Members curseoftruth Posted November 24, 2007 Members Share Posted November 24, 2007 My new band is looking at doing a couple of covers, only from 60s and 70s bands. We are a really heavy doom/stoner rock band and play pretty slow, lots of distortion/fuzz, blues and groove going on. We have already started working on Acid King's cover of Steve Miller Band's The Stake: (check out their version here) http://myspace.com/acid_king Next up I am working on a cover of Vanilla Fudge's version of You Keep Me Hanging On. Here is the dilemma. I've played in pure cover bands before we have stuck to the original arrangements pretty close and have felt pretty strongly about that. We don't have keyboards, so a lot of the keyboards will be handled by guitars but in this case, I'm feeling compelled to change some of the arrangement to make it a little heavier. Since this isn't for recording and we are not a cover band and the song is super old, I don't think the audience will really mind or even notice (most won't even know the song). The song isn't really difficult, like 5 or 6 chords total. What do you think? We just dig the song and want to pay tribute to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members csm Posted November 24, 2007 Members Share Posted November 24, 2007 Vanilla Fudge's You Keep Me Hanging On was already a heavied-up, slowed-down bad-acid version of an upbeat, bouncy Motown song by the Supremes. If you make it any slower it'll be going backwards, and if you make it any more tortured they'll be stacking the suicides' bodies like cordwood outside your gig ... ... and yep, it's always cool to rework an old song and put your own stank on it rather than simply do a straight copy and try to play it 'just like the record.' Make it yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted November 24, 2007 Members Share Posted November 24, 2007 I do a dropped-D grungy/sludgy version of Venus. And a slower heavier version of Satisfaction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members curseoftruth Posted November 24, 2007 Author Members Share Posted November 24, 2007 As mentioned "a cover of Vanilla Fudge's version of You Keep Me Hanging On", I do realize it is them doing a cover, I am a fan of the original as well, I am a fan of Motown in general, one of the reasons I want to do this song. We are looking at Doors songs to do next. It will be super heavy though. Good advice on making it ours. I'm thinking about adding some keys, I do have a keyboard and running it through a Marshall to distort it up (Jon Lord style). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mazi Bee Posted November 24, 2007 Members Share Posted November 24, 2007 Used to be in a band where we covered "No Matter What" by Badfinger. Great song to rev up a little heavier. Mr. Big used to do an amazing version of Baba O'riley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chuckster1955 Posted November 25, 2007 Members Share Posted November 25, 2007 We're a geezer-band that has been playing for a looooong time, and we've accumulated lots of tunes over the years. We play tons of covers, and we've never had the unique skill required to mimic the original recording (translation: we're lazy, don't like to rehearse, and play the way we play at this point!). Even if it's unintentional, we re-arrange everything somewhat by simply changing the vocals to suit our capabilities, and modifying the guitar parts by simply playing it the way the 2 of us play. In addition, many tunes get completely re-arranged if someone in the band comes up with a different approach to a tune. Some you wouldn't recognize unless you listened to the vocals, but most are still recognizable as the original tune. We've found that if you don't try to copy a tune exactly and do a bad job of it, people think you suck because they're measuring you against the original recording. If you take a cover tune and make it your own, you get a different reaction: people may or may not like it, but they seem to forget that it's a cover of someone elses' work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members book_of_lies777 Posted November 25, 2007 Members Share Posted November 25, 2007 "Snowblind" or "Children of the Grave" by Black Sabbath Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members curseoftruth Posted November 25, 2007 Author Members Share Posted November 25, 2007 "Snowblind" or "Children of the Grave" by Black Sabbath We will be doing a Sabbath tune, kind of waiting till get some things settled first. I was working on the Vanilla Fudge arrangement on my own today though. The Sabbath will be more true to form. We are going to get another drummer we decided. I have two we are going to try out with maybe even a third. Probably looking at either Electric Funeral (one of my faves) or something a little more deep cut or obscure from one of the later Ozzy era albums (Sabotage, Technical Ecstasy, Vol. 4). Not sure yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members book_of_lies777 Posted November 25, 2007 Members Share Posted November 25, 2007 We will be doing a Sabbath tune, kind of waiting till get some things settled