Great cover songs in blues, classic, and southern rock?

[bassguppy]

I'm in an occasionally gigging cover band who happens to be gifted with great players who can handle most situations. we talked recently about revamping our setlists to get down 40 great cover songs in the blues, classic rock, southern rock, and other covers in a similar vein. Band consists of keys, guitar, drums, bass.

We are not looking to have the most popular covers (Mustang Sally, Satisfaction, etc) but really good covers that...

1. will be fun to play.

2. not many cover bands do.

3. people (hopefully) love to hear.


I'm not concerned about level of difficulty.

[John Webb]

I convinced my bandmates to cover Tab Benoits "Lost in Your Lovin'"
It's fun to play and the girls dance to it.
I wish we could cover more of his tunes but we don't have the vocal or guitar chops.
If you are into blues, Tab is a must listen.

[bassguppy]

I will have to give this a listen. thanks!

Originally Posted by John Webb

I convinced my bandmates to cover Tab Benoits "Lost in Your Lovin'"
It's fun to play and the girls dance to it.
I wish we could cover more of his tunes but we don't have the vocal or guitar chops.
If you are into blues, Tab is a must listen.

[Godbody]

Originally Posted by bassguppy

I'm in an occasionally gigging cover band who happens to be gifted with great players who can handle most situations. we talked recently about revamping our setlists to get down 40 great cover songs in the blues, classic rock, southern rock, and other covers in a similar vein. Band consists of keys, guitar, drums, bass.

We are not looking to have the most popular covers (Mustang Sally, Satisfaction, etc) but really good covers that...

1. will be fun to play.

2. not many cover bands do.

3. people (hopefully) love to hear.


I'm not concerned about level of difficulty.

Erm, I'm certainly not the most experienced cover band player on the forum, but I feel I should point out that the three qualities you listed tend to conflict, unfortunately.

If its fun to play, often its not fun to listen to, especially if the audience is drinking. People also want to hear music their familiar with. Just an example: if I go to see Alice Cooper in concert, I wanna hear "School's Out" and "Poison", not whatever the single is off his latest album, even if its an ok song.

What I enjoy playing in a covers set is slightly more obscure songs (think B-list material) by famous bands. Instead of doing "Satisfaction" how about "19th Nervous Breakdown" or "Get Off My Cloud." People will still recognize those songs and go, 'oh yeah, I forgot these songs existed! They're really good!'

And I've been rolling this around in my head.... People should really be doing more Slade covers. Anybody that's listened to classic rock radio for any amount of time should recognize around 5 of their songs instantly, but basically have forgotten that Slade ever existed (except in the UK, of course, where I believe they still hold the record for the second highest number of number one singles, right behind the Beatles). They'd be a great source of material, and its fun to play.

Its been a boring day at work... hope this helps.

[etoncrow]

You won't find these songs on everybody's list but people will listen, tap their feet and dance.

"Lie to Me" - Jonny Lang
"Good Morning Little School Girl" - Sonny Boy Williams (Jonny Lang's version)
"True Lies" - Kenny Wayne Sheperd
"Slow Ride" - Kenny Wayne Shepard
"Bounty Hunter" - Molly Hatchet
"The Creeper" - Molly Hatchet
"Let It Roll" - Little feat
"Texas Strut" - Gary Moore

[Jayhawk]

I've always thought covering some James McMurtry would be fun. He has a unique sound that has crossed over into rock, southern rock and country at various times.

[bassguppy]

Not necessarily. We already do some fun covers (Jessica, Don't Want You No More by Allman Bros, Shapes of Things - Gary Moore version) and get a great response from the drunkards. Yes, people do want to hear what is familiar and we are not necessarily giving up those songs as we will take requests but we would like to ween out the overdone covers.

Originally Posted by Godbody

If its fun to play, often its not fun to listen to, especially if the audience is drinking. People also want to hear music their familiar with.

Its been a boring day at work... hope this helps.

[scottbass]

Originally Posted by Godbody

...I feel I should point out that the three qualities you listed tend to conflict, unfortunately.

+1. Especially points 2 and 3. If people love to hear it, then many cover bands already play it. I happen to think it is very fun to play songs that the paying audience wants to hear, even if it is old standards like Mustang Sally.

[etoncrow]

Originally Posted by scottbass

+1. Especially points 2 and 3. If people love to hear it, then many cover bands already play it.

