if you were in a cover band, who would you do?

[RTA]

If I could be in any cover band, I would want to play covers of The Cult. They rock.

I would play guitar, of course. Just as soon as I learn how.

[Small Clanger]

I have been in bands and some of them played covers, at one gig we played a medley of: Immigrant Song (Zep), Ace of Spades (Motorhead) Let's Dance (Bowie) White Light White Heat (Velvet Underground) and The Lonesome Death of Ian Penman (Soft Boys). The pattern here suggest that I don't think I could cope in a tribute band just doing one band's stuff. (I was nearly in a Smiths tribute band but it never happened, but I learned a lot of Smiths songs).

Maybe a different band each week?
Week 1 Pink Floyd
Week 2 Nirvana
Week 3 The Who
Week 4 Slipknot

OK maybe not the last one.
BTW I play guitar.

[ravage2]

If I had the ability, Metallica.

The cool stuff, of course

[slu]

I would start writing my own songs and then quit the cover band.

BTW I play guitar, bass, drums...

[Lux Interior]

if you were in a cover band, who would you do?

Britney Spears.

Now, as for who's music I'd play....

[Doomtrain]

Hell, I'd play everything. I'd love to be in a cover band.

[Brad Pittiful]

The Ramones

[Brad Pittiful]

oh crap
i meant to put the Clash too

so it would be The Ramones or Clash

[Algernon]

(I'm probably the only one of my generation who is going to post in this thread, but here goes anyway.)

I'd be in the trumpet section of a band that covers early Chicago, and Blood, Sweat, and Tears.

[Wyld Stallyn]

CCR
Alice in Chains (both the grunge era and the acoustic era)
Slayer
Metallica (all of it is fun to play, the newer stuff just takes about 3% of the time to learn compared to the old stuff)

I play the geetar and the bass geetar

[Lux Interior]

Originally posted by Wyld Stallyn
CCR
Alice in Chains (both the grunge era and the acoustic era)
Slayer
Metallica (all of it is fun to play, the newer stuff just takes about 3% of the time to learn compared to the old stuff)

I play the geetar and the bass geetar

What!?! You wouldn't do Wyld Stallyns?

Be excellent to each other, dudes!

[Wyld Stallyn]

......and I would also play join Algernon's band for their encore - "25 or 6 to 4" to play the fleet-fingered Terry Kath solo's.

[Wyld Stallyn]

Bold move, Lux Interior.

Surprisingly, he's one of a very small few on myeah who have correctly linked the etymology of my handle.

Also, disregard the poor grammar in my prior post ("play join..."), I'm pretending that I'm loaded; moreover, my brain is still all jacked up from watching the worst college basketball game of all time last night at MSG.

[Capt. Ridley's Shooting Party]

Either The Verve or The Stone Roses

[rackensack]

I've been in a couple of ad hoc cover bands; our set lists usually included a couple numbers each from:
The Velvet Underground
The Clash
The Ramones
The Modern Lovers
Doktors for Bob
and a cover of "Take Me to the River" that degenerated into a free-form jam over the bass line with the lyrics to nearly every well-known Talking Heads song chanted over that (this was to initially sucker in, then piss off, the crowd around our college who seemed to be aware of no bands in the world other than the Talking Heads and the Grateful Dead).

That was seventeen years ago, however. These days, I've actually been playing bass and a little guitar again, and I've been thinking about what things I'd like to play. I've gotten very fond of playing '60s R&B and soul stuff. So, my set list would include . . .


"Ain't Too Proud to Beg"
"Knock on Wood"
"Shotgun" (assuming I can round up a sax player)
"Cold Sweat"
"Signed, Sealed, Delivered"
"But It's Alright"
"Can't Turn You Loose"
"I Can't Stand It" (a fairly obscure Chambers Brothers album track that I've always wanted to cover)
"Time is Tight"
"Trying to Live My Life Without You"


Assuming I could find other folk with similar tastes, I'd want to consider:


"Cath" (the Bluebells)
"Here Comes My Baby" (by Cat Stevens, covered by the Tremoloes and later by the Jags)
"Watch Your Step" (Elvis Costello and the Attractions)
"I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)" (Nick Lowe)
"Surrender to the Rhythm" (Brinsley Schwarz)
"Girl of My Dreams" (Bram Tchaikovsky)
"When I Write the Book" (Rockpile)
"Is She Really Going Out With Him?" (Joe Jackson)
"Suspicious Minds" (Elvis)
"Start!" (the Jam)
"One Step Beyond" (Madness)
"Till the End of the Day" (Kinks)
"Twenty Flight Rock", "Something Else", and "Pink Pegged Slacks" (Eddie Cochran)
"Rumble" (Link Wray)
"Get Over You" (the Undertones)
"September Gurls" and "When My Baby's Beside Me" (Big Star)


If we had a female vocalist with something of the edge Chrissie Hynde once had, I'd love to do a cover of the Shocking Blue's "Venus" (Bananarama be damned).

If we're talking about tribute bands, that only do covers of one particular group, then about my only hope would be the Modern Lovers or Brinsley Schwarz -- otherwise I have to pick and choose individual songs that I'm actually able to play. Looking back over the lists, it seems that what I really want to be in is a British pub rock band in about 1977. Oh well.

[gyt_fx]

Bigwig
Thrice
AFI

[DeVena]

Janis Joplin

[KidCharlemagne]

Steely Dan and The Who.

[silly_duck]

Rancid
Sex Pistols
Ramones
AFI

[SJSB]

Type O Negative, as my voice isn't that high for a gurrlies :)
But yes, The Cult do rock. Big time.

[nitroglycerine]

I'd have to do The Ramones tribute band thing, because when I let my hair grow, I look like a Ramone, plus, I can do justice to the vocals. Imitating Joey is easy. Put your hair over your face, strike a cool pose and look bored.

I'd like to start a covers band doing obscure 70s and 80s punk tunes much like all those 80s garage bands like the Fuzztones, who made a living doing obscure 60s covers.
I don't mean covering them the way all these boy-band bubblepunk bands cover them, but in ways that stay true to the spirit of the original.

Jon

[Flymaster]

I have long wanted to learn to play "Reelin' In the Years", specifically so I could go to an open mic night someplace and play under the name I thought up for my Steely Dan cover band: Aluminumy Steve.

[WordMan]

Well, I *am* in a cover band, and these are some of the songs we play:

- Green Day - Longview
- The Knack - My Sharona, Good Girls Don't
- Elvis Costello - Pump it Up
- Foo Fighters - Times Like These
- Lenny Kravitz - Are you Gonna Go My Way, Fly Away
- Pretenders - Middle of the Road, The Wait
- The Cars - Best Friend's Girl
- Fountains of Wayne - Stacy's Mom, Bright Future in Sales
- Billy Idol - Dancing With Myself
- Aerosmith - Walk this Way, Adam's Apple
- Ramones - Rockaway Beach

There's plenty more, but you get the idea. Good stuff. At least, the crowd seems to like it.

[NoCoolUserName]

Algernon, if early Chicago defines your generation, then I'm there too.

If we're talking tribute bands, I'd love to do:
Jethro Tull
Who
Elvis Costello
The Bobs

If we're talking bands that do covers of lots of bands, I already have one of those. We do our own material (3 CDs worth) as well.

[Small Clanger]

KidCharlemagne I find that after I've played a couple of Who numbers I can't hear Steely Dan over the ringing in my ears

How about a Steely Dan tribute band that plays (only) Who songs.

Or a Who tribute band that only plays Steely Dan songs? I'd pay to see that.

Or a Smiths band that does Zep' covers...