Choosing Songs In A Covers Band

[lozkerr]

50 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

If choosing covers to play was easy....  Well, let's just say the short version is that it's not!

It certainly isn't. Some cracking songs in that list though! I have Holiday in Cambodia and For Whom The Bell Tolls on my personal to-learn list, but songs for my bands have to take priority. Our 80s band has an additional constraint, in that we push our USP as covering post-punk and indie material rather than anything between 1980 - 1990. So no cheesy pop, S/A/W, hair metal and so on.

 

This constraint - which we don't enforce too rigidly, BTW -  might have cost us a few bookings, but OTOH when we do get gigs we know we're going to get a good crowd. We played a birthday party not long back and this was the set list:

 

1. Teenage Kicks

2. Somewhere In My Heart

3. Back On The Chain Gang

4. Love Will Tear Us Apart

5. Rip It Up (the Orange Juice song)

6. Love Shack

7. Town Called Malice

8. The One I Love

9. Call Me

10. Suffragette City

11. Happy Birthday (the Altered Images song)

12. Psycho Killer

13. Long Train Running (at birthday boy's request - dad rock isn't really our thing)

14. Dignity

15. The Whole Of The Moon

16. She Sells Sanctuary

17. Don't You Forget About Me

18. This Charming Man

19. Tainted Love

20. Purple Rain

 

All in all, it went down very well. We had people up and dancing almost immediately (although we started long after the party did, so the punters were nicely lubricated) and we got a lot of applause at the end (or they could have just been relieved that we'd finished!). 

 

I think having the constraint in place helps to narrow things down when selecting songs, but it just reduces the disagreement problem rather than eliminating it completely.

[Jackroadkill]

21 minutes ago, lozkerr said:

It certainly isn't. Some cracking songs in that list though! I have Holiday in Cambodia and For Whom The Bell Tolls on my personal to-learn list, but songs for my bands have to take priority. Our 80s band has an additional constraint, in that we push our USP as covering post-punk and indie material rather than anything between 1980 - 1990. So no cheesy pop, S/A/W, hair metal and so on.

 

This constraint - which we don't enforce too rigidly, BTW -  might have cost us a few bookings, but OTOH when we do get gigs we know we're going to get a good crowd. We played a birthday party not long back and this was the set list:

 

1. Teenage Kicks

2. Somewhere In My Heart

3. Back On The Chain Gang

4. Love Will Tear Us Apart

5. Rip It Up (the Orange Juice song)

6. Love Shack

7. Town Called Malice

8. The One I Love

9. Call Me

10. Suffragette City

11. Happy Birthday (the Altered Images song)

12. Psycho Killer

13. Long Train Running (at birthday boy's request - dad rock isn't really our thing)

14. Dignity

15. The Whole Of The Moon

16. She Sells Sanctuary

17. Don't You Forget About Me

18. This Charming Man

19. Tainted Love

20. Purple Rain

 

All in all, it went down very well. We had people up and dancing almost immediately (although we started long after the party did, so the punters were nicely lubricated) and we got a lot of applause at the end (or they could have just been relieved that we'd finished!). 

 

I think having the constraint in place helps to narrow things down when selecting songs, but it just reduces the disagreement problem rather than eliminating it completely.

 

Wow, that's a superb set - I'd love to see you play it one day.

[SuperSeagull]

Having just questioned why we shouldn’t include some Oasis in the set I’ve been told Liam has a flat vocal delivery and it’s all just ripped off from T Rex who did it with style and panache. Personally I’d have been happy to sell out gigs like Oasis did with flat vocals and not as much panache as T Rex - suspect our usual pub audiences wouldn’t mind either. Hey Ho. Great ideas and thoughts in response to my original post - thanks all. Any bands in the Sussex area need a bass player? 😂

Edited July 13 by SuperSeagull

[Woodinblack]

7 hours ago, jezzaboy said:

Likewise I didn`t join a band after the drummer said that he hated Oasis and refused to play any of their songs. 

 

I hate oasis and won't do any of there songs, it hasn't done me much harm over the last few hundred gigs in the last decade.

However, if something doesn't work when you are playing it, it doesn't work and it needs to be dropped. We had done a few songs we thought would go down a storm and didn't, so we did them a few times but then dropped them.

