PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic A note to Eddie about cover songs.

And once again....



When any of those people start playing the local level bar and restaurant circuit, I will discuss that with you.

My original premise included the word "complete". It is my belief, as someone with a BA in Music with a concentration on composition, is that composition is what makes players "complete" musicians. There's that word, complete, again.

I believe, and will always believe, that if you sit a chimp at a room with a piano and play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star over and over for years and years, feeding him when he gets a note right, eventually that chimp will play the song. However, that chimp will never know MUSIC enough to write Flicker Flicker Little Star. There is a difference between knowing MUSIC and knowing SONGS. Most copy band players that I know (again that qualifier, "that I know") learn songs. They don't learn music from learning songs. As they play them for years, since their set never changes, they learn the music theory by osmosis, playing pentatonic or mixolydian scales without knowing they are playing them. There is the percentage that knew those scales before they joined "Bob's Band That Plays The Same 45 Songs as Joe's Band".

If I gave Bobby Flay a flank steak, tomatoes, onions, red potatoes and spices, and gave those same ingredients to 4 other non-chefs that know how to cook somewhat, Flay would likely come up with an original meal where the other 4 would likely come up with something quite similar to each other. That's because Flay is a chef, and a chef creates, where the other 34 are cooks, who cook what they learn from someone else.

And I am pretty much now tired of defending my position on this matter. None of you will change the way I think any more than I will change the way YOU think. I don't like copy bands. Period. I don't go see them, I don't appreciate what they do. I appreciate GOOD songwriters. I might feel different if I had to play in a copy band to pay bills, as I did for years. The sense of being unfulfilled by an art form that I used to be pretty good at just wore on my musical soul. Thank god I don't have to work at all anymore to pay bills.

I have heard my share of AWFUL songs at songwriter nights. However, I have heard some very good songs as well. Here we have a thing called 10x3 where 10 artists play 3 songs each. Cover is allowed, but 2 of the 3 must be original. Most play 3 originals. The weekly event is well attended and appreciated. I went once and had people tell me that the ballad that I did second made them think about a lost love and it made them cry. And when they said that, inside I said "YES!! My song reached someone!" And that is the joy of writing. I don't get that joy from playing lame covers like Brown Eyed Girl and Gimme Three Steps. Let Van Morrison and whoever it is from Skynard that didn't die in the plane crash get that joy.

Notes I am sure you are a monster player after doing what you do for decades. That was never the point. Whether you realize it or not, when you do those tasty improvisational solos, you ARE writing. It takes a special talent to copy Sanborn or Grover, but it took a different talent to write Mr Magic, did it not? THAT is the talent I am trying to discover in me. I can play Mr Magic, but it means nothing to me. It doesn't move me. That lack of emotion shows to the crowd. I had a band ask me to come out and rehearse as a keyboard player. I stayed 2 hours. It sounded great. They emailed the next day asking if I wanted to play with them. I passed because of what I just said. My exact words were "I really don't get into playing copy music. You don't need 5 people on stage smiling and one with a long face because he isn't enjoying himself."

But you know what? You go to your gig tonight and play the hell out of Brown Eyed Girl, and get your money, and pay your mortgage, and buy food, and gas your car, because that's what working people do with their wages.