This is a Japanese idiom.
人のふんどしで相撲を取る (ひとの ふんどしで すもうを とるHitono hundoshi de sumo wo toru)
Literal translation: doing sumo with
someone's cloths (loincloths)
The idiom has a negative meaning ; to profit
from someone else's achievement and without your own effort.
Cover songs are said to be "人のふんどしで相撲をとる" from time to time.
As you know, there are tons of shallow
cover songs.
However, great cover song provides surprises
or an alternative aspect to the song. Moreover, it changes the meaning of the
song itself.
I was amazed listening to the song "Hurt" by
Johnny Cash. When Trent Reznor sang the song, it suggested self-injury and drug
addiction. I like that this song of distress that closes the album. But in the
cover song, the meaning of the distress was altered from young desperation into
the successful elder's deep regret. He expressed in song the moment just before
the sunset by covering a song that is originally written by someone more than
30 years younger than him.
Thank you, Charlicioso,
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