Compare And Contrast: Okkervil River vs The Fugs
not roy orbison
In one of the weirder ways that I killed time during the holiday weekend, I searched around the internets on Saturday looking for a Roy Orbison cover performed by Okkervil River. For some weird reason, I was positive that Okkervil River had done a Roy Orbison cover. I was wrong. Dead wrong? No – just regular wrong.
My searching, however, did yield some positive results, as it led me to this Okkervil River fan site. In a very-detailed section titled “Facts”, there’s a list of all the covers that Okkervil River have been known to have performed (even better, there are mp3’s available for a good deal of them). There was no Roy Orbison cover to be found on the list. But what if the list was wrong? What if the list was . . . [/removes sunglasses] dead wrong?
Sorry – I’ll stop now. Moving on . . .
Towards the top of the “Facts” page is a link to the Golden Opportunities Mixtape that the band gave away through their website about two years ago (here’s the direct link for the zip file – I have no idea if it still works, but its worth a try), which I totally forgot that I owned. One of the tracks on that mixtape is a gorgeous live version of “I Want To Know” by The Fugs. When I listened to it again, I realized that this was the song that I had mistaken for a Roy Orbison song. Again, I don’t know why that is, especially since it doesn’t really sound like a Roy Orbison song at all. Maybe the strings reminded me of “Crying”. Or maybe the opening guitar line reminded me of “Running Scared” (my favorite of many fine Roy Orbison songs). Or maybe – just maybe – I’m just an idiot.
In any case, this led me to seek out the original, which I had never heard before. Until now!
I present both to you below. Though both are terrific, I’m still favoring Okkervil River’s version – probably because I heard it first, but mainly because they give it the full bells-and-whistles treatment, and I’m a sucker for strings. Give each of them a listen, then let me know your opinion in the comments. Because I want to know! See what I did there? I made a pun based on . . . oh, nevermind. Sorry again.
Okkervil River – I Want To Know
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