[Phil Starr]

On 12/07/2024 at 09:32, SuperSeagull said:

I'm interested in how those of you in covers band go about selecting new material. My band has an aspiration to refresh our set list but we (I!) keep banging up against our guitarist and band boss who simply dismisses anything by artists he doesn't like eg Fleetwood Mac, Oasis, Killers, or genres he similarly doesn't like eg anything vaguely punky. He is a lovely guy, a very good musician and he works very hard on managing gigs, rehearsals etc but has what I think is a blind spot in this area. I'm of the view we are entertainers, need to give the punters what they want which is stuff they recognise, can sing along to rather than more obscure numbers from 50 or 60 years ago. How do others do it?

Set lists are a bug bear of most bands. It always seems to end up being behind band fall outs and politics. I'm a bit of a set list nazi if the band let me get away with it if I'm honest. I used to be a DJ in the days of vinyl 45's and the whole show was really about creating an atmosphere in the room with the choice of songs. I was also a schoolteacher so manipulating a group of people into doing something they didn't want to do and getting them to enjoy it was a bit of a career choice

 

Left to my own devices entertaining the room is what I want to do. I'll play pretty much anything that will create an audience reaction, Mustang Sally, Seven Nation Army, Summer69, Sweet Caroline are all grist to the mill even if I personally hate the songs. However I think the best bands have an identity and that is reflected in the music and the set they put together. I probably wouldn't go to see a general covers band other than as research but I'll quite enjoy and seek out pretty much any genre band. I'd never listen to country at home but a couple of Modern Country/ Americana bands I've seen recently have been a joy.

 

@Happy Jack is right too, if the singer can't sing it why are you even considering it? You can't put a capo on a singer. Why would you do a keyboard song if you have no keyboard or eff up a 7/8 song if your drummer is strictly four to the floor. If you have a great Sax player why wouldn't you look for great sax songs.

 

However you've got a band leader, a nice guy who works hard and crucially gets the gigs.  Maybe he's formed the band just to play that set list and that's why he works so hard at it. I've joined existing bands and just accepted their set list and that's a different joy. You turn up plug in and play, somebody else does all the work it's bloody wonderful while it lasts. Then someone starts lobbying to change the set list and the band leader accepts a few changes but loses heart as their project falls apart and tensions increase when two or more people form a clique and suddenly it's all over, the magic is gone.

 

I'd be looking carefully to see where this band is going, presumably you accepted that set list when you joined, this is never going to be a reggae band or play hip hop. If you really wnat to play an entirelydifferent set then look for another band. I love a democracy but if one person is doing all the work then they get to make most of the decisions. You guys need to talk maybe but be careful not to kill the goose that lays all the golden eggs.

[Mickeyboro]

The above is a truly excellent post!👏

[Mykesbass]

8 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

The above is a truly excellent post!👏

I second that emotion.

[TimR]

I've never seen any reason to veto any song. It's 3 minutes. Play the thing and see how it goes down. 

 

I have voiced an opinion on songs that have been suggested that I've learned for previous bands that have bombed. But that's from past experinece rather than some 'feeling'. 

Edited July 14 by TimR

[TimR]

Ultimately, regardless of the instrumentation on the original, if the guitarist can strum the chords and the singer can sing it, the rest is down to your arrangement.

[Happy Jack]

19 minutes ago, TimR said:

I've never seen any reason to veto any song. It's 3 minutes. Play the thing and see how it goes down. 

 

Pretty much my view, but I've always found that the Veto is a useful pressure release valve for my bandmates. 

 

A number of very good songs have been banned over the years for reasons varying from "that's not what I signed up for" through "too cheesy" all the way to no apparent reason at all.

 

Frustrating as that is, if it made them feel better and having some sort of influence on the band's direction of travel, then that's all good.

 

We are able to select material from 70 years of popular music, millions of songs, many thousands of hours. If we can't find three hours' worth that all band members want to play then there's something seriously wrong somewhere. 

[neepheid]

42 minutes ago, TimR said:

I've never seen any reason to veto any song. It's 3 minutes. Play the thing and see how it goes down. 

 

I have voiced an opinion on songs that have been suggested that I've learned for previous bands that have bombed. But that's from past experinece rather than some 'feeling'. 

 

My entries on the cheese pile are generally because "every other covers band plays that one, and it isn't even that good".  I think that's a perfectly reasonable reason to veto a song.  To try to swim a little against the tide.  Fk Dakota, Fk Sex on Fire on that basis.  There will be others and I'll veto them too when they come up.

