ChiefDanG Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Somebody (Keith Richards?) once said something like-"it's hard to write songs when Chuck Berry has written them all already". I remember (old fart alert) loving Three Dog Night and being mildly shocked that they didn't write any of their hits. I imagine you jazzers and blues guys could fill pages of artists/bands that cover, interpret, re-harm, improvise over, or just use as an excuse to solo over other people's songs. But pop/rock was largely a singer-songwriter thing. My favorite people that did (mostly) covers: Three Dog Night Linda Ronstadt Blood,Sweat,& Tears Beau Brummels. (Great vox & they were an actual band) Who else? Get me out of the 60s !! Professional musician = great source of poverty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outkaster Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 UB40 does. They do wicked covers in Reggae which is not always an easy thing to do. "Danny, ci manchi a tutti. La E-Street Band non e' la stessa senza di te. Riposa in pace, fratello" noblevibes.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pale Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Joe Cocker! Custom handmade clocks: www.etsy.com/shop/ClockLight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthoid Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Who else? Get me out of the 60s !! Well, as far as the 70's go, The Carpenters come to mind. When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiefDanG Posted July 23, 2013 Author Share Posted July 23, 2013 Who else? Get me out of the 60s !! Well, as far as the 70's go, The Carpenters come to mind. The Carpenters were a guilty pleasure of mine. I loved her voice she did pick out some excellent songs to do. BTW, they were the key to me winning a contest with my drummer brother - naming bands that had a female drummer but all male otherwise. Professional musician = great source of poverty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dongna Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Seems there are a lot of country singers who don't write (all) their own songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allister Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 UB40 does. They do wicked covers in Reggae which is not always an easy thing to do. You got it in before I could Before I joined my current UB40/reggae band I had always thought UB40 had wrote the songs themselves (never really delved much into this genre) I was surprised to find out most are covers. Yamaha MOX8, Roland VK8, LESLIE HL822 Woop woop!!!! and a MBP running PT10 and Omnisphere. My Blog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammondDave Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Three Dog Night. And Vanilla Fudge And Deep Purple (mark I) '55 and '59 B3's; Leslies 147, 122, 21H; MODX 7+; NUMA Piano X 88; Motif XS7; Mellotrons M300 and M400’s; Wurlitzer 206; Gibson G101; Vox Continental; Mojo 61; Launchkey 88 Mk III; Korg Module; B3X; Model D6; Moog Model D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
area51recording Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Elvis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
resigned Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Dread Zeppelin does all cover music (very original covers though...). The Flaming Lips did an entire concert around a cover of Pink Floyd's album "Dark Side Of The Moon". Many artists like Seal, Michael Bolton and Michael McDonald have done entire Motown tribute (cover) albums while other artists like Fourplay have done covers of one famous song (Sting's "Fields of Gold"). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokely Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Not exactly what you are talking about, but here goes ;-) (The only reason I don't enjoy the series more is that I don't know most of the bands. I like the idea of picking a cover and doing something with it..) [video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baExq6xNhQ8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiefDanG Posted July 23, 2013 Author Share Posted July 23, 2013 Three Dog Night. And Vanilla Fudge And Deep Purple (mark I) +1 IIRC, VF's first album came out the same time as Sgt.Pepper, and I was more excited about listening to that than the Fab Four's latest. And DP? Their first 3 albums served as my bible of Rock Organ! "Kentucky Woman" "hush""Hey Joe""Help".......but mostly covers? Professional musician = great source of poverty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonysounds Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Santana (Evil Ways, Black Magic Woman, Oye Como Va, Dealer, Well Alright, among others). Led Zeppelin. Grateful Dead. Van Halen (You Really Got Me; Dancin In The Streets; Pretty Woman; Youre No Good; Where Have All The Good Times Gone) Rolling Stones. Hitting "Play" does NOT constitute live performance. -Me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiefDanG Posted July 23, 2013 Author Share Posted July 23, 2013 Santana (Evil Ways, Black Magic Woman, Oye Como Va, Dealer, Well Alright, among others). Led Zeppelin. Grateful Dead. Van Halen (You Really Got Me; Dancin In The Streets; Pretty Woman; Youre No Good; Where Have All The Good Times Gone) Rolling Stones. Santana, Dead, VH - sure, especially since a lot of their hits were covers. I'm sure fans of these bands would point out they wrote a lot of music also. Stones? Nah - 1 st album maybe, but very much a Jagger/Richards band thereafter. Zep? Even including stolen material and outright covers, they are mostly Page/Plant songs. Professional musician = great source of poverty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekewaka Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 There are very few successful cover bands out there that are doing arenas et rest. Most of the bands either write their songs or have songwriters writing unique songs for them. It's not so hard to write songs, btw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phnymiboy Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Julie Driscoll/Brian Auger and the Trinity played mostly covers. The "Streetnoise" album had a couple originals, but most of it was covers. Great stuff though. What a wonderful combo of her voice and his playing. Was lucky to have seen them perform. Wow ! http://bigfun3.