There are some things in life that can only be described as, “It
seemed like a good idea at the time.” You know: that sudden urge to
get a tattoo, buying that Milli Vanilli album, putting New Coke out
on the market. I’ve gotta stop here; the list is getting too
painful.
Joe Lynn Turner, who perhaps is best known for stints as the
lead vocalist for Rainbow, Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force and
Deep Purple, could also fall under this blanket with his recent
albums of cover versions of hard rock classics. It’s not that an
album like
Under Cover 2 does any disrespect for any of these songs,
but one has to wonder if we really needed new versions of these
songs. Like my daddy always told me, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix
it.” (No, wait, he told me, “If it ain’t broke, you didn’t hit it
hard enough.” But I digress.)
I have two basic problems with this disc that I’d like to get
out of the way, before we start talking about the tracks
themselves. First, I would have liked to have seen some credit to
the other musicians on this album; there are absolutely no credits
given. (I couldn’t even find any information during a brief scan of
Turner’s official Web site.) Second, if you print a track listing,
the least you should do is follow the order that is printed – or
change the printing to match what’s on the disc. After about five
songs, I gave up trying to play verbal checkers with the list, and
tossed it aside in disgust.
As for the covers themselves,
Under Cover 2 is hit-and-miss for most of the album. Some of
the versions are right on the money, like Bad Company’s “Movin’
On,” Whitesnake’s “Fool For Your Loving” (though the harmony vocals
are sadly missed) and Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town”. You
do have to sit back and admire a job well done.
Other times, you have to wonder what Turner and crew were
thinking, like on the extended jam on The Beatles’s “Helter
Skelter”. Three words: annoying as hell. Likewise, something is
lost in the translation of Foreigner’s “Waiting For A Girl Like
You,” though I can’t quite put my finger on what’s wrong with
Turner’s rendition. And, honestly, did we really need another
version of Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild”?
What is puzzling about Turner’s recent dip into cover tune land
is that he’s a decent songwriter in his own right. One has to
wonder why he’s passed on doing his own material in favor of
rehashing other artists’ work. In fairness to Turner, albums like
Under Cover 2 might just raise some interest in the minds of
younger rockers who, say, might not be familiar with a band like
Free (Turner covers their song “Wishing Well”). If one kid decided
to try and search out the original material of one of these bands,
then I guess that Turner’s experiment is really a success.
Under Cover 2 might leave the older rock fans (or at least
those of us who know and appreciate rock’s past) scratching our
heads. Then again, maybe this one wasn’t meant for the older
generation.
