I'm with DDT on this.    "Long Blondes" homage?    The answer to that is a top 60's hit:    "Ain't Nothin' LIke The Real Thing".

Why settle for a pale imitation?   Or in this case, a souped-up imitation.

That's what very often happens in remakes or "homage".    Tell me, does anybody actually prefer Grand Funk Railroad's elephantine version of "Locomotion" to the original?    And so it goes--in almost every case.

There are a few cases in which in my opinion the remake outshone the orginal.    First is "Dedicated to the One I Love".   But I'm just a Mama's and Papas addict. Second is Beach Boys "Barbara Ann."   Again, I just like the Beach Boys--especially in the early, unpretentious years.    Third is Linda Ronstadt's version of "When Will I Be Loved?"   I didn't even realize til recently the Everly Brothers did it first.    And I like gutsy female singers.

But by and large, the version done before the 1970's always trashed anything done in the 70's or after. And to a large extent, it seems to me a main reason is that there has been a progressively stronger fascination with twisting dials in studios--to the detriment of music.   (Synthesizers haven't helped music either--as well as putting real musicians out of business.)

It's a real shame we can't turn the Wayback Machine forward to 2040.    All this electronically enhanced "music", drum machines, synthesizer garbage, etc. will not in fact last. I'd place a large wager on this.

And people, as they always have, will be looking for real music--especially music they can make themselves, or music that speaks to them emotionally, which technopop, soulless as it is, is unlikely to do.