Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Date:         Thu, 10 Sep 1992 13:42:35 EDT
From:         "Michael H. Bloom" <MHB@MITVMA.BITNET>
Subject:      Been there, done that: covers from hell

This is admittedly not up to the erudition of my usual mega-posts, nor is it
intended to be. I'm commenting on a bunch of the cover tune suggestions you've
all posted for Russ's band, because it started to feel like I'd played all of
them myself, or real close companion tunes. So this is more than you wanted
to know about the cheesy bands I used to play in...

From:         "Russell A. Potter" <rapotter@COLBY.EDU>

> How about covering some Richard & Linda Thompson cuts?  Like "Sisters,"
> "When I get to the border," "Shoot out the Lights," or "Withered and Died"
> (Elvis Costello, for one, did a great cover of that last one) -- or of
> Richard Thompson's excellent post-Linda oeuvre ("Keep Your Distance,"
> "Grey Walls," "Mystery Wind," or "Mother KNows Best."?

I forced my last bar band to learn "The Wrong Heartbeat," but you really need
the second guitar, or some other lead/chordal instrument, to play the pseudo-
hocket rhythms off of. This band also did a pretty decent reading of Loggins &
Messina's "Angry Eyes," and almost got our ambitious Little Feat covers right--
we tried to do the "Cold Cold Cold"/"Tripe Face Boogie" medley, big fun. Not
stuff you can do with a trio, though-- this was two guitars, one semicompetent
keyboard, bass and drums. Oh yeah, we also did "Framed," as close as possible
to the Feat version from _Hoy Hoy_.

>                                                         How about covering
> more of the folk-rock tradition that gets no airplay on "oldies" radio --
> stuff by the Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, early Joni Mitchell,
> no-greatest-hits Dylan, Eric Andersen, Phil Ochs?

My high school power trio acquired a girl singer for about ten minutes; I guess
I chased her off by trying to browbeat her into singing like Sandy Denny. What
I wanted to do was Dylan's "Percy's Song" in the Fairport arrangement (cf.
_Unhalfbricking_). Didn't go over; Grand Funk was de rigeur for power trios in
those days.

The most recent Jerry Garcia Band double live CD, bloated as it is, has a real
nice version of "Simple Twist of Fate" (at least until the horrible bass solo).
It reminded me of the nice things one can do with Dylan. I once had the idea of
a Fairportesque version of "Tangled Up in Blue," rearranged into those elegant
waltz measures Fairport (and Denny) were so good at.

> some calssic 50's R&B like Louis Jordan?

I always wanted to do Wynonie Harris's "Don't Roll Those Bloodshot Eyes at Me."
"Your eyes look like a road map / I'm scared to smell your breath
You better shut those peepers / Before you bleed to death!"

From:         There is No Answer <T9AA@SDSUMUS.BITNET>

> I've never heard of a no-name bar band that did "Sweet Jane" or
> "Rock & Roll,"  by the Velvet Underground.

Between the two bands listed above, I helped assemble this absurd multi-guitar
band at the Rhode Island School of Design. We thought we were punks. We did a
whole bunch of Lou Reed, including "Sweet Jane," "I Can't Stand It" (from his
first solo album, with quite a nice guitar solo by Steve Howe), and a version
of his "Kicks" from _Sally Can't Dance_, done as a segue out of Paul Revere and
the Raiders' incredibly sanctimonious song of the same name. I can't remember
too much else of the set list-- I think we did some Bowie, and I know we did
"I See No Evil" by Television, and I'm pretty sure we religiously avoided any
Talking Heads material as they were clearly the local boys made good (this was
about 1977-78). The lineup of this band was: obnoxious artistic lead vocalist
with a huge Bowie fetish, bass, drums, and three or four guitars (we kicked out
one of the guitarists when we found out he liked Aerosmith-- he was superfluous
anyway, but we were also real smug-- and replaced him with a woman who played
tremendously punky violin and sang a primitive thrash version of "I Am a Rock").
We were a bar band in that the only place we ever played (other than one private
party) was the RISD Tap. We only played four performances, never twice with the
same name. Regrettably, the one tape I had of this band has been lost. Several
band members subsequently went to NYC to seek their fortunes; the bass player
did some work with Hi Sheriffs of Blue, and the taller guitarist hooked up with
Thurston Moore (pre-Sonic Youth, the only other guitarist in New York as tall
as John was). This band made some demos which got posthumously released under
the title _Failure to Thrive_ by the Coachmen, with liner notes that tell this
story in excruciating detail.

