10 Hard Rock Bands That Made The Same Song Twice
Is the first cut the deepest? Taylor Swift isn't the only one bleeding the same old songs dry.
They say rock music's dead, but not if this lot keep digging up their old hits, polishing off the dirt and grime and taking them into the studio another. damn. time. Well, hey, if you've already brought out the big guns, why not double-down, load both barrels, and do it all over again?
But it's not always about reliving past glories for past glory's sake. Sometimes our favourite rockers have something to say, a new sound to lay down, that can't be expressed anywhere other than between the oft-thumb pages of their back catalogue. And sometimes they're right.
Whether they've had a serious sonic overhaul, plugged a new member into the mix, or have a fresh genre they want to explore, some major hard rock artists have taken a well-considered second time around on one of their old tracks. Hits and hidden gems alike, they have brought to bear new soundscapes and audible dimensions our ears never thought previously possible, and have often endeared whole new generations of fans to their music.
Whatever the reason, whatever the result, here are ten hard rock bands who have made the same song twice.
10. Pantera - Down Below
Those only familiar with Pantera from Walk and Cowboys From Hell may have missed the band's earlier stuff, back when they sounded like Motley Crue...
Yep, though it may be hard to believe that the redneck rock outfit now famous for dirty riffs, heavy vocals and, umm, Roman salutes on stage, once had more in common with the spandex-clad hair rockers than they did Lamb of God and Machine Head, it is nonetheless achingly true. And nowhere is this more apparent than on Down Below, a track Pantera recorded twice for 1985's I Am The Night and 1988's Power Metal.
In re-recording, the band largely kept the track the same, but stripped away some of the chorus and reverb, brought the guitars towards the front of the mix, and put their new singer, Phil Anselmo, on vocals. Gone are the Axl Rose flourishes that original singer Terry Glaze laced into each line, but even so, Anselmo -- new to the band and not yet ready to reshape Pantera's sound with the rougher edges of his voice -- still tacks surprisingly close to Glaze's original notes, frequently going Rob Halford-high.
Both tracks are decent entries to their respective albums, but neither have exactly entered the band's hall of fame -- but perhaps they just needed material to pad out the new record...