E166 - Top 5 Cover Versions (with JIM BOB from Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine!)

We've got you covered...nah. Duck and cover...nope. Maybe you can judge a song by its cover...forget it, that's dumb. Well, after laboriously trying to find the right "cover" pun, we'll just leave it at this: This week, we're talking about cover versions. In short, versions of songs that were originally recorded by another artist. And there were oodles and gobs of brilliant cover versions during the O3L era, including many by the wildly popular British '90s band Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine.

Hey, maybe we're better at segues than we are at puns, because our Third Lad this week is Jim Bob from Carter USM! With his musical partner Fruitbat in Carter USM, Jim racked up four Top 10 albums, 14 Top 40 singles, including a string of classics like 'Sheriff Fatman,' 'Bloodsport For All,' 'After The Watershed,' and 'The Only Living Boy In New Cross,' and headlined Glastonbury before calling it a day (for the first time) in 1997. Carter defied categorization, with an anything-goes juxtaposition of styles of punk to dance, with biting wit, keen social commentary and a knack for clever wordplay.

But Jim Bob couldn't stop there, and has become one of pop's renaissance men. Since Carter, he has written two memoirs, six novels, a stage production, and released 12 solo records, including his latest, Thanks For Reaching Out, out from Cherry Red on 30th June. The album contains 38 minutes of pop, punk rock, devastatingly moving ballads and more topical than an episode of Newsnight, with songs about Putin (‘The Day of Reckoning’), the Taliban (‘This is End Times’) and whoever ‘Billionaire in Space’ is about. It’s not all doom and gloom though (it’s mostly doom and gloom). ‘Sebastian’s Gone On A Ridelaong’ is a hilarious psychobilly romp and the pre-coronation written ‘The Prince of Wales’ is like a pub lock-in, it’s Bowie’s ‘Kooks’ for older people. During this episode, you'll also get a first listen of Jim's cover of The Psychedelic Furs' 'Pretty In Pink,' which is featured on a covers bonus disc available with the CD version of Thanks For Reaching Out.

Among the topics "covered" during this episode: Power ballads! Duck Hunt! Interior decorating! The brilliance of Mark Reynolds aka Stuff by Mark! Serial killer chic! Music video controversy! Milwaukee! Drowning bands! Stevie Wonder in a sock! Jim entering his Young Americans period! And loads of British enthusiasm!

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