From:         "the terror that flaps in the night" <watson@HG.ULETH.CA>

> Ah! The Ramones!  I formally request that you cover the song "I Wanna Be
> Sedated".  I did a thrash drunken dance in a nun's habit to that song at a
> Halloween Bash once...  god... what a fool...

The 1981 band did "Sedated." I don't think there's anything foolish about it.
Of course, it never went over properly-- this was the band with the Hendrix
wannabe. We even did Rush's "Limelight," talk about pomposity... The drummer
from this band split for the coast, and got to do synth programming for some
of the less obnoxious new agers out there, including (I think) Paul Horn. He
now has this kinky pseudo-Celtic band called Phoenyx, playing around the Bay
area-- go see 'em. None of the other guys ever amounted to anything; in 1987
we got back together to fumble through the Little Feat tunes mentioned above.

From:         Little Inquisitor <U33963@UICVM.BITNET>
Subject:      re: Re: Another gem from the past...

> Russ, As I was about to leave the list I noticed you were looking for covers.
> Some very modest suggestions: Bo's (actually Willie Dixon's) "You can't judge
> a book by looking at its cover;"

Great song, another I've long wanted to do myself.

> ...  And if daring enough, do "96 Tears" at *peak* volume.

No, this one's been done, entirely too often.

From:         Scott Hammer <SCOTH@WMVM1.CC.WM.EDU>

> How about something with that Bo Diddley shuffle beat?
>
> Who Do You Love?

The 1981 band did Jefferson Airplane's "She Has Funny Cars." I tried to get
them to do some Quicksilver, but could never sell them on the idea. I think the
Hendrixoid resented having to play with a clean tone :-)

Ultimately got my own chance to get my Hendrix rocks off with a real short lived
power trio-- did "Fire" (yuck-- broke my fuzzbox) and "Manic Depression" (a real
nice song currently suffering from a glut of ill-conceived covers, like Defunkt
warping it into 4/4 time). This band was real artsy too; did Gong's "You Can't
Kill Me," Eno's "Miss Shapiro" (_801 Live_ version, not bad for a trio), Can's
"Outside My Door," etc. The drummer subsequently played with Bullet LaVolta up
through _The Gift_ and is now with Cul de Sac; I got him to sit in with Urban
Ambience the day we played our surprise cover of "Here Come the Warm Jets."

From:         Mike Masuda <MASUDA@SJSUVM1.BITNET>

> Friction --Television

Great song, great band. Gotta have two guitars, though. One of my recurring
fantasies (ranking just after the Richard Thompson tribute band with members
of Men & Volts) is to hook up with the guys in Common Ailments of Maturity to
do a whole set of Television/Verlaine tunes.

> "What Am I Doin' Hangin' Round?" by the Monkees

Great tune. Nesmith was a real striking songwriter. He later became executive
producer of the movie _Repo Man_.

From:         Russ Gelinas <R_GELINAS@UNHH.UNH.EDU>
Subject:      bo,bo....bo,bo

>    Lately I've been thinking about doing something by Peter Gabriel.
> Marco, you listening?

My recommendation here is "I Don't Remember." In the key they play it in, you
can stick the open B string into your chords, which gives you a nice ringing
sound.

From:         Walter Keller <WK7@CORNELLC.BITNET>

> Russ: all the freewheeling net-talk reminded me of an idea I had with my
> last band, but we never got it together: Try doing Bo Diddley's "Who Do
> You Love", and then blend right into the Who's "Magic Bus" It works!!

Another idea I had was to play "Who Do You Love" (Quicksilver version) up thru
the first edit, and then go into the middle eight of "Touch of Grey." The drum
rhythms are different, but not as incompatible as they initially seem, and both
songs are in the key of B. Should be great.

> Let's see what else? how about "Rattlesnake Shake" by old Fleetwood Mac - that
> would fit your power trio kind of setup. I'll work on some more.

The high school trio did "Green Manalishi," which I remember as being the only
tune in our book that people asked to hear again. I did it on a Vox Phantom XII
teardrop-shaped 12-string guitar, which got stolen at some point in the '70s,
merde....
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