Something I would find hard to write

“When I find a cover song that I like, I’ll work away at it until I kind of believe that I wrote it.”

So remarked the always jocular Nick Lowe. I’ve often wondered about a musician’s impulse and desire to cover a song. They can get inside of a song they love, so as to enact it, or inhabit it. They can cover a song because the time signature, key changes, or genre pose a challenge, or because the song mines an emotional terrain that dares a singer to dress in vulnerable clothes. Or because the so...