[SuperSeagull]

6 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

Set lists are a bug bear of most bands. It always seems to end up being behind band fall outs and politics. I'm a bit of a set list nazi if the band let me get away with it if I'm honest. I used to be a DJ in the days of vinyl 45's and the whole show was really about creating an atmosphere in the room with the choice of songs. I was also a schoolteacher so manipulating a group of people into doing something they didn't want to do and getting them to enjoy it was a bit of a career choice

 

Left to my own devices entertaining the room is what I want to do. I'll play pretty much anything that will create an audience reaction, Mustang Sally, Seven Nation Army, Summer69, Sweet Caroline are all grist to the mill even if I personally hate the songs. However I think the best bands have an identity and that is reflected in the music and the set they put together. I probably wouldn't go to see a general covers band other than as research but I'll quite enjoy and seek out pretty much any genre band. I'd never listen to country at home but a couple of Modern Country/ Americana bands I've seen recently have been a joy.

 

@Happy Jack is right too, if the singer can't sing it why are you even considering it? You can't put a capo on a singer. Why would you do a keyboard song if you have no keyboard or eff up a 7/8 song if your drummer is strictly four to the floor. If you have a great Sax player why wouldn't you look for great sax songs.

 

However you've got a band leader, a nice guy who works hard and crucially gets the gigs.  Maybe he's formed the band just to play that set list and that's why he works so hard at it. I've joined existing bands and just accepted their set list and that's a different joy. You turn up plug in and play, somebody else does all the work it's bloody wonderful while it lasts. Then someone starts lobbying to change the set list and the band leader accepts a few changes but loses heart as their project falls apart and tensions increase when two or more people form a clique and suddenly it's all over, the magic is gone.

 

I'd be looking carefully to see where this band is going, presumably you accepted that set list when you joined, this is never going to be a reggae band or play hip hop. If you really wnat to play an entirelydifferent set then look for another band. I love a democracy but if one person is doing all the work then they get to make most of the decisions. You guys need to talk maybe but be careful not to kill the goose that lays all the golden eggs.

Some great stuff here. Just to clarify, we’ve dropped loads of new song ideas because the singer can’t do them, that’s just common sense. The set list has changed during my three years in the band because there is a desire to get more songs that people know and will sing / dance to. It’s how we go about that which is interesting, and yes I will give way more slack to someone who works their backside off to do all the crappy organisation stuff that comes with a band, and maybe I am in band where the person who does all that has the final say on the set list.

[T-Bay]

We allow all members to veto any song they hate. With so many songs, why would play stuff some of the band hate? There are very few on the list and it’s never been abused.

[Jackroadkill]

Yeah, I didn't get into this to play things I don't like.  I don't like golf, so I don't play that, either.

[Woodinblack]

TBH, apart from Oasis, the things I tend to vito are things that I know that we can't play well, or that none of the singers can sing. There is a tendancy to suggest songs that are well out of the singers range, and I seem to be more realistic about the bands abilities than some, especially the new keyboard player who said the other day when I said it was too complicated that 'we could play anything, don't be negative' - that is untrue, I have been in this band 7 years, and we plainly can't. Anything with tricky timing or iconic solos, not going to work. Also, we have a saxaphone player and we need to remember that.

[Muzz]

I play in a very busy band because the extra money is a thing (with having a boy at Uni who apparently needs to eat every day - I've spoken to him about this, but he's adamant - and his loans don't cover his living costs, plus he's in a small town Uni where jobs are very scarce), and as someone once said 'my musical integrity is entirely soluble in cash'. I'm there in the pub to entertain punters, that's the start and finish of it, and if what entertains them is Oasis and SoF, then I'll play it, and I'll play it the very best of my ability. There are songs I enjoy playing more than others, but I'm not so precious that I won't play something I wouldn't have on my Spotify playlist. It's a function of wanting as many gigs as possible, if I didn't want to gig much I could be more picky, but I do and I'm not.

 

The only time I've pushed back against the BL/Gig Getter/Singist/geetard with his choices is when the songs just won't work: he also does a couple of jam/acoustic nights, and will come with ideas that might work (and apparently have worked) as a quirky acoustic cover, but not in a band setting - the latest one is Blue Monday, which in a guitar/bass/percussion/drums band is just never going to fly.

