#16
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I write and perform about 98% of my own songs as well.
My songs are stories that I want to tell for some reason or another. Initially, what matters is that I like the song. A song stays in the repertoire when it is clear it goes down well - with some people. I echo the comments above about not everyone liking everything. I treat covers in a similar way. Does the song say something I want to say? Is it a beautiful tune or have lyrics that really tell? If I do rehearse a cover I do so by making it my own - I don’t listen to the original. The tune needs to flow for me, I need to be able to phrase it for me and so on! Often I’ve learnt a song from a cover. When I finally hear the original I’m often a long way off but it in a good way. Covers appeal to me if: The song says something that I want to say but better than I have been able to say it (so far); The song is great fun; The song reflects something important in the present time. So, I treat the song as I do my own. There is a long rehearsal phase no ensure the phrasing is right, the accompaniment is right and that I can create a total performance I am happy with. My covers tend not to be obvious ones. Playing live they tend to come when I’m asked to extra stuff at the end. I have given my closest family and friends instructions to shoot me if I ever start singing Eagles songs :-)
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------ AJ Lucas Pavilion Sweep fan fret Santa Cruz OM/E (European Pre War) Martin J40 |
#17
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The electric version is a young man's song. It is full of youthful vigour and desire that speaks of a young man in love. He is speaking to layla. The acoustic is an older man's song, it is more introspective, it speaks from a lifetime of experience and even cynicism. He is speaking to himself. I prefer Clapton's acoustic version now. |
#18
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I think a lot of people don't like seeing a song they like being "altered" in someone's cover version. I certainly did- until I began doing it myself -lol!
I put my own "spin" on the covers I do, but still try to keep from veering too far from the original. Most people seem to like the result (but a few don't- that's to be expected). That being said, there are a few songs I happen to think just shouldn't be "messed" with...and I still tend to hate when someone takes a song I happen to love and "butchers" it into something completely different. One of my covers that people seem to like (including the original songwriter):
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#19
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Richard |
#20
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For me part of making a song your own is doing songs that are you. We can learn any song and perform it. If the subject, sound, outlook, attitude are not "you" it is not going to make it.
I have a nerd cardiologist friend that loves to do scorned broken hearted trucker songs. It just does not work for him. It comes off as sad and pathetic. Just because a person identifies with an image or identity of a song does not mean it fits "you." Unless you can sound like the original.
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#21
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We should start another thread of "mismatched performers/songs." I'll start: I love James Taylor. But NO WAY am I ever gonna play "Handyman," and neither should any of the rest of the baby boomer guys on this site. Listen to the first verse: "Hey, girls, gather round . . ." 'Nuff said . . . Speaking of mismatches, one of my favorite "teachers" on YouTube is kirbyscovers. If you've never watched his videos, these are a MUST-SEE and for many reasons: 1) He is one of the best guitarists at rhythm that I've ever seen. Watch him play "Rock-N-Roll-Hootchie-Coo" and you'll see what I'm saying. 2) He has hundreds of videos. He has a website where he teaches and he uses YouTube as a sampler. Name a pop song and he's probably done it. 3) He, like so many of us, had a dream of being a famous musician. But he doesn't have the (self-acknowledged) vocal chops OR the "right look." Therefore, watching him play some of these song is a blast because a) he is good and b) there's a reason why he isn't a rock star. OK, I'm gonna go start the mismatched song/performer thread . . . Richard |
#22
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When I was in my teens, if someone did a cover and didn't play it note for note like the original, I was very critical.
To quote a line from My Back Pages: Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now My view is much different now. When you watch this version of Billie Jean, imagine how much we would have missed out on if they'd copied Michael Jackson note for note. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=441mR2zsQbg When I first started performing covers the only way I could play them was my own "interpretation". Now that I've been playing for a few years, I'm able to copy the original artist much better. I still gladly play my own interpretation on a lot of songs. One thing I've noticed is that with sing along covers, if you play it different to the original, you'll get people trying to sing along with the original rather than yourself. Either that or I only play to drunk people. :-) I'd find it boring if everyone did covers as a note for note copy of the original. No, make that VERY boring. |
#23
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Wow...what an amazing compliment. Thanks so much for the kind words, Richard😊. This definitely made my day(!).
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________ Olson Custom SJ (2018) Gibson J45 Custom (2014) Martin SPD-16R (2000) Wechter Traditional Custom (2003) Yamaha LL16 (2000) Yamaha FG 460 S-12 (1986) www.youtube.com/mmcs1222 |
#24
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I've been thinking of some Dan Fogelberg songs that would be great covers for you. If we could rewrite "Another Auld Lang Syne" from the female perspective, that would be a good one, but I can't figure out a substitute so the guy is not "spilling his purse," LOL. "Longer" would, of course, be great for you, too. But some think that it has been overplayed. My question: how can absolute greatness ever be overplayed? |
#25
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I play in an instrumental surf music band. While we want to give the audiences the feel of the original we tend to put our interpretation of certain parts of each song. As an example, "Sleepwalk" is a very short song. We noticed that often folks would get up to dance just as we rounded the last turn and were heading for home. So in stead of ending the song we played a vamp until we returned to the top and played it through again. A two minute song now lasts more than four minutes. On "Baja" we extend the intro which gets heads bobbing and feet tapping. Since the majority of our set list songs run about 2 minutes we have developed ways to stretch them out. During rehearsals we often de-construct a song and everyone makes suggestions on how to improve the way we play it.
