Day 53: Taylor Swift - LIVE!

I certainly haven't been keeping it a secret, but for those of you who didn't know, Taylor Swift's 2010 album Speak Now is among my favorites. Taylor has gone on tour for all her studio albums except her first, and for the Speak Now tour she recorded and published the audio for the entire set. Pretty cool! It's way too much to talk about in just one post, so today I'll be focusing on just one cool tidbit.

The North American leg of the tour had well over 50 stops, so to keep it fresh for both the audience and herself Taylor decided to do something a little different. For each region she visited, Taylor did an acoustic cover from a well known artist from the same region. Only two of these covers, Bette Davis Eyes and Drops of Jupiter are published officially, but the complete list of songs she covered exists and there are even videos of most of them. Here's a short list of some of the notable songs she covered.

Livin' on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
Baby - Justin Bieber
Super Bass - Nicki Minaj

Hold the fucking phone. Taylor Swift has done a cover of Super Bass? I literally cannot believe that. I refuse to accept that this happened unless I see video footage of it.

Oh my god it's real. Not only is it real, but Nicki Minaj was actually there and performed with her. Thank god too, because Taylor was barely keeping up with the faster parts of the song she attempted. I am quite surprised to say that I think this pairing works really well, with Taylor taking the parts of the song that are more suited to her vocal style while still branching out in a way that everyone is sure to recognize. And after all, isn't that the point of a cover?

We could literally be here all day discussing the various covers she did on this tour and barely make a dent. So instead, I'm just going to link to the videos of the ones I like best that exist online while also lamenting the ones that I can't find video for. I'm also splitting this post in half, finishing it tomorrow so that I can talk about as many covers as possible without making any one post too long. Fair warning, all these videos are on YouTube but because of Taylor's tight hold of her copyright there's no telling if they'll be available forever. 

Lose Yourself - Eminem, Smile - Uncle Kracker

This is...a weird one. It's odd to see 2011 Taylor Swift try to sing a song like Lose Yourself and it's not awful but it definitely isn't the best. I think part of it is because it's on the acoustic guitar and the other is that she looks so darn happy and I don't think I've ever seen Eminem smile. The second half is perfectly good though, I guess.

Sugar, We're Goin' Down - Fallout Boy

I expected this to be a lot more weird than it actually ended up being. It's a perfectly competent cover and I definitely don't hate it. Although I will say that I agree most with this one guy in the comments.

Ha! Zing.

That's all we have time for today, make sure to tune in tomorrow to see more strange covers from this tour. I plan on covering (nice) as many as possible so don't expect as essay on every one.

See you tomorrow,

-C