Playing Cover Tunes

Cover tunes are the mainstay with bar bands. A lot of bar bands do nothing but cover tunes. There’s nothing wrong with that; a lot of bands, including the Beatles and Stones, started that way. But it’s limiting, especially if you slavishly copy the originals.

It’s more fun to play a mix of covers and originals, especially if you do the covers in a manner different from and preferably better than the original recordings. The prime example of this is Devo’s version of the Stones’ Satisfaction. Unless you listen to the lyrics, you’d never guess it’s the same song. It’s a masterpiece on both counts, probably the prime example of “making a song your own.”

And then there’s the problem that audiences do not want to hear your originals, and they’re really not thrilled with greatly differing versions of tunes they know. So pander. Play the covers that you love and they love, but don’t waste time playing them note for note: as long as the rhythms are right and you’re hitting the signature licks, they’ll applaud.

With the bands I’ve played with, that means playing a lot of Doors covers. They’re huge fun to play (I love playing them without keyboards — filling in everything on guitar), and you can improvise your ass off as long as you hit the signature licks.

Sometimes even that’s not necessary as long as you keep the lyrics right. Sometimes not.

If you’re playing in a bar band, are doing both covers and originals, the best way to go is to copy the signature licks on covers, and then play in the same style. Or not (Devo) if you can do better.

Then listen some more, and find other covers. Then listen some more and make more improvements.

The punters (sorry, I’ve been corrupted by Brits) will love it, and they might not even hate your originals, no matter how good and original they are. Play ’em if they’re fun; ditto with covers. Just have fun — don’t slavishly copy — and have fun with all of it.

Cheers,

Chaz

Desert Island Discs

It’s always fun to see what other folks include on their “desert island discs,” so here you go. Since most such lists are for single genres and usually encompass ten discs, I’ve allowed myself more leeway here — listing all types of pop music — and am listing 25 discs, which seems fair given that they cover the following genres (jazz, blues, soul, funk, country, latin jazz, rock, and punk). I’m cheating by adding a list of “honorable mentions.” Whatever. Here ya go: my desert island discs, in no particular order:\

Desert Island Discs

• James Brown Live at the Apollo (1960) — the seminal early funk disc. If you only listen to one cut off this, check out “I’ll Go Crazy.”
• Kutche, by Saib Khaled and Safy Boutella — the best Rai disc. Incredibly good musicianship combined with intricate syncopation. Nothing else in the genre comes close.
• La Cuna, by Ray Barretto — not for Afro-Cuban purists, this disc features a mix of genres (latin jazz, latin rock, funk, soul) with amazingly good musicianship by some of the best musicians of the late ’70s and early ’80s (including Barretto, Steve Gadd, John Tropea, and Joe Farrell). The next time you’re impressed by some guitarist playing fast scalar passages, listen to Tropea’s solo on “The Old Mountain.” That’ll put it in perspective.
• Songs for a Tailor, by Jack Bruce. Impressively inventive song writing, and better than competent execution.
• Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols.  The best, most driving rock album of the ’70s.
• The Harder They Come soundtrack. Pretty much every great tune from this mind-numbingly boring, awful genre on a pair of discs. Huge fun and great lyrics.
• Repo Man soundtrack. Minus the Sex Pistols, the best punk from the early ’80s all in one place. Iggy Pop’s title track is a gem.
• The Sermon, by Jimmy Smith. My favorite type of music — hard-driving blues-jazz with great solos (especially those by Smith and guitarist Kenny Burrell).
• Jacaranda, by Luiz Bonfa. Not available on CD, this ’70s Brazilian-jazz-rock album features great songwriting and very good musicianship. Not for those who expect sambas or bossas.
• Tied to the Tracks, by Treat Her Right. A great, hard-driving blues-rock album by the forerunner to Morphine. The lyrics are twisted, the harp playing is mind boggling, and this disc is better than anything by Morphine.
• Kind of Blue, by Miles Davis. Beautifully executed, the perfect background for a 3:00 am beer out on the patio.
• Everlastin’ Tears, by Willie Edwards. Great contemporary blues. Edwards got totally screwed with this one, signing away the rights to all the songs to the producer. I can’t re-record any of this shit without dealing with the vampire who’s sucked Willie dry.
• Are You Experienced?, by Jim Hendrix. Need I say more?
• Strange Days, by the Doors. Every song is great, including two hard-to-play masterpieces, “Love Me Two Times” and “Moonlight Drive.”
• Inner Mounting Flame, by Mahavishnu Orchestra. Great musicianship and proof that odd-time and compound-meter songs can drive. A whole lot of fun.
• Are We Not Men?, by Devo. The best and by far funniest new-wave album. Contains the best cover ever recorded: Devo’s version of “Satisfaction.”
• The Last Real Texas Blues Band, by Doug Sahm. Great, greasy R&B — a reminder of an era.
• Sugar Thieves Live. Both a wonderful contemporary blues band and a throwback to classic material.
• Losin’ Hand, by Al Perry and the Cattle. Well produced and very funny alt-country.
• Ah Um, by Charlie Mingus. Probably the best, most intricate blues-jazz album ever recorded.
• That’s The Way I Feel (Thelonious Monk tribute by various artists.) An absolutely fantastic, mind-boggling, at times hilarious (via Todd Rundgren!) tribute to the greatest jazz composer who ever lived (and, yeah, I’m counting Duke).
• Bringing It All Back Home, by Bob Dylan. The first album that helped me focus my rage at the atrocities being committed to others and to me by the government and the corporations.
• Barbeque Dog, by Ronald Shannon Jackson. A brutal, dissonant LP with one of the cuts simultaneously in different keys. Thirty years on, it sounds fresh.
• How Shall the Wolf Survive?, by Los Lobos.  The first album by my favorite live band. A whole lotta fun, with uncomfortable things to think about.
• Exile on Main Street, by the Rolling Stones. Not their best LP by a long shot, but the one I want to hear after having a few beers.

