Freebird, and other cliche covers

[electracoyote]

People seem to love it but to me it’s a stupid song. It’s easy to play and people know it so unfortunately it’s everywhere.

Yep, it's a stupid song. As are a lot of the songs mentioned on this thread. I don't play any of them during my personal playing time, and most would eventually make me puke if I had to.

But, speaking as an entertainer and not as an ego-centric musician, when the dance floor is packed, people are treating me like a little rock god, dancing, singing along, buying me a drink, and throwing money at me, that "stupid song" takes on an entirely new, and definitely not stupid, meaning.

 

[73jbass]

No song is cliche if the audience wants to hear it. If you can play it,you should. One of my previous bands did Freebird Blugrass style for 2 verses,then the solo section like its supposed to. Everyone loved it.

 

[Greyvagabond]

I heard Freebird while driving to work today. It got me thinking...

First, I never, ever heard a band cover Freebird.

Second, if a band ever did, and they did it as recorded - that would be one of the most AWESOME covers a band could do. IMO, of course. Never really listened closely before, but there's a WHOLE lot of stuff going on in that song, and it doesn't sound easy at all to play convincingly.

Why and how did that become the cliche, 'please don't ever play it', cover song?

And with that out of the way, what song do you think SHOULD be the cliche, 'please don't ever play it' song. My votes go to one of these:

• My Own Worst Enemy
• Don't Stop Believing
• Blister in the Sun

What sayz you?

Blister in the Sun would actually be GREAT if you did it as the Violent Femmes did; acoustic and weird. But the average cover band should NEVER play it!

 

[slappa da beeus]

Superstition
Sweet Home Alabama
Margaritaville
Play that Funky Music
Kansas City
Sweet Home Chicago
Mustang Sally
Tennessee Whiskey
Billie Jean
Don't Stop Believing
You Give Love a Bad Name
Sweet Child of Mine
Me and Bobby McGee
All Cliché and I am sick of hearing them at shows.

 

[Captain Chaos]

I guess I don’t see enough cover bands. I don’t ever recall ever hearing a lot of those songs.

 

[diegom]

The advantage of "Sweet Home Alabama" is that you can go into "Werevolves of London", "All Summer Long" by Kid Rock and back to SHA, without shifting positions!!! You can keep going on those 3 songs until the last drunk goes home!!!

That's cover band GOLD!!!!

 

[gitfiddl]

Being from Jacksonville, when I started playing out in the mid-Eighties, "Freebird" was still on the verboten list. I saw a band try it once back then at a bar on Jacksonville's Westside. They started out sounding really good, but they stopped before the end of the first verse. Had it not been for the chicken wire around the stage catching the bottles, the band would have been seriously hurt. They stopped playing it before the end of the first verse and took a reeeeaaaally long break at the request of the bar owner.

As for Molly Hatchet's cover of "Dreams", I played a gig back in 1991 with Dave Hlubeck. He was actually just a "special guest" sitting in with our little 3-pc at a local biker bar. That night I was switching off on keys on a few tunes, and a former bassist for the band and friend of mine was filling in when I played keys. It was a very loose night. While I hate to speak ill of the dead, he was a real horse's patoot. Small club (maybe 75 people) and he's got a full Marshall stack going full-tilt boogie. He was selling autographed pictures for $10 and used picks for $2. While we were on a break, I asked him for a pic for my wife, who was at home 8 months' pregnant with our son. He said "Ten bucks, just like everyone else" and made a few snide and egotistical comments. Steve, the fill-in bassist, overheard the exchange. A few songs into the next set, Hlubeck called "Dreams" and Steve winked at me. When Hlubeck went into the Hatchet intro, the rest of us played the original Allman Brothers version. Hlubeck didn't even notice until he started singing...

As far as the other tunes like "Mustang Sally" and the rest, I think it's arrogant and doing the audience (and yourselves) a disservice if you're a cover band and refuse to play anything you think sucks but the audience always likes.

 

[mikeyjm2]

And with that out of the way, what song do you think SHOULD be the cliche, 'please don't ever play it' song. My votes go to one of these:

• My Own Worst Enemy
• Don't Stop Believing
• Blister in the Sun

What sayz you?

Oh man... I've played two of those three routinely... how embarrassing. I used to have songs I swore I'd never play. Then they convinced me to play 'Billie Jean' at one point and people seemed to like it. So I can't really say anything is off the table now. I have no shame LOL.

 

[diegom]

As plausible as any other explanation...
Why do people yell 'Play 'Freebird'' at concerts?

 

[Engle]

We are doing Werewolves of London

Hell, I love that song. It's challenging at the start and it gets fun. My band did that one and got everyone grooving.

Another we did was the Doobies' "Listen To The Music". Everyone sang along. It's one of those, like "Funky Music", where it's a chestnut, but people haven't heard it live for a long time, then they get surprised and let the nostalgia carry them away. Nostalgia, as Don Draper said, is pretty powerful, and can turn the most stone-hearted into a big ol' pussycat.

Hey, we do Long Train Running and people love that! It helps if you have talented musicians.

 

[Engle]

Yep, it's a stupid song. As are a lot of the songs mentioned on this thread. I don't play any of them during my personal playing time, and most would eventually make me puke if I had to.

