Ten Cover Songs I Love: Children of the Revolution (#8)

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Cyber Monday time! That's right, it's Cyber Monday, the day that you go back to work after four days of turkey but you can't force yourself to think about actually "working" yet, so you're shopping for what you didn't buy on Black Friday and getting those credit cards closer to their limit. (In a related story, I got a statement from one credit card that said I owe $0.00. Lovely thing to see.) Not me, I'm here to drink some tea that I bought last week and give you another great cover version of a song. #8: Children of the Revolution - Violent Femmes Yes, kiddies, T. Rex did another song beside "Bang a Gong (Get It On)." In fact, while that's all we get to hear from them in the US, they were very popular in the UK, scoring four #1 hits in a row. Then this song came along and broke the streak, peaking only at #2. What a letdown. How's this for some extra musicians on the song: Ringo Starr on drums and Reggie K. Dwight on piano?! Nine years after Marc Bolan's death in a car wreck Milwaukee's hard-to-describe Violent Femmes covered the song on their third album, The Blind Leading the Naked. They jacked the tempo up and produced a great cover. While I love this version, by and large I was disappointed with The Blind Leading the Naked. I thought Jerry Harrison (keyboardist for Talking Heads, so you know that I'm not enjoying this fact) grossly over-produced this album. (I thought the same thing when he muddied up the sound of the BoDeans on their second album, Outside Looking In.) The work he did on the Fine Young Cannibals' "Ever Fallen in Love" is suited quite well for them, not for an acoustic punk trio. (And, according to Picky Wedia, it was a match made in places other than heaven: Harrison didn't like the Femmes' sound, and the Femmes didn't want him as producer.) At least they got a great cover out of it. Children of the Revolution Written by Marc Bolan Originally recorded by T Rex, 1972 Covered by the Violent Femmes, 1986 Bump and grind: