Table of Contents

• A Philosophy of Cover Songs
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• What is a Cover?
  • The dictionary definition
    • Five problems
    • Looking for the real definition
  • The history of covers
    • Early days
    • Hijacking continues
    • Covers that hark back
    • The lessons of history
  • Covers and remakes
    • Covers and film remakes
    • Covers and mere remakes
  • What are we doing here?
  • Conclusion
• Kinds, Covers, and Kinds of Covers
  • Musical works
    • Tracks
    • Performances
    • Songs
    • The slipperiness of ‘work’
    • Terminology
  • What is it that a cover is a cover of?
  • Mimics and renditions
  • Conclusion
• Interlude: Cover Bands
• Listening to Covers
  • The dim view of covers
  • Evaluating mimic covers
  • Evaluating rendition covers
    • Lyrical changes
    • Genre shifts
    • Two modes of appreciation
    • Originality and rocking out
  • When artists try to hijack their own hits
  • Is the distinction grounded in intentions or in appreciative standards?
  • Conclusion
• The Semiotic Angle
  • Reference, allusion, and hearing in
    • Referential covers
    • Saturated allusions
    • Hearing in
  • Reference and appreciation
  • Against Impossibility
    • The value of immediate experience
    • The mystery of intentions
  • Against Incompleteness
  • Further reflections on allusions
  • Evaluating rendition covers, revisited
    • Covers of covers
  • Coda
• Interlude: Torment and Interpolations
• Some Metaphysical Puzzles About Songs
  • Interpolated covers
  • Must a cover be the same song as the original?
    • Striking covers
    • Songs about songs
  • The Fitzgerald dilemma
• How a Song is Like Ducks
  • Songs are like species
  • Species pluralism
  • Rank pluralism for songs
  • Concept pluralism for songs
    • Lyrics as words, lyrics as meaning
  • Further puzzles resolved
    • Covers, mash-ups, and medleys
    • Parodies
    • Instrumental covers
  • Conclusion
• Epilogue
• References