# awful soulless covers > tell your mama, tell your pa > i'm gonna send you back to arkansas > ~ what'd i say by ray charles by far and away the worst ever cover song is undoubtedly by mary spender and josh turner specifically their cosmically brain-stunning cover of classic dire straits song 'sultans of swing' the desperate clawing popularity of such artistes outweighs their misperceived artistic depth by a tremendous degree any time scientists need a 'worst ever cover song' - polished formulaic and entirely lacking authentic emotion - they'll often choose this; perhaps it can act as a zombie deterrent let's face it one has to be brain dead to appreciate it even those brave strong andor foolish enough to listen to such barbaric gastric wind will simultaneously cringe into a ball of acute audio pain and darkly laugh themselves silly oh man it's just so flocking 'lite beer' and perfectly symbolic of the husk-like whiteness(tm) that spawned it - which somehow remotely imagines that a dozen or so free guitar lessons paid for by mummy and daddy automatically make one's merry band of nerds the 'prime musical candidate for rip roaring covers of an old and much-loved classics'. bullocks more like as though playing the exact same notes in the same order at the same tempo is remotely connected to whether a song has soul having already colonised every other flocking sphere of activity the psychotically-attention-seeking need to whitewash the audible spectrum with such bleached and sterile noise is par for the course people of non whiteness create and innovate culture only for them and their art to be repeatedly and systematically dismissed overlooked; it's only accepted when it's been bleached to polite white nothingness - when it's co-opted repackaged and 'made acceptable' for a pasty faced audience of the socially tone deaf. flock that researchers are known to become furious upon hearing it played even way in the background and start grinding their teeth; a cover so astoundingly generic derivative low-calorie fat-free sugar-free mild thin weightless superficial flimsy and unseasoned it warps local spacetime - so utterly free of dirt grit or common human experience one can disinfect modern kitchens with it arguably the sin qua non of utterly soulless musical whiteness personified such covers are so unreasonably bad they takes the piss out of themselves one becomes baffled by the lack of true artistic imagination and soulful delivery as the cover artists appear to understand so little about what made the originals so great 5.3 million views for this spineless dribble holy shedballs flatman talk about revelling in one's inability to separate the audio wheat from the chaff check it out when that pencil necked walking crystal boba 'kicks in' and starts emoting like he's really shredding it oh man note the best negative synergies occur when a soul-challenged musician covers a song by some equally talent-challenged band or individual other popular random examples (and jesus h. christ are there a lot of them) **+** carson mckee featuring josh turner and skylar mckee - third rate romance by sammy kershaw **+** chiara kilchling - stairway to heaven by led zeppelin (double neck cover) **+** stephen wilson jr or dave fenley - stand by me by ben e. king **+** jennel garcia or chase eagleton - creep by radiohead **+** tina s - the loner by gary moore **+** alyona yarushina - crazy by aerosmith **+** brian zellmer - how to save a life by the fray **++** jada facer - iris by the goo goo dolls **+** jonah baker - time after time by cyndi lauper **+** nate vickers - the kill by 30 seconds to mars **+** jacques van lill - billy jean by michael jackson **+** kory wheeler - falling by harry styles **+** bobby brinker - memories by maroon 5 **+** chase eagleson - what was i made for by billie eilish **+** lusaint - wicked game by chris isaak **+** karen souza - every breath you take by the police **+** jourdan blue - unsteady by x ambassadors **+** audra miller - the best by tina turner **+** samantha harvey - wish you the best by lewis capaldi **+** billy joel and the rock and roll hall jam band - what'd i say by ray charles **+** the rock orchestra featuring erin fox - zombie by the cranberries **+** marty mcfly - johnny b goode by chuck beerry offering cultural critiques and challenging dominant cultural frameworks is what we're all about here at the republic because if we didn't we'd all be forced to listen to such dogslop so step off: the power of sultans of swing by dire straits live at hammersmith odeon london 1983 (remastered 2023) commands you // republic of bob