What's wrong with Pink Floyd and The Who?

[LAPetrarca]

If you play stuff like "Substitute" or "Money" you may be appreciated by the classic rock fans in their seats, but I can almost guarantee no one's going to dance.

I'm having a hard time getting a couple of my bandmates to understand that very concept.

First, it was "Another Brick in the Wall" and, most recently, "The End" by The Doors. There's also been some REALLY obscure ones along the way as well. Some of them leave me shaking my head.

Now, I ask them to consider this.......could you dance to the song with your wife/gf?

 

[Stranger Danger]

I've never heard that version...very interesting. As with many Jamaican standards, they started out here in America in some form or another. One of the few that sort of worked in reverse is the Staples singers I'll Take You There which is over the Jamaican riddim for Liquidator (We also used to do a killer rave up reggae version of ITYT that was a great set ender). These days we do a Motown-goes-to-Kingston version of Bill Withers "Use Me" with the same singer, and it's got that roots meets Booker T thing happening.

We do Use Me (and Red Hot Mama by Funkadelic) but in a rock band setting. I think that it all depends on what else youre doing around it and can you make the song your own and sound like your band and not your band trying to sound like another band.

 

[BurningSkies]

We do Use Me (and Red Hot Mama by Funkadelic) but in a rock band setting. I think that it all depends on what else youre doing around it and can you make the song your own and sound like your band and not your band trying to sound like another band.

We never try to sound like someone else.

Its not in my character. I don't want to do anyone else's material unless we do it our way.

 

[BurningSkies]

I have a friend who is always talking about starting up a band together (yet to happen) and every time he brings up how excited he is to play Comfortably Numb. And every time I groan.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the PF version as much as anybody. But I just can't envision an audience wanting to hear a coverband version. Not only is it an 'iconic' track so closely associated with that band, but it's really PF's delivery of the song - not the song itself - that sells it, in my opinion.

Plus, it's a real misfit of a song rhythmically. It's not an upbeat rocker, it's not sultry downtempo, it's not a slow-danceable ballad. What's the audience gonna do? Drunks will throw a fist in the air as they sway unsteadily (I'm numb too! YEAHH!) but otherwise I'd expect, at best, respectful silence.

Does anybody pull this off to a great audience reaction? And doing it as tongue-in-cheek ska or some other genre mashup doesn't count as this is for a straight coverband I'm talking about.

Nothing like a 'dead spot' in the set, right?

 

[PaulMacCnj]

Yes! One of the best Marley songs and most people never heard it. Love that bassline!

...And I refuse to play 99.9% of the Bob Marley songs out there.

The only one I will willingly play is Concrete Jungle...

 

[fraublugher]

Originally Posted by jlane72t
I have a friend who is always talking about starting up a band together (yet to happen) and every time he brings up how excited he is to play Comfortably Numb. And every time I groan.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the PF version as much as anybody. But I just can't envision an audience wanting to hear a coverband version. Not only is it an 'iconic' track so closely associated with that band, but it's really PF's delivery of the song - not the song itself - that sells it, in my opinion.

Plus, it's a real misfit of a song rhythmically. It's not an upbeat rocker, it's not sultry downtempo, it's not a slow-danceable ballad. What's the audience gonna do? Drunks will throw a fist in the air as they sway unsteadily (I'm numb too! YEAHH!) but otherwise I'd expect, at best, respectful silence.

Does anybody pull this off to a great audience reaction? And doing it as tongue-in-cheek ska or some other genre mashup doesn't count as this is for a straight coverband I'm talking about.
Nothing like a 'dead spot' in the set, right?

Agreed , these sorry examples are a sure way to remove any energy from the room.
II V 's at 40 BPM , yay...

 

[bendy]

Considering the eclectic nature this thread has taken on (PF and reggae covers), I can't believe I didn't think of this example sooner:

"Dub Side of the Moon" by the Easy Star All Stars (2003)

Dub Side of the Moon - Easy Star All-Stars | AllMusic

IMO, it meets most or all of the criteria, set out by most of the previous posts, defining successful covers. It feels like a labor of love and each track is well-executed, yet the Stars definitely give it their own sound. Also, they manage to make almost the entirety of Darkside danceable.

