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I am in the play it like it sounds on the radio camp, OR complete change it like the awesome two cello's guys do. What is lame is when you hear a cover band half-ass their way through a song where they merely playing the same chords and same lyrics and not doing any of the parts that makes the song special. If you are one guy with a piano or acoustic guitar at a coffee shop that is fine, but if you are a professional band who expects to be paid, I think you need to deliver excellence to your audience. I am not saying note for note accuracy, but if you are for example, covering Spirits in the Material World, and you DON't learn the bass lick, that just sucks. Even people like my mom who is practically tone deaf would be like, ' he's not playing it right' This is most true obviously of songs with iconic bass licks. If you are playing Sweet Child Of Mine you had better learn the bass lick from the intro or even drunk girls at the club will think you suck. Just my $.02, but here in Nashville I hear poopy cover bands EVERY DAY half-assing their way through music they clearly don't like or understand and it is stark contrast to the amazing cover bands who act like pros. (the whole Broadway scene here is covers, both rock and country)
Even Sting doesn't play the correct bass lick when he does Spirits live!
Really? I know I can't play that lick AND sing the lead vocal, but I assumed sting could.
Here is a version of Spirits where the bass player plays whatever the F he wants. Do you think it is an improvement over Sting's bass part?
He simplifies it while he's singing, plus it's in Dm, when the original was in Am.
No but I think it's a fine cover version that's not trying to sound like the Police.
True, but if it were me, I would play Stings bass part. It makes it more fun for me, and I think for the audience. I know people differ on this and that's OK, but that is not how I roll.
I noticed that. Perhaps the older sting can't sing it that high anymore? the lick is same in Dm or Am, no easier in Dm, so I am sure that was done for vocal reason.
I could care less about changing keys, you have to accommodate your singer and almost no one in the crowd will notice.
Well stated.
And knowing your audience is critical. Sometimes the cover band's "audience" includes the members themselves and some friends and family. They play the songs however they feel, their audience is happy, and everyone else in the room can take a flying leap.
I'm managing an 8-piece band with a horn section. My target audience is the weekend party dance floor singalong crowd, clubs and upscale/private clients. Mainstream crowd-pleasers played extremely faithfully, because that's what the audiences in the rooms I play want, and I can't get my band booked and paid unless I please that audience. The competition is stiff, and the other bands I compete with are doing the same thing. The clients that book these bands have tried less conventional, predictable, and polished entertainment and decided it doesn't work for them. Are we "human juke boxes?" Not really, when you see our stage presentation and audience interaction, you'll see a juke box or DJ could never offer what we do. If they could, these clients could save a whole lot of money by booking the DJ or renting a juke box instead.
But I envy bands who go out and re-work covers with clever, distinct arrangements and instrumentation, and have a whole "musical direction" going on, and an audience to go with it. Often, these bands have the creative and arrangement chops to work in their own material. I'd love to go that direction some day, and probably will.
But cover bands that have no identity, sometimes they're faithful, sometimes they just hack through it any old way they want with no central arrangement, I don't get that. From my experience, these bands are doing it for themselves and usually don't get booked regularly, and they're just fine with it.
Whatever makes you happy and helps you achieve your goals.
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It's still changes to the original. BTW, he actually sings it higher than the original
This band is not making an effort to be faithful to the original. The entire song has been re-arranged to fit their musical direction. Not only is the bass line different, but almost every part is either played differently or the feel is altered. It is intentional, and a reflection of their musical direction, not the Police's musical direction. Great cover IMHO.
If you played the original bass line over this clever cover, as fun as it may be, you would stick out like a sore thumb.
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Spirits in the Material World live in 1983. Maybe sometimes he's done it like the album recording, but sometimes, at least, he absolutely did simplify it.
Clearly that band does have their own distinct style and vibe. Playing Sting's bass line would have wrecked that vibe. The bass line serves the song perfectly. They're not half-assing it at all.
To each their own. This cover doesn't do it for me. I mean, it is hard to cover the Police because who can sing like Sting? But I am also a believer in sticking to material that your singer can really do. I agree it's not a half-assed cover, they clearly put some thought into it, and I never said this one was in the half assed category. But we have all been to bars where the band clearly is just throwing a cover together and doesn't really know the parts and that is what I mean. There is a HUGE different in learning half of a song because your band can't be bothered to rehearse VS rewriting a song to suit your band. I may not love your arrangement, but I do respect the time involved. And the very best bands will own the arrangement and make it their own. Think of how great the Talking Heads version of Take me to the River is. Totally different from the original, which is also great of course. They own that song and I bet most people here the talking heads version in their head vs the Wilson Pickett when you mention that tune. I know I do. Johnny Cash's Version of Hurt also comes to mind as cover that is 100% different and equally or more awesome than the original.
But these are artists doing their thing, and I still feel most bar bands with the weekend party singalong crowd need to be faithful to the original when possible.
