Over-Covering?

[DANtheDINOSAUR]

Is it possible to over-cover a song? Example such as "I Fought the Law". It's been covered multitude of time, but written 2 different ways, "...The Law Won" and "...I Won".

I'm just curious on this because after hearing The Clash and The Sex Pistols do the two different styles, I've been working on writing another version.

[Eric Moesle]

I don't know where the tolerance limit is, but I do know that if I hear one more version of "paved paradise and put up a parking lot" I'm going to personally contact them and tell them to get a life.

[Jezz8me]

no and i order you to cover wonderwall for the five billionth time followed by sweet home Alabama. If you feel adventurous smoke on the water

personally i like hearing bands do new and different covers that havn't been done over and over such as the band i saw recently who did an altern rock version of "Cry Me A River" by Justin Timberlake.

I fought the law is not to bad to cover it has not been over done but you should veer away from songs covered a lot or people like me will see you as boring and normal.

I say do versions not covers make your own variations on old songs, cross genres and the like they re much more entertaining but if you insist to cover just do simple changes like instead of I fought the law cover a lesser known clash song or something from one of the punk bands that were not in the forefront

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally Posted by DANtheDINOSAUR

Is it possible to over-cover a song? .

That's not how I would describe it!

Is it possible for a cover band to lack imagination?

Most certainly!!

[Deacon_Blues]

It depends on how you do it. If you really put effort into arranging the song so it's not again just another cheap "copy", I see no problems. Use your band member's imagination and talent to make it your own. Songs that have been covered millions of times are mostly great songs that the audience like. That's the reason they are as played as they are.

One of my favorite songs to cover is at the moment "Knocking on heaven's door", thanks to an arrangement with nice chord voicings and a lot of dynamic changes.... Not anything really thrilling regarding the bass part, but in overall the song sounds really good with this arrangement.

I got an idea: I should start a band playing only great cover versions of the most covered songs in the world. It should be easy enough to make up the setlist...

[sarcastro83]

I aggree on the "how it's done" aspect. There's probably hundreds of thousands of dudes in bar bands covering the Stone's "Satisfaction"... but Devo are the ones who got that cover right.

Just my opinion.

[CrazyArcher]

Umm my band picked a pretty boring song to cover. It's known-here, but for my taste it's boring. Added bass and guitar solos to it, which probably weren't even imagined by the original creators, I altered the general bass line as well. The tempo went up from 110 to 130. Have we over-covered it? Don't think so...

[BillyRay]

A cover is a good one when it gives a new twist to the song by using its strengths. The thing is, not many cover bands have a voice of their own.

[The Golden Boy]

Originally Posted by sarcastro83

I aggree on the "how it's done" aspect. There's probably hundreds of thousands of dudes in bar bands covering the Stone's "Satisfaction"... but Devo are the ones who got that cover right.

Just my opinion.

Not even the Stones play it "right" these days.





(says the dummy in a Rolling Stones "tribute" band)

[Lelander]

I don't think it's possible to over-cover a song; however it takes no skill at all to write a crappy cover of a song.

[DANtheDINOSAUR]

Well if anyone knows the lyrics and knows the different sides between "I Won" and "The Law Won", I was going to set another story but from another different perspective, and once writing is done, probably try it as a slow rock or acoustic song. Trying to give it a gloomy, "down in the dumps" setting to my version.