Bad Blood (Ryan Adams — cover of Taylor Swift)

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Taylor Swift is a guilty pleasure of mine (I think she’s a suberb songwriter and knows how to craft incredibly catchy songs) but I didn’t care too much for her version of “Bad Blood” from her hit “1989” album.

Sometimes covers are better than the originals.   Indie singer-songwriter Ryan Adams (not to be confused with BRYAN Adams) did this gorgeous cover of Swift’s song, which gets played a lot on our local indie station.   I like his low-keyed pop-rock arrangement of it, which sounds quite different from Swift’s upbeat dance-pop original.

Swift’s original:

Which version does everyone prefer? Let me know in the comments.

7 thoughts on “Bad Blood (Ryan Adams — cover of Taylor Swift)”

  1. Lucky thanks for posting both of these. I didn’t know either version of the song but I probably prefer Ryan Adams version of it. Taylor Swift has an amazing voice but I’m just not that into that rap pop sound. You help to keep me current. I don’t really listen to radio much, just my downloads.

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    • One thing I never really grew out of was music. Although I was at my music listening peak years in the late 70s and most of the 1980s due to my age, I’ve always kept pretty current and don’t even really have a favorite decade! I listen to stuff from the 60s-current. And I listen to several genres, mostly rock/pop and country. But having kids in their 20s does help, because they introduce me to new stuff i never would have heard. This song I found on my own though. I think he did some other covers of Taylor Swift too, so he must be a huge fan of hers. I do prefer her earlier country sound than her pop sound though. It seemed to suit her better.

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    • I just read this on Wikipedia about Ryan Adams:

      Ryan Adams was born on November 5, 1974, in Jacksonville, North Carolina. He has an older brother and younger sister.[5] His childhood has been described as “dysfunctional.” His father left when he was five and at that time he, his mother and his brother and sister had to move in with his grandparents as they became homeless as a result of the divorce. A year later his grandmother threw them out of the house because she did not want to deal with the children any longer. After that time Ryan never lived with his grandparents again (regardless of his comments to the contrary) but was a frequent visitor in their home. Ryan was raised by his mother as a single parent until he was 13 at which time she remarried.[6]

      “I became who I am now because of my grandparents.”[7] He has said his grandmother “raised me like my mom, she was like a mother to me.”
      (even though his grandmother threw him out of the house) 😦

      I can relate to his childhood.

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      • Can you? I’ve seen that in N families where the grandmother assumes the mothers role and then the real mother will accuse the grandmother of stealing her child sometimes.

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        • It sounds like his parents — and his grandmother — might have been Ns or Borderlines or both. I wonder if he was a scapegoat too. I read somewhere it’s usually the middle child who is.
          It also sounds like he’s kind of in denial about his grandmother.

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