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John Myung Bongo 4

Originals vs. Covers

oddjob

oddjob

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Joined
May 12, 2004
Messages
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Location
Monroe, Ohio
I don't know why but I am in a rather philosophical mood this morning - it has to be all of the beer from lastnight. Anyway, the majority of this forum does the band thing (some of you are still doing it by yourselfs) and I was just wondering on the views of covers vs. originals.

I've done it all 3 ways. All covers, all originals, and the different mixtures of both. The answer to me seems obvious... the mix. But that doesn't always ring true. Now I am in a cover band and loving life. Maybe it is the lack of presure to come up with the "perfect riff." Maybe it is pushing myself to listen and learn. Maybe it is taking others work and rearranging it... but I am happy just doing the cover thing. Ask me again tomorrow it might be different (after all the Bongo and I are just coming to terms with what to do with eachother).

Thoughts?
 
well,; know I'm in a metal band, and we play one song, paranoid, from black sabbath, it's a bit cliche, but it's a cool song to play, and a welcome addition to our set

But one of the guitarists and I are planning to form a cover band, which I would really enjoy.

anyway playing your own songs is very cool, because you use your talent and inspiration, but sometimes it's hard to come up with a good riff or sometimes you feel like the bass is missing something and you don't know what.
On the other hand, covers are really fun to play, because you're able to play the music you prefer to most, and most of the time, the audience will know the song, and they can start dancing or whatever.
 
I think it depends on what stage of your playing life you are at.

I did the originals band stuff in my late teens and early twenties. 2 -3 gigs a year, very little support, except from family and close friends and the rest of the year writing and rehearsing some not very good songs. Perhaps a four track demo or two. IT was nice to play songs you had helped write and the nervous energy of a live gig made up for very little money from gigs.


For the past 10 years I have been in a covers only band. We are at the stage where we have gigs every weekend coming in from agents, get paid good money and treated well mostly, can therefore afford to buy decent equipment every so often and try to change the set list as often as we can to keep it fresh and once a year, try to update the demo in a good studio.

It is diffucult to get people to pay you for playing your own music other than getting a percentage of the door takings if you manage to pull a large crowd.
 
I prefer to perform(this is important) covers for the following reasons.

1) Your audience is more likely to know these

2) You can play beefed up versions of the songs(add whatever you want)

3) Better pay(The venue is more likely to hire you to perform covers than 'The whatthehecks' which have a questionable repertoire.

4) It is not the best thing to play your original tunes in front of an audience if you haven't copyrighted your material some way.
 
My current band, which I've been with 18 months, plays its own interpretatation of covers. We take a song and work out our own arrangement rather than just copy an original recorded version. We've worked very hard to promote ourselves and it's finally beginning to pay off with some decent gigs. For example we're out twice a week for the next month. We also do a couple of self penned numbers which go down well and have plans for some more. The difficulty is finding time to work up new material. It takes an age.

The one thing that hasn't been mentioned is the age of the covers and the relevance of the numbers to the audience. We play 60s/70s Blues Rock and some numbers mean nothing to the younger element. This can limit where we play although sometimes we are surprised by the audience reaction.

In contrast my previous band was backing a local singer/songwriter where the majority of the songs were his own. His influences were Springsteen, Tom Russell, Steve Earle and many other Texan New Country artists. This music has a somewhat specialised following in the UK and it was hard going at times. Although I no longer play for him, his perseverence paid off and I'm pleased to see he is now getting some good tours and decent gigs.

Current band is at here
 
I have an original group named Substandard, it's the serious trio.

made up of the band substandard, plus a keyboardist, is the cover band: Hong Kong Danger Duo.

we do different covers of songs completely twisted and almost unrecognizable.

a setlist might look like this:

The Mark Has Been Made (NIN), done normal style.

from out of nowwhere (faith no more)

Almost Cut My Hair (CSNY)

Sourtimes (portishead) rockin heavy ("no body loves me!!!")

Juke Joint Jezebel (KMFDM)

ABC (jackson 5) nice and rockin very random

Stouthearted men (shooby taylor) http://www.shooby.com/shooby/mp3/ go listen

Hey Ya (outkast) ("don't want to meet your daddy, just want you to be my caddy")

I Wanna Sex You Up (color me badd)

In France (frank zappa), really long kick ass version, talkin ****e about france.


opinions on our set?

thanks
joel D.
 
Hey Ya

cool set list- Although I don't know a number of the songs.

Hey Ya is a great tune.

Color me badd- a very unappreciated group.

I would love to know what those guys are up to now....

Just for Irony's sake

(the eclectic nature of your set list is ironic unto itself already),

you should throw in a Depeche Mode song either before or after your KMFDM song.

Ying the Yang

Pete
 
i'm in a band and we mainly do origionals..how ever we may start the show off every know and then with a cover because we want people to get comfterbal and they would like to hear a song they know...and we've been closeing our sets for a while with under the bridge / give it away...and we play just about every weekend and we bring a few hundred people a show usualy... the most we've goten was like 400-500 people i belive...

i dont realy like cover bands personaly, i dont see to much room for growth, sure it brings in the money and thats fine for some one who needs to pervide for a family, but late teens, twentys and thirtys, i see cover bands as a wasit of time..it may be fun, but their not your songs and it seems to fake....

but thats my thinking, but if u like it dont let me convice you other wise, its all about having a good time and playing music
 
I think one cover every band needs to do at one point is Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter Group.


sweeet.


joel D.
 
I enjoy covers alot! The thinkin' and writin' has already been done for you. All you have to do is learn it:D

There is a more sense of accomplishment when you play your own stuff though;)
 
it all depends on what you want to do really.

i cannot tolerate bands that do all covers. NJ is full of these rehased **** bands that do crappy covers. they get paid very well, but id rather see a terrible band playing originals, then a cover band that doesnt write music.

i play in a hardcore band. we arent anything special. we cover minor threat and bad brains. not because we need to, but because we love those bands. they arent easy songs(we learned all three in ten minutes) but its roots of hc.

we played with this band on tour. who opened with a blink 182 scover, and not even a good one. its like dude, take some time before playing gigs and write some original material.
 
xshawnxearthx said:
it all depends on what you want to do really.

i cannot tolerate bands that do all covers. NJ is full of these rehased **** bands that do crappy covers. they get paid very well, but id rather see a terrible band playing originals, then a cover band that doesnt write music.

i play in a hardcore band. we arent anything special. we cover minor threat and bad brains. not because we need to, but because we love those bands. they arent easy songs(we learned all three in ten minutes) but its roots of hc.

we played with this band on tour. who opened with a blink 182 scover, and not even a good one. its like dude, take some time before playing gigs and write some original material.
Click to expand...

If you have a problem with Blink 182, then you don't wanna hear what we cover on a Saturday night! :D

One man's meat is another man's poison - it depends who your audience is. If you are booked for a wedding and start playing hardcore originals then it is going to be a short gig.

We have had the thread posted before on Corporate Whoring. You get to that stage in your mid-thirties where a Saturday night will earn you more money that your Mrs spending a week on the checkout of a supermarket.

Covers = Money
Original = musical integrity

Both have an equal and legitimate place on the gig scene.

Liam
The Man With No Signature
 
Why not do a cover that you never hear like, King Crimson's
21st century schizoid man or any Crimson song for that matter...
 
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