There lies the challenge! If it was easy anybody could do it. Seriously, there are songs which were overlooked or lacked exposure (redundant) which still contain the flavor of either the times, the spirit and also the artist who wrote and performed them. I was in a band fifteen years ago and we traditionally ended the show with "Let It Roll" and then sequed into "Texas Strut" They killed together and neither are well known.

[Illbay]

Originally Posted by bassguppy

...really good covers that...

1. will be fun to play.

2. not many cover bands do.

3. people (hopefully) love to hear.

Just about anything on the first Ozark Mountain Daredevils album. It helps if someone (preferably the vocalist) can play blues harp, but if you're not a "note-for-note" obsessive, you can arrange it anyway you want. "Chicken Train" with a Jews Harp is hilarious.

We used to do "Road to Glory." Just love it.

[Richland123]

My band plays lots of cover tunes that are not played often and people get into them such as:

Secret Agent Man - Johnny Rivers
Cinnamon Girl - Neil Young
The Futur'es So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades - Timbuk 3
For Your Love - The Yardbirds
Lucky Man - Emerson, Lake, & Palmer
Toast & Marmalade For Tea - Tin Tin
Behind The Wall Of Sleep - The Smithereens
Time Is Tight - Booker T. & The M.G.'s
Please, Please Me - The Beatles
Abracadabra - The Steve Miller band
Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes- Edison Lighthouse
Whip It - Devo
Another Brick In The Wall - Pink Floyd
Don’t Fear The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
Bumble Bee Rock - The Ventures
Surf Rider - The Ventures
Devil Inside - INXS
Love Can Make You Happy - Mercy
Big Ten Inch Record - Bull Moose Jackson / Aerosmith
Home - Michael Buble
Battleship Chains - Georgia Satellites
Harvest Moon - Neil Young
Miserlou - Dick Dale & The Deltones
Mr. Spaceman - The Byrds
Blues Theme - Davie Allan & The Arrows
Rumble - Link Wray & His Raymen
Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil

[bassguppy]

^^
some great songs on your list.

[Stumbo]

Jimmy Reed, Lou Ann Barton, Fabulous T-birds, John Mayall, Junior Wells, Johnny Winter, Elmore James, Cream, Allman Bros., everyone with the last name King, Storyville (Double Trouble), SRV, ZZ Top.

I'm sure they all have cool tunes that haven't been played to death.

Here's a couple of links that might be worth checking out:
Recommend some old school blues. Influential musicians (mostly) pre-1959
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues History and styles

I'm a Man - Traffic, Chicago, etc.

[Sartori]

Lord of this World by Black Sabbath. Rocking, sludgy catchy riffs, and there's cowbell.

[scootron]

We get a good response when we cover:

Please Don't Keep Me Wondering - ABB (lots of slide)
Every Time I Roll the Dice - Delbert McClinton
Standing on Shaky Ground - Delbert
Ridin' with the King - John Hiatt (also Clapton/King)

On the non-bluesy side, we play some stuff that you don't hear covered much that people seem to like...Badge, It's Too Late (from "Layla"), How Long (Ace).

People always comment on our setlists as being "fresh" and stuff they don't hear, which is what we are looking for.

[etoncrow]

Originally Posted by scootron

Standing on Shaky Ground - Delbert
Ridin' with the King - John Hiatt (also Clapton/King)

+1

[gweimer]

A few songs I've done in bands before that were a little off the beaten track:

"Full Moon On Main Street" - Kinsey Report
"Shape I'm In" - ARC Angels
"Tennessee Plates" - John Hiatt
"Hey, Jealousy" - Gin Blossoms
"Dead Presidents" - J. Geils
"Southbound" - Allman Brothers
"No Other Baby" - Paul McCartney

[scottbass]

Originally Posted by gweimer

..."No Other Baby" - Paul McCartney

Actually, Paul was covering this one. The original was recorded in 1958 by the Vipers. (We've covered it, too.)

[gweimer]

Originally Posted by scottbass

Actually, Paul was covering this one. The original was recorded in 1958 by the Vipers. (We've covered it, too.)

I know, but most people won't know it from the original. I know I didn't. It's an old skiffle song that Paul did on Run Devil Run. We also covered his version of "All Shook Up".

[txbasschik]

I love playing "Them Changes" (B. Miles/ J. Hendrix). Great tune!!! People groove to it, hard.

Cherie