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April 10, 2007

The Smiths Approve Of Ronson's "Stop Me"

Mark Ronson's been taking heat for his awesome cover of "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before," but Moz and Marr are on board. He wrote on MySpace (via NME):

when i recorded the original demo of "stop me if you think you've heard this one before" with my friend (the singer) daniel merriweather, the first thing i did was send it to morrissey and marr immediately, before i put the strings on it or anything, i needed to know if they would be alright with it, basically like a kid showing his parents his finger painting for their approval. it took a long time to hear back from them, but when i found out that morrissey liked it and especially liked daniel's vocal, you can imagine how i felt (johnny marr approved it aswell, but i don't know his exact thoughts): the man who co-wrote my favourite song of all time gave blessing to this new interpretation.
Arctic Monkeys be damned. Though, defending yourself via MySpace blog is one surefire sign that you're spending too much time with Lily Allen. You can hear it -- along with Version standouts like his cover of Coldplay's "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" (he made it hip!) and the excellent Zutons cover "Valerie" (featuring Amy Winehouse) -- right here.

Posted at 11:51 AM
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11 Comments

I think his cover is pretty fun, and hey if you don't like it, don't listen. But I like what he has done with it. There are some other interesting songs on the album too. Pretty cool.

Posted by: Nick at 04/10/07 11:50 AM | Reply
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As much as I wanted to hate this within the first few seconds of hearing it, I really like his interpretation once it got going. Thanks for the heads up on this one, Scott.

Posted by: RSL at 04/10/07 1:24 PM | Reply
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Wow. That was pretty excellent. Definitely worth a listen.

Posted by: nobody at 04/10/07 2:25 PM | Reply
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Versions (Poison The Well) > Version (Mark Ronson)

Posted by: tjxm at 04/10/07 5:33 PM | Reply
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That's catchy, and very danceable, like I can play it at home and just jump around my house singing it. Not bad, not bad at all.

Posted by: pippa at 04/10/07 6:51 PM | Reply
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Versions is brilliant. Track-by-track review on my blog (Yes, BLATANT PLUG).

It really is a good album though, especially the Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse tracks.

Posted by: monkeygrump! at 04/10/07 9:08 PM | Reply
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Versions is brilliant. Track-by-track review on my blog (Yes, BLATANT PLUG).

It really is a good album though, especially the Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse tracks.

Posted by: monkeygrump! at 04/10/07 9:13 PM | Reply
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this is one of those weird moments where the crit crowd shows their colors.

Version is so boring. it's slick covers through a hip hop-via-soul lens -way old news. i mean really, could we be more cliche?

there's no introspection. there's no irony. it ignores all these crazy elements of an indie-ish producer taking on recent pop hits. Ronson somehow managed make these songs more sterile. wtf!

Posted by: aja at 04/11/07 7:41 AM | Reply
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Version is terrific. If you don't like Ronson it's probably because you are dug into your indie rock world, and it's not for you. But if you are into old funk, break-beats and the like, you'll really dig this shit. As someone who started out with "alt rock" or whatever you want to call it, with punk and ska and then moved on into other things I really dig Ronson's musical frame of reference from Lily Allen to Winehouse, to Version. All I gotta say is people gotta relax and learn to have fun.

Posted by: Deano at 04/26/07 7:00 PM | Reply
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I think this album is cool - I love clever covers; which is what most of these are. For those who hate what he's done just think of how many 'young kids' are going to hear the Smiths' and others' versions for the first time (if they have the nonce to look 'em up that is)!

I think 'stop me' is brilliant. All those on the MySpace are great, but man, I wish I knew someone called Valerie - would give me an excuse to sing 'Valerieeeeee' all the time! That tune is FANTASTIC. Dear Mr. Ronson, I fink I luv yu man! heh heh

Posted by: studentmonkey at 05/13/07 5:58 AM | Reply
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i totally agree that the irony has been completely lost in this version...i dont think ronson really understands the lyrics!

Posted by: pete at 05/25/07 12:01 PM | Reply
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