Members Rbts Posted July 24, 2003 Members Share Posted July 24, 2003 My band is playing at a local hot air balloon festival this in two weeks. There is a main stage, where some bigger acts will play, but we are not of that caliber... we will be playing in the "beer garden". We just do cover songs.. no originals. One of the songs we play is a cute little song called "You have the right to remain silent". They said it is a Jimmy Buffet song originally... ?? I had never heard it before, but it is a nice song. So playing at the festival out on the main stage that some day is a band called Perfect Stranger, who I also have not heard of but apparently they have records out and everything, AND... their most successful song so far is THEIR VERSION of "you have the right to be silent". (I still haven't heard it but I guess they are getting some air play with it, or they have at some point?) Now notice.... WE are playing for free,.... pro bono, notta a nuttin..... So, can we leave this song in our set list, or we are not allowed to play it this time? Personlly I figure it is a tip of the hat to them if we DO IT, and a little additional free promotion of their single... but a friend of mine who is more into the music scene than I am says no... it would be rude to cover the song that they are going to cover that same day . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Old Steve Posted July 24, 2003 Members Share Posted July 24, 2003 Play it. No problem, IMHO.1.) It's a Jimmy Buffet song, so you'll each be covering somebody else anyway.2.) You're in the beer garden, the other band is on the main stage.3.) With two stages going, and you playing at the smaller venue, the chances are good only a tiny percentage of the people at the festival will hear both bands playing the same song. Of those that hear it, only an even smaller percentage of those people will recognize that they heard it twice. Of THOSE, only a tiny percentage will give a crap. Find that one guy who meets all of the criteria, apologize and buy him a beer. If you don't find him, assume that the other band took care of him. Things would be different if this were a gig in a club with one stage, etc. The way you've described it, however, I wouldn't sweat it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tommy Tune Posted July 24, 2003 Members Share Posted July 24, 2003 Check out when the other band is playing and give them kudos. Tell the crowd that they gotta check them out and tell the crowd that they do a rippin version of the song. Try to talk to the band and tell them that you like their cover of the song and that you cover it too. I don't see a big deal in doing it. First of all, it's not really their song. So, how can they get pissed for you covering a song that they are already covering? I say, if they're that egotistical about something that isn't theirs to begin with, do it just to piss them off. LOL. If they are cool about it then you don't have a problem, anyway. If you want to be successful, do what you do well.................................. and don't do what you don't do well. It's that simple and that difficult. Don't change for anyone else but you. That;'s just my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stingray5 Posted July 24, 2003 Members Share Posted July 24, 2003 I wouldn't do the song if I could replace it with something else, out of respect for the other band, since you know they are going to do it. You say your not getting paid right? A good way not to play there next year or to get any referrals is tick off one of the main headliners. Hopefuly you can make an impression with some of your other music and get some paying gigs out of it. Denny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundtecwannabe Posted July 25, 2003 Members Share Posted July 25, 2003 I personally always think it's lame to hear the same song twice at the same place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MDLMUSIC Posted July 25, 2003 Members Share Posted July 25, 2003 Got a funny story about this...A few years back I was playing in an oldies band and opened for the Tokens at an outdoor festival. The Tokens big hit was "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" which has that recurring "Wimoweh" backup vocal. My oldies band did a version of the song but replaced "Wimoweh" with "My wings are wet" and I did this long intro about raising pigeons on New York City rooftops and how pigeons hate to get their feathers wet. The audience usually eats it up because it's so corny. The Tokens, however, did not see the humor in the situation, probably because, even with our hokey version, we sounded better than they did. Before the gig they were very pleasant, but afterward they wouldn't even talk to us. Michael D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members J the D Posted July 25, 2003 Members Share Posted July 25, 2003 Originally posted by MDLMUSIC The Tokens big hit was "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" which has that recurring "Wimoweh" backup vocal. We do a medley of this song with "Brown Eyed Girl" keeping the same feel as BEG all the way through. The chord progression and the bass line works great for both songs. The crowd loves it. If it is a cover you have as much right to play it as anyone else. Play your set list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tommy Tune Posted July 26, 2003 Members Share Posted July 26, 2003 Right on. I say that the only thing that you should be worried about is weather the crowd digs what you do and being asked back. Trust me, if the song is strong for you, do it. No one will say a word. I'm good for throwing a few lines of another song in the middle of songs that we do. LOL. We do "Play that Funky Music" and I put a whole verse of "Rapper's Delight", a few lines from Nelly's "Hot in Here", and a few lines from "Who's Makin' Love to Your Old Lady" into the mix before I do the last verse of the song. It streches the song out about 5 more minutes and keeps the girls dancin' their asses off. The bottom line is.........never be afraid to do what works for you. We've even done it in a biker element. The chicks dance and the bikers just grin. I love it. