Covers: Faithful or Interpretation

Covers: Do you prefer to hear a faithful cover version or or a new interpretation?

  • Faithful

    Votes: 2 14.3%

  • Interpretation

    Votes: 12 85.7%
  • Total voters
    14
Simman said:
Wow! This really fanned the flames.
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Na....no real flames here. :)

I think so far, all the responders to this thread have a general agreement and understanding of viewpoints....I don't see anyone bashing/flaming.

The thread did spin off into a covers VS originals discussion and drifted away from the initial premise - "Covers: Faithful or Interpretation" ...but the flow of that discussion was pretty natural.
It's inevitable that when you start discussing the virtues of doing covers...the talk of originals always comes into the discussion. ;)
 
I think there is one issue here which hasn't been mentioned. Playing a cover "live", and comparing that to the heavily processed original version played on the radio. I'm sure we've all seen bands try and play their own stuff live, with some spectacular failures.
 
The OP asked:
beatlebum said:
This question comes from a discussion on another forum regarding the right approach to doing a cover version. I know it depends on your purposes so the question isn't how best to cover a song, the question is what do you prefer to hear: a faithful cover, well performed and true to the original arrangement or a different interpretation that works well?
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Note that the OP didn't specifiy live or recording. He just said "doing".

I have recorded ten CDs of my own original material. This material consists of songs I have written over many years, and which, since the advent of home digital recording, I have been able to fashion into a semblance of listenable acceptability. I've posted a few examples here and there.

Over the last five or so years, I've recorded hardly any orignal material, other than for the occasional songwriting challenge in this forum.

However, I have a couple of musical friends, and we get together as The Defibrillators to record, but just for the sake of recording; we do not play live anywhere . . . we're too old and tired for that. But in the Defibrillators we do nothing but covers.

When doing these covers, we set ourselves a number of challenges . .

1 We try to pick songs that are not so well known or that have not been already covered out of existence. For example, we covered Procul Harum's "Homburg", rather than "Whiter Shade of Pale".

2 Sometimes we set out to see how close we can achieve what the original artist achieved. So our cover of Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Heart on Ice" is as close to the original as we could manage.

3 Sometimes we set out to create a cover that is deliberately and very different to the original (for example, we do a reggae version of The Bangles' "Manic Monday", and an almost arabic version of Cohen's "First we take Manhattan").

In the case of trying to recreate the sound and intent of the orignal, the creativity comes from figuring out how we can, with the resources we have, come up with similar sounds. In the case of doing something unusual with the cover, the creativity comes from retaining the intent of the song (specially the lyrics) within a different musical interpretation. For us (and me particularly), the creativity of replication or interpretation is as satisfying as the creativity of composition.
 
When I'm listening to music (recorded or live), It doesn't matter much to me who wrote the song or (within reason) whether it has been done before. It matters a ton whether the artist(s) sound like they gave a sh*t about it. When K.D. Lange does a cover it's gonna be worth a listen. The same is often true when a great songwriter does one.

A lot of this has to do with context as well, Where you are and how you're feeling when you hear it makes a big difference. For instance you often hear an artist use a surprising cover during an encore to great effect.

A bad cover of a good song is WAY worse than a good cover of a bad song. A decent cover of a good song beats a good performance of a badly written song. There is no definition of a badly written song.

Some of the lamest music ever made comes from folks doing cover songs.
 
Greg_L said:
Covers are for fags.
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I disagree. To me, the following covers recorded by established songwriters are decidedly non-faggy:

Cocaine by Eric Clapton (orig. JJ Cale)
All Along The Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix (Dylan)
Blinded By The Light by Manfred Mann (Springsteen)
Light My Fire by Jose Feliciano (Doors)
Ol' 55 by Eagles (Tom Waits)
Mad World by Gary Jules (Tears For Fears)
Rusty Cage by Johnny Cash (Soundgarden)

...and of course
The Blue Horizon by Gecko Zzed (written by me!) :D

-Mike
 
Strat1958 said:
I disagree. To me, the following covers recorded by established songwriters are decidedly non-faggy:

Cocaine by Eric Clapton (orig. JJ Cale)
All Along The Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix (Dylan)
Blinded By The Light by Manfred Mann (Springsteen)
Light My Fire by Jose Feliciano (Doors)
Ol' 55 by Eagles (Tom Waits)
Mad World by Gary Jules (Tears For Fears)
Rusty Cage by Johnny Cash (Soundgarden)

...and of course
The Blue Horizon by Gecko Zzed (written by me!) :D

-Mike
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Well you're wrong. Those songs suck.
 
I like to hear good playing skills. Being faithful to a cover doesn't matter to me at all IF you've got skills to make me impressed.
If you're good enough .... the audience doesn't care either ...... they're usually quite willing to be into whatever YOUR skills are if they're even listening at all.
It's only players with limited skills that have to do covers just like the record because that's sometimes all they can see to do with a cover.
The very best improvisational players rarely bother to play covers note for note.
 
gecko zzed said:
1 We try to pick songs that are not so well known or that have not been already covered out of existence. For example, we covered Procul Harum's "Homburg", rather than "Whiter Shade of Pale".
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For years, I've thought that "Homburg" is just a less mystical rewrite of "A whiter shade of pale". Almost a cover ! Or a retread. Still a great song though.
 
When I run out of original music to record, I find it a definite challenge to re-create a cover as near exactly as it was recorded in the studio.

Keeps your chops up on the desk.
 
Greg_L said:
and we're thinking about switching that to AC/DC's "Let There Be Rock". :D
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Well, if the white man doesn't have the schmaltz, the black man doesn't have the blues, the guitar man don't get famous and the business man doesn't get rich, I want my money back !:)
 
M1Fanatic said:
When I run out of original music to record...
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I've never yet had that happen.
I have a lot of stuff on the backburner that I'm too lazy to work on..etc...but I've never run out of original material.
Usually while I'm working on one song, I often end up with ideas for 3 more songs…so my "unfinished" pile of originals just gets bigger. :D
I guess that's why I said earlier in the thread that I didn't get it why people would take the time/effort to record covers if they weren't actually planning to include them on an album project.
But I guess if you run out of originals at some point...covers are something to keep you going.

I have some vague plans to eventually include a cover or two on one of my album project…down the road… but I don't ever want to include a cover on an album just to have a cover or juts as filler in lieu of originals. If I’m going to add a cover I would want my interpretation to really do it justice.
 
grimtraveller said:
Does this mean Tchaikovsky won't have the news ?:p
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Um, you're losing me now.




Anyway, lol, here's a few of my older, silly, more interpretive covers I've done over the past few years for shits and giggles, if anyone wants a good laugh.

Rolling Stones - Connection : http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7518692
Beach Boys - Sloop John B : http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7234792
Bob Marley - No Woman No Cry : http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7023684
Hank Williams - Jambalaya : http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7560068
Poison - Talk Dirty To Me : http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6669817
 
Greg_L said:
Um, you're losing me now.




Anyway, lol, here's a few of my older, silly, more interpretive covers I've done over the past few years for shits and giggles, if anyone wants a good laugh.

Rolling Stones - Connection : http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7518692
Beach Boys - Sloop John B : http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7234792
Bob Marley - No Woman No Cry : http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7023684
Hank Williams - Jambalaya : http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7560068
Poison - Talk Dirty To Me : http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6669817
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Cool,I liked Jambalaya the best,can't go wrong with Hank Williams.
 
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