 

 

[BigRedX]

19 minutes ago, Muzz said:

the latest one is Blue Monday, which in a guitar/bass/percussion/drums band is just never going to fly.

 

Before you dismiss it completely, have a listen to one of the more "rocky" covers of Blue Monday. You just need to ignore the original arrangement and concentrate on working out which instruments are going to do the main hooks of the song. However what would rule it out for me is how little there is to do for the singer, and IMO vocals are the main focal point for a covers band. In that respect there are better New Order songs to consider like True Faith or Regret.

[Muzz]

Yeah, I've been through it, the BL has strummed it to me (on his acoustic), and as you say, without the iconic arrangement (or any keys) there's not much left - the vocal line was written to be downbeat and pretty monotone, I really, really can't hear it in a pub. We're not a rock band per se, either, there's no realistic way to get the hookys (SWIDT?) in there...none of those rocky covers are anywhere near the power of the original...and most of them have keys in anyway.

 

As I say, in terms of a quirky acoustic I can see the novelty (after all there's a million ads out there with 'quirky acoustic' versions of classic songs), I'm pretty much convinced in a Dog & Duck band setting it'll fall completely flat.

 

I'm currently working on some Moog-y synth presets for the Stomp, if I could get one nailed it might stand a chance, but if you can hear congas and bongos in it, you're a better man than I am...

[Bassfinger]

One of the many reasons I recently quit out band was over song choice.

 

They'd prattle on about doing what the crowd wants to hear, but then chuck in  load of rubbish by James simply because our guitarist liked them...and you could see the boredom on the audiences faces.

 

The only one I managed to sneak in was a heavy rock version of video Killed the Radio Star, which invariably got lots of claps and cheering, but other than that it was a song choice dictatorship with inconsistent reasoning that changed to suit the song he wanted to do next.  It was doing my head in, the audience weren't digging it, so why bother?

[Greg Edwards69]

2 hours ago, Bassfinger said:

They'd prattle on about doing what the crowd wants to hear, but then chuck in  load of rubbish by James simply because our guitarist liked them...and you could see the boredom on the audiences faces.

We played "Sit Down" at a gig a few months ago because one of the singers was convinced it would go down really well.

 

We haven't played it again since.

[Jackroadkill]

15 minutes ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

We played "Sit Down" at a gig a few months ago because one of the singers was convinced it would go down really well.

 

We haven't played it again since.

 

I love that song but I don't think I'd play it at a gig, probably for the reason given by @Bassfinger.  I find it hard to separate what I love from what an audience - mostly of non-musos - are going to enjoy, but it has to be done to some degree.  It's a shame your singer was so insistent.

[Woodinblack]

It is wierd, we have added songs that we thought would go down well and they didn't.

I wanted to do 'In the end', the ska version, as we do some ska stuff, but the group decided that we would just do the linkin park version, although we weren't convinced it would work well. Turns out, it really goes down well, even with groups of people you really wouldn't expect.

[PaulWarning]

I think it's important to stick to one genre, if you try and please all the people you'll please no one, in the band I'm in covers are chosen by consensus, but if someone really doesn't want to do a certain song we don't do it, after all if someone refuses to learn a song what can you do? besides kick them out the band, I've recently done this, the singer wanted to learn Ruby Soho by Rancid, but we'd already tried Timebomb, a more popular song, according to Spotify streams, by Rancid and it flopped and got dropped, so I wasn't going to waste my time learning it

[Greg Edwards69]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

It is wierd, we have added songs that we thought would go down well and they didn't.

I wanted to do 'In the end', the ska version, as we do some ska stuff, but the group decided that we would just do the linkin park version, although we weren't convinced it would work well. Turns out, it really goes down well, even with groups of people you really wouldn't expect.

Indeed, we played it (by request) at a wedding at the weekend. Probably the song that went down the best all evening.

 

On the subject of doing alternate versions of songs, whatever you do, don't do a mashup. Well, not unless it's really, really good! We tried Rock Candy's "Don't Stop The Sandman" years ago. I actually played it quite well, but imagine the pub audience's disappointment when they heard the opening riff of Enter Sandman only for it to segue into Don't Stop Believing. Never again.

Edited July 16 by Greg Edwards69

[Bassfinger]

We did a mashup, against my better advice, of All Of Me and Enter Sandman. Yes, honest.

 

It went down like a mother in law joke at a WI cake sale.