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I have a problem with cover/tribute bands.

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#381
Why is it bothering some of you people so much that some people want to do original songs? If there weren't any original songs being created, the world would be stuck with only the songs we already have. From my point of view, it looks like some of you may actually be envious of someone such as Greyvagaband because he is in an original band that really sounds good. He has posted his music and, frankly, it sounds pretty good to me. If you think you have something better, then let's hear it.

I will now await some smart aleck remark accusing me of being arrogant and a lackey of This Blue Heaven, a band that I know as little about as anyone on here. This flame war, which is what it really is, is the most outrageous one I have seen in years. Gweimer was absolutely correct when he said a topic such as this brings out the worst in people. I had intended to not post anymore, but after the last two pages, I found it hard not to. I find it simply amazing that so many of you who seem so devoted to the cover band concept seem totally convinced that you have some kind of great insight into what people who believe in original bands are thinking. That's what really takes the cake, the inaccurate comments, one after the other, about what is supposedly motivating people who want to do original music.

Even as I write this, I am watching a band fall to pieces because the bassist was so devoted to cover songs he couldn't bring himself to properly learn some of the original songs written by other members of the band. It is a disgusting sight. I watched them have to pass up a fantastic opportunity for an original songs competition, one which was a great honor to even be invited to. All because the bassist couldn't tear himself away from cover songs and simply learn four original songs. And you are saying that original music people are delusional? He has posters of himself "in action" on stage on various walls of his apartment.

Early in this thread, Joe Nerve made a comment that original band people and cover band people are very different and they have different priorities. Truer words have never been spoken. Up until I encountered this thread, I never realized the polarization was so great. But unlike some of you, Joe Nerve understands. BTW, if you want to hear some great bass playing, check out his myspace site. I now await an accusation that I'm a troll trying to promote Joe Nerve's music.
 
#382
Eh, I should have left this thread after my initial posting.

This thread is really no different from "picks vs fingers" or "cheap basses vs expensive boutiques" or even "4 strings vs ERBs"

It's a ridiculous idea that people are against "original songs". No one has said that. But people are always going to react badly when they are treated with disrespect. And that's what's propelled this thread, from both sides. If older musicians can't understand the joy of putting your heart and soul into original music and the experience that comes with it, then they have forgotten what it is like to be young.

But likewise, any kids who look down their noses at guys who enjoy playing in a gigging cover band are immature or simply not understanding the reality of life. As you get older and responsibilities set in (career, wife, children) the opportunities to play music simply diminish. As does the desire (or even ability) to practice several nights a week, argue over songwriting, time to perfect songs, the patience to make a new project happen and the willingness to play for little to no money. Which is why playing cover songs holds significant appeal to a lot of older musicians. So if guys can find a way to go out and have fun playing music then why is that a target for derision?

Again, it's because this entire conversation revolves around a lack of respect and a lack of perspective. Period.
 
#384
Rocker949 said:
Why is it bothering some of you people so much that some people want to do original songs?
Click to expand...

I don't think that defending the musicality of cover songs is the same thing as attacking originals. Remember, the post that started this embarrassment of a thread is nothing but an attack on the musical worth of playing covers. There are a few people who have responded to the attack by simply attacking back but I'm not one of them.


Early in this thread, Joe Nerve made a comment that original band people and cover band people are very different and they have different priorities. Truer words have never been spoken. Up until I encountered this thread, I never realized the polarization was so great. But unlike some of you, Joe Nerve understands. BTW, if you want to hear some great bass playing, check out his myspace site. I now await an accusation that I'm a troll trying to promote Joe Nerve's music.
Click to expand...

I agree with this but with a qualification - There are some people who play both covers and originals. I'm in more than one band and I do both (I see that others have posted the same thing). To me, it's all about the music and the details of whether or not the music is someone else's or my own is largely unimportant to me.

The Big O has it right. There is a lot of disrespect in this thread and I think the tone was set right from the OP.
 
#385
I agree that most of us who play in cover bands are kind of weary of listening to the put downs from those who play in originals only bands and looking down on those that play in cover bands. I do both, so I'm certainly not knocking original bands (knocking myself? :confused:).

As I am also an artist that paints and sculpts and do both fine art AND commercial art, I have an added perspective on it. It's the same argument with fine artists versus commercial artists and the sentiment of some fine artists who feel those that are in the commercial art field are somehow not really artists. I understand this whole "selling out" crap, and it most often comes from young, inexperienced, idealistic people. Though there are those who will cling to their idiotic ideals until the day they die. I was once that way myself. With high ideals comes passion, so I can understand completely the strong feelings that one does not want to compromise their "art", but it is totally misplaced.

I give lectures and conduct workshops on creativity and inspiration. I am just amazed at how many people feel they live in a bubble, out on an island all by themselves and that their ideas for songs or paintings or any art form are somehow unique and exclusively their own as if God hand picked them for an idea or thought no one ever had before. I posted to knock these people off of their pedestals and to help them get over themselves. Nothing you do is unique or original. Everything has been done before, it just manifests itself in ways that appear fresh to others. It is like we are builders of a house and we all bring our tools to the job site, each contributing to this house called music. Some people will spend their whole lives looking at only the front of it, but ah, when they see the back they are in awe of how fresh an idea it is! Art is like a Rubik's cube. All the colors and squares are already there, all an artist does is keep twisting it around and around and showing it off to others. Some choose to believe they are the only ones to be able to solve it.

