Behka’s Secret Stash: Steven Page

Kids, we here on BOB fm are also big fans of "Canada's Band" aka The Barenaked Ladies.

As you probably know/remember, we play their best and biggest hits here.  You remember songs like "One Week" and "It's All Been Done" and even "If I Had a Million Dollars". On the evening show I even delve a little deeper with songs like "Break Your Heart" as well as "Call And Answer".

Well,  the basic dynamic of the band was, there were two main singers/songwriters that helmed the group. They were Steven Page and Ed Robertson. They were together as a band with minimal line up changes for maybe twenty years. A few years ago, Steven left the group and ventured out on his own. This was shortly after his.... shall we say, "setback" with drugs. After some time, he got his act together and lost a lot of weight while he was at it. He made a solo album that was pretty darn good, and also grouped up with a Canadian string and brass group called The Art of Time Ensemble. They made an album together called A Singer Must Die, which is, in my opinion, remarkable. Basically they take some of their favorite songs and do different arrangements of them in an interesting covers album.

I thought we'd take a look at one of his versions of one of my favorite songs, and I'll include the original as well. We play the original on BOB, too.

It's a song from Elvis Costello's early career called "I Want You". If you're a fan, I'm sure you've heard it. It's a classic. Here's Steven's version:

Here's a live version by Costello:

What do you think? Do you like either one better? Do you have covers of songs that you like as much as the original? Are you even a fan of cover songs?

Stashily yours,
Behka