You Oughta Know (all about awesome covers)

April 19, 2007 11:54 AM

The always-excellent (and MeFi fave) Jonathan Coulton, inspired by Alanis Morissette's cover of My Humps from a few weeks ago, has done a marvelously droll cover of You Oughta Know.
posted by shiu mai baby (52 comments total)

Is he eating poop? Because, if he's eating poop, I'm not going to click.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:02 PM on April 19, 2007

Is it just me or are "ironic" hipster covers of shitty pop songs...uh... kinda stupid?
posted by stenseng at 12:03 PM on April 19, 2007 [3 favorites]

stenseng

It's just you. All hail Coulton and bow before his live acoustic version of Baby Got Back.
posted by The Confessor at 12:10 PM on April 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

Somewhere, in a dark basement, Dave Coulier softly weeps.
posted by billysumday at 12:11 PM on April 19, 2007 [2 favorites]

Alanis is a big girl, I'm sure she can take it. As opposed to Fergie, who it's reported sent Alanis a cake shaped like an ass.
posted by hermitosis at 12:15 PM on April 19, 2007

Sounds like Fergie took it just fine.

Mmmm, ass cake....
posted by Cookiebastard at 12:17 PM on April 19, 2007

Alanis is a big girl, I'm sure she can take it. As opposed to Fergie, who it's reported sent Alanis a cake shaped like an ass.

How does that illustrate that Fergie "can't take it"?, it seems like she gets the joke.
posted by delmoi at 12:17 PM on April 19, 2007

*snaps fingers repeatedly, takes a sip of latte*
posted by phaedon at 12:18 PM on April 19, 2007

I dunno, people seem unclear on the intention of the cake thing, but the implied invitation for Alanis to bite her, well, humps, strikes me as a little catty.
posted by hermitosis at 12:24 PM on April 19, 2007

I suppose here's as good a place as any to link Peaches' re-interpretation of Alanis' cover of My Humps: My Dumps.
posted by dobbs at 12:25 PM on April 19, 2007

Ah, the understated brilliance of The Coulton. So refreshing.
posted by Dreama at 12:25 PM on April 19, 2007

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, he's no Richard Cheese. The Cheese's version of Baby Got Back is so far superior it just isn't true.
posted by MrMustard at 12:26 PM on April 19, 2007

I think the ass-cake could well be a sign of a viable sense of humor, even if she's kind of pissed.
posted by Mister_A at 12:26 PM on April 19, 2007

ass-cake is an awesome word. and I think fergie got that it was a joke, hence the ass-cake.
posted by chunking express at 12:31 PM on April 19, 2007

I would just like to point out that this song is the first time(only the first!) I ever heard a song of hers and said "these are the worst song lyrics I've ever heard in my life." and yes I've heard wesley willis.

"It's not fair to deny me of the cross I bear that you made for me."

dear fucking christ.
posted by shmegegge at 12:32 PM on April 19, 2007 [2 favorites]

mix poo with pee pee... poo poo poo poo pee pee juice...

heh.
posted by phaedon at 12:34 PM on April 19, 2007

To be fair, didn't that album come out when she was 16 or 18 or something.
posted by chunking express at 12:41 PM on April 19, 2007

I enjoy Jonathan Coulton very much.
posted by danb at 12:48 PM on April 19, 2007

All these years I thought it was "the cross-eyed bear that you gave to me".
posted by ND¢ at 12:49 PM on April 19, 2007 [10 favorites]

I can't believe this person has a long and thoughtful Wikipedia entry.

Yet, juxtaposed with the reality that the Wikipedia article on Lightsaber Combat is a good deal longer than the article on William Shakespeare, this and possibly the whole modernity of the DARPA Internet suddenly comes into focus.

It's like holding a miror up to Aqua Teen Hunger Force - it becomes a million panes of self-references that dissapear into a singularity somewhere near K.I.T.T.

And for some reason people think this is the forge from which comedy is fired.

