My final My Morning Jacket cover is a take on Elvis Presley’s classic ‘Suspicious Minds.’
This is a rather upbeat song, but My Morning Jacket does with it what they do with pretty much every song they cover — turn it into a melancholy dirge. Jim James’ voice is just naturally mournful.
My Morning Jacket has covered Prince more than any other act, in part because ‘Purple Rain’ is a staple in their live shows and in part because they did many tributes to His Purple Highness following his death.
Second to Prince among MMJ live covers is Bob Dylan, whose songs both famous and obscure have found their way into setlists. But the band has recorded Dylan songs in the studio setting as well.
A couple of days after yesterday’s performance, My Morning Jacket played a New Year’s Eve show in Boston and delivered this splendid cover of Elton John’s classic ‘Rocket Man.’
According to setlist.fm, Elton John is MMJ’s ninth most covered artist. They’ve played ‘Rocket Man’ 16 times between 2000 and 2016.
When I happened upon yesterday’s My Morning Jacket version of John Denver’s ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane,’ I wound up crawling down a rabbit hole of other cover songs by the band.
While the band is lauded for its original songs, they clearly derive a lot of pleasure from playing the songs of others, particularly in their live shows. I’ll spend the rest of this week featuring a few of those performances.
Good news for those of you waiting with bated breath for the results of my ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ poll — today a victor will be crowned!
You’ll also get to (or be forced to, depending on your perspective) hear one more rendition of the song. This one is by My Morning Jacket, from The Music is You: A Tribute to John Denver, an album of covers released in 2013.
Meet Me In Montauk 