Coverage
I've been trying out SiriusXM's Covers channel lately and, for the most part, I've been underwhelmed. There is the occasional classic, such as Talking Heads' "Take Me to the River" (previously Al Green's) and tracks I didn't know but found intriguing (Chris Cornell's "Billie Jean" for one) but those are exceptions on a channel that seems most committed to covers of relatively recent songs by current artists, even when the result isn't much. This is all the more disappointing because there are so many great covers. You could spend hours just on Aretha Franklin, famous for taking others' songs and making them better (see "Respect," "Son of a Preacher Man," "Don't Play That Song") or for just interpreting them splendidly (see "96 Tears" and dozens more). There are ample covers by Bob Dylan (especially his series of Sinatra-era tunes), Joe Cocker, Judy Collins, Willie Nelson ... So much