Flashback Friday: "Signs" - Tesla (1991)

This one goes out to all you long-haired freaky people.

By which I mean, in the case of 80's and early 90's, metal bands.

This is Tesla. They formed in 1982, and went on to sell 14 million album in the United States. One of their biggest hits was their cover of the Five Man Electrical Band song, "Signs".

Now back in 1971, the "long-haired freaky people" were hippies. And this song definitely cements itself as an anthem for that era. Attacking everything from business corporations to dress codes to churches, it truly fueled the anti-establishment movement's fire. Now, how does that fit in with Tesla?

Well, when long-haired, do as the long-haired do, I guess. I don't think that the cover works terribly well, as some of the values expressed in the song just don't seem like metal values:

And the sign said anybody caught trespassin' would be shot on sight
So I jumped on the fence and yelled at the house, "Hey! What gives you the right?"
"To put up a fence to keep me out or to keep Mother Nature in

If God was here he'd tell you to your face, man, you're some kinda sinner"

I just don't think that many metal bands were getting their hair in a frizz about people putting up fences. But there is a sense of counterculture in Tesla; I just don't think it's the same kind of counterculture that Five Man Electrical Band were going for. As an example, in live versions of the song, Tesla would often replace words in the song with expletives.

So I got me a pen and a paper and I made up my own little sign

becomes

So I got me a pen and a paper and I made up my own fuckin' sign

It just doesn't work for me. Five Man Electrical Band's version was cheeky, but it wasn't angry. It was just kind of the narrator laughing at the world around him. It also doesn't work with the lyric that follows:

I said, "Thank you, Lord, for thinkin' 'bout me. I'm alive and doin' fine."

I'LL MAKE MY OWN FUCKING SIGN thank you jesus

The song's just not very timeless. The same problem came with Kylie Minogue's version of "The Loco-Motion", which I reviewed a while back. It's not "a brand new dance", you're doing a dance people did in the sixties!

I love the original song, but the cover kind of flops for me. Sorry. Call it a counterculture to the counterculture or what have you. Tesla seem like a decent band, but this would probably be a misstep for anybody in that era.