And some of my dislike for this track is my affection for the original. But with that said, a lot of times I wish covers would stay quirks at concerts – especially when they result in something like this.

But, for covers in general, if it gets one kid who likes The Big Pink listening to Otis Redding, then it's probably entirely worth it.

I don't personally subscribe to the idea of untouchable artists or songs. There is a long history of artists covering their favorite songs of yesteryear and not reaching the quality or feel of the original (The Beatles did this constantly early on). In my opinion this is just part of the art form. I doubt this was really an attempt by The Big Pink to come anywhere near the original. More likely they were in the studio one day getting tired of whatever song they were working on, so they knocked out a quick cover of a favorite song that shared a phrase with their lead single. Later Matador called them up for a throwaway for their first single and then it was converted to PVC and digits.

One of my favorite examples of this recently is the cover of “The Rainbow” by Talk Talk on the B-Side of “Rooks” by Shearwater. This is a holy recording for me, and nothing will be capable of replicating the wonderful and weird original, but it still provided an interesting insight into the band.

All that said, I agree that the above is a complete crap cover. I just feel that the “Everything is Free Game (as long as your pay the royalties)” policy is one of the vital traditions of Rock & Roll.