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what's the problem with a cover band?


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There are no rules. I dug the Floyd cover band thing, because I truly enjoy the music. BUT - it's marking time, what I *really* like doing is *making* music, not just playing it. But there are no rules. It's different for everybody. I couldn't be happy being in just a cover band, that's just a "fun" job to me. For people less creative it's a great thing I'm sure, but a waste of time otherwise.

Guitar Lessons in Augusta Georgia: www.chipmcdonald.com

Eccentric blog: https://chipmcdonaldblog.blogspot.com/

 

/ "big ass windbag" - Bruce Swedien

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"Playing covers is selling out, plain and simple." I guess it depends on what the band is aiming for..some bands do it for the excuse of a regular party, and some do it for financial reasons. I love playing covers. I love hearing the audience (most often people at a party or an open mic) sing with me on the classics - it's an instant bonding at some level. :cool: With me, it's the party aspect. I've spent the past 14 years dealing with the music business at various levels, and I feel it rips the heart out of a music lover - it nearly has in my case. Besides, like many musicians above the age of 25, I bust my ass 60 hours a week working another career, making sure there's food on the table, so I'd like music to be more of an enjoyment to me rather than another form of income and financial responsibility. The great thing about approaching covers with a non-business attitude is you get back to the roots - the very reason you became a musician in the first place. :thu:
meh
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There's nothing wrong with playing covers and making money doing it. I get paid to keep the bars full and the alcohol selling. There's nothing wrong with this. It's not selling out. It's getting paid to perform. I guess I've been doing covers for such a long time, I don't really think too much about it. I mean, all those piano and trumpet lessons. What did I play?? Covers! Chopin, Bach, etc.... Rick
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I think the whole line between "original" and "cover" bands is kind of stupid. My band plays music we like, period. Some of it's ours and some of it other people's. Like Tedster said, all of our favorite bands, Beatles, Stones etc. started out by playing covers of stuff they loved and then their own voice evolved from there. I hated it when I was in bands who proclaimed themselves to be "original" and wouldn't play anything but their own stuff, because I love to play the songs by other people that inspire me. We like being a band that can play all night if we want, or play a 45 minute set of mostly originals. We like being able to take most any gig. It keeps us on our toes and lends some variety to our schedule. On the other hand, we DON'T play "Stairway" or "Gimme Three Steps" or any Top 40 stuff either. We don't enjoy playing that stuff so we just don't play it, or do any gigs where we would be expected to play that. Like Chip said, no rules. The rules are whatever YOU want to do and feel comfortable doing. I'd rather hear a great musician play great songs in a cover band than the same great musician playing shitty songs in a shitty original band! :D
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[quote]Originally posted by Chip McDonald: [b]There are no rules. [/b][/quote]Absolutely right. My band is basically Blues but we do a lot of old Soul stuff, Funk stuff, Motown stuff and even a couple of blatant whore tunes while we sneak in 2 or 3 originals per set. The key from my perspective is that we make all of the tunes our own. For instance, we do "Soul Man" from Sam & Dave. When we were set up as a guitar/bass/drums/harmonica group, I changed Steve Cropper's two note progression into a lower three-note chorded version to fatten up the sound. Since the tune always packs the dance floor, we've extended it into a pretty long jam. To change it up, I began replacing the normal lick with a 9th to major chord prog that emulates a horn part and we added some very cool stops. The tune has ended up sounding great, is a lot of fun to play, is very popular and sounds like no one else. We did much the same thing with that venerable war horse, "Mustang Sally". We kept the original concept of the tune so it would be recognizable (at least after the first few bars of my solo funk guitar intro :) ) but we changed it enough to keep it interesting and fun for us. Our keyboard player does an awesome job of playing the horn parts (on a B3, no synths in this band) and I added a wah guitar solo that starts out with the vocal melody and soars from there. Anyway, Chip's right; there are no rules. Play what you feel and feel what you play.
