My Morning Jacket's Eclectic Covers: From Danzig to Dylan

My Morning Jacket may not have logged as many miles on the road as Phish — yet — but given another few decades of touring, Jim James and crew might give the Vermont quartet a run for "most cover songs played live." The Kentucky rockers have covered everyone from the Band to Poison to Blue Oyster Cult, and now the blog You Ain't No Picasso has wrangled more than 50 of the band's live covers for your listening pleasure. (And we're not even counting Yim Yames' EP of George Harrison covers Tribute To.)

Check out shots of My Morning Jacket's blazing live shows.

The more unlikely covers include a double dose of Danzig ("How the Gods Kill" and the Misfits' "Attitude"), INXS' "Never Tear Us Apart," three renditions of Erykah Badu's "Tyrone" and Lionel Ritchie's "Easy." The choices aren't all oddball though — MMJ also perform a heavy smattering of Dylan, Gram Parsons and the Band songs. Plus, as anyone who witnessed My Morning Jacket's 2006 late-night set at Bonnaroo can attest, MMJ perform a kick-ass version of the Who's "A Quick One, While He's Away."

Watch Jim James break down five of the band's tracks from Evil Urges.

Related Stories:
• My Morning Jacket's James Plots EP of George Harrison Covers
• My Morning Jacket Talk Epic Bonnaroo Show, "Evil Urges"
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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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