Bennington and Track Covers
Searching for a world that loves itself.
I recently rediscovered a track that I was in love with in high school, “Bennington” by John Maus. It’s simple, raw, direct and manic.
I listened to “Bennington” in the days of pirated music via Limewire. I downloaded the track and re-listened over and over and over again. But now we’re in the age of all-you-can-eat streaming, and I can search the word and find a dozen covers.
Here, I’ve found a small world of self-love. A place where artists converged on a single song and decided to make their own version.
This isn’t a new concept, but to have the world’s music served to you, and just flip through each track cover, one after another, comparing what each artist took from the John Maus original and what they left out… It’s a conversation of love.
My favorite “Bennington” cover is from Deeper:
Maintaining the beat and 80s vocal-reverb sensibility, I believe it takes the best from the original and elevates it with an especially desperate, wavering voice. It’s the kind of way I would sing the song, driving down a rain-covered highway, crying.
But let me go through a few other renditions.
Information Society adds a gothic 80s synth to the whole mix, along with a Tears and Fears vocalizaton. Minor lyrical changes occur, since they don’t want to swear. It’s sweeping and open.
Here, Jochen K & Johnny W throw a different shade of reverb on the vocals, mostly keeping all the other elements intact. I don’t find the vocals to be as engaging, unfortunately. It’s a bit slowed down as well.
In the grand scheme of music, John Maus is quite a small act so there aren’t many other covers I could find, but the possibility of going through my favorite tracks and finding other artist covers is exciting. I get to hear a statement from each artist: “This is what I heard in my head, and now I’m going to re-translate it through my instruments.”
A translation of a translation. It’s a way to get out of my head into someone else’s. Empathy through musical action.