It all stems from the fact that artists (in all art forms) take seemingly abstract, random, disconnected ideas and put them together in ways the general (non-artist) public can appreciate and understand. The truth is nothing is really abstract or random. Everything and everyone is connected in this Universe, and it is this very connecting thread that allows all of us to appreciate that which is created. What makes people feel moved by music is not the originality of it, but rather the commonality of it. So for those who feel they are somehow better or unique, or God's gift to mankind for their "original" music can just come down from the clouds. You aren't that special or unique after all.

Both cover bands and original bands share the same thing...music. One type somehow feels their product is theirs alone and we should feel so lucky to have it bestowed on the rest of us. Every time a musician plays a song, by virtue of it being a live performance (and not a recording), it is fresh and new every time, unique in it's own way of being performed...even if you've played the same song a hundred times. That alone makes it as unique as anything someone feels they wrote in their delusional bubble.

Naive and ignorant is what it is. But hey, keep creating that music thinking that no one has ever heard it before. Some of us not only create with the understanding that it is simply a remix of what came before, but are willing to put our egos aside and also share others music as well, because after all, none of it was ever ours to begin with. Whether you believe we all came from the same primordial soup or that God created us, we are not the originator or source of anything.

So get over yourself.
 
#387
Rocker949 said:
Why is it bothering some of you people so much that some people want to do original songs?
Click to expand...

Just look at the title of the thread.

You obviously missed the posts by some of the Original Artistes comparing cover musicians to monkeys and robots, and calling cover bands worthless.

Yeah. That bothers people. I, for one (and I'm sure most cover musicians), am not bothered at all by people who want to do original songs. I'm bothered by people who insult me for not doing them.

You can sit and await whatever you want, but this thread was diseased from the start (re: the title), and I believe constructed by the OP (with other original "artists :rolleyes:" adding to it) for the purpose of inflaming non-original bassists. Blame them, not the inflamed targets.
 
#388
broken record here... Here's a formula for becoming easily offended/offensive.

I = The music I play

If you choose to define yourself by the music you play - you choose to allow other people's subjective and perfectly reasonable feelings about that music to impact your mood. How people feel about music varies with each person and is perfectly acceptable. But if you cannot separate yourself from your music - you allow peoples' perfectly acceptable feelings to become something that impacts your feelings about yourself.

It's very much like saying "I like the color red, so I am a RED person" - and when I tell you that I don't like the color red as much as blue, you take it as a personal insult. Is red better than blue? To me, yes, to you no, but in reality it's an irrational argument. It's nothing more than a color and two peoples personal, subjective feelings about those colors. The colors themselves are neither good nor bad - they are just what they are - colors.

But if you've decided that YOU = RED and if people don't like RED that also means they don't like YOU, you created that scenario and irrationally projected your feelings onto someone else. They didn't say a thing about you - but in your mind, they did.

That's your choice. If you cannot separate the fact that people are allowed to feel they way they do about the music you play without that being an indictment of you as a person, you've given a significant amount of power to other people over your feelings about yourself.

Stop defining yourself by the music you play, the colors you like, the tools you use and start having a genuine sense of yourself as a person firstly, who likes music, colors, uses tools, (and accept that others can feel as they do about those things without it meaning a thing about how they feel about you) and take away the power for others perfectly acceptable feelings about music, colors, tools to impact you.

Otherwise, prepare for a long lifetime of hating people for all the wrong reasons and missing out on a world of opportunities to not only experience many great things in music and life but also to meet and get to know people as people - not as cover musicians or plunger users or red lovers.
 
#390
The original band member at 20

3086306491_feb4270c19.jpg



The original band member at 45

bandlogo.JPG


The original band member at 50

3231133754_ab7055ee31.jpg


And at 60

365127907_bfe6761317.jpg

any questions?
 
#395
It also takes a lot more blood sweat and tears to take your own music and turn this:

QORC said:
Typical venue and crowd for an original band

2077891462_ac651c165b.jpg
Click to expand...

Into this:

SBB_08_SMALL.jpg

GASPARILLA_09_BIG.jpg
Click to expand...

But worth the world if you do.

Gotta say also that while I definitely often get a rush out of the energy of cover crowds, the people who that stuff gets off for the most part are people I don't really want to have anything much to do with. And I guess it's good that I don't have to. I've seen those exact faces screaming for My Own Worst Enemy enough time to make me want to hang myself. Feels entirely different than when a crowd of people you don't know are singing along to songs that you wrote.
 
#396
to which I say "bunk"

We work really hard at what we do!

But the honest truth is, how many of you out there will play to a crowd of 1,000? 3,000? 6,000?

We play those routinely. There is an adrenline rush and a feeling up there when it's grooving and people are digging it, and trying to grab your legs and want your picks, autographs, etc etc etc....It can't be described. It's better than sex.

And I'm 47.

Most people in original bands will never get that experience. Especially when they are my age.

And we got there with hard rock. It's worthy of respect.

It certainly is a good time!
 
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