Tribute Albums - Worthwhile or Waste of Time?

Something that has gnawed at me for a while but finally I decided to vent on the subject, for good or ill.

In the last two decades or so, tribute albums (that is, albums by collections of various artists using another artists work as it's source material) have become oh so fashionable. But the very existence of these things begs a number of artistic and aesthetic questions I'm sure. Are "tribute albums" artistically valid and refreshing new looks at an artists work or just a grand display of laziness or a complete lack of respect for an artists work?

For me, I have, at best, VERY strong and VERY mixed feelings about these things. The thing that I just VEHEMENTLY DESPISE about 99.9% of tribute albums is the fact that they don't INTERPRET an artists work so much as mindlessly replicate it note-for-not, sound-for sound, even solo-for-solo where instrumentalists are concerned. A perfect example of this mindless copying is "Working Man" (pictured above), a Rush tribute album. Yes. I've listened to this thing (and I"m not even a Rush fan at all), and dang it, this thing is just outright POINTLESS!!! Each contributor just exactly mimics the original Rush record and adds NOTHING at all to the proceedings, good or bad, just rather indifferent. I've heard tribute albums for folks like The Eagles, Genesis, and GAG, even Britney Spears (not voluntarily mind you). THE SAME DANGED THING HAPPENS EVERY TIME, MINDLESS COPYING, not interpretation, THERE IS A DIFFERENCE PEOPLE!! If you want to hear the Eagles, Rush or (GAG) Brittney, GO BUY ONE OF THEIR RECORDS and don't waste your time and money with intellectually and creatively lazy xerox copiers. Sure, there's short-term money in them thar "copiers", but will they be remembered years hence? In a similar vein, you have these guys like Harry Connick Jr., Michael Buble' and their ilk trying to emulate Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett et al, and just falling flat on their faces with lifeless COPYING. Sorry guys, you just don't get it!!!

On the other hand, there are occasional gems where the spotlighted artist's work is INTERPRETED, that is filtered through another artists particular set of sensibilities, life experiences, perceptions etc. and the end result is something very uniquely different yet captures the spirit and heart of the original artist somehow. A few examples of this would include:

1) Livin', Lovin' Losin': Songs of the Louvin Brothers: Various Artists: A first class re-examination of the country singing duo, The Louvin Brothers and their unique work.

2) Amarcord Nino Rota: Various Artists A very creative and haunting look at film composer Nino Rota's Fellini film music by people as far flung as guitarist Bill Frissell and Blondie's Deborah Harry. Produced by Hal Willner, who this Owl holds in very high regard for his incredibly creative tribute projects. He's also helmed and facilitated unique re-examinations of the music of Disney, Kurt Weill, Charles Mingus and Thelonious Monk for example. One of Willner's trademarks is to have people completely outside the spotlight artist's realm of music altogether take a stab at reinterpretation (say for instance, Elvis Costello doing Charles Mingus), with often amazing results.

I'm sure that there are a good number out there that aspire to and reach the level of artistry that these two previously mentioned albums do, but sadly, they're still in the minority. The rest just seems to be a vast spewage of mindless copying, playing it too safe and cheap exploitation. I believe in some instances, that some things were just NOT meant to be copied or reinterpreted to start with. But hey, that's life, that's Hollywood, that's rock & roll, etc.