Father John Misty Takes Down Lou Reed Style Covers of Ryan Adams' '1989' Taylor Swift Songs

The Internet was excited yesterday when Ryan Adams released his folk rock take on Taylor Swift's hit record 1989, but Father John Misty stole headlines by dropping two of his own covers of the pop star's songs in the style of Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground. For a yet unknown reason, the songs have been taken down from Misty's official Soundcloud account.

The songs were Swift's "Blank Space," sung in the vain of The Velvet Underground's "Waiting for the Man," and "Welcome To New York," in which Misty added a distinct Reed gruff to the pop song.

Less than 24 hours since the songs' release, the tunes have since disappeared from Soundcloud. It's unclear who is the culprit. Is it Misty himself, feeling the joke was too mean-spirited? Is it by Adams' request?

What we do know is that Taylor Swift is not at fault thanks to a report from Billboard that simply cites a "reliable source inside Taylor's camp."

Misty's covers were not done in tribute to either Adams' or Swift's work. They were more likely sardonic pranks meant to poke fun at the absurdity of Adam's Bruce Springsteen-tinged covers of the world's biggest pop star. According to Stereogum, Misty tweeted on Monday "what a dumb world" before deleting it. He also said "In the studio working on a song for song reinterpretation of Ryan Adams 1989, gonna be great! Ryan's amazing! #SoPsyched."

Adams, on the other hand, is very earnest in his covers, stating in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he used the project as therapy to help him get over his recent break-up with Mandy Moore. Adams said he thinks the songs came from such a vulnerable place and it's a place he sort of found himself in while listening to the album.

While he's deleted the songs from his Soundcloud, the Internet has a way of keeping things around. You can listen to Misty's version of "Blank Space" below via YouTube for the time being, as well as Adam's version, which should be available for a long time to come.

Tags

Ryan Adams, Taylor Swift, Father John Misty