Everything Old Is New Again

When Robert Plant sampled bits of old Led Zep hits for his 1990 hit "Tall Cool One," it seemed like a novel way to burnish music from the past to help inform songs in the present. But it also seemed like a bit of a gimmick.

Now it sounds like everyone's jumping on this train - and riding it a lot further (some rap artists and Beck are excused from this diatribe)

Does anyone except for me remember Steve Forbert's 1979 hit "Romeo's Tune"? It was a youthful take on being in love. Now Forbert's put a new, stripped down version on his latest album, and it sounds like something completely different - a lot of the wonder and joy is gone, but age'll do that to you, I suspect. Meanwhile, Steve Earle quotes his old hit "Guitar Town" in his new song, "Tennessee Blues." You've got Joni Mitchell offering up a new version of "Big Yellow Taxi" on her new Starbucks album and Pink Floyd's Roger Waters quoting from his old work on "Hello (I Love You)," a song he contributed to a recent movie soundtrack.

So I guess the question is whether the new versions of the songs offer up some new insight or angle that the orignals did not - just like a good cover version can make you hear a song in an entirely different light (a la Jimi Hendrix's cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" or Jason & The Scorchers' version of "Absolutely Sweet Marie" - great song, horrible video). Or is it a sign of something worse - that all the good songs and ideas are gone, and everyone is left to cobble together stuff from when they were more prolific and had more to say?