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Covers vs. Originals


Mathew

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Posted
Originally posted by fastplant

I play in a cover band. My band actually started out as an all original band. We went pretty far with it, opened up for some really big names, played some amazing venues. But never acheived enough success to warrant keeping up with it. Over time we started adding in covers to make a little more money as it paid next to nothing. We started getting older and the dream started to fade. Eventually, we decided to scrap it and play just for fun. We switched to all covers. We all had day jobs by then and no asperations for stardom. We're having WAY more fun now as a cover band than we did doing originals, and we're making a whole lot more money. It's a fun way to make some extra money on the weekends. No one in the band is deluded into thinking we're anything more than a cover band having fun. Two of the guys have kids and probably couldn't afford to play out any other way.



As a side note, I do still write and record originals in my spare time, but just for my own fun and to be a little creative. We've toyed around with maybe doing an original here or there, but usually we lose interest from the audience pretty quick when we do originals.



+100%. All of the players in our cover band we was in or could have been in a signed band at one point. Everyone (with the exception of probably me :D ) are top notch regional musicans and were in demand long before this band. However we're now in our early 30's to early 40's. Responsibilities like, wife, kids, mortgage have taken over. I spent 6-7 years of my life in original projects (even then we... still played covers to gain audience attention), one that I'm particularly proud of. However it's much more important for me to make a couple $$$ each weekend than it is to play 20-30 mins as an opener. I still write and record originals on the side and the truth is, playing in a coverband affords me the ability to do that. If I ever get the time, enthusasium and opportunity to play them out, I will have a wealth of club contacts, fans and stage experience to put on one hell of a performance.

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Posted

I for one love playing originals, and I was quite happy to play to a small crowd and earn very little, just to get the enjoyment out of my music. But then things changed, I got married, have 2 young boys, mortgage etc, so the music has to pay for itself and hopefully part of the mortgage to. Because my need to feed my family is greater than the need to have my material heard, I swapped over to doing covers and haven't looked back. Sure I still chip away at my own material, and hope to do an album soon, but I do get a buzz when I am playing with my band to a packed club witha full dance floor. I just feed off the crowd all night and have fun with them. Yes my band too has a full calander for the next 3-4 months and most of our Christmas bookings are in.

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Posted
Originally posted by BlueStrat



Old School drumming? If you mean playing like a 5th grader with a 4 piece Slingerland set on her third lesson, yeah, I suppose she does!


Holy crap, that woman is horrible on drums.
:mad:



She's not conventional but she knows what she is doing. I've heard alot of bands that could benefit with a drummer who plays like Meg does.

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Posted
Originally posted by Roy Brooks



She's not conventional but she knows what she is doing. I've heard alot of bands that could benefit with a drummer who plays like Meg does.



I wouldn't have her in my band for a four hour gig.

Would you?:wave:

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Interesting thing is when the radio around here plays Nirvana it's usually Man Who Saved The World which is a Bowie tune. I believe there is a Meatpuppets cover on the same record.

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Posted

Originally posted by ned911

Interesting thing is when the radio around here plays Nirvana it's usually Man Who Saved The World which is a Bowie tune. I believe there is a Meatpuppets cover on the same record.

 

 

The Meat Puppets are among my most favorite bands of all time. What the world needs is more bands playing Meat Puppets covers. Though the Meat Puppets sure did play some nice covers of other people's tunes too. My favorite is their version of Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin'".

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Posted
Originally posted by BlueStrat



I wouldn't have her in my band for a four hour gig.


Would you?
:wave:



She probably wouldn't be the right drummer for an uptown blues band. Though if she was the right kind of drummer for something like that she might not be the right drummer for the White Stripes.
But hypothetically I'd give Meg a shot playing in a band with me. I think she could do it.

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Posted

I play in both cover bands and originals. Needless to say I get paid a hell of a lot more in my cover band, more gigs and better halls. I love doing originals but unless you have a major following it is nothing more than a hobby. The cover band I play in does 4 covers and one original (the cycle repeats itself throughout the night). Eventually we'll do 3 covers and two originals and so on. This is the way most original bands get started, covers is a must at 1st. ....shrugs

EDIT: Just take a look at the Beatles 1st few albums, almost every song (a lil bit of exageration here) was a cover song.

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Posted
Originally posted by renier



1. originals give you freedom. i don't have to sit in my basement practicing some crappy solo that i don't even like for hours, only to be told on stage that its ALMOST as good as the original. i play what i like, what suits me and what makes sense to me.



See, for me, this is one of the great parts of covering. You get a great feeling when you play a song's solo and somebody actually tells you it was BETTER than the original. That's always a good reward for me, when I can play a solo with even more style and eargasmic material than the original artist and make the song sound better than it did on the record. Its super fun challenge for me, taking pride in the fact that I know that people think I can play a certain song better than a pro. :thu:

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Posted

The Meat Puppets are among my most favorite bands of all time. What the world needs is more bands playing Meat Puppets covers. Though the Meat Puppets sure did play some nice covers of other people's tunes too. My favorite is their version of Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin'".