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[quote]Originally posted by d gauss: [b] imagine if EVERY time you went to a bar, the same 40 girls were there. you'd already know who was cute and who would dis you, etc. i think that would get tired awfully quick. :) -d. gauss http://www.betteroffdead.com [/b][/quote]I played in that bar for two years. Only, I don't think there were 40 girls there most nights. I see where you're coming from, d... To that, let me add...if you're going to play covers, do something weird and original with 'em. One band I know of got so sick of requests for "Sweet Home Alabama" that they played it...over the chord riff from "Back In Black". Laughed my ass off, but it wasn't that bad. Went to Yallapalooza last summer. It was a great show. Willie Nelson was supposed to headline, but he got sick, so the next guy in line, Clay Walker, was doing his bit, and realized that he had to fill Willie's time too. Time for a bit AWSHIT. He did the natural thing for any musician to do...led his band and the audience through about a 40 minute set of barroom covers, stuff that no band needs to rehearse to pull off. Every one of you know the songs I'm talking about. Hell, I hated the songs, but I thought it was great. Here, at Sandstone Amphitheatre, with 15,000 or more people, was the world's largest barroom. Everyone had a good time. What the hell...
"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
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Yo. I've always played in all-original bands. I was never particularly interested in playing covers. I respect cover bands, though. Where I play a hearty 45 minute/hour-long set, these folks play four or five hour-long sets. Where I get to play 12 tunes or so, they play 60. And they generally get paid well for it. On a good night, my band will make $200-$400. These bands make more like $2000-$3000. It makes sense. The numbers are fairly proportional. Now, granted... We get to play all our own stuff, which we wrote throughout the years of living this type of life. Many cover acts are stuck playing music that means nothing to them beyond the fact that people want to hear it. While it's cool to have the crowd singing along when you're playing "Mony Mony" or "Sweet Home Alabama," I can assure you I get a VERY special feeling when 150 kids scream the lyrics I wrote in my basement back at me while I am onstage. The trade-off is a bitch, though. I'd love to make the big bucks at gigs -- it'd make my musical life a lot easier. Van payments would be a breeze if we made $2000 per show, as would merchandising, promotions, gear purchases and CD dups. However, I just can't see myself being happy playing "Sweet Caroline" (or its equivalent) every night. It's not for me. Playing in a cover band is somewhat easier -- the material is already there. You just have to learn it (which is no small feat in itself). You're also selling a known product -- when you get up and play, the audience is bound to know most of the material in your set. Club owners also know that booking a cover band is less of a risk than booking an original act. Playing originals is an uphill battle, and it takes a lot of work to stay afloat. It's hard to book shows sometimes because the clubs aren't sure whether their regulars will like you -- you might scare away the drinkers. Also, you're selling a product with virtually no support -- people don't know your material, so you have to sell them purely through your performance. However, there's a downside -- there's no real filter for quality, so you can basically play one note for 20 minutes and call it a song if you want, because it's an original composition. Hmm... no wonder we don't make the big bucks. I like the challenge. At the end of the day, I can look at the work we do and honestly say that everything we've accomplished is totally ours -- everything from the songs to the bookings. Either way... IMO, there's nothing wrong with being in either camp or any permutation thereof as long as you're doing what you wanna do.

