Covers or Originals?

[simple]

:headbang:

 

[guitlouie]

We do the occaisional cover, but we try to stick to songs that fall into the "least expected" category, and they are usually faster, and most certainly louder than the original.

 

[-CB-]

Oh covers...  the stuff we used to play was in a few different sets

Basic early rock/doo-wop set
Elvis Set
Chuck Berry Set
Early 60's <lotta girl groups> Set

We had -
Drums, lead and rhythm guitar, bass, piano, sax, two gal singers, and the bass player did a mean Elvis (and I played bass then).  Too be fair, the gal singers were the gf and wife of band members, and did a bit of an act where they'd schmooze their way onto the stage, and we'd "back em up" while they pretended to ham it up.  Of course we never played to the same crowd twice, so it worked!.  And they were both very good - which also didn't hurt any.

 

[ildar]

I'm chafing under the impositions of living in South Florida. In the area in which I live/play, if you wanna play at all, it's gotta be covers, and the same old crap-classic rock (nothing remotely progressive), blues-ish (white-boy blues only, nary a Robert Johnson or Leadbelly lick to be found), Top 40 (or whatever it's called these days), and, groan, reggae.
But, I do play 30-40 times a year.

 

[hanny11]

We play Surf so covers are almost a necessity.

 

[stubhead]

For money I play:

the same old crap-classic rock (nothing remotely progressive), blues-ish (white-boy blues only, nary a Robert Johnson or Leadbelly lick to be found)

For fun I write originals all the time, sometimes I teach one to the band, we play it onstage and the customers all sit there like cat turds waiting for "the Sultans of Swing" or something good again.... :sad1: :help:  :redflag:

 

[ildar]

For money I play:

the same old crap-classic rock (nothing remotely progressive), blues-ish (white-boy blues only, nary a Robert Johnson or Leadbelly lick to be found)

For fun I write originals all the time, sometimes I teach one to the band, we play it onstage and the customers all sit there like cat turds waiting for "the Sultans of Swing" or something good again.... :sad1: :help:  :redflag:

I would kill to be able to something nearly as good as any Dire Straits tune. Trust me, the best reaction we get is to any CCR song, to which they invariably get up and dance(!). So we extend it to keep them up, which means when we play Born on the freaking Bayou, it's E7 for 20 minutes, and NO guitar solos, and NO variation from the original.

 

[stubhead]

The good thing about "Sultans" is that when you do stretch that out, it's all guitar soloing, and the crowd seems to know you're allowed to dick around endlessly - it allows for diatonic mischief too, not just pentatonic. God forbid you should play "Black Magic Woman" wrong, though...  :tard: I know what you mean about S. Florida, I lived in Coconut Grove from '87 to '94 and we used to refer to reggae as "theme music to fleece the tourists by." You'd meet all these "Rasta" musicians from Ohio & Illinois... the only real reason for any white person to be a Rastafarian is as an excuse to smoke boo all day long, but even the wives don't buy that one, much less the policemen. :toothy12:

 

[neilium]

I can't spend that much time on other people's music. When I was a teenager, I occasionally picked up gigs with a wedding band, and that experience was enough to convince me that I didn't want to play music for a living. It was a hell of a band, with horns and two totally foxy cougars on vocals, but it was exhausting, and I really wanted to play other things, by which I mean, not polkas. If that meant getting a day job, so be it.

Nowadays, no one could afford to put together a band like that. A DJ would take all your gigs for half the money.

 

[Rick]

Bascially 4 sets:
Roots Rock  Ex: Midnight Special
50's Rock Ex: La Bamba
Blues: Ex:  Anything by Muddy Waters
Bluegrass:  Ex: I saw the light

Mostly, I like to get people singing along or dancing.

 

[nathan a]

I was in Sarasota florida last weekend and I think you guys are forgetting an important part of the music scene down there: COUNTRY. The radio stations only play ratty-ass country. It got to the point where the lady and I would turn on the radio, and we'd be able to sing along to songs we'd never heard before. Cause it's that predictable.

Mostly, I like to get people singing along or dancing.

I totally agree. Had an impromptu acoustic jam session on a college campus in Sarasota and we played 60s and 70s era folk, blues, pop songs, whatever. It was fun because everyone knew the music -- different people showed up with their own instruments and played along, since they knew the music. It was great. 20 people sitting around singing. I didn't care that i'd heard the songs a thousand freakin times.

 

[ildar]

I won't play country, neither will the band I'm in, and yes, it keeps us out of a lot of gigs down here. You gotta draw the line somewhere.

 

[Fish Out of Water]

When I was playing in a band we did only 80's, 90's covers along with some current tunes.  We never wrote any original songs as a group eventhough I had plenty of ideas.  The other guys just weren't interested in going in that direction (they weren't very creative...) But we did take some current tunes and rearrange them and kinda make them our our own.  That was fun...

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I only did covers for about 18 months around 1999/2000 as a side project to make $$ to help fund Prodigal Son.
Aside from that, I mainly write & record my own music, and I bring the 7 string Krunch to Lighthouse Christian Center, in Puyallup, Wa.

 

[Squish]

I prefer to write my own music, the odd cover every now and again isn't a bad thing though, after all that's how I learnt and to me it's sort of a way of saying thankyou.

 

[DocNrock]

Unfortunately, I don't have time to do a band these days because of career demands.  But "back in the day," I was in two bands, one as a bassist and one as lead guitar.  Both were all original bands.  In the latter, we did one cover song.

 

[kreig]

I've been in about 10 bands , and have played in both original and cover . My preference is covers , you can work up a set list quickly , play it out quickly , instant familiarity , instant recognition from the audience . Just make sure you know when to cut a song off the set list if you can't "NAIL IT"!

I think an audience can get bored quickly when they've never heard your songs , unless you set yourself on fire .

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Lyrics have always escaped me, but writing music is no problem.  It's hard to move people with original material they've never heard, especially when it's a crowd that wants to dance and sing along.  But therein lies the challenge and reward.  If the club has no preference, I prefer original material all night long.  And there's no bigger complement for a band than when an audience taps their feet, bobs their head, dances, watches you and not the TV, and applauds because it was good and not because it's over.  Originals with the occasional cover.  Let's say 80/20.  I've been more impressed by a band that writes a good song than a band that plays a good version of someone else's material.  That's just glorified karaoke IMO.

 

[rounce55]

I have a friend in a band and they only did cover songs, which kinda makes you think that not a single one of them was like "hey i wrote this great song?"

 

[Robertocaster]

Mainly Dire Straits covers (love to play sultan of swings)..... Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, SRV, Clapton, Albert King, BB king... Santana...