But at least you try, and you try, and you try-try-try-try-try-try.

Controversial Opinion Alert: I like the DEVO cover of this song better than the Rolling Stones original. And the Rolling Stones original is considered by many people I respect to be the best rock-and-roll song ever made.

I'm curious, which one did you hear first?

Stones version. When I was growing up, the radio in my dad's Oldsmobile was tuned permanently to the oldies station, and they played plenty of Stones.

Now, in the interests of full disclosure, I was then and have always been on the Beatles side of the perpetual Beatles/Stones debate. But I do also like the Stones.

When I was in high school, I was very heavy into new wave, and I kind of backed into DEVO via the fact that they influenced a lot of more conventionally poppy acts that I liked. And as I worked my way backwards through their catalog, and got into their earliest, punk-est records, I was really struck by how raw and - for lack of a better word - transgressive their early sound was. Very jagged, very stripped-down, closer to early Talking Heads or The Ramones than some of their later new wave contemporaries.

And that's one of the things which appeals to me about the DEVO version of "Satisfaction" - with the iconic guitar riff stripped away, you're just left with the lyrics. And the frantic, guileless way that Mark Mothersbaugh goes at them kind of forces you to come to terms with how potentially troubling they are in a way that the guitar riff allows you to glide right over. It's a disturbing song when you get right down to it.

Plus, they killed that song on SNL. One of the most iconic SNL musical performances, in my humble opinion.

Obligatory Old-Man-OL disclaimer: I am not as old as this post makes it sound like I am, with it's use of words like "radio" and "Oldsmobile" and "new wave." I'm just perpetually behind the times.

Fair enough. I'm usually of the belief that most people tend to prefer whichever version of a song they heard first. For example, I've always preferred The Tremeloes' version of "Here Comes My Baby," to the original Cat Stevens' version, and I heard it long before.

I do think that's true. For my own example, I still like the Tears For Fears carbon-copy-cover of "Ashes to Ashes" better than the Bowie original, even though my rational brain knows for a fact that the Bowie version is "better." But I listened to the TFF version a ton, and it had a chance to get anchored in my brain.

I'll have to find another place to stow my thousand-word brain dump on covers that I like better than originals (which is probably full of Controversial Opinion Alerts), though, because I feel like I ought to hand this thread back over to its original topic, which is an awesome flowchart. And I'm a man who loves me some flowcharts.

I don't think that's necessarily true.
The version of "Mad World" I heard first was the one produced by Gary Jules for Donny Darko, but I prefer the original by Tears for Fears by leaps and bounds.

Edit: I hadn't actually read OL's response yet, so the fact that we both went to Tears for Fears is... interesting.

I like the Gary Jules cover, although I also prefer the original.

What I really prefer, though, is hearing the original along with "Pale Shelter" as the two-song suite they represent on The Hurting.

As for the second point, I don't know about you, but, for me at least, TFF was one of those bands that, when I was a teenager - to crib from Futurama - made me feel like I was old enough to feel ways about stuff.

As I've gotten older and - hopefully! - mellowed-out a little bit, I no longer feel quite as much like "Shout" speaks directly to my adolescent sense of constant injustice, but I still really like pretty much all of their albums just from a musical standpoint. The Hurting can be a tough listen, and Raoul and the Kings of Spain treads serious water in the middle. But, mostly, that's some good stuff.

Amazingly, Mad World must be a major exception to this vague rule of thumb of mine. I also heard the Donnie Darko version first, and I also massively prefer the Tears for Fears version.

I'm to a degree of the opposite opinion since I feel like Gary Jules cover feels REALLY angsty and teenager-y. When I first heard it, it was all profound and made me feel stuff about things, but as I've gotten older, I realize how shallow and fake it is.

