The famed actor and musician Johnny Depp has teamed up with the English guitarist Jeff Beck to drop a cover of the English Rock band Killing Joke’s “The Death and Resurrection Show.” The original version of the track was released in 2003 on Killing Joke’s 2003 self-titled album.
Previously, Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck announced that they would be making a full collaborative album together, titled 18, likely to release on July 15. It is likely that this new single will be featured on that upcoming record. Also featuring on the project will be the duo’s past covers, including their cover of Velvet Underground’s “Venus in Furs.”
Speaking on their inspiration for making the new album, Jeff Beck has been quoted by NME as explaining that “When Johnny and I started playing together, it really ignited our youthful spirit and creativity. We would joke about how we felt 18 again, so that just became the album title too.”
Beck and Depp’s rendition of classic track is stylistically quite different than the 2003 original. The electronic elements and various sound effects in the duo’s version make for a quite different atmosphere than the more straightforward rock style of the original. Also notable is the faster tempo on Beck and Depp’s interpretation, which creates a large shift in the energy of the track. Listen to Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp’s cover of “The Death and Resurrection Show” via YouTube below.
The release of the new cover follows not long after the conclusion of the legal battle between Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard. In June, Beck and Depp released “This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr,” one of the few tracks on the upcoming album that were written by Johnny Depp himself.