Thursday, 23 September 2010

Power Station 'Get It On (Bang A Gong)'

Chart Peak: 22

YouTube

A couple of albums ago, a commenter suggested that the All Saints version of 'Under The Bridge' was the worst cover of all time. Would that we could be so sure. Power Station were, you may have the misfortune to remember, a supergroup formed by some of the hundreds of people called Taylor who were members of Duran Duran during a lull in group activity (I presume it was a lull in the lull that produced 'View To A Kill'). The brought in ex-Chic drummer Tony Thompson, who probably should have known better and Robert Palmer, who might not have. Their self-penned hit 'Some Like It Hot' seems to have eluded the Now series, which instead finds itself representing them with the rather less successful follow-up.

Perhaps aptly, given the transatlantic origins of the group, their title seems to split the difference between the UK and US releases of the T-Rex hit, which were called 'Get It On' and 'Bang A Gong' respectively. And that's about the only aspect of this rather constipated cover version that I can call appropriate. Even in this heavily edited single version there's room for excesses of guitar and bass solos, and Palmer's rather earnest delivery sheds exactly the wrong sort of spotlight on Marc Bolan's playfully nonsensical lyric, and the overall effect is that they seem to have emphasised precisely the wrong elements of the song. Somehow, this version is more obviously about sex than the original, but it's not even a fraction as sexy.

Available on: The Power Station

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