Big titties.
posted by four panels at 1:00 PM on April 19, 2007 [2 favorites]

I took the time to visit the Black Eyed Peas message board (there has never been a more wretched hvie of scum and villainy) after Alanis' version of "My Humps" came out. While their fans were split, the attitude of the band members seemed to be "hilarious."

She had to have had permission to do it, so my impression is that Fergie's booty cake is more in the spirit of continuing the jest than expressing unhappiness. Especially in light of the note attached to the cake.

Anyhow, both Alanis and BEP are worthy of parody, so rock.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:03 PM on April 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

To be fair, didn't that album come out when she was 16 or 18 or something.

She was 21. Plenty old enough to look up what irony actually means.
posted by Gary at 1:09 PM on April 19, 2007

The JoCo version is lovely. However I must confess a certain perverse affection for the spine-decalcifyingly shrieking tone of the original.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 1:13 PM on April 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

Deconstructed by four panels at 10:00 PM on April 19

Yet, juxtaposed with the reality that the Wikipedia article on Lightsaber Combat is a good deal longer than the article on William Shakespeare, this and possibly the whole modernity of the DARPA Internet suddenly comes into focus.

It's like holding a miror up to Aqua Teen Hunger Force - it becomes a million panes of self-references that dissapear into a singularity somewhere near K.I.T.T.

You are a postmodernist, AREN'T YOU???
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:14 PM on April 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: A wretched hvie of scum and villainy
posted by Turtles all the way down at 1:16 PM on April 19, 2007

Turtles: Thank you for taking a humiliating spelling error on my part and turning it into something awesome.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:23 PM on April 19, 2007

Avec plaisir, Monsieur Michaels!
posted by Turtles all the way down at 1:27 PM on April 19, 2007

I think "it's not fair to deny me of the cross I bear that you gave to me" is a brilliant lyric if you ignore grammar. Totally encapsulates the persecution complex of the spurned woman who's being portrayed by the lyrics. Reminds me of my ex...
posted by autodidact at 1:27 PM on April 19, 2007

His cover of Baby Got Back is one
of my favorite songs of any kind.
posted by squidfartz at 1:29 PM on April 19, 2007

Is it just me or are "ironic" hipster covers of shitty pop songs...uh... kinda stupid?

Maybe, but I do know that making them into a frontpage post every time one comes out is.
posted by Dave Faris at 1:39 PM on April 19, 2007

Is it just me or are "ironic" hipster covers of shitty pop songs...uh... kinda stupid?

For the past twelve years I've had people younger than me telling me how lousy "You Oughtta Know" is, but I just don't get it. I think it's one of the best songs to come out of the 1990s. (Not that there were many good ones to choose from.) I guess I'm too old to understand how uncool the song was. I think it rocks. It's one of the best songs of rage I've ever heard.
posted by jdroth at 1:41 PM on April 19, 2007

Coulter's cover of the song is amusing, I'll admit!
posted by jdroth at 1:44 PM on April 19, 2007

Another vote in support of "Oughta." There's more snottiness packed into the line "and are you thinking of me when you fuck her?" than there is in a whole weeks worth of metafilter comments. Also, I will always love Alanis for the way she spits out "you told me you'd hold me until you died / until you died/ but you're still alive." The only other breakup to inspire vocals that bitter was the one between Trent Reznor and God.
posted by Clay201 at 1:54 PM on April 19, 2007 [4 favorites]

I'm relieved to hear that other people like "You Oughta Know." It's the only song by her that I like. I was a teen when it came out, and I just remember thinking, "whoa. That chick is pissed off." [/Butthead voice] It helped introduce me to scary-sexy, as did Gwen Stephani doing push-ups and making faces in "Just a Girl."
posted by Bookhouse at 2:03 PM on April 19, 2007

I thought "You Oughta Know" was a decent song even when I found out she had been a little dance-pop artist just a couple of years before, but I couldn't get past the fact that the guy she was talking about in the song was the chubby dude who did bullwinkle imitations on full house. The song has to be angry to work. Alanis blowing bullwinkle in a theatre only gives me the giggles.
posted by justgary at 2:46 PM on April 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

"it's not fair to deny me of the cross I bear that you gave to me"
I think the grammar in that is deliberate.
posted by acoutu at 2:52 PM on April 19, 2007

She had to have had permission to do it

Is that true? I thought that covering a song didn't require permission, just that you pay the appropriate royalties. But maybe that's just within the US...
posted by staggernation at 3:06 PM on April 19, 2007

cross-eyed bear

I had Jagged Little Pill on high rotate when it first came out, and yet I think the line above would have improved that song immeasurably.
posted by Sparx at 3:37 PM on April 19, 2007

Maybe, but I do know that making them into a frontpage post every time one comes out is.

