Cool, New Song from Bonnie "Prince" Billy: "Outsider" (Dee Dee Ramone/The Ramones cover feat the late, great David Berman)

Bonnie "Prince" Billy just released a cool cover he recorded in 2016.

It's "Outsider" by Dee Dee Ramone, and it originally appeared on The Ramones 1983 album Subterranean Jungle:

Green Day covered the song in 2002 on Shenanigans:

I'm an outsider
Outside of everything
I'm an outsider
Outside of everything
I'm an outsider
Outside of everything
Everything you know
Everything you know
It disturbs me so

I'm an outsider
Outside of everything
I'm an outsider
Outside of everything
I'm an outsider
Outside of everything
Everything you know
Everything you know
It disturbs me so

Everybody tried to push me
Push me around
Everybody tried to put me
Try to put me down

All messed up, hey everyone
I've already had all my fun
More troubles are gonna come
I've already had all my fun
Ooh yeah, yeah, yeah

Everybody tried to push me
Push me around
Everybody tried to put me
Try to put me down

I'm an outsider
Outside of everything
I'm an outsider
Outside of everything
I'm an outsider
Outside of everything
Everything you know
Everything you know
It disturbs me so

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It's a cool song and the Bonnie "Prince" Billy version, available here on Bandcamp, takes it to a whole other place, complete with petal steel guitar and an Americana feel. Dee Dee Ramone might have been surprised at the result but probably would have liked it. I do. Nice to hear the late great David Berman (Silver Jews, Purple Mountains) on the bridge. Damned shame he suffered so and didn't hang out with us a bit longer. Have you heard this song by him?

It's a beautiful song, but makes me cry, because of what happened to him shortly after. I'm dying to hear a mash up of this song with the 1982 Modern English love song about nuclear war "I Melt With You": 

And speaking of "Stop The World And Melt With You", towards the end, is it a tribute to Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side", a rip-off, or just a coincidence?

Subterranean Jungle is a cool album. It contains an interesting cover of the 1966 Chambers Brothers classic "Time Has Come":

 

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