\m/

Erik

"To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."

--Sun Tzu

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Will someone explain the difference in performing "Mony, Mony" for the 50th time and playing an original you wrote, rehearsed 150 times and performed live 50 times? Besides audience participation. Speaking of audience participation, I saw the Aquarium Rescue Unit in South Carolina about ten years ago. They were doing all originals, the crowd (about 400 folks) were very involved, seem to know all the lyrics, accompanied the bass solo with chants (Oteil is such a MF), and danced non-stop for a couple of hours - as did I (and I rarely dance).
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TNB... I can't tell you the difference playing "Mony Mony" a zillion times and playing one of my songs for the zillionth time -- I never played covers, so I don't know. I just said I got a special feeling from playing my own stuff and having kids sing along... it's great! I'm sure having people sing along with covers is fun, too. However, I know I feel a personal connection when people sing the words I wrote back to me... because I wrote them. I never said there was anything wrong with playing covers, and I'm pretty sure I mentioned that I respect cover bands and the work they do.

\m/

Erik

"To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."

--Sun Tzu

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Erik, I wasn't singling you out, it was just a general question and "Mony Mony" is that kind of song that drunks in bars love to hear. I have never written a song, but I have written (would invent be a better word?) grooves that people dance to when they hear them. I guess I feel like they are supposed to dance.
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Erik's got a good point. I think we all thrive off of the energy of audience participation and appreciation but it does definitely feel somehow better (warmer? fuzzier?) when the tune is something that YOU came up with out of your own heart & soul. It's hard to explain the difference but I do understand it. I think it's because now you know that they appreciate what YOU do; they're not just applauding Lennon & McCartney, Plant & Page, or Jagger & Richards or whomever. Of course nobody sings along to my stuff but that's probably because sometimes I can't even sing along to it. :D
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Ever since the Beatles it's been cool to have a band that writes their own material. That's a very cool thing except for one problem. 99% of bands don't have an actual writer in the group. That's why we end up with riffs that they call songs or endless knockoffs of what is currently popular. I thinks it's way more uncool to play contrived or bad songs thinking you're really cool than it is to do covers.
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Hey Folks, I think we've been had... Sadworld posted this exact same question inside EVERY MPN forum with the exception of the Archives and the Spanish Forum; he has not responded to any of the feedback. Me thinks dat sum-1 is havin fun watchin us try to find intelligible answers. Either that, or he's still trying to find OTHER forums to post his question on; maybe he's lost.

You can take the man away from his music, but you can't take the music out of the man.

 

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[quote]Originally posted by tnb: [b]DJDM first alerted us to that early in this thread. Just glad it's not another non-music thread.[/b][/quote]Exactly. I told Mr. Sad in another forum that if he was seriously getting some feedback (and not just spamming his cover band), then he'd have responded to some of the nicely formulated posts following his. But I don't care. It was a good subject. :thu: - Jeff
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the topic has transcended its boundaries-cool. Here`s another angle on it. The cover bands I`ve been in have been, almost without exception, able to work as a team, really low on ego issues, people who would get together for a drink or something even without the band comittment. OTOH, I was also in a five-piece group where everyone, except the drummer, contributed original material. The audiences loved it, it was a variety unique to us, but between the group members it was like an argument clinic. "I thought we were supposed to do my song first this week." "We did your song first last week." "No we didn`t" "Yes we did." "No we didn`t." "Yes we did. I have the set list here." "That`s not the set list from last week." "Yes it is." "No it isn`t." "Is too." "Is not." you get the idea...
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Well, in my cover band, we play songs we want to play and not just what the audience wants to hear. Then again, maybe that's why we don't gig often and definitely don't make close to making $2K a gig. :p We do play three 1-hour sets, though. Fortunately, our audience likes what we play most of the time anyway.

aka riffing

 