first. I was working on the Vanilla Fudge arrangement on my own today though. The Sabbath will be more true to form. We are going to get another drummer we decided. I have two we are going to try out with maybe even a third. Probably looking at either Electric Funeral (one of my faves) or something a little more deep cut or obscure from one of the later Ozzy era albums (Sabotage, Technical Ecstasy, Vol. 4). Not sure yet. sweet - "Electric Funeral" is totally awesome with the wah-wah riff... yeah, what ever you do, DON'T play "Paranoid" or "Iron Man". Awesome songs, but sooooooooo run into the ground. What about something from the Dio years? "Like "Falling Off The Edge of the World"? I have NEVER heard a cover of that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members curseoftruth Posted November 25, 2007 Author Members Share Posted November 25, 2007 Biggest problem with a lot of that stuff is that I suck as a lead guitarist, I'm a hack at best and we are a one guitar band at the moment. Our original material is very influenced by early Sabbath so that stuff fits pretty well. Iommi turned his soling up a major notch during the Dio years, I'm not up to snuff there and don't plan on getting there any time soon. If we did anything from that era, it would be Country Girl or Lady Evil, those are great tunes. We are almost a blues band that is just super freaking heavy and down tuned! Check out my soundclick site for the latest tune we are working on (this is my personal demo site, so no full band stuff there, just super rough demos and nothing arranged -- mainly so riffs don't get forgot and I am using a cheap ass drum machine). Check out Villagers with Torches. That is the direction of most of our stuff. We just arranged this the other night and its shorter than what is there. After the first riff, Audacity screwed up and there is about 5 second gap before it starts up again. Would dig some opinions on the riffs from some heavy rock/doom fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Brian Krashpad Posted November 25, 2007 Members Share Posted November 25, 2007 We did a very very reworked "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" as a punk rock and roll song. It's basically the chorus (the only part anyone actually knows) sung almost acapella (just a clean guitar accompaniment), then a 4-count into a doublespeed amped-up version of the chorus with 2 sets of new lyrics about the Troubles, interspersed by punkabilly solos. They loved it at the Irish bar we used to play at. The owner later actually requested we do it after hearing it. Other reworked covers we used to do included sped up/rocked up versions of the "Time Warp" from Rocky Horror and Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi's Dead." I haven't had a chance to yet, but before I croak I fully intend on doing a rocked up punkabilly version of Tennessee Ernie Ford's "16 Tons." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flyinshoes Posted November 25, 2007 Members Share Posted November 25, 2007 When we broke up my band had just gotten together a version of "Ghost Riders in the Sky" based on the Outlaws version, and I'm currently messing around with a dirtier version of the Stones' "Play with Fire" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members book_of_lies777 Posted November 25, 2007 Members Share Posted November 25, 2007 Biggest problem with a lot of that stuff is that I suck as a lead guitarist, I'm a hack at best and we are a one guitar band at the moment. Our original material is very influenced by early Sabbath so that stuff fits pretty well. Iommi turned his soling up a major notch during the Dio years, I'm not up to snuff there and don't plan on getting there any time soon. If we did anything from that era, it would be Country Girl or Lady Evil, those are great tunes. We are almost a blues band that is just super freaking heavy and down tuned! Check out my soundclick site for the latest tune we are working on (this is my personal demo site, so no full band stuff there, just super rough demos and nothing arranged -- mainly so riffs don't get forgot and I am using a cheap ass drum machine). Check out Villagers with Torches. That is the direction of most of our stuff. We just arranged this the other night and its shorter than what is there. After the first riff, Audacity screwed up and there is about 5 second gap before it starts up again. Would dig some opinions on the riffs from some heavy rock/doom fans. that's pretty cool! BIG Sabbath influence there... which is awesome. 'Villagers with Torches' is a great title too. I've only got one doom-type song - it's called "De Monarchia Daemoneum" for my one-man band project Will To Power. There's a sample on the myspace page below... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Geeter Posted November 25, 2007 Members Share Posted November 25, 2007 Back in the stone age (1977) our band did a heavy cover of Cherry Cherry by Neil Diamond. We did a super slow stoner kind of verse and a frenetic punk type of chorus. Worked pretty well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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