When's a Cover Song a Cover Song?

[Mr. Jelly]

Okay, I didn't come up with a good heading.

People often say people like cover songs. What if people don't know the song being covered? How is that different than doing originals?

[WolfmansBrother]

Post deleted.

[mr. beaumont]

If a tree falls in the woods and...

[rmp]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

What if people don't know the song being covered? How is that different than doing originals?

if they like em, it don't matter

[donlyn]

When's a Cover Song a Cover Song?

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

*
People often say people like cover songs. What if people don't know the song being covered? How is that different than doing originals?

It's snot.

A 'cover' song is when its done just like the original or most famous version.
Probably safe to assume that most of the audience knows most of the popular songs.

I like it best when the covering act brings its own style and difference to the party. And maybe takes a few chances with some changes.

No way I can sound like ABBA, but I do a couple of their songs.
My way.

Be well and play well,

Don
.

[davenumber2]

If you didn't write it, it's a cover. Seems pretty simple.

[davidd]

Well there are covers and then there are re-interpretations that almost make it another song. The foundation is there but all feel totally different.

Bert Jansch doing "It don't Bother Me"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rRLj-AXq_w

The Robert Plant and Alison Krauss version...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvVGCYWpRQ8

Here is "Got My Mind Set On You" by James RAY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1E6xvM7PeA

And here is the George Harrison version...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_71w4UA2Oxo

[fitness1]

Originally Posted by davenumber2

If you didn't write it, it's a cover. Seems pretty simple.

It is, but I totally understand what the OP is getting at...the perception of the audience.

When I was very busy with solo acoustic shows from '82 until about '05 I always sought out the best tunes I could find by obscure singer/songwriters and performed them often. They comprised around 50% of the material I'd play in a night. I'd also play my favorite tunes by famous artists even if they were deep album tracks.

I'd keep interest up by putting some well known songs in between, of course, but always tried to introduce new music in my shows...and many times I'd get folks coming up between sets and asking about a tune or two.

[Rosewood99]

So would that mean if you wrote the song, but nobody knows that, it might still be a cover?

[Guitars44me]

When you go to your local bar and see a tribute band, that’s covers for sure.

When you go see Willie Nelson, do anybody else’s song, it still sounds exactly like Willie Nelson.

Check out Eva Cassidy live version of over the rainbow for more in that vein.

I apparently am incapable of playing other people songs just like they do anyway, so I don’t have to worry about that. Ha ha ha ha ha

Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/solstice/Kwanzaa/Festivus

Paul

[gfirob]

Originally Posted by fitness1

It is, but I totally understand what the OP is getting at...the perception of the audience.

When I was very busy with solo acoustic shows from '82 until about '05 I always sought out the best tunes I could find by obscure singer/songwriters and performed them often. They comprised around 50% of the material I'd play in a night. I'd also play my favorite tunes by famous artists even if they were deep album tracks.

I'd keep interest up by putting some well known songs in between, of course, but always tried to introduce new music in my shows...and many times I'd get folks coming up between sets and asking about a tune or two.

This is how I perform. I have written very few songs and I don't think most are ready for prime time, but I like to prospect for interesting songs and obscure songs and then make my own arrangements. Then I end up with about a 50/50 mix. I think people are more engaged when familiar songs are played, if they are played well. And my experience of performers who stick to original songs, is that most of them are just not that good. The music we hear on the radio or on streaming services has generally been put through the pretty stern curating process of the commercial music business and most dud songs are weeded out. But there are plenty of great songs that never made it through that process or never became widely popular that can really engage an audience, so I like the process of finding those songs and making them my own.

[davidd]

My rule of thumb is unless you have originals that are far better than a cover in the same vein you shouldn't bother playing them for an audience. IMO nothing worse than boring originals with somebody pouring out their inner angst for the world to witness. A singer/guitarist isn't necessarily a good songwriter and doesn't need to be to be an entertaining artist. Self-awareness rather than self-indulgence is very important when an audience is involved.

[edward993]

Originally Posted by davidd

My rule of thumb is unless you have originals that are far better than a cover in the same vein you shouldn't bother playing them for an audience. IMO nothing worse than boring originals with somebody pouring out their inner angst for the world to witness. A singer/guitarist isn't necessarily a good songwriter and doesn't need to be to be an entertaining artist. Self-awareness rather than self-indulgence is very important when an audience is involved.

Oooh, ouch! That's some brutal words there, man ...but I'd have to agree.

FWIW, our band (trio doing rock covers) does not only the well-covered "fun" stuff for public consumption, but we cover the stuff we like that is still "radio play" for lack of a better term, but perhaps a road a bit less travelled. Moreover, some in our set list are closer to the original while others I have arranged my way, for funsies.

1. The song has to pass the band's approval (no one wants to play a song they personally can't stand, myself included!)
2. To the OP's point: the song must pass audience muster. If it's a "dead response" after a few tries, it's binned.
3. The bold portion is worth remembering IMO and IME.

Edward

[RLetson]

The term comes from the recording-biz practice of producing a version of an already-recorded song, and in the days of racially segmented audiences that often meant a white artist doing a song introduced by a black artist--for example, Pat Boone's famous/infamous sanitized versions of material originated by Little Richard and Fats Domino.

The notion that any performance of a song one didn't write is a "cover" seems to have gotten traction after the rise of the singer-songwriter in the Folk Scare years, followed by a similar movement in rock. (Early rock and roll hits were likely to be written by pro songwriters and given to artists by A&R men.) Twenty-some years ago at an open mike, a young guy asked me what kind of music I played, and when I said "Swing tunes and standards," he said, "Oh--covers." Of course, by that time "cover band" meant a bar band that reproduced radio hits, including the recognizable arrangements. Which was what one of my playing partners did every weekend with his band--the job, as he saw it, was to offer the music the patrons wanted in the form they found familiar, so he made sure that the hooks and breaks and such were all present and accounted for.

But nobody with a decent grasp of the history of American popular music would call, say, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, or Barbra Streisand a "cover artist"--or Elvis, for that matter. What they performed was called "repertory." There were, to be sure, performers who also composed--Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer--but most of the creators of the Great American Songbook were not performers, though a few did have performing in their backgrounds--Harold Arlen and Frank Loesser, for example.

And Ray Charles didn't "cover" standards and country tunes--he transformed them.

[12barBill]

I would say this is a cover of a CCR song. What say you?