Many years ago, I systematically pilfered my parents' record collection, taking the golden nuggets (or what I thought were golden nuggets at the time) from the river of mediocrity (nobody needs that many Bread records). Because I was much younger, my taste wasn't quite formed. Hence the presence of several Jim Croce and James Taylor records. Add to that the records my dad recommended, such as Quicksilver Messenger Service and Aztec Two-Step, and I've been lugging around a bunch of records that I don't listen to from city to city. And records are heavy as hell.
In light of these ignored records, I decided to listen to every record I own. Mostly, I'm hoping to discover ignored records that I should be listening to, but it's also going to show me which records should remain untouched (sorry dad, but Aztec Two-Step is a little too "bland singer-songwriter-y" for me). I've only made it to the "C"'s so far (Leonard Cohen is playing now), but I learned something already. Something that I've suspected for a while, but was driven home hard: Joe Cocker is a glorified karaoke singer.
My parents have three Joe Cocker records (Joe Cocker!, With a Little Help from My Friends, and Mad Dogs and Englishmen) and while his voice is pretty awesome and the arrangements are terrific (though they aren't done by Cocker), the albums are filled with largely other people's songs. Joe Cocker! only has three songs of ten written by someone involved in the band and just one with Cocker's name attached. With a Little Help does slightly better, with four songs of ten. The live album Mad Dogs and Englishmen only features four out of seventeen songs that fit those criteria. In a world where people (including myself) rail against American Idol being a karaoke contest that requires little other than a "good" voice, it's hard to rationalize the ubiquity on oldies or classic rock radio of a man guilty of the same thing.
Good covers are just about one of my favorite things in music, but I've chastised other bands (The Ataris, Alien Ant Farm) for riding someone else's work to success. My feeling is that once you've established yourself as a creative force, then you can start with the covers released as singles. Cocker puts me in an awkward position because I actually enjoyed listening to his records, but he fits the mold of those I disparage. After thinking about it, whether or not Cocker is the creative force behind his albums doesn't matter because the songs themselves are eminently listenable whereas the bands mentioned above are uniformly uninteresting. Sure, it's a rationalization, but I can't not respect a man who performs like this (I love the moment when it looks like he collapses out of frame at 3:44):
PS -- If American Idol could get over his looks and bizarre performing style, I think Cocker would destroy on it.
PPS -- Air guitaring? Seriously?
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