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Dude, you just can't cover...

#81
SunnBass said:
I've always felt that two bands that shouldn't be covered are The Smiths and The Cure. I don't care what anyone says, you'll NEVER get the vocals right.
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I've been in bands that have covered both (Bigmouth Strikes Again, Ask, and Jumping Someone Else's Train) and well I might add.

Plus, Robert Smith has openly stated that he prefers Dinosaur Jr's version of Just Like Heaven to his own.

...we also did What She Said.
 
#82
SunnBass said:
I've always felt that two bands that shouldn't be covered are The Smiths and The Cure. I don't care what anyone says, you'll NEVER get the vocals right.
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Just curious as to what makes you say that? Ive never found either Robert Smiths or Morrissey's vocals to be difficult.
My old band used to do an awesome rendition of Fascination Street.
 
#83
SunnBass said:
I've always felt that two bands that shouldn't be covered are The Smiths and The Cure. I don't care what anyone says, you'll NEVER get the vocals right.
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To get Smiths vocals right all you have to do is sound whiny and sing through your nose - the harder part would be to nail Johnny Marr guitar parts.

As far as the Cure goes, Just Like Heaven and Boys Don't Cry are covered all the time.
 
#85
stagebanter said:
I think it's pretty difficult to do any sort of justice to a Steely Dan tune.
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Going to see and sit in with a band tonight that does Reelin' In the Years and Rikki (Don't Lose That Number) - and they do them extremely well - I'll take my digital recorder and see if I can post and example. They also do an entire mini Beatles set with multi-part harmonies and they change up who does the lead vocals depending on the song - this happens to be an exceptionally vocally talented band, though - 5 members that all have the ability to be lead vocalists in pretty much any cover band. And Damn fine musicians too.
 
#87
cjp3044 said:
Going to see and sit in with a band tonight that does Reelin' In the Years and Rikki (Don't Lose That Number) - and they do them extremely well - I'll take my digital recorder and see if I can post and example. They also do an entire mini Beatles set with multi-part harmonies and they change up who does the lead vocals depending on the song - this happens to be an exceptionally vocally talented band, though - 5 members that all have the ability to be lead vocalists in pretty much any cover band. And Damn fine musicians too.
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You have to record it. Sounds great.
 
#88
qervo said:
You have to record it. Sounds great.
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I'm planning on it ;) Seriously, though, these guys are kind of the exception - the style is mostly 60s and 70s pop, with a little newer stuff thrown in the mix as well. Not hard and heavy at all - for the style of music I can honestly say they are the best "local" cover band I've ever seen - a lot better than some supposedly hotshot Vegas acts. After playing in many original and cover bands since the late 70s - this is the first band to really impress (I mean actually make me go "WOW!") in years.
 
#93
Everything can be covered as long as it makes sense for the type of music the band plays and you can play it well enough to do justice to the original version.

For example, Heart and Great White have done some great covers of Led Zeppelin. The Ataris did a good version of Don Henley's "Boys of Summer".

Here is an example of what not to do. I was once in a cover band and the lead singer/guitarist wanted to cover Aretha Franklin's "Respect". I told him that I didn't think the audience would buy into 4 white guys from the suburbs doing the song so we decided not to play it.
 
#95
MysticMichael said:
Naw. It was probably the fact that you butchered it... :rollno:

MM
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Probably true, we did try "making it our own," and threw some creative things in. (was a long time ago, but I remember playing part of it as "swing music") We had played it a million times before, but it was off that night. He was probably just using it as an excuse to get rid of us! hahaha

That or he realized he hired a jam band to play is upscale Northside chicago club, lol.


In that band we covered Day Tripper which went over well, except with the sound guy who though beatles were off limits. We played a great Ramble on, great response, except from our sound guy again. Because Beatles and Zepp were untouchable for him. We had decent musical chops though. Got hired to do a weekly Phish cover night every wednesday at a big local bar. Phish isn't very easy to cover either, but we pulled it off.

I am curious now if that is really true you will get beat up for trying to cover the stones in the UK, that's hilarious.
 

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