The Fab Four don’t jaywalk, and neither should you.
Welcome to the first Monday of Spring! I’ll bet you were in too big of a hurry to see the next song in my Top 30 Cover Songs Countdown to even stop and smell the roses today…. or brush the snow off of them. Did you know it will be Fall when I finally reveal the #1 song. Yep, this is gonna be a long and winding road… but you know I’m gonna try to make that adventure as fun as possible for you all. Let’s look at this week’s awesome cover song so you can all proceed to mock my peculiar musical tastes!
#28. “Come Together” – Aerosmith
You won’t find much argument from anyone that The Beatles were the greatest rock band of all time, at least unless you ask Kanye West. The Fab Four pumped out #1 song after #1 song for most of the 1960’s. Even after they broke up the band for good in 1970, all four members picked up right where they left off and became very successful solo musicians. It’s no wonder they are still adored by legions of fans half a century after they first burst onto the scene and made rock history.
Ed Sullivan would have been proud!
In 1969, The Beatles released one of their best known albums containing one of the most iconic jacket covers in pop music history. The first cut from that album is “Come Together,” which is a completely fucked up and nonsensical song… much like everything else the band released during the latter half of their time together. But between it being the 60’s and them being the fucking Beatles, they could get away with slopping any old crap together and turning it into a classic hit…
Especially if it contains drug references…
In 1978, someone had the insane idea to film a movie built almost entirely around Beatles music, the ill-fated “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band.” While the film flopped, it featured a number of covers of Beatles songs performed by artists of the 70’s. Probably the biggest hit of them all is the one I am featuring today in the countdown… Aerosmith’s take on “Come Together”…
This cover by the bad boys from Boston made it to #23 on the pop charts, and was also the last Top 40 song the band would have for another 10 years. Aerosmith hit the skids for the next decade, and may have gone down in history as just another blip on the radar of the wild and wacky 70’s had it, ironically enough, not been for another group coming along and covering one of their songs…
Go for yours, Steven!
In 1986, Run DMC invited Steven Tyler and Joe Perry to accompany them in a hip hop cover of Aerosmith’s 1976 Top 10 hit “Walk This Way.” Despite my exclusion of this cover from my countdown, it may have been one of the most history changing redo’s ever. It not only made stars out of the rap trio Run DMC, it was also one of the first hip hop songs to become a pop hit and pave the way for the genre’s explosion in the late 80’s.
Oh, and it also made Aerosmith relevant again… and yeah, they may have just milked that for all it was worth…
This is the same man who sang “Dude Looks Like a Lady?”
From 1988 right on through the 90’s, Aerosmith took advantage of their second wind, becoming even bigger stars than they were during their first go round…. even if all of their songs now sounded the same kind of lame. Steven Tyler capitalized by suddenly becoming the ugliest rock legend since Keith Richards. Only in America, folks…
Come back next Monday as the countdown rolls on with one of the more bizarre entries in my entire 30 song compilation…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I liked the version of Steven Tyler… he is charismatic and much crazier than me… if that is possible. agree with you for the ugliest rock legend…but cool :o)
I think all the drugs helped on on all counts… plus made his immortal just like Keith Richards…
it’s like a miracle that he is still there :o) seems humans are made of steel (some of them)
Any post about The Beatles is fab to me…nice cover, I never heard it before.
I am shocked that you’ve never heard it before!
Nope…I do like it though!
Aerosmith is still lurking around our area. Tyler, the big weirdo, is a commonly spied figure in downtown Boston and the music is played — if nowhere else — at Fenway Park. I thought when I saw the title of this post you were referring to the Mel Brooks like he used (a lot) in Young Frankenstein. It’s a favorite.
That reminds me of the 2004 World Series, where MLB brought out Aerosmith and some other big shot Boston act to perform the National Anthem at Fenway Park for the first two games. Then when the Series shifted to Busch Stadium, they dug up legendary St. Louis acts like…… one hit country novelty song wonder Gretchen Wilson!?!? Was Chuck Berry not available? Michael McDonald? Heck, Tina Turner even has St. Louis connections! We were more embarrassed by the artist selection than we were the 4-0 sweep…
I suspect Sox management is not musically hip.
