This was before I had a chance to get down my first cup of coffee and, though I had some reservations, I gave it a listen.
When I started looking for the video of the cover, I found out it was recorded for a Chipotle short about “anti-factory farms.” Whatever. Still a good cover.
Here’s the original:
http://youtu.be/EqWLpTKBFcU
and here’s Willie’s version:
http://youtu.be/s4wnTD0nBlo
After a few seconds, my first thought was Johnny Cash’s cover of NIN’s Hurt and I suppose that’s a natural association. This the NIN version–pay no mind to the video just listen to the song. Did I ever tell you Tucker and I went to a NIN concert when we lived in Jax and I was this close to Trent Reznor’s rather hot, leather covered self? Well, I was. It was awesome.
This is Cash’s version. Reznor basically said Hurt became Cash’s song. Random gripe: it pisses me off I can’t cite the original source. I can’t watch the video without crying because I’m a big baby and the video is perfect for the song.
While Willie’s cover of The Scientist doesn’t transform the song like Cash’s cover of Hurt, it’s still a cool take on a popular song. I feel like I should include some mention of marijuana since this is Willie Nelson I’m talking about but this is the best I could muster. I’ll try harder next time.
