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April 12, 2007

The Bad Plus Cover Rush

When we posted Bad Plus's tenacious original cut "Physical Cities" from Prog, we promised a listen of their killer cover of Rush's "Tom Sawyer." And truly, they pulverize the prog epic, starting true to the tune's head before delving into a madcap chopped-out piano trio jam. And it wouldn't be Bad Plus without a tempo-shifted smoothed-out outro, a collective gasp for breath. Drum jock Neil Peart would – or should – be proud of BP's David King's fills on this one.

Bad Plus - "Tom Sawyer" (MP3)

Prog is out 5/8 on Heads Up.

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11 Comments

I really thought this sucked and would not sit through this. Geddy lee is what makes this band. Where are the vocals.

Posted by: Rinjo Njori at 04/12/07 4:58 PM | Reply
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all their songs are instrumentals, and also Neil Peart is revered amongst some so to say Geddy Lee made the band seems silly
that being said I liked it b/c it wasn't always straightforward

Posted by: Ian R. at 04/12/07 5:43 PM | Reply
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i love this.

Posted by: jim at 04/12/07 9:35 PM | Reply
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Dave King is by far the best drummer I have ever seen live.

Mpls represent!

Posted by: Ryan at 04/13/07 9:35 AM | Reply
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Well, I'm Canadian, big Rush fan. Also a pianist, and I think you have to just appreciate the bands funky interpretation of it.

Posted by: pianodood at 04/18/07 1:24 PM | Reply
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at least one part of their name describes how their band

Posted by: Geddy Lee at 04/18/07 7:10 PM | Reply
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at least one part of their name describes their band

Posted by: Geddy Lee at 04/18/07 7:10 PM | Reply
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Alex Skolnick Trio did an amazing version of "Tom Sawyer" that came out before this. It's definitely worth checking out.

Posted by: Dave at 04/24/07 5:54 PM | Reply
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Everything TBP does has some sort of tongue-in-cheek element to it. Probably because they're 10x the musicians the artists they choose to cover. If you can't appreciate this, you're probably not going to like them. Neal Peart? C'mon, sure he's a rock god but King smokes him in technique.

Posted by: duh at 04/24/07 9:52 PM | Reply
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I love this version and I love the original. Great job guys. I look forward to picking up the CD and hearing more.

Posted by: Ray at 05/06/07 8:56 PM | Reply
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I think it is beautiful. Would love to hear them do different versions. As someone mentioned the Alex Trio, its great to have covers like this.

Posted by: Tom at 05/08/07 10:36 PM | Reply
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