In this modern world, when it’s so common for songs to become inspiration and fodder for future art, is one potential indicator of a song’s greatness its malleability? Personally, I’ve always loved when songs take on new forms — surprising covers, samples, remixes, mash-ups. Though there are always more bad revisions than good, sometimes this kind of work yields sheer brilliance, and opens up older works — or entire genres — to younger or less-savvy music fans.
At this year’s Grammys, in what had to have been one of the most compelling performances to grace that stage in a decade, Radiohead reinvented “15 Step” from In Rainbows backed by the drum corps from the USC Trojan marching band. And now, here’s a mash-up that might be even more intriguing: it marries that same tune with Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.”