How to do Cover Versions Properly

..in our view is to add something more. Slavishly following the original as seems to be the norm nowadays doesn't really add anything new. We have many favourites, some of the Byrds' Dylan covers spring to mind, Cream's 'I'm So Glad' (originally by one of the delta blues greats Skip James)  or the Sex Pistols' genuinely novel and rather good treatment of the Who's 'Substitute'. But the the latter almost win the award for sheer added value, with the admittedly already great song 'Young Man Blues' by one Mose Allison, who was about 40 when he wrote it, as Pete Townshend slightly sneeringly (and now very ironically) mentioned on the remastered Live at Leeds album. This is from that era, at the Isle of Wight festival. The real winner in our view isn't really a cover; just take a middle of the road French hit from the mid 80s, change the lyrics (and the language) and add in a cool sound (and Sarah Cracknell) and you're away...