There should be a backpage for things like this.

And sports.
posted by pokermonk at 4:34 PM on April 19, 2007

"I dunno, people seem unclear on the intention of the cake thing, but the implied invitation for Alanis to bite her, well, humps, strikes me as a little catty."


Those beans? I think you're thinking a bit too hard about them.
posted by stenseng at 4:39 PM on April 19, 2007

And so it comes full circle....I made the "humps" post which spawned "plate of beans" which is now mentioned in a JoCo thread, JoCo being one of my very old and dear friends and subject of one of my very few posts here.

I can die happy.
posted by tristeza at 5:17 PM on April 19, 2007

I love Jagged Little Pill.

There, I've said it.

And I didn't think much of Jonathan Coulton's cover, but I have a feeling it'll grow on me. That said, he's essentially James Taylor in clown pants with one of those "arrow-through-the-head" dealies. But, you know, that's not a bad thing.
posted by Kattullus at 5:35 PM on April 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

I love Jagged Little Pill.

If it wasn't clear from my previous comment: Kattullus, I'm with you.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 6:20 PM on April 19, 2007

I couldn't get past the fact that the guy she was talking about in the song was the chubby dude who did bullwinkle imitations on full house

justgary: please tell me that isn't true.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 6:22 PM on April 19, 2007

I heard the debut of You Oughta Know on KROQ via a wire taped up my bedroom wall before Loveline came on when I was in... 8th grade I guess. Right on time. It is a good song, and reminds me how good we had it in the 90's that people here are able to dis. Fergie would have never ranked MTV then, would she? Peaches and Coulton both are more in line with that era. I recently made my little sister two mixes: the best of her 8th grade year and the best of mine. One was waaaaay harder. 1994 was pretty awesome.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 6:54 PM on April 19, 2007

May I just say that I have never personally authorized any manifestation of "ass cake" and sincerely doubt that the Cake Council would entertain such a vulgar notion.
posted by Dizzy at 7:21 PM on April 19, 2007

I still love Jagged Little Pill also.
posted by Kwine at 8:00 AM on April 20, 2007

I'm going to need everybody's address so I can send you all individual cakes shaped like plates of beans.
posted by JT at 8:12 AM on April 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Is it just me or are "ironic" hipster covers of shitty pop songs...uh... kinda stupid?

In this case, I think it falls into the category of "ripping out the pop arrangement, tempo and delivery to reveal the beautiful song that was living underneath all that marketing driven crap." Which I wholeheartedly approve of. It's a lovely song.
posted by davejay at 9:10 AM on April 20, 2007

Actually, let me go a bit further: Alanis tries to make a trendy BEP song lovely, and in so doing highlights the intrinsic insipidness of it. Then Jonathan tries to make an angry Alanis song lovely, and in doing so highlights the intrinsic loveliness of it.

Before they did these two things, I'd never even listened to "My Humps" (BEP version), and "You Oughta Know" (Alanis version) would never have registered in my mind as a lovely song. Now I've heard some new (had to listen to BEP version after hearing Alanis) and reimagined music, and am better off for it.

Artists playing with each other's music to make better/more music, thus giving audiences something they can enjoy. More please.
posted by davejay at 9:15 AM on April 20, 2007

offtopic: Travis' cover of Hit Me Baby One More Time is the best cover ever. Word.
posted by chunking express at 10:34 AM on April 20, 2007

*raises hand for Richard Thompson's cover of "(Oops) I Did It Again"*
posted by allaboutgeorge at 3:40 PM on April 20, 2007