"cover"

[Mark Sacks]

Mark Mandel, in asking

> How did "cover" come to mean 'record a song that
> someone
> else has previously recorded'?

clarified this meaning for me. If he is right, the term "cover" actually
means rerecording, say, Cole Porter songs or Schubert lieder.

Another use of "cover" I remember from college: In more homophobic times a
gay male and female would often appear in public together as if they were
a couple, the purpose (I think) being to protect the female from unwanted
male attentions. The term for the male in this dyad was "cover faggot." I
suppose the term "cover dyke" would have existed as well, but I don't
think I ever heard it.

Marc Sacks
msacks at theworld.com

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