I was in a cover band once with this guitarist who would throw a tantrum if it didn't sound exactly like the recording. It was miserable. I didn't stick around long. The "blueprint" approach has always rang true for me.
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Songs you just won't play
- Thread starter Scott Loveless
- Start date
I was in a cover band once with this guitarist who would throw a tantrum if it didn't sound exactly like the recording. It was miserable. I didn't stick around long. The "blueprint" approach has always rang true for me.
Yep, I've told them. We'd never do that song, anyway, but sometimes stuff slips out, as we tend to jam a bit on stuff that's not in our repertoire during rehearsals. So when that song came up like that, I just said I'd never play it and told them why. They said they'd never really thought about the lyrics. I think that's common. Funny thing is that our singer is mixed-race, and he also had never thought about it that way. It's one of those songs where you have to know a little history to understand, and he's younger than I am.
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So Anyway, we play Dixie and Battle Hymn as a medley if we have a 4th of July gig. Next time, I'll just drop the Dixie section.
As cheesy as the song is the audience always seems to love it. My old band just did it one night having never talked about doing it or rehearsing it or anything. It had just started on the jukebox when we came off break, so the guitar player started playing along and then the singer started singing and then all of a sudden we were all playing doing this song we had never talked about before. The crowd loved it so it made it into the occasional rotation. It's fun because you can ham it up on the accent.
I've tried to avoid the "I'll never play X song attitude" I will pretty much play anything if the audience likes it. Then one day my old BL notified everyone that we would be playing the Cupid Shuffle and I realized that I too am too snobby for certain songs.
BL once proposed a tune by Bread and I had to put my foot down. Too many bad high school memories evoked.
Other than that, I'll play pretty much anything I can play.
Other than that, I'll play pretty much anything I can play.
I'll play whatever, over-played hits, polka, country, metal, whatever. I have no shame, if you hire me to play I'll do my best at whatever the gig is. There were a bunch of little kids boppin around in front of us at a recent food truck fest the 80s cover band I'm in played, so we busted into "baby shark"
Same here, no shame... If I had my rathers, there are many I don't like to play, but bring it on!
Unless it's a tribute band, it's ridiculous to worry about sounding just like the recording.
Even worse is trying to do songs in the original key if the vocalist can't hit it... Either play it in a comfortable key or not at all... many insist on original keys...
There are songs I don't rehearse, but if the crowd is boppin' I'll play anything. I never understood how people can get SO sick of a song they REFUSE to play it to a crowd who will love it.
I'd rather play "Move It On Over" to a full dance floor than "Limelight" to an empty one.
I'd rather play "Move It On Over" to a full dance floor than "Limelight" to an empty one.
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I'd say anything post Bob Welch/Peter Green, is certainly understandable.Anything from Fleetwood Mac. Yuck.
I prefer it too. Also, though, having gone fairly deep into the cover band scene in a couple towns now, I feel sure that the cover band product is pretty much note-for-note covers of songs everyone knows. The idea is you’re pretty much a party rock jukebox except live. The further you get away from that formula, the more you have to rely on your band’s draw, rather than your material format, to get gigs. Yes, it’s artistic wasteland. It’s what the cover band gig is though, should you choose it and choose to be competitive.
But don’t get me wrong. I was in a band that used to do a song that began as a KC & The Sunshine Band deep track, morphed into a Headhunters-era Herbie Hancock tune, and developed a Level 42 rhythm section groove along the way. It was a totally badass 12 minute song, but it was not a cover and we may have lost more gigs than we got by playing it.
Most original artists don't sound like the recording when you hear them in concert. I prefer it that way, if I wanted to hear the original recording, I'll stay at home with my $9.99/month Spotify account.
Blended with other things in here, now this is running in my head:
"Bayyyy-beeeee B!tch! Doo-dooooo-doo-doo-doo-dooooo..."
Ya, I guess that's why you felt it important enough to type a snide little comment to one of my posts.
