Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Gillian Welch covering Radiohead's "Black Star"


Radiohead released their classic second album The Bends in 1995. Though it wasn't one of the singles, one of the better songs on the record was "Black Star." Here's a live performance from London in 1994, followed by the studio track.



Radiohead - Black Star

"Black Star" became the basis for one of the best cover songs I have ever heard when Gillian Welch put her own spin on the song and then released it as a live download in 2005. Here's her performance of it with her frequent collaborator David Rawlings at the Bonnaroo Festival in 2007, followed by the originally released track.



Gillian Welch - Black Star

Check back here for a few more interesting covers this week and look for plenty more posts on Gillian Welch and Radiohead in the future. Thanks for checking this out.

Buy Gillian Welch's excellent debut album from 1996, Revival, at amazon.com

1 comment:

  1. I find Gillian's version to be the definitive version. Makes me feel like I heard Radiohead's original playing on a radio in a passing car. They seem to gloss over what I hear in the song when she plays it, just my humble opinion.

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