Fred Leo

I have mixed feeling on the subject of covering great songs. On the one hand, it can seem insulting to the artist, as if the person doing the covering is saying “Hey, here’s how ya do that song.” On the other hand, a cover is a way to pay homage, to keep the song out there, to say “thank you.”

Ultimately, I think the reasons to be in favor of covers outweigh the reasons to oppose them — depending on the cover, of course. Sometimes they’re just slaughterings, and that might be the case here, though I sure hope not.

I just did a test of Petty’s Southern Accents, and it’s so down and dirty it’s subterranean. It was kind of spur of the moment, so I didn’t download the lyrics and screwed them up from memory. In fact, i’m pretty sure I forgot the last verse. I also wanted to see how things would work micing the new amp, but the mic was a paperweight, so both the guitar (the Epi Sheraton) and vocals on this are with the $25 radio shack mic.

I can’t believe I hadn’t heard this one until the Live Anthology came out.

UPDATE: Paperweight stereo mic, soooooyou want a battery? Fine, second chance for you. Also, the actual lyrics to the song seem to be this:

There’s a southern accent, where I come from
The young’uns call it country
The yankees call it dumb
I got my own way of talkin’
But everything is done, with a southern accent
Where I come from

Now that drunk tank in Atlanta’s
Just a motel room to me
Think I might go work Orlando
If them orange groves don’t freeze
I got my own way of workin’
But everything is run, with a southern accent
Where I come from

For just a minute there I was dreaming
For just a minute it was all so real
For just a minute she was standing there, with me

There’s a dream I keep having
Where my mama comes to me
And kneels down over by the window
And says a prayer for me
I got my own way of prayin’
But everyone’s begun
With a sou thern accent
Where I come from

I got my own way of livin’
But everything gets done
With a southern accent
Where I come from