When the fury rained down on Cards management over the choices to showcase America of our local “talent”, they explained that WS acts are chosen by MLB, not the teams themselves. As usual, blame Bud Selig…
Bud Selig would not be my choice to select entertainment for … anything. Unless it was baseball.
line, not like. Oy.
I think the original was better with this one, but the cover isn’t bad.
It’s kind of a toss up for me… I picked this one because it’s one of the few things Aerosmith did that I really like, and because the original is probably a bit more esteemed than it should be…
Good point.
okay… eeww. That last picture of the ‘dude’. Oh my piggy heavens. That’s like a nightmare in the making. eeww – and daddy says peeps throw their undies at him. Hopefully to cover his face. Snorts and rolls with laughter. XOXO – Bacon
LOL! I agree, they need to throw some of those old time underwear that cover half the body at him just to keep that ugly mug hidden. All the makeup in the world can’t fix that kind of ugly!
NOPE. You are so right. A paper sack with a happy face would be better. Snorts and rolls with laughter. XOXO – Bacon
OK, not too bad 🙂
I was thinking, I may go ahead and tell you my two covers just to have it on record since you said you already had the list made out 🙂
That’s up to you… though it’d be funny if I already had them both included, since I’m sure that’s the last thing you’d be expecting!
You may already have them though. I really am just curious and it may take a while to find out.
OK for the record, my two songs are Renegades of Funk and Land of 1000 Dances.
Now we wait 27 more weeks (or less) to see if you included them or not 🙂
Heh! I’m not even familiar with the first one. The last one’s been covered a lot….. but by anyone that made my countdown? We shall see…..
Well, I was going by original vs most popular version for the second one. With my luck Shatner probably recorded a cover of it that’s even cooler (surely Lucy in the Sky is on this list right?)
OMG…. Shatner. While I have a few offbeat versions in the countdown (Like next week’s song), I can…. assure you that I… have…. no….. Shatner.
In my HS the Walk This Way hybrid just started fights. NFW did rock and rap hang out.
I love how music can bring everyone together….
But in this case it didn’t.
I know… unlike Alanis, I was bring ironic! 🙂
I liked Aerosmith from the beginning of their renaissance right until they started making everything kind of glam rocky. But I’ll still rock out to Walk this Way and like the original and Run’s version.
They really tailed off in the 90’s…. the whole Amazin’/Cryin’/Suckin’ era right on up to that goddamn love ballad from Armageddon, which would easily rank on my 10 least favorite songs of all time list.
Couldn’t agree more
I actually like Steven and Joe’s cover of Paul and John on this one, Bill. Good job. Aerosmith was pretty seriously hard-rock credentialed on that first ride of success, by the way. “Dream On” stoked a lot of fires in my high school.
I actually like a lot of first wave Aerosmith, Dream On included. They were even good when they first re-emerged in the late 80’s before pretty much tanking in the 90’s… ironically (or maybe not) when they may have been at the peak of their popularity.
Yes, the first wave of the rebirth was very tight, too. Agreed. And, speaking of looks, haven’t you wondered how Steven got himself a daughter like Liv Tyler? Nobody’s mentioned that yet.
Has anyone done a DNA test yet? I heard Liv was always told her father was actually Todd Rundgren when she was still young… though Todd was hit with the same ugly stick as Steven. As always, perhaps the finger should get pointed at the mailman…
No, Liv’s lips say Tyler, not Rungren nor Mailman, Bill.
I can’t comment on versions if the sing but I can say …
I’ve great seats for Areosmith this July.
Yeah me, old women rock.
Oops “of the song”
LOL… is old women referring to Steven Tyler? He looks like someone’s hipster grandma in that picture I used….
I agree he looks like he died but they put on a great show. Plus it’s 15 miles from home and I have great seats.
It’s so easy and I’m really bored.
I think I agree with you that Aerosmith did a better job on the song.