Honorable Mentions

• Revolver, by the Beatles (best songwriters of the 20th century)
• Abbey Road, by the Beatles. (see above)
• The Doors (eponymous album).
• L.A. Woman, by The Doors. Like so many other albums of this time, the first side was great and the second side sucked.
• Beggar’s Banquet, by the Rolling Stones.
• Let It Bleed, by the Rolling Stones.
• Battered Ornaments (eponymous)
• Harmony Row, by Jack Bruce. Damn near as good as “Songs for a Tailor” — the songs he saved up while being the bassist in Cream.
• Thousands on a Raft, by Pete Brown. Fun stuff by Cream’s lyricist.
• Raw Sienna, by Savoy Brown. Kim Simmonds’ attempt to match the Beatles. Not anywhere close to successful there, but a very good album in its own way.
• Science Fiction, by Ornette Coleman.
• Guitars Cadilacs, by Dwight Yoakam. Best country album of the ’80s.
• In a Silent Way, Miles Davis.
• Jack Johnson, Miles Davis.
• Bitches Brew, Miles Davis.
• On the Corner, Miles Davis. A great early genre-bending LP.
• Jerry Reed’s Greatest Hits, most of the soundtrack from Jerry’s by-far best album, Smoky and Bandit II, plus the novelty hits (“Amos Mose,” etc.)
• Junior High, Junior Brown. Huge tongue-in-cheek fun from maybe the best current guitar player.
• Gravity, by James Brown. The best funk album of the ’80s.
• L.A. is My Lady, by Frank Sinatra. I still can’t decide whether this is deliberate or inadvertent self-parody. Fun either way.
• Birds of Fire, Mahavishnu Orchestra.
• Treat Her Right (eponymous album). Contains a fantastic cover of Harlan Howard’s “Everglades.”

 

Pointless versus Pointed Musical Complexity

One of my recent musical projects crashed and burned because one of the other band members (a great guy and great player, who I consider a friend) wanted to do what the rest of us considered pointless, time-wasting rehearsals on needlessly complex versions of covers.

(Covers? I mean come on. Give me a break! Unless you’re doing something as brilliant as Devo’s cover of “Satisfaction,” why even bother?)

For example, take the Junior Parker tune “Mystery Train,” that Elvis made famous.

Standard 12-bar blues done in straight time.

Well, why on earth do it as a 14-bar tune and then drop back to 12-bar form for _one_ of the solos? No point as far as yours truly and the rest of the guys could see. A needlessly complex time waste (in rehearsal) that no one would ever notice.

How useless and pointless.

Then we get to the complex shit that makes sense.

Let’s take probably the most complex tune time-wise ever recorded: “The Dance of Maya,” by the Mahavishnu Orchestra, on the “Inner Mounting Flame” album. (I could be, and probably am, wrong about some of the particulars — hey! I’m a guitar player, not a drummer!)

It starts out in a straightforward compound meter 10/4 time (3+3+4), then goes to a straightforward swung 20/8 time (1… a 2 … a 3… a 4… a 5… 6…7 and), then goes double time on it, then drops back to the relaxed 20/8 time, and then superimposes the 20/8 on the 10/4.) Over and out. It’s unimaginable in any other form.

Absolutely brilliant. It just works. Blows you (at least me) away.

Pointless complexity is useless. True complexity can be beautiful.