While listening to the Dar Williams CD, "My Better Self," today, I was reminded that often, a good cover tune should elicit the reaction, "It sounds like the artist wrote that herself," or "She made that song her own while honoring its original intent." Williams achieved both of those feats on her cover of Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere." Her lead vocals, backing vocals, and instrumentation fit the song perfectly, and if I hadn't known otherwise, I would have thought Williams wrote it.
Incidentally, has anyone ever recorded a mashup of "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" and England Dan & John Ford Coley's "Nights Are Forever Without You?" I started fusing those songs together in my mind this afternoon, and I'm still thinking about them. Something about the guitar part of "Everybody..." and Young's chorus triggered that connection for me.
