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Cover Versions - Like the original or not


Nicko

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I'm a big fan of covers that have been properly re-worked.  Sometimes it works.............

Almost everything that Jimi Henmdrix did to Bob Dylan songs was better than Dylan's original 

Me First and The Gimme Gimmes can take a country track and make it listenable for someone who hates country

..........sometimes it doesn't.

Kirsty McColl's version of New England is absolute hell

UB40s Red Red Wine

And we really shouldn't mention Under the Bridge by All Saints.

But, even these atrocities are better than just rehashing someone elses song in the same style.

 

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I don't mind most covers, but what I really dislike is the recent trend for adverts using dour cover versions by "quirky" female singers accompanied by melancholy piano. Usually they destroy a classic song, be it rock, dance, punk: the original genre is irrelevant. I'm looking at you Lloyds Bank especially, but perfume ads are guilty too. May they burn in whatever final destination for naughty people your chosen religion prescribes

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6 minutes ago, Norris said:

I don't mind most covers, but what I really dislike is the recent trend for adverts using dour cover versions by "quirky" female singers accompanied by melancholy piano. Usually they destroy a classic song, be it rock, dance, punk: the original genre is irrelevant. I'm looking at you Lloyds Bank especially, but perfume ads are guilty too. May they burn in whatever final destination for naughty people your chosen religion prescribes

That seriously awful version of Everybody wants to rule the world'...........why, just why?

 

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I think there's a difference between playing covers for an audience who mostly wants to sing along, dance and have fun, say at a private party or in a pub, and recording cover versions for an audience who is more interested in the music, such as fans of a band buying their CDs or going to their shows. I'd say the former should try and sound as much like the original as is feasible, depending on the number of musicians available, while the latter should offer their own take on the song. There are, obviously, limits to how much you can make a song your own without ruining it...

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2 hours ago, Nicko said:

everything that Jimi Hendrix did to Bob Dylan songs was better than Dylan's original 

Agree...

IMO when you do a cover you should give it your own stamp, do it completely different. Love what Hayseed Dixie do to Rock Classics.

 

Oooo, Ooo...a whole concert: 

 

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24 minutes ago, Norris said:

I don't mind most covers, but what I really dislike is the recent trend for adverts using dour cover versions by "quirky" female singers accompanied by melancholy piano. Usually they destroy a classic song, be it rock, dance, punk: the original genre is irrelevant. I'm looking at you Lloyds Bank especially, but perfume ads are guilty too. May they burn in whatever final destination for naughty people your chosen religion prescribes

I'm quite a fan of Natasha Bedingfield who basically does what you don't like.

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13 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

I think there's a difference between playing covers for an audience who mostly wants to sing along, dance and have fun, say at a private party or in a pub, and recording cover versions for an audience who is more interested in the music, such as fans of a band buying their CDs or going to their shows. I'd say the former should try and sound as much like the original as is feasible, depending on the number of musicians available, while the latter should offer their own take on the song. There are, obviously, limits to how much you can make a song your own without ruining it...

See, thats the thing - I don't see why covers bands have to stick to the original closely.  We used to play a couple of covers of covers - I guess they weren't that close to either the original or the cover that most people knew (eg Hush - Kula Shaker version but without a keyboard was probably better than the Kula vesrion simply becasue Crispin Mills wasn't in the band 9_9). 

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I don't see the point in doing a completely note for note cover, unless you are in a tribute band.

Add something of your own in there, or it is pointless doing it.

 

Anyone tells me that "that is not like the record", I just say go and play the record, then!

Edited by 12stringbassist
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50 minutes ago, Norris said:

I don't mind most covers, but what I really dislike is the recent trend for adverts using dour cover versions by "quirky" female singers accompanied by melancholy piano. Usually they destroy a classic song, be it rock, dance, punk: the original genre is irrelevant. I'm looking at you Lloyds Bank especially, but perfume ads are guilty too. May they burn in whatever final destination for naughty people your chosen religion prescribes

Tui.

It probably wouldn't offend me quite so much if they didn't have the advert playing on a loop while you take the little shuttle train from one side of Gatwick to the other, but being forced to listen to that crappy fey cover of Chaka Khan multiple times is a new and subtle form of torture.

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And (as she's all over the news a the moment) the steaming pile of brown sticky stuff that is Madonna's version of American Pie. Although I did hear a very jovial Don Mclean interview on Radio 4 where he was asked what he really thought of it and he just laughed and said "I thought it was great, but then I do own the publishing rights!".

Edited by phil.c60
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2 hours ago, Oopsdabassist said:

Thunder seem to do some amazing covers, which my band covers....we end up basically with a far more rocky version of the original which usually goes down well!!

 

 

 

The Sterophonics do a good version of Gimme Shelter. 

I hate Thunder and all the little imps who like them. 

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1 hour ago, spectoremg said:

The Sterophonics do a good version of Gimme Shelter. 

I hate Thunder and all the little imps who like them. 

Thunder is one of my favourite bands of all time. Great musicians, great lyricists and one of the best bands I've ever seen live. 

Now, how anyone can listen to nasal Manc bands like Oasis and The Stone Roses for example is utterly beyond me. 

Edited by Newfoundfreedom
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4 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

I think there's a difference between playing covers for an audience who mostly wants to sing along, dance and have fun, say at a private party or in a pub, and recording cover versions for an audience who is more interested in the music, such as fans of a band buying their CDs or going to their shows. I'd say the former should try and sound as much like the original as is feasible, depending on the number of musicians available, while the latter should offer their own take on the song. There are, obviously, limits to how much you can make a song your own without ruining it...

 

 I can go along with all that, but how about the very frequent cases in my world where the original band never had a definitive arrangement or maybe even played the song the same way twice themselves? I know of Grateful Dead tribute bands that cover a whole live show learned from the Archive recordings, but to me that pretty much misses the whole point of what the band was about. And I never ever want to hear any jazz band play anything just like the record, ever. Did I mention never, ever? Yel_wink.gif

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