Is it really a cover when the lead singer of a band re-does one of that band’s songs as a solo artist? Here’s Squeeze, with Chris Difford at the wheel, doing “Cool For Cats”:
Sometimes solo artists completely change the song of their former band when they record it on their own. Phil Collins’ “Behind The Lines” is nothing like the original Genesis recording. Ditto Sting’s version of “Shadows In The Rain” versus that of The Police. Years later, mostly in live performances, Chris Difford reinvented this song, and others from Squeeze’s catalog. Here he is with Jools Holland doing a sort of swingy version:
The version I have is from a live show called “From New Cross To Nashville”, and it has a countrified of this and other Squeeze songs, complete with pedal steel guitar. I have no recollection how I got that set of songs, but I’m glad I have them because they’re awesome. You’ll have to take my word for it, though, because I can’t find any videos for those songs either. Both of Difford’s versions are closer stylistically to the original than the other examples I cited. Whether you call them a cover or a re-imagining or something else, I generally like seeing creative people revisiting past works to see what else they can get out of them.
We have that New Cross CD from when we saw Chris Difford perform at the Tin Angel.