"cover"

[George Thompson]

I suppose that "cover" was reserved for occasions when one performer made the first-ever recording of a song and shortly thereafter another performer issued a recording.  Most likely, the first performer was more or less obscure, and the second either better known, or more vigorously promoted by a bigger label, so that sales that might have gone to the original recording were taken by the cover.  I also suppose that the cover was prompted by the fact that the original recording was showing signs of being a hit, and the cover was rushed through recording and production in an deliberate attempt to steal the success.
This might justify the term "cover", too: the later recording covered up the earlier one.
I dare say the situation seldom arises now, since most popular music appears in multi-tune albums and the post-recording editing process has become too elaborate to be rushed through.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Sacks <msacks at THEWORLD.COM>
Date: Sunday, December 23, 2007 11:01 am
Subject: Re: "cover"
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU


> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org