Originals or covers?

Leslie Ehrlich · Post by **Leslie Ehrlich** » 17 Jan 2006 10:51 pm

Here is a question for all of you who play in bands. Do you prefer to write and perform your own songs, or do you like playing other people's songs? Why?

I'll answer first by saying that I prefer to do original material because I don't have to worry about trying to sound like someone else.

Andy Greatrix · Post by **Andy Greatrix** » 18 Jan 2006 12:55 am

The public likes to hear tunes that they're familiar with. They are the ones who are paying the shot. Like Nat King Cole told his daughter, "The public isn't there for you". It's the other way around. The minute you accept any money for a gig, you owe the people who are paying you. You are being paid to make them happy. A good friend of mine became a lawyer many years ago, so he could play jazz for nothing and never have to compromise. Ray downs, a great jazz pianist around Toronto, became a cab driver.
I'm playing in an absolute toilet this week, but I can play and sing all the classic country I want.

Billy Wilson · Post by **Billy Wilson** » 18 Jan 2006 3:09 am

Covers

Mark Metdker · Post by **Mark Metdker** » 18 Jan 2006 5:16 am

Down here in Texas, original stuff is very popular. We can do a straight 90 minutes of originals, and we have about 90 minutes of covers. Most of our shows are about 90 minutes in duration. We'll do mostly originals and throw a few of our favorite covers in here and there.

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Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 18 Jan 2006 8:57 am

What Andy said!

I'll add this...

I've noticed that newbie steelers are the first to admit their shortcomings, and freely ask for advice or suggestions. Not so with songwriters, for some reason! So many of the newbie writers automatically think that their work is just as good as anything Willie Nelson or Kris Kristofferson ever did. When I bring up things like rhyme, meter, and ask them to "explain" what they're trying to convey, I get this incredulous look, as if to say "Hey! I'm the writer...you're just a backup musician!"

Truth be told, a famous singer can almost sing his grocery list, and it'll make the charts. Those who aren't so established, however, should realize that it's a craft, and as such, it takes lots of practice, and a modicum of musical and writing skills to be any good at it.[This message was edited by Donny Hinson on 18 January 2006 at 02:06 PM.]

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 18 Jan 2006 8:57 am

I changed continents because I found a good songwriter down here,
and a band that WANTS to do originals.

We do do cover tunes, but not the same ones
everyone else does around here, and we
happen to like them too. We also do them mostly our way if we have a different take on them.

But the originals are what it's about,
and our regular fan base likes them.[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 18 January 2006 at 08:58 AM.]

Mat Rhodes · Post by **Mat Rhodes** » 18 Jan 2006 11:48 am

Houston is friendly to original music. That's probably because club owners don't have to pay BMI, A$$CAP, & SEASICK.

Personally, I prefer to do originals. It teaches me more about constructing songs and coming up with creative parts.

The down side is that because I'm not doing covers that may have a steel guitar part in them, I'm more constricted in my ability to do traditional stuff when asked.

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Jim Walker · Post by **Jim Walker** » 18 Jan 2006 12:39 pm

Andy is Right. I play music for a living, Covers is what pays the bills. I could do originals all night and I have some real good material, but that's not what most folks around here want to hear.

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Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 18 Jan 2006 1:20 pm

My band is all original, by design. We tried playing a few cover tunes at our New Year's Eve party. The crowd loved them, but they were a disaster internally in the band. I actually walked off stage for a while - the vibe was that bad! Never again.

We have good original tunes in a lot of different styles. That's what I like about playing in Open Hearts.

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<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b2005.gif" width="78 height="78">Bobby Lee (a.k.a. b0b) - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
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Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 18 Jan 2006 1:44 pm

I've been in bands that do covers only and in bands that do originals.

The bands that do originals always seem to have a better folowing then the cover bands. I myself prefer bands that do originals.

As for the "The public likes to hear tunes that they're familiar with." I do NOT believe this is true.
If that were true then the only music we would have would sound like the first time a caveman made a vine go twang while his brother beat a rock on a hollow log!

Music would never progress if we all thought that the public doesn't want to hear anything new.

Jim Peters · Post by **Jim Peters** » 18 Jan 2006 2:56 pm

I'm in both types, general prefer covers. I've never written an original as good as the worst song we cover.
If you play covers, they better be great, or what's the point?
It is fun to make up parts in the original band, but I don't play the guitar parts note for note in the cover band anyway, and havn't done that for years. jp

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 18 Jan 2006 5:34 pm

Leslie wrote

I'll answer first by saying that I prefer to do original material because I don't have to worry about trying to sound like someone else.

Yes, copying is harder than most people think.

Jim Bob Sedgwick · Post by **Jim Bob Sedgwick** » 18 Jan 2006 9:53 pm

JM .02 cents: Both are fun to do. If covers are played three things are essential.

The chord progression
Key licks
The beat must be the same as the original record. ( Of course, we have all been in the middle of a request (Steel Guitar Rag, for example). Some drunk walks up and requests the same song we are playing. (Maybe we aren't doing it right?

Lots of folks want to hear the song as it is on the original record.

Dave Grafe · Post by **Dave Grafe** » 19 Jan 2006 11:14 am

I have been fortunate to play with great songwriters more often than not, but I enjoy playing any good song regardless of who wrote it.

I played with a group called Sky River in the late '70's and early '80's. It was pretty much an ongoing songwriters' workshop, writing new material weekly - everything from country to rock to reggae - to fit the very diverse venues we played throughout the NW - contrary to conventional wisdom we set records for crowds in a number of clubs we played. The only cover that we ever did in several years of perfoming was our version of Jimi Hendrix' version of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" - we had a great lead guitar player who could sing and this was his signature bit.