 

 

Maybe you could do a cover of a cover???

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Posted

I have been playing in a cover band for the last 4 years after 20+
of all originals. It's been a hell of a lot more fun. I recently started playing in the band that "replaced" me before I joined this cover band, to fill in for a few shows since their guitarist split. I'm enjoying playing the originals again but the difference is staggering- we have to play with 3 or 4 other bands, 1 hour for set-up, set and tear down, for maybe 30-40 people with 2 beer tickets and no $$, and this is a tight modern rock band.

My cover band plays alone, we spend 2-3 hours setting up our own PA & lights, play for 5 sets to 300+ crowds with and open bar tab and get $400 a night plus all the mommy parts we can look at!
We're playing a biker fest at the coast on Sat for several thousand people.
We even get the local hard rock guys coming to see us cause their girls can "dance" to our music without having to brave a mosh pit.

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Posted

I have and still do both. There are good reasons for both.

You can make real money doing covers. There is a whole circuit of profesional musicians that make a living playing clubs, casinos, weddings, corporate gigs, etc. And have no "day job". Aside from the occasional guitar student etc. Its a way to do what you love for a living. Without all the high risk of getting signed. Even signed artists that have sold a million records often can be less stable financially than a pro musician in the long run unless they keep selling records for years. Otherwise that 200k royalty check after expenses runs out and you have no more income.

Covers are also the best way to get your chops together. Original singers and players often write songs around what they can already do. Learnin, Singing and playing covers of all styles, is neccessary to becoming a better musician and performer. I can respect a singer that can sing Stevie Wonder, then Chili Peppers, than Foreigner, then Lincoln Park and pull it all off well and keep a good consistent performance for 3 hours. Very talented friends that only do originals often dont have the pro experience that you get from learning tons of material and playing 2-4 3 hour gigs a week. Doin that 1-2 original 40 minute sets a month of tunes you wrote around your limitations does not give you real world pro experience. And can only help with your original songwriting and performing.

Also the pro cover musicians are often better musicians to play with. For the reasons above I can give a pro cover player a list of 40 tunes on tuesday they can woodshed the tunes and show up to the gig Sat and nail all the tunes, with no rehearsal. Because thats what they do for a living, not a hobby jamming in their basement.

Now I also love doing originals and that gives a creative outlet that covers can't give you. So If you love doing originals go for that but I would advise any original performer that if they want to really improve do a cover band for a year playing 3 nights a week and they will be better performers for it.

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Posted
Originally posted by dblair

I have and still do both. There are good reasons for both.


You can make real money doing covers. There is a whole circuit of profesional musicians that make a living playing clubs, casinos, weddings, corporate gigs, etc. And have no "day job". Aside from the occasional guitar student etc. Its a way to do what you love for a living. Without all the high risk of getting signed. Even signed artists that have sold a million records often can be less stable financially than a pro musician in the long run unless they keep selling records for years. Otherwise that 200k royalty check after expenses runs out and you have no more income.


Covers are also the best way to get your chops together. Original singers and players often write songs around what they can already do. Learnin, Singing and playing covers of all styles, is neccessary to becoming a better musician and performer. I can respect a singer that can sing Stevie Wonder, then Chili Peppers, than Foreigner, then Lincoln Park and pull it all off well and keep a good consistent performance for 3 hours. Very talented friends that only do originals often dont have the pro experience that you get from learning tons of material and playing 2-4 3 hour gigs a week. Doin that 1-2 original 40 minute sets a month of tunes you wrote around your limitations does not give you real world pro experience. And can only help with your original songwriting and performing.


Also the pro cover musicians are often better musicians to play with. For the reasons above I can give a pro cover player a list of 40 tunes on tuesday they can woodshed the tunes and show up to the gig Sat and nail all the tunes, with no rehearsal. Because thats what they do for a living, not a hobby jamming in their basement.


Now I also love doing originals and that gives a creative outlet that covers can't give you. So If you love doing originals go for that but I would advise any original performer that if they want to really improve do a cover band for a year playing 3 nights a week and they will be better performers for it.



Well said.:thu:

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Posted

this is a wierd subject because you really have to further subdivide "covers bands" into what i prefer to call trbute style covers bands and interpetation bands.

the difference being a tribute style band will play the song like it is on the record (or at least attempt it) but an interpretation band will take the original tune and rework it in a fashion that can often be radically different from the overall sound of the original song.

both these styles of cover have their place. for a while now my band have been talking about doing functions (whereby folk book us as a band to play tunes they select from a playlist of tunes we can perform) at which we would play straight up renditions of classic kareoke tunes for steamin wedding parties or birthdays or whatever.
however when we play a gig for ourselves we generally dont play covers of songs, but if we did they would sound more like our own songs and less like the original versions as we would play the song in our own style.

