As everyone who hangs around here knows, I’ve listened to almost nothing but metal for years. But every now and then I do dabble in other things, and The Dropkick Murphys are one of my non-metal pleasures. And among their many boot-to-the-ass songs, “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” is one of the best. If you’re not a fan, you may nevertheless remember it from the opening sequence in Martin Scorcese’s 2006 masterwork, The Departed.
Well, today I saw the news that Children of Bodom have recorded a cover of the song. It will be included on Holiday at Lake Bodom (15 Years of Wasted Youth), a COB CD/DVD that will be released on May 15. “Shipping Up To Boston” will be one of only two newly recorded songs on the CD, the other being a cover of Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl” (I’m cringing at the thought of that one).
A web site called CraveOnline premiered the “Shipping Up To Boston” cover today. Now, a song that good is very difficult to ruin, especially for a band as talented as COB (we’ll leave aside whether they’ve been coasting on that talent) — but it’s also very difficult to improve on a song that good, especially given the authentic sound of the original.
So, I guess with that preamble, it won’t surprise you to learn that I think COB neither ruin nor improve on the song, they just make it a bit moar metal. It’s worth a listen (after the jump), though I have to say I’ll stick with the original (which is also after the jump).
Children of Bodom: “Shipping Up To Boston”
Dropkick Murphys: “I’m Shipping Up To Boston”
[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/11-Im-Shipping-Up-To-Boston.mp3|titles=Dropkick Murphys – I’m Shipping Up To Boston]
Here’s the rest of the track list for Holiday At Lake Bodom:
‘Hate Crew Deathroll’
‘Shovel Knockout’
‘Hate Me’
‘Everytime I Die’
‘Needled 24/7′
‘I’m Shipping Up To Boston’ (*previously unreleased)
‘Sixpounder’
‘Warheart’
‘Roundtrip To Hell And Back’
‘Trashed, Lost & Strungout’
‘Living Dead Beat’
‘Deadnight Warrior’
‘Blooddrunk’
‘Follow The Reaper’
‘Are You Dead Yet?’
‘Silent Night, Bodom Night’
‘Jessie’s Girl’ (*previously unreleased)
‘In Your Face’
‘Angels Don’t Kill’
‘Downfall’
You can preorder the CD/DVD here.
Having been a long time Bodom fan (not so much anymore, but Hatecrew Deathroll and everything prior was a revelation for me) I can attest to the fact that most of their covers work this way, where it’s pretty much the same song..just slightly more metal. I think the only one they’ve really ever improved on was Eddie Murphy’s Party All The Time with Holy Grail’s frontman on cleans. Even the covers album/compilation of all their previous cover tracks wasn’t really worth the disc it was printed on.
It’s a pretty stock formula, isn’t it? Alexi nasties up the vocals and layers in some shred, and voila! Except on this song the vocals were nasty enough to begin with and you don’t really need shred when you’ve got accordion and banjo shredding already.
^ Yup
This is actually why I can get behind some non-metal genres like bluegrass and such. Banjo and Mandolin players can shred like crazy. I don’t seek out those tunes, but I would see that kind of band live and won’t protest if its on.
Their cover of Andrew W.K.’s “She Is Beautiful” is perhaps the defining statement of musical history.
Blurgh.
I’m just going to leave this here for whenever KevinP drops by.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghYrYXvy2wY&feature=fvst
It just doesn’t sound right, something definitely got lost in the translation.
I’ve never really listened to Drop Kick Murphys, so this was a nice introduction.
My personal favorite CoB cover is “Somebody Put Something in my Drink.”
Now that you mention it, I think that one’s my favorite, too.
Yeah, I’m going to stick with the original. Their version wasn’t bad, I guess, but it wasn’t that good, either. The pronunciation was hilariously bad on some of the lyrics.
We now know what it sounds like when a Finn pretends he’s from Southie. Not exactly a good fit.
bahahaha, god damn that shit is hilarious. Love Dropkick, but that cover is blasphemy. BTW, if you’ve never been to a Dropkick show…….BEST LIVE BAND EVER!!!!!
I really need to start watching out for them the next time they tour. I can imagine that would be one ass-kicking good time.