Customer Reviews

Little Honda

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you love Yo La Tengo then undoubtedly you have seen them perform live, and every show is a treat to see what cover song they'll play in the encore...Little Honda is a gem of these, with the best cover of "Be Thankful For What You've Got" I have ever heard. My other favorite track on this disc is "How Much I've Lied" which has some of the most brilliant true to life lyrics Ira's ever breathed...

One of several singles from I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, "Little Honda" is an EP of cover songs-- six studio performances and two unlisted live takes.

The title track, originally from the Beach Boys, is one of the great covers by Yo La Tengo, sticking to the original attitude of the piece without embracing its sound-- the band drives the piece off a distorted guitar riff framing a confident and attitude-drenched vocal from guitarist Ira Kaplan. It's presented in both the album cut and a live take. The latter is lacking a bit, the vocal sounds a bit more assertive and misses some of the swagger the studio cut presented.

The rest of the covers are kind of a mixed bag-- William DeVaughn's "Be Thankful For What You Got" finds the band slinking into an r&b groove with a laid back, two (and sometimes three) part vocal harmony, but largely, it feels a bit too detached for me to really enjoy it. Both the Kinks' "No Return" and the Urinals' "Black Hole" get '60s pop with jangly guitar readings that don't do it for me. The band turns torwards their folky/country side for covers of Gram Parson's "How Much I've Lied" and Sandy Denny's "By the Time it Gets Dark". Both are pretty good renditions, but by and large, I never loved Yo La Tengo's folk stuff, although "By the Time It Gets Dark" is absolutely fantastic, pretty stuff with a nice two part vocal. The record closes with a fairly goofy cover of Queen's "We Are the Champions", there's not a whole lot to say about it other than that.

The EP is fun, but honestly, Yo La Tengo's done a lot better covers than the stuff on this record. Only diehard fans need this one, everyone else can skip it.

Then this is great. Yo La Tengo does such a good job covering other peoples songs (Fakebook, WFMU fundraisers, et al) that the apocryphal story of Ira and Georgia beginning as a wedding band tends to seem very credible.

Yet their rendition of William DeVaughn's "Be Thankful for What You Got" may be their best. Silly good.

I've always loved that cover of Little Honda, although if you buy the Hearts Beating as One LP you'll get a full album's worth of great songs.

Lou Reed had a thing about songs with the line "It's alright" or "It was all right" (Five year old Jenny in 'Rock and Roll'). Someone in Yo La Tengo tuned in to the fact that riding the Honda was mucho-alright too. (the word is in the song Little Honda four times every chorus). Put two and two together, and you come up with one of the best cover songs from that era. Velvet grunge with a Lou Reed vocal and, of course, it's alright. Cool song.

This outstanding EP includes studio and live versions of the title track as well as five obscure covers. 'By The Time It Gets Dark' appears on their recent 3 CD compilation but the rest are otherwise unavailable. This aptly complements the classic 'I Can Feel The Heart Beating As One' and is strongly recommended for all YLT fans.