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IS your band a cover?

Are you in a cover namd or original?

  • Cover band

    Votes: 172 63.0%

  • Original

    Votes: 101 37.0%
  • Total voters
    273
#41
Pilgrim said:
There is no such thing as a cover band. There are only bands that play music people like to hear again.
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Like Mozart and Beethoven. There have been "cover bands" as long as there has been the ability to document a composition in writing, or pass music down as an aural tradition.

I'm in three cover bands. One is for worship service, and we cover inspirational pop and rock songs, such as Put A Little Love In Your Heart, Love (by Los Lobos), The Rising, Let It Be, What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding, etc.

The second is almost exclusively 60's covers, with a lot of Beatles and Beach Boys.

The third is just starting and will focus on 70s power pop.

It's all good, and I don't feel guilty for not being a writer.
 
#42
My main band is a 70/30 mix of originals and covers. The covers change frequently and we rarely do a literal cover of a song, usually an interesting interpretation of it. Lately we've been ripping out a reggae version of "Every Rose Has it's Thorn" that people are digging on.

I'm fortunate to be on call for a couple of really fun and talented cover bands that get good paying gigs. I have the option of taking the gigs or not depending on my schedule and desire to play, and I don't get tired of playing the same songs off the same setlist all the time.

This summer I reunited with a cover band for a few fill-in gigs that I had been the regular bassist for 15 years ago. No setlist, no rehearsal. When I arrived for the first show I asked if I could look over a song list. The drummer handed me a hand written list. In MY handwriting. They hadn't added a single song in 15 years.
 
#43
Modulator said:
My main band is a 70/30 mix of originals and covers. The covers change frequently and we rarely do a literal cover of a song, usually an interesting interpretation of it. Lately we've been ripping out a reggae version of "Every Rose Has it's Thorn" that people are digging on.

I'm fortunate to be on call for a couple of really fun and talented cover bands that get good paying gigs. I have the option of taking the gigs or not depending on my schedule and desire to play, and I don't get tired of playing the same songs off the same setlist all the time.

This summer I reunited with a cover band for a few fill-in gigs that I had been the regular bassist for 15 years ago. No setlist, no rehearsal. When I arrived for the first show I asked if I could look over a song list. The drummer handed me a hand written list. In MY handwriting. They hadn't added a single song in 15 years.
Click to expand...

LMAO! 15 years
 
#44
Modulator said:
My main band is a 70/30 mix of originals and covers. The covers change frequently and we rarely do a literal cover of a song, usually an interesting interpretation of it. Lately we've been ripping out a reggae version of "Every Rose Has it's Thorn" that people are digging on.

I'm fortunate to be on call for a couple of really fun and talented cover bands that get good paying gigs. I have the option of taking the gigs or not depending on my schedule and desire to play, and I don't get tired of playing the same songs off the same setlist all the time.

This summer I reunited with a cover band for a few fill-in gigs that I had been the regular bassist for 15 years ago. No setlist, no rehearsal. When I arrived for the first show I asked if I could look over a song list. The drummer handed me a hand written list. In MY handwriting. They hadn't added a single song in 15 years.
Click to expand...

WOW, see I could not play the same songs that long..I played drums in a house gig, we played 3 nights a week for 10 years at the same bar, we were good and had loyal fans, it was a cover band and to this day I WILL NOT play Brown eyed girl ever again...makes my stomach turn...I work a lot in my studio, have lots of expensive gear and a good engineering skills, so thats where I get my "originals" done, but I like playing covers in the band!~
 
#45
Yep. 15 years, no new tunes. Their setlist is pretty much top to bottom full of those songs that many of us shudder over having to play for the 1000th time in a row. People were coming up and requesting more contemporary tunes and being greeted with blank stares from the guitarist, who apparently stopped listening to the radio about the time I left the band.
 
#48
First band was covers & originals..... roughly an 80/20 split.

Next three or so bands were covers only.

Current project is originals only.
 
#50
Cover band - Check
Originals - once had them... new singer, so on the Horizon again

My band does a mixture from everywhere from the 70's (Aerosmith, Wild Cherry, Bill Withers) to what is on the radio now... lot of focus on 80's to now though... our original stuff is kinda different, or at least it was with the old singer we'll see what happens if/when we decide to work on originals
 
#51
This poll really surprised me! ~2:1

Originals all the way here, I've been playing in original bands (mainly prog metal) for the last 10+ years at this point. I live to be on the creative side of things.

I don't care all that much about on-stage glory these days, but to have your own stuff catch on is an awesome feeling.
 
#52
I'm another bass player that played in original bands for years and now I'm in two different projects that do covers exclusively... at least for now. I play in an 11 piece show band with a full horn section and I also play in acoustic duo project where I play upright bass and acoustic guitar. For me it's the best of both worlds-- huge production for one; bare bones for the other.

As far as doing originals, I did that for quite a few years and had a lot of good times but I also had a lot of extremely frustrating times where I had to deal with inflated egos and people that were completely unreliable. It still amazes me how someone who writes a song or two can automatically assume they are now rock stars, no matter how much their songs suck. On the rare occasion when I was in an original band and we were kicking on all cylinders, it was awesome, but that was more the exception than the rule.

As far as cover bands, someone else mentioned that their band won't play songs that they hate to play. We took that same approach. It's always been my opinion that there are hundreds and hundreds of great songs out there that any band would not only have a blast playing, but people would love to hear. You just have to find them. Songs like Mustang Sally and Brown Eyed Girl are pretty much guaranteed to go over well but if you don't like them, you don't have to play them. Dig a little deeper and find songs that you like that go over just as well. It may take a little more work but in the end it's worth it.

The nice thing for me is that I still have a creative outlet playing in an 11 piece horn band. We have a pretty broad horn chart library to work with but we decided that we would look for songs we really wanted to play and then hope we had a chart that would work for that song. In a lot of cases I'm the one that has to either edit an existing chart to fit our band, transcribe a chart from a recording so that it fits our instrument lineup, or in many case create a horn chart for a song that didn't initially have horns. The whole process of spending hours writing out a horn chart and then having six horn players play back what you created can be quite exhilarating and a lot of fun.
 
#53
There is no such thing as an originals band. You are either covering my songs or I'm covering your songs or we are covering someone elses. They are all covers in that regard.

As for popular songs musicians "hate" to play. They are actually a blast to play when great looking women are bouncing it in front of the bass player. Just don't ask to play them at rehearsal.
 
#55
With the places I play, originals are not wanted.
It's covers - and dancing - for us.

It's hard enough for the cover bands in my area to find gigs.
For the originals bands - it's pretty close to impossible.
Unless your idea of a gig is travelling 50 miles - for pay of a free beverage and a plate from the buffet.
 
#56
As I mentioned before, originals might work in a cover band if they flow with the tunes you are doing. Just don't mention it's original unless asked, or if you get a good response from the crowd.
IBME, even though it was a few years ago, when starting a new band, the hardest part is picking songs that go over, but are still enjoyable to play. The audience can feel the vibe if you're not having fun. Seen that from both sides of the stage. :bassist:
 
#59
I haven't played originals since the early 90s. I now play in a classic rock band doing mostly zeppelin and stones. I play and listen to mostly 70s prog rock at home but the people at the clubs never seem to get tired of zeppelin and I'm finally getting
paid decent to play it.
 

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