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A Place with No Name and A Horse with No Name

Galactus123

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I'm pretty sure most of you know that A Place with No name is basically America's A Horse with No Name with different lyrics. I'm wonder why Michael decided to record a song like this because it's almost like a cover but at the same time it's not. I really like the song but when I heard that it's not completely original I was a little disappointed. Did Michael make any other songs like this?


 
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Plenty of other artists have done a similar thing (taking the instrumental from another song and essentially writing another song over it). Hung Up by Madonna and Ripopgodazippa by Prince being two examples that spring to mind. I guess its not exactly the most creative approach to writing a song, but it can be done well. Isn't that essentially what they did with Behind The Mask? And that worked brilliantly as that's one of his all time best unreleased tracks.

I don't think it worked quite so well on APWNN though. There just isn't enough going on musically to really draw me in and the lyrics leave a lot to be desired.
 
MattyJam said:
Plenty of other artists have done a similar thing (taking the instrumental from another song and essentially writing another song over it). Hung Up by Madonna and Ripopgodazippa by Prince being two examples that spring to mind.
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Or:



Isn't that essentially what they did with Behind The Mask? And that worked brilliantly as that's one of his all time best unreleased tracks.
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Michael's version of Behind The Mask was not only then covered by Eric Clapton, but also "covered back" by the Yellow Magic Orchestra or Ryuichi Sakamoto (its lead member) - I'm not sure now which, but I know that on one of their/his later records he recorded Michael's version.

ETA: Here it is:

 
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Galactus123 said:
I'm pretty sure most of you know that A Place with No name is basically America's A Horse with No Name with different lyrics. I'm wonder why Michael decided to record a song like this because it's almost like a cover but at the same time it's not. I really like the song but when I heard that it's not completely original I was a little disappointed. Did Michael make any other songs like this?


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This is why I like A Place With No Name and this is what makes the song great. It sounds like a cover but at the same time it's not. It's like it's a homage to A Horse a With No Name but at the same time it's his own song.

I have seen some people express dissatisfaction here with the song because it, musically, sounds too much like A Horse With No Name and that it comes of as rather uninspiring and uncreative but I disagree. Therein lays the charm of the song. That it says true to the original masterpiece but at the same time got a trajectory of it's own. That's art.

I am one of the persons that thinks they completely ruined the song on Xscape. Imagine if they would have taken Smile and remixed it into some euro techno pop song. I mean you have such a beautiful melody and rhythm with the guitars, why fix something that isin't broken? Oh well, I digress..
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
Imagine if they would have taken Smile and remixed it into some euro techno pop song. I mean you have such a beautiful melody and rhythm with the guitars, why fix something that isin't broken? Oh well, I digress..
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Smile is a cover song. Like, you said A Place With No Name is not a cover of A Horse With No Name. Also Smile is a ballad, completely different situation. And it was finished and released by MJ.

But I agree with you. They should have left the original sample from A Horse With No Name in it and not change it completely. I agree that they ruined the original.
 
OnirMJ;4080432 said:
Smile is a cover song. Like, you said A Place With No Name is not a cover of A Horse With No Name. Also Smile is a ballad, completely different situation. And it was finished and released by MJ.

But I agree with you. They should have left the original sample from A Horse With No Name in it and not change it completely. I agree that they ruined the original.
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That's my case, even though APWNN is not a cover it still felt like a sort of cover song, the same melody line, same instrumentations, similar chorus, the same outro, the same harmonies. I don't know what the exact terminology would be for this song but it's not exactly a cover but at the same time it's not exactly an original song now is it?

Well yeah of course I know smile is already released but let's pretend that it was unreleased and they decided to do something like that? It doesn't matter if it was a ballad or not, anything can be changed into anything. When LNFSG first leaked I never imagined that it had the potential to turn into something so disco and throwback. It doesn't matter if it's a ballad or not, the producer can change anything. Remove all the instruments on She Was Loving Me and add piano chords and voilà, you have a ballad[ish] song.
 
^^Yeah, but Smile is a cover song. It would be extremely stupid to do a cover (techno remix) of such song. But anything is possible to do, like you said. And even songs like Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal and Thriller or Beat It have covers that are completely different styles than originals. Heavy Metal or Latin covers, for example.

But APWNN is not a cover, I would say it's a remake that samples the original song (although it is not an actual sample from the song). It's a remake or re-imagination of original song.

Just like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwQZQygg3Lk

What is stupid for me in the album version is that now the song is a remake, but the original sample is removed completely. So it doesn't sound like the song that inspired the song in the first place. In my opinion they should have kept the original sample in the song and create new version around it. Because that sample is essential part of the song.
 
It works brilliantly.

It's a remake, like you would remake a film. Maybe I'm biased but MJ's version is better than the original.

Both versions are great also. What I like about the original is that it's pretty much a great voice, good story and nice simple guitar. He didn't make many songs like that.
 
APWNN IS a cover with different lyrics. You can bet, with the original version released, the estate/Sony is paying the group America for using their songs beat in that version.
 
MattyJam said:
Plenty of other artists have done a similar thing (taking the instrumental from another song and essentially writing another song over it).
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You know Janet's song Let's Wait Awhile is basically America's Daisy Jane with different lyrics.
 
Prince Of Pop said:
APWNN IS a cover with different lyrics. You can bet, with the original version released, the estate/Sony is paying the group America for using their songs beat in that version.
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Of course they are. They have joint songwriting credits.
 
I think Michael did a similar thing with Shout. You can hear the influence of the Isley Brothers song but he made it his own.
 
Prince Of Pop said:
You can bet, with the original version released, the estate/Sony is paying the group America for using their songs beat in that version.
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No, they pay just Dewey Bunnell his royalties for co-writting the song. The original version covers the original song, they are not using the actual sample of it. It's different.
 
There's also a song that takes samples from Michael Jackson's 'Human Nature' can't recall the name of it now, but it almost always played in my uncles car when i go see him...
 
Zakk said:
There's also a song that takes samples from Michael Jackson's 'Human Nature' can't recall the name of it now, but it almost always played in my uncles car when i go see him...
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Do you mean this one from SWV?


In that case, your uncle has very good taste Zakk :) If not, it's still a great song. Used to love it when it would come on MTV back in 1993. Still love it today, maybe even more.
 
AntWort said:
Do you mean this one from SWV?


In that case, you uncle has very good taste Zakk :) If not, it's still a great song. Used to love it when it would come on MTV back in 1993. Still love it today, maybe even more.
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that is the one i was describing, thank you :D it is pretty great, i'd just prefer it if it would be a little more original ;)
 
Zakk said:
that is the one i was describing, thank you :D it is pretty great, i'd just prefer it if it would be a little more original ;)
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Most welcome, the pleasure was all mine. Thank you for giving me an alibi for a nice trip down memory lane :p

Craig David actually did an awesome combo of both Michael's original version and the one above.

:D


Don't mean to go o/t, but going back to the mid 90s reminded me also of another great song from them sisters with voice, Rain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQyXHfOy1UU It's too good not to share with people, especially those with r&b sensitivities and in more or less perpetual romantic moods :cheeky:
 
I love APWNN, it's a great idea to re imagine a song like that I think it worked well.
I always thought the chorus of Al Capone sounds like that song 'ain't nobody' too
 
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