embarrassed to say I did not know that got my mind set on you is a cover. That's kind of interesting. You know, that sounds like something that the Beatles would do, you know, take an obscure sort of r&b song from the early 60s and and then cover it you know, it's kind of cool that that George did that I didn't realize that I was listening to it my notes say oh god these these drums You know, it just kind of has that late 80s production on it. I think this was the last of his three number one hits that he had post Beatles but you know, I can't listen to this without thinking of weird hours. You know, this song is just you know,

Mike Lipari  41:43  
it's in my notes to man.

Unknown Speaker  41:45  
Yeah, sure. Devastating,

Unknown Speaker  41:47  
you know, so every time I hear this that you know, that's what I'm singing is the songs just six weeks long, and Killing me softly. Oh, my God. This is such a good cover. I thought this is Burt Bacharach. I thought Burt Bacharach wrote this song for some reason maybe because it was really Berta flack. But it's Charles Fox and Norman gimbal. So let's give them their do. You know, Diane and I went to vacation in France like around 97. And this song, like came out of every shop in Paris at every car at hula Valley. It was just the song was everywhere that that summer and it's such a good cover song, musically. You know, that bass guitar that comes out during the bridge is just that's such an amazing bass part. And I love it. It's a little bit long, but you know, I that's okay, because it's a cool song to hang out with. So I gave it to the Fuji tendinitis.

Mike Lipari  42:31  
Perfect, and I am a next in this round. This was maybe the second half of our buffer ground for me with a really good song going up against kind of a math song. I've always been a big fan of George Harrison. I really do like his solo work. And his songs from the Beatles. Later albums are some of my favorite Beatle songs as well. So I hate to pick on George Harrison, but I also, as I said a little bit early, just think of the weird out cover. The song is just an earworm and not in a good way. It's just repetitive. It's cute. I mean, I find myself singing along to it and not hating the fact that I'm singing along to it. But it's just it's beneath George Harrison, I think in some ways that you know that this was one of his bigger hits. And it's really just kind of a simple, fun song. And Killing me softly. I think this is what puts the food us on the map. If I'm not mistaken. You guys can correct me if I'm wrong.

Unknown Speaker  43:28  
Yeah, yeah, they had to actually pull this single to get ready for ready or not. But yeah, this was their first hit.

Mike Lipari  43:34  
Yeah, and this was a breakthrough and it really led to careers later on, obviously, Lauryn Hill, who we heard from right at the kickoff of this mix tape list. So this was an easy one. For me Killing Me Softly is a song that I would rather listen to give them choice between the two. It is really strong vocal performance. I like what they did with him paying homage but making it their own little bit of hip hop thrown in the middle. It's a clear winner. Not a knockdown. I wouldn't do that to George. Got my mind set on you is a sincere song. It's a fun song. But it just doesn't hold a candle to Killing Me Softly so I gave this to them. 10 nine. Brian, you're up.

Unknown Speaker  44:20  
Yeah, I'm just gonna echo what you guys have already said. You know, this song is just six words long. Actually. It's seven. But don't matter. I love George is my favorite Beatle. He's a great will bury with this song. It just didn't do it for me. You know, it's fun and catchy. It's got a great hook but it's all hook. It's all it's all there is to it. Killing Me Softly Yeah, if you're going to cover a song that one in our motive Grammys, you better bring your A game and really when you try to do that it helps to have Lauryn Hill on your side. The Fuji is they want a Grammy of their own for the song. I'm not gonna say they took a great song and made it better but they did do a great version of a great song. You know Lauren's lead vocals just over the over the sparse beats that background shine. I gave this one it's an easy 10 nine for Killing Me Softly

Unknown Speaker  45:03  
by the way that sample in Killing Me Softly is that from Tribe Called Quest? Do you recognize the sample?

Unknown Speaker  45:09  
I can't say I'll stop my hand. It's

Mike Lipari  45:12  
that sounds right to me too. But I don't know. I don't want to say for sure. With round nine finish that takes us to the final round of the fight. That is right. We are up to round 10 I'm down by Aerosmith original artists, The Beatles who have made quite a few appearances on these two lists going up against Whoo. Wow hurt by Johnny Cash, original artists Nine Inch Nails. This is not going to be a fun round to do. I'm switching things up a little bit. So I'll take the middle Todd you get to finish this off. And Brian, you get to start us off here on the 10th round. What are your thoughts here Brian?