But, speaking as an entertainer and not as an ego-centric musician, when the dance floor is packed, people are treating me like a little rock god, dancing, singing along, buying me a drink, and throwing money at me, that "stupid song" takes on an entirely new, and definitely not stupid, meaning.

I don't voluntarily listen to Abba, but when we play Mama Mia and Dancing Queen, the ladies can not help but dance!

 

[Tom Gallo]

They're somewhat lazy choices and, as such, are typically played in a mediocre fashion. When a group gets together, it's a lot of "what songs do we all know?", play through them, not really rehearse them properly then deliver a lackluster performance.

And the only people who will care about any of that are other musicians.

 

[saabfender]

And the only people who will care about any of that are other musicians.

The only people who care about a lackluster performance from a band are other musicians? You must not think much of your audience. People know if you’re lame.

 

[Tim Skaggs]

I heard Freebird while driving to work today. It got me thinking...

First, I never, ever heard a band cover Freebird.

Second, if a band ever did, and they did it as recorded - that would be one of the most AWESOME covers a band could do. IMO, of course. Never really listened closely before, but there's a WHOLE lot of stuff going on in that song, and it doesn't sound easy at all to play convincingly.

Why and how did that become the cliche, 'please don't ever play it', cover song?

And with that out of the way, what song do you think SHOULD be the cliche, 'please don't ever play it' song. My votes go to one of these:

• My Own Worst Enemy
• Don't Stop Believing
• Blister in the Sun

What sayz you?

No songs are off limits to my band unless we just don't know it well enough to pull it off. Smoke on the Water? We try to duplicate the live version.

Free Bird? We're only a 3 piece, so we don't go there, but we will play 3 Steps, Sweet Home, Needle And The Spoon on request.

Old Time R&R, if the request comes, we play it. Stranglehold, yes. Cocaine, yes.

About two months ago we played the most cliche song of all time; Wipeout. Our drummer protested fo a whole set, but the request came from the club owner, so we finally played it. The crowd loved it because we were dying laughing through the whole song.

 

[john_g]

My last band was playing this small place, a place we used to play all the time. We were set up in a corner of the room and to our right was a hallway that people needed to walk through to get to the bathrooms. There was a table of BIG guys close to us that I could see slowly getting more and more drunk. They started yelling "Freebird!" after every song finished. Funny the first 13 times, getting old after that. Then, while I am playing, one big dude, well over 6 feet and probably 235lbs of muscle walks up to me on the way to the bathroom and whispers in my ear "Freebird!". I keep playing and singing back up. Several minutes later, here he comes out of the bathroom and walking up to me. I went from 0 to 60 in .3 seconds, he leans in and starts "Freee.." and I grabbed his arm tight and told him to stop it...NOW. Im no small guy either, but he was a bit bigger than me. He goes..."...ok" and walks back to his table.

 

[Mike Sorr]

Paranoid/Iron Man
Rock and Roll
You Really Got Me
Purple Haze

No one needs to hear another band play Paranoid, or Rock and Roll. Ever.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

it's "Free Bird" not "Freebird"

 

[juancaminos]

Years ago we gave in to Free Bird and it turned out to be a fun song to play. We played a bar that forbid Mustang Sally. It took may nights of our fans asking to get the manager to let us do it (We were faithful to the Commitments version). After that we were the only band allowed to play it. We also played Purple Rain which I was totally against but every one loved it.

 

[DrayMiles]

Mustang sally
Freebird
...

Still debating on it...

 

[whero]

The advantage of "Sweet Home Alabama" is that you can go into "Werevolves of London", "All Summer Long" by Kid Rock and back to SHA, without shifting positions!!I

Yes! But you have to slip into Warren Zevon's "Play It All Night Long" before going back to Sweet Home Alabama.

My two cents on this whole topic:
The first serious band I was in (at high school, mid/late 1970s) used to play a pretty good rendition of the original first album version of "Free Bird". We put a lot of work into it and it was damned good (for kids aged 15 to 17). It always went down pretty well.

Most of our covers were in a different vein though - Cream, Lou Reed, Rolling Stones. We did pretty good copies of "Free Ride" and "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo". We did quite a few Led Zeppelin covers; "Whole Lotta Love", "Moby Dick" (it was the 70s - had to have a drum solo), "Since I've Been Loving You" (a personal favourite), and "Rock And Roll". So we worked up a version of "Stairway To Heaven" but then this other New Zealand band, as semi-disco outfit called Golden Harvest, did a cover of it (might even have been a single B-side?) and we didn't want to be seen to be copying them, so we never played ours live. I did try to talk them into doing "Archilles Last Stand" but we were getting to an era where punk was really popular locally and Zeppelin were starting to be seen as over-blown establishment rock, so it never went anywhere.

I don't think I'd do "Free Bird" now though, or a lot of the others already listed in this thread. When I gig these days I want other people to enjoy it as much as I do, and that means picking a set list that will appeal to the audience, and I just don't think many people here in New Zealand would enjoy it. Maybe some of the other NZ bassists can chime in here, but I think audiences here are quite hipsterish these days and most locals would think it's a bit naff to play these indulgent 10 minute rockers, and I'd fully expect to get jeered at.