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rbts Posted August 12, 2003 Author Members Share Posted August 12, 2003 Opps.. Turns out "You Have the Right To Remain Silent" was THEIR song, NOT a cover for them... But.. not to worry.... I just went over to the tour bus when they showed up, knocked on the door, explained that we were playing over in the beer garden and would they mind if we did our cover of their song... The first guy asked the second guy, and he asked the third guy, and then he said, in just the friendliest voice, "sure go ahead, you can play it". I said thanks, and went my way. We did their song, gave them a bunch of PR on it, and everything was fine. I enjoyed their show later that night too. Freaked me out... we are farting around for hours trying to figure out how to get our sound sounding good.... these guys just walk out on stage.... no sound check....... with a rental PA that they have never even seen before, and they sound great right off the bat. I asked the tech how this was possible....and he says... well, three hundred nights a year for ten years... we pretty much got it down now... I just have a pretty good generic mix, and then dial it in a little as we go. Their set up was two electric guitars, one acoustic guitar, drummer and bass. On stage were some very small amps, that the sound tech said were pretty much just for the people who were right out front. The small amps were all miced to the board, and everyone was wearing shure e5 wireless IEMs, except the drummer who had a JBL eon 15 powered wedge for his monitor. They carry their own monitor mixer which stays set about the same each time he said, and "away they go". It was interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MichaelSTE Posted August 12, 2003 Members Share Posted August 12, 2003 doing another bands original song can be costly. Last year, a band I do sound for, The Now, opened for the English band The Outfield(Josie's on Vacation, Since You been gone...) at the Sheboygan, WI bratfest. We do "Since You've Been Gone" in our regular show and while chatting with the Outfield guys before the gig, said we'd leave it off, since they'll be doing it later as one of thier big hits. Well..they were so nice, they actually insisted we do it, saying they never get to hear anyone cover thier songs. Well, the Outfield is a 3 piece band, we are 5 piece. With the extra keyboards and 4 part harmony on the chorus, they were totally blown away with our cover, saying we do it better than they EVER had. They really took a shine to our us and espeically our drummer, and invited him and us to the show the next night in northern Illinois (were from Milwaukee, right inbetween). Only the drummer could make it the next night, they went and partied till dawn. Anyway... this summer thier regular drummer couldn't make the tour, so they asked Jeff, our drummer to fill in on 30 dates over 10 weeks. He's in his 40's and this was a dream come true for him, so we were all very happy for him even if it meant trying to find a replacement drummer for 10 weeks. So, I guess the moral of the story is, if you cover somebodies song while they are there, be careful about doing it better than they do. It could cost you a musician. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Old Steve Posted August 12, 2003 Members Share Posted August 12, 2003 Booo-friggin'-hooo!!!! Somehow I doubt you'd be all that upset if they'd invited you to go along on the tour! Cool story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tommy Tune Posted August 13, 2003 Members Share Posted August 13, 2003 Anyway... this summer thier regular drummer couldn't make the tour, so they asked Jeff, our drummer to fill in on 30 dates over 10 weeks. He's in his 40's and this was a dream come true for him, so we were all very happy for him even if it meant trying to find a replacement drummer for 10 weeks. Lucky SOB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MichaelSTE Posted August 13, 2003 Members Share Posted August 13, 2003 We DID find a very very good drummer for the 10 weeks. I wasn't upset at all. And now, we can advertise that we have a former member of The Outfield in the band. Works out real well for everybody. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rbts Posted August 14, 2003 Author Members Share Posted August 14, 2003 I think "maybe" one of the guys from Perfect STranger came and checked us out... I am not sure. But they were super nice about it all, and were first class professionals all the way through. Their drummer was sick apparently... (they said something about it), and I gave my self about 1/2 of one second to think "whoa what if he can't finish the night, and they are asking for the drummer from that "other band" to come help out... ha ha...... but no way I could fill in for something like that.... I can barely hang on in my little band with our material. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Old Steve Posted August 14, 2003 Members Share Posted August 14, 2003 Every musician's fantasy....guy with the cool gig gets hit by a bus and YOU, yes YOU get to fill in and be a rock god hero!!! Happened to me once on a very small scale... Band was scheduled to play a part for about 400 people. The band showed up, but the drummer didn't. A guy I knew who set the thing up recommeded me to the band. Half an hour later I'm throwing my kit into the back of a van and trying to figure out what songs I knew from the band's set. Half an hour after that I'm on stage. Fun night. Turns out the original drummer had a fight with the guitarist and said "I quit". Apparently this happened fairly regularly, but the drummer would always show up anyway. This time he didn't. His loss, my gain (got $100 for my toubles...I would have done it for free.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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