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When you play Covers...


Marko

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Nope. Unless as previously mentioned the song has some signature part to it. Please explain why Kryptonite must be played metal and not reggae? It's a simple, straight forward 3 chord progression. Also explain why the piano must be in Werewolves of London, but Adam Sandler's version is better than the Zevon tune. How was Banarama's version of Venus a hit in the 80's? I actually heard a punk version of the Gap Band's "You Dropped a Bomb on Me, Baby" the other day. I laughed by @$$ off! It was great.

 

When I was a young lad, my parents came home about 2 hours earlier from a concert than I thought they would. I asked what the problem was. My mother explained to me that she already had the album. If she wanted to hear the band do the album songs note for note, she could have just stayed home and listened to it. They left after 3 songs of the headliner act. They carbon copied their album. This was her favorite group at that time. If note for note is your thing, then by all means do it. With the proper song selection, it's a very safe way to play music. But for those of you who "think" you know that the audience requires a note for note cover, you are simply dead wrong. People want to have fun and be entertained. That is what the answer to the question really is.

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For bass IMO, it depends. Some songs you HAVE to play it note for note. For example, intro to GnR's Rocket Queen. You HAVE to play that note for note or it's not the same song. Most songs you can get by with doing your own thing here and there---but keep the same "feel" of the song. If there are "well known" parts, then do that, but you can still do your own thing during the rest of the song.

From there, it depends as a band if you WANT to do it like the original. For me, it's either like the original or we do our "own thing" with it. I find it hard to play the middle of the road. To generalize, I think it's more important for the guitar and drums to like the original than say bass.

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I hadn't seen this video in a long time. Man that kid can dance.

 

 

 

Pillar - Sunday, Bloody Sunday

[youtube]zDwbnkvRwFg[/youtube]

 

 

I really like this cover, too. IMO the sound of the drums really comes across well, particularly in the snare mimicking the sound of a machine gun. I had never seen this video before, its very graphic.

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My covers experiences:

On bass--dumb everything down that I can because I have to learn 44 songs in a week. :D:o

Actually, that's true, except when there is a bassline that is key to the song.

On vocals--I do my best to get to do it how the original was done. Even though I'm a pretty decent immitator, it's much preferred to do it with my own voice, though. I try to hit inflections as best as possible, especially if they are key to the song. I'm finding with a lot of these 80s rock songs, there's a lot of just talking and bull{censored} in the intros and bridges...(David Lee Roth, anyone?) I'm having trouble deciding exactly how much of that to do.

Totally agree with the key thing...maybe a half-step on occasion. Oddly, one of the Poison songs we've been doing is a half-step down, and our guitarist has Alcatraz-style locking trem, so it's not easy for him to re-tune...so I've been singing that Poison tune up a half-step. :freak:

These guys that I'm playing with, though, their old singer was a tune everything down a half-step or more kinda guy. They felt that it really knocked the wind out of the songs. That can definitely be an issue...but it's definitely more about the delivery. Personally, I can deliver it better if it's up rather than not.

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