Cum On Feel The Noize - Slade vs Quiet Riot

"Cum On Feel The Noize" is up there with "Mama Were All Crazee Now", "Darlin' Be Home Soon" and "Look At Last Night" as one of my favourite Slade songs. Of course, 90% of the world is more familiar with the inferior Quiet Riot cover, which propelled the song to the status it holds today.

The superior original

The inferior cover

Give them both a listen, and I think you'll agree that while the cover is a bit faster-paced, the original sounds much more complete and fits the lyrics a lot better.

Let's look at what we're losing by "mainstreaming" the song, which, you have to admit, Quiet Riot did. First, I don't know if you notice, but the guitar of the original is to DIE for. It's upbeat, it's twangy, and it sounds great and distinctive. Quiet Riots version sounds bland in comparision. They try to even this out with a token guitar solo, which sounds like every other guitar solo of that era. In Slades version, it's a part of the song from beginning to end.

Slades version, while sounding like a bit of an anthem, still has that groovy dance quality to it. Quiet Riot turns it into a complete anthem, completely erasing the groovy out of it. What you're left with is a song that sounds like it's been remodelled to fit in with everything else - it loses its individuality, and that's why I much prefer the Slade version.