Every Thursday I look back to the past.
I have written about the interview of Dave and Steph with Prince before on this blog, but I want to look back to this part of the interview:
So Dave and Steph asked ‘the symbol’ (as he was known at the time) how he feels about cover versions. Were they hoping he’d say ‘I love that! Do you play a cover version of any of my songs with your band?’ We’ll never know. But the fact is Prince just thought it was ‘different’ and wonders why you would make a song different if the original is already complete.
I guess that was the cue for the Dewaeles to keep quiet about one of the highlights of the Soulwax live set at the time: their cover of Prince’s ‘Pop Life’.
Played on a goofy CASIO digital guitar and a “sing-along” at the beginning of the song, it is ‘different’ indeed!
Here’s a live version played at the 1999 Pinkpop festival (and it was Dave’s 24th birthday too!)
A different live version, recorded at London’s Shepherd Bush in 2000, was included in the UK single release of ‘Too Many DJ’s‘:
But this wasn’t the only time Soulwax did a cover version of a Prince song. They also did a version of ‘Starfish And Coffee’, as you can see here on Dutch TV show ‘2 Meter Sessies’:
While we are on the subject of cover versions, here are a few other cover versions by Soulwax:
The Kinks – I Go To Sleep:
Nick Kershaw – Wouldn’t It Be Good:
T Rex – Children Of The Revolution: (Glittering Prize)
Slo Burn – The Prizefighter: (as featured in this older blog post)
The Human League – Don’t You Want Me:
Daft Punk – Teachers:
Icehouse – Hey Little Girl:
And finally… Wham! – Last Christmas:
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