The public likes to hear tunes that they're familiar with

For better or for worse, in general this is true, but it's a double-edged sword - I worked for many years with an R&B band that included about 30% originals in the playlist. Many of the songs were well-received but the dance floor was always busiest during the covers. One original song in particular was GUARANTEED to clear the dance floor as soon as we began playing it, still we kept it on the list because it was so much fun to play.

Fast-forward a few years and quite by accident that same song began getting serious airplay around the country and suddenly it was the one song that was guaranteed to PACK the dance floor every time. It eventually was top-ten on TWO Billboard charts for something like 13 weeks and the bass line was played over the PA at every NBA game for ten years afterwards! That's the public for you....

One latent issue with original tunes is that if the band doesn't know how to arrange stuff it can be a real train wreck - with covers the arrangements are already recorded by professionals and only require copying (which some folks can't do either) but with originals the band has to figure out who plays what and when from scratch, in some cases resulting in a massive guitar cacophony with everybody playing all the time and the vocals (the prime content of the song maybe?) hopelessly buried in there somewhere.

John Steele (deceased) · Post by **John Steele (deceased)** » 19 Jan 2006 1:47 pm

For what it's worth, I think the value of either approach is dependent on your state of development as a player.
I've been playing in a "copy band" for the last year, and it's been extremely beneficial for me to slavishly reproduce steel parts note for note, because I'm still learning.
When it comes to the keyboard parts, I could care less whether they're exact. I'm alot more comfortable on the keys though.

-John

Bill Mayville · Post by **Bill Mayville** » 19 Jan 2006 4:42 pm

It's a shame.But here in Vegas ,originals
won't get you any work.Copy, copy copy.
Not only that. Their are only a few bands doing any country.

Bill
The beginners web site.www.steelguitarlasvegas.com

Kenny Burford · Post by **Kenny Burford** » 29 Jan 2006 2:38 am

I usually do 2 to 5 originals every dance and have ever since I started playing. I guess the patrons have just come to put up with it. I also do some other original songs by other Indie artists who I think have penned songs that deserve to be kept alive. Tonight I sang Johnny Nace's song "Blue Notes," and as usual filled the dance floor. Whether good or bad I believe original music helps set a band apart from other groups and is a positive point.

Rick McDuffie · Post by **Rick McDuffie** » 30 Jan 2006 5:01 am

The song's the thing. A good cover tune is better than a bad original any day.

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Of course, if you've got GOOD original material, do it!

My personal approach is to find good, obscure tunes for the covers, then mix them in with some I wrote myself. Never introduce the song by saying, "Here's an original"- that's the kiss of death. Just play the song, and if you get some applause, say "Thanks, that's one of mine."

If you're going to do a straight cover, do it dead-on... otherwise it sounds like you tried to sound like the record, but couldn't cut the mustard. Otherwise, just do "your" version of the song... there's less pressure that way, and you're sort of making it your own.[This message was edited by Rick McDuffie on 30 January 2006 at 05:05 AM.]

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 30 Jan 2006 9:32 am

It depends on the audience. In some situations, covers are demanded. I personally don't like slavishly playing note-for-note covers, but have done it when required. I agree that recognizable hooks and jazz heads must be done correctly, but other than that, I like to mix it up.

In other situations, like a more serious listening audience, a cover band would be laughed off the stage. This type of audience often expects original music, but may accept original "interpretations" of other peoples' music. Especially in jazz, playing from the 'canon' of jazz standards is reasonable.

As usual, "When in Rome ...". As usual, my opinion, YMMV.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 30 Jan 2006 12:58 pm

To me, there's no art in playing Jambalaya or San Antonio Rose or Johnny B. Goode anymore. I've already played my best rendition of those tunes, and don't want to waste any of the time I have left trying to recapture those moments.

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<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b2005.gif" width="78 height="78">Bobby Lee (a.k.a. b0b) - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
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Mark Lind-Hanson · Post by **Mark Lind-Hanson** » 31 Jan 2006 1:24 pm

I prefer original music to covers if I am playing out for others. I know my material
& it's less chance of screwing up a lyric. If I play covers of other people's stuff, then, I prefer a band who'll play it OUR way. There's no point in covering a piece of music if you can't (or won't) do anything different with it- and the public would probably prefer to hear the originals play it, to begin with. No guts, no glory as they say. There's nothing worse than a copycat band that has to do EVERYTHING like they heard it on the record- or even worse, has to (look like, or play the same type instruments!)
as the original players did...

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 31 Jan 2006 2:00 pm

It seems as though originals work best if they've got throbbing jungle drums and lively guitar work rather than the weepy introspective type of song. Unfortunately, most guitar players only write a song when their girlfriend leaves them. Somebody already wrote "Alison", "Angie", "Roxanne", Sweet Melissa", Sweet Jane" and enough songs with "yeah" and "baby" and "oooh" to last a long, long time. Yeah baby - oooh.

According to what I've read from Jimmy Webb and Willie Nelson, real songwriters used to work on songs all day, every day - which might explain the current crop of newer "songs." If you can write a better song than "El Paso" or "All Along the Watchtower" or "Itsy, Bitsy, Teenie, Weenie, Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini" people will like it better, I guess.

Dave Grafe · Post by **Dave Grafe** » 31 Jan 2006 3:29 pm

I remember walking into the Town & Mountain in White Horse, Yukon some years back and hearing a great local band playing every kind of music imaginable, from country standards to soul, classic rock to reggae.

A bunch of the songs sounded really familiar but I couldn't quite place them - when they took a break I asked about a couple of those songs and found out that half of the songs they had played were originals, not covers at all, but so well written and cleverly constructed that even the dancers didn't know they had never heard them before!

[This message was edited by Dave Grafe on 31 January 2006 at 03:34 PM.]