Unknown Speaker  45:55  
As far as hurt goes this song It reminds me of a time back before iPhones I've for Pandora and music streaming services. I was an XM Radio subscriber. On the way to work I listened to Opie and Anthony during my morning commute. One day they're going down a list of the most depressing songs in history. It was the number one or number two but it was hurt by Nine Inch Nails and a Jimmy Norton was always on the show he typed in right away said hell no caches is way better. And everyone including me agree. Trent Reznor himself said that this song is no longer his Johnny Cash took it away from you know Johnny Cash who spent his youth as a hip hop and coke snorting whiskey drinking. crazy man. Here he is 71 years old, his health was failing. He's gonna be dead in a year. You know, he's a broken down old man looking back and all the cell farm he's done his voice. It's not as strong as it used to be, but he's still Johnny Cash, and you can feel the power behind it. Calm down. Okay, I'm not shy about letting anyone know that Aerosmith is my all time favorite band. And without this song, they may have never happened. This was the first song they ever recorded. And it was on the demo that landed in their first record deal. I think it's apropos that they finally released it on album that was their big comeback effort, Permanent Vacation. They're all back together. They got rid of Jimmy Crespo and rectify and they're relatively clean and sober and they're ready to kick off a remarkable comeback and rebirth. The Beatles did this song in the style of Little Richard. But Aerosmith doing the Beatles doing Little Richard. It just fits on so many levels. This is another really close round. And it's probably the hardest decision for me to make because it is Aerosmith, but I'm giving it to Johnny Cash is his version of that song. It just sticks with me better. So 10 nine for hurt.

Mike Lipari  47:31  
Yeah, absolutely. I can't. I couldn't agree more. And one thing that I noticed is the lists that one all the way through all ended strong. So Song 10 round 10 was always one where people pulled out the stop, I can go through and list the other 10 but I won't. And these lists are no different. They both ended strong. And this was also a hard ground for me to judge. But in my notes what I said was Aerosmith meet black hurt is on so many best cover lists. It was pretty astounding. I did pull a kind of robot list but we had so many entries I didn't put it in but hurt was one of the 10 songs that was on multiple top 10 lists and would have been on the robot lyst as was Along the Watchtower. As with an earlier round. It's impressive for a pure tribute cover to kind of stay upright when going up against such a great song. And I'm down hits on all fronts as far as being a standard we love this band and we want to put this on our album recording or what I call kind of a tribute cover where they mainly homage the original but put their own flavor on it. It's It's great. I'm really against any other instances of that type of cover it wins. But Johnny Cash just picked the right song at the right time in his life and took this song about pain, mainly self inflicted from Trent Reznor his perspective, but turned it into a body of work pain that Johnny Cash had just picked up over his long, long career. You can hear his failing health as he sings. It's definitely not as Best Vocal Performance, but that's 71 How could it possibly be and his failing health is really one of the things that makes this song so touching, and the performance so emotional. Trent Reznor immediately knew the song was no longer his once he heard the version, I read that in an interview with him somewhere and I can totally hear it. This was easier than it should have been to close out the fight, but it's really hard to go up against this song. And I gave it to Johnny Cash. 10 nine. Todd, take us home.

Unknown Speaker  49:44  
All right, I'm sorry to disagree with you, gentlemen. You know, it's weird, like knowing what I know about Johnny Cash to have him singing a song about sort of dissociating and, you know, self harm. And it doesn't feel like it's in character with the rest of his body of work. You What, what really strikes me about the song is the video because there's there's a Johnny Cash Museum, and it's completely in disrepair. So, you know, that's even more depressing is like if a museum named after you and your wife and it's completely like abandoned and, and deserted, you know, I mean, he was a fucking tree trunk of a guy, you know, like, you know, pills, cocaine, whatever, you know, had no effect on him. And here he is. He's old and frail. And he's doing this I don't think this is the right song sort of this like, kind of navel gazing eugenics thing? It seems like that's the antithesis of everything that Johnny Cash stands for. You know, it's kind of a cliche cover. I feel like maybe it was necessary to get us through kind of that shitty first decade of the 21st century. But I don't know, it didn't age. Well for me. And then you got Aerosmith. And thank you, Brian, for clearing up kind of the contradiction I was having with it. Because it sounds like fresh Pete Aerosmith. But, but that album, I know is like from their comeback. So I couldn't quite put that together. So now now it makes sense to me. You know, just hearing Aerosmith cutting loose hearing the fresh band cutting loose, you know, the covers only two minutes and 20 seconds, which is exactly the right length with a song so I get an extra point for complaining and then on time. And also, I appreciate that, that they play the solo note for note kind of a tribute to George Harrison, and kind of a tribute of like, you know, we're gonna, we're just going to do this song we're going to do with more energy and with more, kind of, I don't know, vigor, you know, and so I gave this one to Aerosmith, 10 to nine.

Mike Lipari  51:31  
Fair enough. And that takes us through to the end of the fight. One of the things I will say about this, again, being the guy that had to pull these lists together, I almost used hurt, but I decided against it and my list just because its own so many other lists. But I was a lot closer to having in my life by Johnny Cash beyond my mixtape, I ultimately went with a different song. But I thought that you're right in the respect that in my life, probably in caps, it's what he's going through at that time, a little bit more than hurt does. But I gotta say, I still stick by my decision that it's just a tremendous performance by Johnny Cash, just to throw a little bit of debate in there. But we do have a final fight here. Before the judges and I go over the results. Let's hear from Richard lackey on his post fight analysis, Richard, where the numbers right where the numbers wrong where the numbers at all.

