I'm not great at doing cover versions of songs. For many years, I actually did not learn any new covers. As a guitar player I obviously cut my teeth on learning cover songs, and I will not deny that this is vital for learning an instrument. I quickly got tired of it though, and chose just to try and write my own material.
I listen to a huge amount of music, and I'm always learning by listening, but as for simply learning to sing and play songs by other bands, in the past I just couldn't be bothered. And maybe I was a bit insecure and afraid of criticism too. And maybe not that good at learning songs properly. Or executing it. (This is a hugely cathartic blog post!) There is also the way people judge how good of a musician you are based on how well you can copy someone else's song, that frustrates me. If that was true, we would probably never have listened to Bob Dylan.
I have had a bit of an issue with playing covers "exactly so". Carbon copying the original artists, if you may. Steve Hofmeyer, a South African artist, did a cover album of Neil Diamond songs and sold mountains of these things. He certainly has the voice for the material, but the fact that the songs were sung and produced exactly like the originals begs the quesion: why not just buy the original? Nobody sounds more like Neil Diamond than Neil Diamond, surely. I can't argue with CD sales, so obviously there is a need for this type of cover, but I've always looked for artists who interpret songs in new ways.
Take Metallica for example: they pay homage to bands that influenced them by playing at least one cover version per live set, and having brought out an EP and a double album of cover versions, along with tribute projects to Ronnie James Dio, Black Sabbath, Lou Reed (not Lulu, but live versions of "My Sweet Jane") and some more that I can't recall right now. What they do is interpret the songwriter and original artist's vision and effort with their own set of skills and styles.
They even tackled some more commercial pop and rock songs in this medley performed at a MTV-event. There are many other examples, such as their rendition of "Turn the page" by Bob Seger, or "Whiskey in the Jar" by Thin Lizzy, which in turn is actually a cover of an old Irish folk song. In turn, Metallica's catalogue has been covered many times, by so many different people, and often these versions can bring new appreciation for the song. Just listen to anything by Apocalyptica, or Pat Boone 's version of "Enter Sandman" to appreciate how far you can go with covering a metal song.
Nirvana loved the odd cover as the MTV unplugged album shows us. "The man who sold the world" became my favourite song on the album, originally written and performed by David Bowie. And I don't even much care for Bowie's music. So the new "packaging" actually helped me appreciate Bowie more to some degree.
I saw Saron Gas (now known as Seether) cover "How You Remind Me" live, when it was okay for metalheads to like Nickelback. I stage dove on it. I headbanged to it. Don't tell anyone now.
I especially appreciate it if artists can reinterpret songs into completely new genres, or parts of the song, a lick or hook, and almost rewrite the song around that. A client of mine, Loki Rothman, has become an internet hit with his "one man band" covers of well know songs. The fact that he is a prodigy on guitar and does things to strings that should be considered unlawful is part of the draw of this type of cover. And to see him do this live, is quite something. Without creating an alienated version of the song, he re-purposes it, in a matter of speaking. From jazz to pop he puts his own touch on any song. See what I mean below:
Ok, I can probably do a thousand page blog post on songs that different bands covered in their own inimitable way. And that is beautiful, and a huge compliment to the songwriter, me thinks. But, I have to make mention of one last artist, that has become an internet phenomenon: Leo from Frog Leap Studios.
A metal musician, re-purposing pop and more mainstream songs into metal madness has introduced a huge amount of people to heavy music, that normally wouldn't have listened to it. He plays all the instruments bar the odd collaboration with other musicians. Seeing his version of Adele's "Hello" blew my mind wide open. And then Pete Cottrell ripping the hardest solo over the breakdown I have seen in years... I saw the light properly: doing covers can be mad cool.
So I really like the song "Aerials" by System of a Down. I would sing it at top volume in my car on many an occasion. All their quirkiness, creativity and commentary is just perfectly distilled in this tune. I would often wish I could write a song like it. And I still do.
Well, I tried, and I couldn't. I wrote my own songs, and that is great. Inspiration is needed now and again, but I couldn't write my own "Aerials". So, I started jamming it along with them. And I thought, hmmm, some fingerpicking could work...., but I don't do covers...yet. Then I Youtube'd some covers of "Aerials" and the one below showed me that maybe I could bring my own acoustic feel to it. Not like the girl obviously, but do it in line with my own skill-set.
So, I decided to go all in. With my own set of skills. My voice, my playing, my own solo written for the song, and my weird instruments. Below is a pic of some of the things I used.
I really really enjoyed reproducing the song with my own vibes, and here is my effort. Let me know what you think. I'm busy thinking about some more songs that I can cover. Not necessarily in this exact style, but in my own way. Whatever that might be.