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Posted

Hate to play devil's advocate here, but I'm beginning to feel that this issue has been beaten to a bloody pulp. Okay, playing covers makes you a well-rounded musician, more money, etc. How many musicians in this forum as well as anywhere else, have played a good amount of covers in their musical lifetime as opposed to musicians who haven't? I'd say a much larger percentage. Everyone is arguing the same points over and over again and I can't help but saying, "Ok, I get your point." Money can be made doing either. Live gigging is probably not the most lucrative way for original bands. However, CD sales can be pretty profitable. I've played with an all-original prog band for about 2 years and while the gigs weren't the most abundant or lucrative for that matter, our money came from CD sales. Our CD is being distributed all over the US and Europe and the money received from the sales has more than covered the cost of making the CD. For anyone who thinks that I'm trying to argue a case for original bands, I'm currently in 2 cover bands and have been playing in cover bands ever since I've started playing out.

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Posted

Originally posted by ned911

Interesting thing is when the radio around here plays Nirvana it's usually Man Who Saved The World which is a Bowie tune. I believe there is a Meatpuppets cover on the same record.

 

 

Lake of Fire.

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Posted

Originally posted by The Hiryuu



Lake of Fire.

 

 

That tune also appeared on Meat Puppets II and Too High To Die.

I am one of those cats who is most likely to do cover interpretations.

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There's room for everyone...covers and originals. And I'm glad that many good players play covers...so they don't do originals....more room for me.

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i play in an all original band and we played last night. set up the stage, made it look like our living room, wore house coats. Well we played one cover Beatles - Yer Blues. We're also trying to figure out Danny Elfman's Beetlejuice main track. Got most of it figured out, maybe next gig.

It goes over very well, it's our 2nd gig. We got lots of positive compliments. Hopefully we'll start to get a following in the bigger cities or something maybe cut a CD.

But ya, there's no money in it, not in my town anyway. First gig we made 15 bucks each, 2nd gig we lost 25 each. They were both so much fun. We have a few buddies who tour across the country and play gigs every summer and it's not about the money just to meet people, play tunes, travel, smell like a dirty hippy haha

I have done the 1:1 covers to original thing and it's fun too. Nothing's cooler than watching some old drunk dude rocking out to Let There Be Rock.

The band we played with last night played 60% covers but they do them all such justice and just love it you can tell. It's just great fun to dance to it and everything. What bugs me about cover bands are the guys that go out there and play the same old {censored}ty rock/pop/country songs and have no originality or anything. They play to make money, it's like watching an accountant plugging away at a calculator.

The radio/mtv has been slowly killing music and stifling creativity. it's such a shame. =[

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Posted

People keep saying how they make more money playing in a cover band, and I have one question to ask:

Don't you need express permission from the bands whose songs you make money off of playing? Either that or aren't you supposed to pay for the right to make money from those original works? It just seems like there's something wrong about that to me, like a guy whose sole business model is to take Van Goh paintings, make photocopies of them, and then sell them for a profit.

I mean, when our band plays a cover once in a while, at a show we are being paid to do, I always have a thought in the back of my mind that the band whose song we are playing could have a footing to stand on if they decided to sue us for making money playing their intellectual property.

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Posted

Don't you need express permission from the bands whose songs you make money off of playing? Either that or aren't you supposed to pay for the right to make money from those original works?

 

No, and no. Or, I should say, no and it depends.

 

No, you don't need permission to play anyone's recorded or published works.

And you don't need to pay for the right to play them. Venues like bars and restaurants, cruise ships, concert halls, and production companies are supposed to pay ASCAP or BMI for hiring cover bands, since it is they who are ultimately hiring the services of the musicians to play the hits and profiting the most from it.

 

If you want to record cover songs on a CD for commercial purposes, you are obligated to pay the writers and publishers a mechanic's license fee of 9 cents per song per CD, 500 CD minimum, usually through the Harry Fox Agency or directly to the publisher if you make a separate deal.

 

I always have a thought in the back of my mind that the band whose song we are playing could have a footing to stand on if they decided to sue us for making money playing their intellectual property.

 

No, they wouldn't. Not unless said performance was being recorded or videotaped for future commercial use, or you are the promoter/presenter/producer of the show.

 

 

Read more here:

 

http://www.joelmabus.com/royalties.htm

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Posted

Originally posted by gopher666



Actually, there are three Meat Puppets covers on the unplugged album. Plateau, Oh Me, and Lake of Fire.

 

 

{censored}, I always forget about Plateau and Oh Me. I haven't listened to the thing in 10 years, and they don't exactly play Plateau or Oh Me on the radio.

 

I'm sure Lake of Fire was the song he was referring to, though.

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