Richard Lackie  52:28  
For semi final number one, the numbers were correct and picking a winner. And like I kinda guessed with my gut that it wasn't going to be nearly as big a victory as the numbers and predicted, at least they were correct in which mixtape would win. Now, the prediction, the ratio of the win was 1.1421. Still pretty close as far as ratios go. But the actual fight which was score to 80 522 83, very close, was merely 1.0, row 0721. So quite a bit of difference there. Like I thought it was going to be closer. It always will be when you're looking at these kind of generalize popularity statistics. It is all demographics, all different levels of fandom, all different ages, everything. It's all so broad, that your numbers are going to be much wider spread apart. When you start getting fewer people demographics a little bit closer kind of coming into it with the same kind of attitude and everything. It's going to tighten it up a little bit. But anyway, fascinating fight. Really good fight. Can't wait to see the finals.

Mike Lipari  53:41  
Once again, Richard, thanks for your insight. And let's go over the results here. So gentlemen, we have what we call a split decision. Here. We have Brian and myself giving this to lyst be by the slimmest of margins, Brian by two points and me by one. And then we have Todd giving it to lyst. I also by the slimmest of margins one point. So this really could have gone either way, when you add up our totals, we have mixed tape be by two points in total, taking it over lyst i. And so now revealing behind the scenes here we have Dan Rupert, handing a narrow defeat to Tim furnish. So Dan Rupert was lyst be and Tim furnish was lyst I So Tim moves on to the final round with the winner of semi final number two. And we'll be recording that sometime in the future. So gentlemen, let's start with Todd first. What are your thoughts? Why did you end up being the one disseminating voice here and going with I Overby?

Unknown Speaker  54:55  
Well, it's this sort of find the superpower it would be not to fit in. So it's no sort of surprise to me that that I was on the outs with us. But you know, it's interesting, because we agreed for so many rounds. It was, you know, as I looked through it, you know, almost half the rounds were in complete agreement. So I was surprised that, that we came out that much different, but, you know, I don't know, that's I just I like the songs, you know, even though I had to elton john songs, and even though it had that horrible Rod Stewart, Stephen song, you know, that's that's just the way that the numbers fell. I was surprised as much as you are.

Mike Lipari  55:30  
All right, Brian, are you surprised with the results? Or did you think that lyst be was going to take it from day one?

Unknown Speaker  55:36  
First of all, I'm surprised that Tim Turner said to out and Johnson's on the list and seemed like him. But no, I thought looking at the fight going in. It looked like lyst be was a little bit stronger. But I mean, in reality, I think my score was 9694. One more, you know, around, goes the other direction is 9595. And, you know, we're sitting here scratching our heads how we're going to figure this out. I mean, they're both great lists. They're both fun to listen to quality songs up and down. Yeah, no, it's close fight. And once I'd want to Dan, just to go on to the finals, I guess.

Mike Lipari  56:06  
Yeah, I would say I'm in the same boat here. And that, you know, the mood I was in when I was listening and scoring might have changed the outcome just a little bit. If I had just been in a slightly different mood. There were a lot of there were a lot of rounds here that were super close for me. And it would have been a flat out tie for me if I hadn't given a knockdown to all Along the Watchtower went up against Rod Stewart. So that was, I think the deciding factor for me and how lyst be wins. And so in our final round, we will have Dan taking on the winner of the other semi. And we're definitely looking forward to that. As we close out this fight, I have to appreciate you guys once again for taking time out of your weekend to do an album fight. I can't really tell you how much this means to me personally, I really love doing these. And I've really enjoyed getting a little bit more and more, as Pete has allowed me to. And before we go, I would like one of you guys to do the disclaimer, I don't know who would like to just speak up.

Unknown Speaker  57:09  
Yeah, we do these out and five speaker we love music. And we want you to listen to music. And yeah, we go through when we pick nuts, then we find faults with certain songs. But in the end, it's about the appreciation of the music. We'd like you guys to take a chance to listen to these songs, add them to your playlist download from iTunes, if you wish. And just enjoy the music.

Mike Lipari  57:29  
Yep, that's what this show is all about is appreciating music, but doing it in kind of a fun format that gets people really thinking and digging into the music and listening with new ears sometimes, and I hope you listeners will go on Spotify. Listen to some of these lists as we post them on social media and the breaking down show site. We really hope that we turn you on to some new music when you listen to the show. Thank you again, Todd. Thank you again, Brian for joining me and we will do this again real soon.