Of course, I should say that one of the reasons I clamp so strongly onto the Tears for Fears is because of a duality of how upbeat it is in contrast to the lyrics and.... well, because of this video. As contrasting to this one. Though I will say I feel kind of bad for putting down that second one since it is one of those ANCIENT bloody AMV's that has somehow managed to survive who knows what.

I think the thing here is that it's a song about being a kid and feeling like the grown-ups all around you just keep screwing up your life. Which makes a kind of emotional sense when you hear a couple of twenty-somethings singing it and sounding like they're trying to sell records to get money to pay for their therapy. (Which, amazingly, they were.)

When you hear a middle-aged guy singing it while he's playing his acoustic, it just seems, well, kind of odd. Like he's trying too hard.

First, I realize a mistake in the map that I hadn't realized until it was pointed out in another thread: without proper dossiers in the Archive, Jackie DeCoeur and the Dual-Walkers should be in diamonds rather than ovals. I'll change that when I next update the map.

Second, for me it very much depends on the circumstances in which I hear the song. For instance, several songs I have grown to like more because of AMVs I heard them in, though most of those are the first time I've heard them, as well. I have come across a lot of covers and remixes that I enjoy more than the originals, though, or at the very least a non-insignificant amount, so I like seeking them out. A significant experience for me, though, was finding the original Caramelldansen after first hearing the speedycake remix.

My theory - originals are preferred more often than not, because they wouldn't have been remade if the originals weren't good. The remakes however, aren't blessed by being based on good base material, but have only typical odds of being great.

New version! Not really updated! Recreated in Dia!

I really like the swervy lines, for some reason.

While not all of them are made swervy, I think having curved lines rather than straight, zig-zag, or square-branching lines are more visually pleasing, so I used all curved lines and adjusted them to what I felt was right for the distance and angles.

Oh, I should probably mention that I disconnected Centaur Wine and Noggle Ale since it has had so many mentions in other Jakkard stories that it's becoming unfeasible to connect it to all the other stories.

This seems wise. I shudder to think what will happen when and if War of the Wheel gets voted in...

Maybe there's some other way to represent a universal connection? Like maybe a huge shaded region that encompasses all the linked stories? Or a special swervy line of some type connecting it to the common hub?

So how is Dia? is it a good program to work with?

I now feel compelled to find some way to link the Ariva cluster with the Fisco cluster. It's interesting that this allows us to visualize the weaker links: the Ariva cluster is mostly linked by namedrops, for example.

Dia is pretty smooth, honestly. Of course, by virtue of being on pc it takes longer to set up -- shapes don't size down automatically and lines need individual rotation and connection -- but it's very nice.

Yeah, though; Dominian Nightmares name-drops Raleris, and The Dead City references another planeswalker whom called himself "a tourist", so that's the connection there.

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I'm not sure how I would make all the small cameos linked without overly-complicating the chart... What if I made all name-drops in dotted lines? I could properly show the weaker links in the Archives, like the aforementioned ones in the Ariva cluster.

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Next update to the map should see the Illarion Vale stories linked in order correctly (Homecoming->Corrosion->Ordinary Day) and maybe making sub-bubbles for the more sectioned planes like Sertaria and Adrisar. Sound good?

I was thinking the same thing, actually. in part because I had recently figured out by thinking about exactly what Larasa and Morgan would be great for... they make a lovely pair of adventurer archaeologist types, in part because we have one history buff and one hothead with nothing against it. Jakkard and Ikass are both ripe for that kind of story (more Ancient Secrets on Ikass, more treasure hunt in Jakkard). If I can write two distinct stories on that (or I suppose one to introduce "present" Larasa and Morgan, includng a cross-cluster name drop), which I might end up doing, That would end up bridging the Arvia cluster with the Fisco cluster.

It seems so easy, but I make no promises, since I'd need to get the characters just right. I mean, Illarion could also visit any Fisco-side plane, since traveling far and wide is kinda his thing, but I'd still need to come up with a plot.

I think there's just a compulsion to see the map fill in somehow.