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Jumping back to the requests thing: A band I used to see in Michigan that was really good, The Youngsters, (have since broken up) had four guys in the band and all sang. They'd sometimes do 4 requests at once, all playing and singing one song per person at the same time, different tempos, etc, including ending at different times. It has hilarious.
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I guess were lucky in New Hampshire, We play every weekend and do classic covers and eight originals. The people and club owners seem to like it,we turn down two or three gigs for every one we take and take stage and play what we feel. Going on five and a half years and nobody has ever complained. Paul.
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i didn't know what spam even was before this thread but i think i've got it figured out. my apologies for what many think i wrote this thread solely for. ya, i thought it'd be cool if a bunch of musicians from this thread checked out our site. that was not the main purpose. the thread was real, i was curious. anyways, sorry this won't happen again. i didn't realize people would get so pissed.
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i just found out what spam was. my apologies to all who thought that was my soul purpose of this thread. it was not, the thread was real i was curious. ya, i thought it'd be cool to have musicians from this board check it out, but that was not my main intention. again sorry, this will not happen again. i didn't realize how many people it would piss off.
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I`m going to add my 2 cents in here as i`ve been playing in a cover band[with the same members] up here in Vancouver for 13-14 years.For the most part we play no "schlock" ,meaning the old tired songs that every cover band plays,and as well we don`t do "requests" per say-unless its in the set we plan to do anyways-or something we feel like dragging up for our own amusement.Does this sound absurdly elitist or like we`re decieving ourselves-"just sell the beer and make everyone happy".... Its been our experience that a carefully chosen setlist with an actual direction and attitude not only makes playing covers more gratifying but also endears us to people even more.Believe it or not people do respond to you playing songs with some honest conviction and passion-as well as a direction.Following "some kind of wonderful" with "enter sandman" etc. just dilutes what you are doing and panders to the lowest common denominator. You can say what you will but this has been a highly successfull,time tested method for us and we are currently[and have been for years] one of the highest paid cover bands up here.Its like a breath of fresh air for people when we come to town and they actually get to see a show-as well as dance and drink-to what "they" interpret as being more of a "real" band,not just a bunch of guys ringing off one overplayed tune after another.Make no mistake-i don`t have any illusions about what were really doing and have my own recording act as well-but this keeps us sane when were trying to make a buck with our skills down in the trenches! Arch
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I don't see the need for all of these distinctions. I do covers. I take requests. I even make songs up for people right on the spot. It's a market reality. If you want/need to work 5 nights a week, you have to do covers. The good news is that you get exposed to new people every day, and guess what? They will buy your original CD's! I view being an artist as a balance between being an artist, and a service oriented performer. It's always been that way in the history of music. I have had former employers of mine, (who had hit records when I backed them up) come and see me in a club, and they will say: "Man you are so humble to be able to do this". Or they will say: "I don't know why you didn't make it big". Or my all time favorite, right out of Piano Man: "Man what are you doing here?" I smile and chuckle inside. The former employers are no longer in the biz. The wannabe "all original" bands that I know, are scratching their heads about how to get recorded, while I have a Pro Tools rig in my house. The people who feel sorry for my not making it big, buy my CD's and come out to my acoustic original gigs, and they bring their friends. It's what you make it out to be. I am thankful, and humbled by the opportunity to get paid to do what I love, and at what I am good at, even in relative obscurity. I will do any gig anywhere, if the cash is right. I work on my music at home. I play an original tune when someone asks. I do original gigs and build my fan base one heart at a time. An every day I thank God for showing me how to swallow my pride and play music for the people who pay me, and put my kids through college. It is a true blessing to be an artist, and it is a true gift to be able to touch people just about every day of your life. Even if it's with...... [b]{{{{{{ "FREEBIRD" }}}}}}[/b] :)

Jotown:)

 

"It's all good: Except when it's Great"

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I play in a cover band too (keys). Odd thing though, the band doesn't do requests at present (and I really don't know why this is...I should ask. I just show up where I'm told to at this point...) But it pays pretty well and I'm at least out playing. I just moved up to the Madison area a few months ago, so it was kinda neat to be able to hook up with a working band as quickly as I did. We've also been playing off the same set list for the past 3 weeks...it could stand changing up... We're getting closer to getting the in-ear monitors dialed in...mine went completely out for quite a bit at the last gig and I couldn't hear anything except for the bit of spill from the mains. I was getting quite frustrated... :( Also, what is the deal with bar owners cranking CD's EXTREMELY LOUD during tear-down? It's bad enough that the music on breaks is as loud as it is... :mad: makes it hard to talk to my better half (who hasn't missed a gig yet... :) ) Actually, I think music is often entirely too loud in bars, live or canned...but that's another thread... TP, who can't wait 'til he can get his B-3 to a gig... :cool:

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Todd A. Phipps

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