For the month of October, I’m taking the #OctAtoZBandChallenge challenge. The premise is simple. Pick a band starting with the day’s assigned alphabet letter and then choose a song from that band.
Day 21
The idea of covering a Neil Diamond song isn’t anything new. Long before Urge Overkill did it, others tried their hand at the task and created covers that were even more iconic than the originals. UB40 brought “Red Red Wine” to the masses. And The Monkees made “I’m A Believer” a classic. But Urge Overkill was a bit of an unlikely participant in the Diamond cover caravan. They rocked a lot harder and opened for Nirvana and Pearl Jam at the time they recorded the song. But their cover of “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon” is a cultural icon, ushering the song into the mainstream consciousness as part of the Pulp Fiction movie soundtrack.
There’s more to “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” than the catchy chorus. The song thrives on several tempo changes and strumming styles and the underlying flamenco persona on Diamond’s version is still there though slightly toned down. In the song, it feels like the girl rushes through the red muleta and emerges as a woman on the other side. The guitar certainly plays a prominent role in Urge Overkill’s music. But here, it. takes a backseat and the vocals take centerstage, making it a perfect track for the heroin overdose scene.
“Can't count all the ways I'd die for you, girl. And all they can say is "He's not your kind".”