The Song Police on My Back Production Comparison

Eddy Grant sang the song Police on My Back, recorded by his label the Equals in 1967 and released in the Sandinista album. The cover version was sung by the artist Mushroom Pillow of the Clash group and was released in 2014. The original song and its cover version have significant comparisons that are observable. The tempo in the original is a slow pace with a regular rhythm and repeated patterns, while the cover version has a faster pace with an irregular rhythm. The original has the entire band participating in singing the chorus, while the cover version has only one person singing the entire song. The original song pictures are in black and white, while the pictures of the cover version are colored. The demonstrative part of the song differs between the original and the cover versions. The reverb in the original song is slight. At the same time, in the cover version, there is an effect whereby an amplifier produces the sound, and the amplified instruments like guitar and drums are made to reverb highly. Although the instruments are included in both versions of the song, they are more amplified in the cover version. The two pieces differ, with some distortions in the cover version. They also differ in the delay between lines, where the original song has identifiable gaps while the cover version is continuous with minimal gaps. The original song by the Equals leaves a few seconds in the end without singing, while the cover version has a more extended time left at the end without any singing. The meaning of the original song is not distorted in the cover version; hence the message is the same.

References

Eddy Grant (1967) Police on My Back

Mushroom Pillow (2014) Police on My Back