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#26
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When I first came to Baylor University (a conservative Baptist university) in the fall of 1989, the Beach Boys were playing our concert venue here and, of course, I went to the concert. Imagine my surprise when they had about two dozen girls in bikinis as a "backdrop" to their concert. I'm thinking: "Baylor? Really?" To put it in context for those not familiar with Baylor, we are about 20 miles down the road from Abbott, Texas, where Willie Nelson grew up. [Willie actually attended Baylor for one semester and withdrew when he realized that the university wouldn't let him grow pot in his room. I'm kidding about the last part of that sentence, by the way.]. Anyway, Willie was going to play Baylor one time (long after he attended here) and the university wouldn't let him. Several years later, though, the university DID let David Allen Coe play here. What?!?!?!? "No," Willie, but "Yes," David Allen Coe? I always explained that one to my students like this: "The faculty committee, when evaluating David Allen Coe as a potential performer, had never heard of him. But they HAD heard of Edgar Allen Poe. Hmmmm . . . "Edgar Allen Poe?" "David Allen Coe?" Must be OK . . . |
#27
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Years ago, I tended to avoid some songs because of the gender factor (in the lyrics), but hearing covers like "There She Goes" by Sixpence None The Richer made me decide it's really not so necessary to be gender-accurate when covering a song- although there is the occasional one I'd just feel silly singing in public, like "Creep" by Stone Temple Pilots ("I'm half the man I used to be..."). I also have a great reverence for the songwriters who crafted the songs I play (mosy of my attempts at songwriting have been futile), so I don't like altering their lyrics, even if just changing some "she's" to "he's". I'll take a look at doing "Longer", also. I think I knew how to play it, at one time (as a teenager). I always appreciate suggestions from people, so thanks! 😊
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________ Olson Custom SJ (2018) Gibson J45 Custom (2014) Martin SPD-16R (2000) Wechter Traditional Custom (2003) Yamaha LL16 (2000) Yamaha FG 460 S-12 (1986) www.youtube.com/mmcs1222 |
#28
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First off : I don't view it as a dichotomy per se or as being one or the other per se. . Personally I don't think the goal should be to try to play it as an exact copy, or try to make it your own. I think the goal is to offer an honest rendition of the way the song makes you feel . I think If you "try" to copy it exact, it will sound like you are trying to copy it ... And if you try to personalize it it will sound false and pretentious ..........either way it is the "trying" for either result that causes it to fail ... Where if the only thing you "try" to do is to play it the way it makes you personally feel, and let the results land where it will. It will usually have a good balance of being recognizable yet personal, and it is the honesty of emotion that most of the audience will connect with.
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Enjoy the Journey.... Kev... KevWind at Soundcloud KevWind at YouYube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...EZxkPKyieOTgRD System : Studio system Avid Carbon interface , PT Ultimate 2023.12 -Mid 2020 iMac 27" 3.8GHz 8-core i7 10th Gen ,, Ventura 13.2.1 Mobile MBP M1 Pro , PT Ultimate 2023.12 Ventura 12.2.1 |
#29
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Your girlfriend's response to an original artist's cover by someone is the response you're going to get from an ardent fan dissatisfied with the cover's treatment of the song. It is what it is. I play JD's songs as he plays and sings them. Again, I was raised in a time when replication was the rule of the day. Covering, watering down copying, relaxed the obsession of paying tribute to an original artist's works in the same audible renderings he or she gave them to us. I cringed when I came back to music in 2004 after a 30 year hiatus. The notion of covering was a ground swell supporting anyone who could cobble together the three chords necessary to poorly cover a song and, tethered at the hip of that whole new movement, political correctness cleared the path against champions of copying. Somewhere in that time frame finger picking was re-coined as the high brow finger style; picking being possibly below the permissible verbiage of the haute of strings. Moreover, those championing the re-coining actually believe it was to re-frame a new concept of using fingers to pick (pluck) the strings. Right. Bluegrass to country to folk to rock to classical to blues to any manner of displacing strings with the fingers, it's all finger picking that does not need to be re-framed as anything more or less, or different. But, there it is: finger style. I do my best to copy original works and I do it for me, not an audience. Some will counter that with the argument that it does nothing to display artistry of the player. I disagree. If you can copy an original work then artistry is what you've achieved. It's at that point when your skills set can pretty much render anything you wish to render. And, most people who can copy an original work have a pretty good repertoire of their own original artistry to give back. Rendering an original in variance to the way the artist gave it to us, and expecting it to be warmly embraced, is a leap of faith. It will receive lip service from some as a matter of recognition for trying, which I can see if comradeship is considered more important that the music itself, but then there's the ardent fan's ear expecting better efforts to respect the original artist's rendering. |
#30
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I just do what I do. The measure of it is ... do they ask me to do it again.
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