Here's a cut:

Easy Star All Stars - Time (Dub Side of the Moon) - YouTube

 

[Lazylion]

...Comfortably Numb...
Does anybody pull this off to a great audience reaction?

There's a good version by pop-country guy Zac Brown from a show at Red Rocks on YT. Seems to have gone over well.

 

[JimmyThunder]

There's a good version by pop-country guy Zac Brown from a show at Red Rocks on YT. Seems to have gone over well.

Yeah but I'm talking about a local bar coverband, not an international star playing to an audience of big fans. Huge difference.

 

[Decoyx7]

It seems to me that you need to get together with musicians that will play these songs. Maybe they think that Pink Floyd and Who songs are too difficult for them to play.

That's not the case at all. My guitarist and drummer can play these things front and back.

 

[Decoyx7]

That's good advice. Playing songs from two of the most famous 60's/70s rock groups is a stout mark to hit and hit well. Granted, I know nothing about your band, you very well might have the musicianship to pull it off really well, but there might be some cause for your bandmates hesitation. On guitar, Hendrix is a huge influence on me and how I play. I love "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" but I don't play it out because I don't feel like I can do it appropriate justice. Maybe that's where your friends are coming from. Best of luck to ya though!

It's not this either.
Metallica, Dream Theater, Rush and all these we play often enough. And those are difficult songs. Our guitarist flat out REFUSES to cut YYZ from ANYTHING we do, and we play La Villa Stragiato every time.
Musicianship is not the problem. And I think that by playing and learning classic songs like Black Sabbath would help in building structure for even more complicated things.

 

[Decoyx7]

Seconded, and throw the Beatles in there as well.

We have the same problem with The Beatles too.
No one will play Taxman with me.

 

[Decoyx7]

Oh come on.

Drunk white people trying to dance to 7/8 time?

Nothing could be more fun.

I constantly finding myself in a dancing mood to By-Tor and the Snow Dog.
I don't know why.

 

[Decoyx7]

Yep because its cliche and your drummer doesn't want to be dipped in cheese.
Otherwise its no different then Led Zepp or Beatles covers.

Everyone has the right to play them, but its a good way to set yourself up for failure.

maybe your drummer knows he cant touch a WHO cover, and knows his band mates cant either.
Not saying you guys suck, but Some bands are legends and in the rock n roll hall of fame for a reason.........they are untouchable
music wise, and trying to emulate it, is a setup for losing interest from your audience. since their only comparison is the perfect radio version they have been hearing for 30 + years.

BINGO! This is exactly the case. He's so picky, I don't know what to do. And when I ask him what he would have us play, he almost never has any ideas. And when he does, he'd rather play something from some band that no one else really has any interest in...like the Foo Fighters. It's not like I have anything against playing the Foo Fighters or anything, just no one else in the band really listens to, or really cares too much for them. I just don't know how to get around this.

 

[john_g]

I constantly finding myself in a dancing mood to By-Tor and the Snow Dog.
I don't know why.

Ill sooner dance to By-Tor and the Snow Dog than Pa-Pa-Poker Face, Pa-Pa-Poker face.

 

[Decoyx7]

What type of band is this? Are you guys strictly a cover band? Do you have original music aspirations?

I really don't know about the whole 'nothing works with just one song' thing. Run Like Hell or Young Lust work just fine, thanks. It is true, as has been mentioned, that if you're going to do these iconic tunes like the record, you'd better be doing them really well.

The problem with doing these mega-iconic rock hits is that you can't versionize them at all. If an original music band is going to do a cover, I'd much rather hear them try to do something different with it.

We're a prog band, like Dream Theater I guess. We have a lot of rock, and a lot of thrash metal.

 

[Decoyx7]

Ill sooner dance to By-Tor and the Snow Dog than Pa-Pa-Poker Face, Pa-Pa-Poker face.

I've sat and listened to all of this..."Dance Music" nowadays...and you can only do the same thing to a 4/4 beat.
I look on at all my fellow teenage peers with unbelievably that you can actually move your feet to Lady Gaga or Beiber.

Though I do admit...LMFAO (Though I hate them passionately) and that Party Rock song is REALLY good.
It makes me want to dance.

Though not quite as much as By-Tor and the Snow Dog.