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/BigFunThree Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiefDanG Posted July 23, 2013 Author Share Posted July 23, 2013 Julie Driscoll/Brian Auger and the Trinity played mostly covers. The "Streetnoise" album had a couple originals, but most of it was covers. Great stuff though. What a wonderful combo of her voice and his playing. Was lucky to have seen them perform. Wow ! +1 I had the Brian Auger album with Listen Here, using 3 drummers, and played it to death. There was also a Sly Stone song on there too. That album inspired me to look into other Auger stuff, and now you are inspiring me to more Auger/Trinity into my digital world - thanks. Professional musician = great source of poverty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiefDanG Posted July 23, 2013 Author Share Posted July 23, 2013 There are very few successful cover bands out there that are doing arenas et rest. Most of the bands either write their songs or have songwriters writing unique songs for them. It's not so hard to write songs, btw. Agree! That's why I view someone like the Monkees as a 25-piece self-contained band doing original material. They had Boyce/Hart, Neil Diamond, studio and stage musicians, singers, etc. all a part of the Monkees. Yes, it's not so hard to write songs. But to write GOOD or even GREAT songs? Professional musician = great source of poverty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hurricane hugo Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 The Faces didn't do mostly covers, but they did quite a few of them: [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrOPJXrUWII http://blip.fm/invite/WorkRelease Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthoid Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Well, as far as the 70's go, The Carpenters come to mind. The Carpenters were a guilty pleasure of mine. I loved her voice she did pick out some excellent songs to do. +1 My wife and I watched the Carpenters documentary on PBS several years back. Lots of insight into how they got started, rigors of touring, and of course what eventually happened with Karen. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1a/Close_to_You-_Remembering_the_Carpenters.jpg When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maestro Dirk Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Isaac Hayes is one of my favorite artists whose catalog was comprised of several covers and interpretations. I'll list a few but I know I'm leaving a bunch out. Walk on By By The Time I Get to Phoenix Light My Fire Ain't No Sunshine Something Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bridog6996 Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Van Halen did a few covers early on, but I think they're much more widely known for all their original stuff. You've got hits like Jump, Runnin' with the Devil, Panama, Hot for Teacher, Jamie's Crying, Right Now, etc. All of those were probably much bigger hits than any covers they did, and I'm sure I'm even missing a bunch. They're just a band did some covers, not a "mostly covers" band. Same with the Grateful Dead. Sure, they were known for playing a number of covers at their live shows, some of which became almost signature Dead tunes, like Not Fade Away and Good Lovin', but they also played mostly original stuff, and didn't record any studio versions of covers that I can think of. When I think of the Grateful Dead, I think of the songwriting duo of Garcia and Hunter. And, of course, Weir wrote a lot of Dead tunes too. My YouTube Channel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t9cstudio Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Seems there are a lot of country singers who don't write (all) their own songs. In fact, MOST country artists/stars are not/were not writers. I mean why go thru the trouble when there's a whole city full of them all pushing their tunes on you and your label, and the label pushing tunes on their artists. Willie, Waylon, etal all became "outlaws"in country music partly because they sang their own songs and insisted they record them their way, instead of how their labels wanted to. Kurzweil PC4, NS3-88, Kronos 2-61, QSC K8.2's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kanker. Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Seems there are a lot of country singers who don't write (all) their own songs. In fact, MOST country artists/stars are not/were not writers.Most RnB and soul artists too. Those are genres that are more producer driven, more about the "sound", and more often than not more about the singer, not a band. When you get into music that is about a band, things tend to get more original because it is a group, not just a singer. There aren't a ton of rock singers who were solely known as their name, sans band. A ROMpler is just a polyphonic turntable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Zeger Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Sinatra NY Philharmonic Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hurricane hugo Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 Nouvelle Vague pretty much only does covers/interpretations of other people's songs: [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5j-ipGFcko http://blip.fm/invite/WorkRelease Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammondDave Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 One of my favorites.... [video:youtube] '55 and '59 B3's; Leslies 147, 122, 21H; MODX 7+; NUMA Piano X 88; Motif XS7; Mellotrons M300 and M400’s; Wurlitzer 206; Gibson G101; Vox Continental; Mojo 61; Launchkey 88 Mk III; Korg Module; B3X; Model D6; Moog Model D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bridog6996 Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 Having your songs written by somebody else is little different than playing a cover though. In those cases, the song didn't officially "exist" previously (except probably in demo form). There's a term for this that's escaping me at the moment, but the performer usually is granted the exclusive legal right to create the first "version" of the song. This is to ensure that a songwriter doesn't give a song to one artist, then turn around and sell the same song to another artist. When you "cover" a song, it implies that there's an established version of the song already in existence. My YouTube Channel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammondDave Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S14XaF6bW7A '55 and '59 B3's; Leslies 147, 122, 21H; MODX 7+; NUMA Piano X 88; Motif XS7; Mellotrons M300 and M400’s; Wurlitzer 206; Gibson G101; Vox Continental; Mojo 61; Launchkey 88 Mk III; Korg Module; B3X; Model D6; Moog Model D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammondDave Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 and maybe my favorite TDN cover...and a KILLER performance of it... Just met Chuck Negron last week... very nice guy.. [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBo8bVzsYCA '55 and '59 B3's; Leslies 147, 122, 21H; MODX 7+; NUMA Piano X 88; Motif XS7; Mellotrons M300 and M400’s; Wurlitzer 206; Gibson G101; Vox Continental; Mojo 61; Launchkey 88 Mk III; Korg Module; B3X; Model D6; Moog Model D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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