# Bands doing "surprise" covers in concert.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 8, 2019, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373 "2019-08-08T21:11:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/1 "2019-08-08T21:11:15Z")
So I saw Heart the other day, and I did enjoyed it (they were the lead act, following Elle King and Joan Jett).
During the course of Heart’s set, they covered Marvin Gaye’s “Heard it through the Grapevine”, Paul Simon’s “The Boxer”, and, right after the encore, Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”.
I was fairly ambivalent about the first two, and rolled my eye’s a bit when STH started (only because I think it is an overplayed song), but Nancy is a terrific guitarist and Ann a great singer and played the flute, which added an extra bit of authenticity. I overall liked it, even though it went on forever.
Now, I have a set of Heart songs that I adore, and they played most of those. They didn’t play “Never” and that’s pretty much the only missing one I would have really liked to hear. However, they have a huge library, and could easily have played 4 more Heart songs in that amount of time. I think if I had been a bit more of a Heart fan than I was, I’d be a bit peeved.
On the other hand, when I saw Barenaked Ladies, and they played a medley of currently popular songs, I absolutely adored it.
Do you like it when your band spends a long time on covers?
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/2 "2019-08-08T21:17:01Z")
I wouldn’t call a Zeppelin cover by Heart exactly a “surprise”, as I have heard them cover Battle of Evermore, Black Dog, Misty Mountain Hop, and the Immigrant Song live (in addition to of course their cover of Stairway in front of the remains of Zeppelin but I did not see that live.)
If a band _other_ than Heart covering Zeppelin were to do more than 2 or so covers, it would get annoying but I’ve never experienced it. The closest I came was when I saw Chris Carrabba with his Americana band Twin Forks and he did two Dashboard Confessional “covers” but I liked that as I like Dashboard more than Twin Forks. Another member of the audience disagreed and expressed her displeasure at Chris from less than 10 feet away from him.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/3 "2019-08-08T21:19:09Z")
They also covered El Scorcho by Weezer but that was better received by the audience than the Dashboard stuff. What’s weird is that fewer people sung along to Dashboard than to Weezer even though I’m assuming they had heard about Twin Forks because of Chris.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/4 "2019-08-08T21:25:47Z")
When I saw Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 2008, they had Steve Winwood as their opening act. During the Heartbreakers’ set, Winwood joined them for covers of two 1960s Winwood songs: Can’t Find My Way Home and Gimme Some Lovin’.
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### Author:  [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/5 "2019-08-08T21:42:32Z")
There’s the apocryphal story about when Bruce Hampton (not with A.R.U) opened for Cream one night, and they did Cream covers for their entire set. Those are some large and oddly-shaped balls right there.
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/6 "2019-08-08T22:10:36Z")
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> I wouldn’t call a Zeppelin cover by Heart exactly a “surprise”, as I have heard them cover Battle of Evermore, Black Dog, Misty Mountain Hop, and the Immigrant Song live (in addition to of course their cover of Stairway in front of the remains of Zeppelin but I did not see that live.)
Their live cover of Zep’s _Rock and Roll_ rivals the original.
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/7 "2019-08-08T22:11:41Z")
In 1976, The Grateful Dead and The Who shared the bill for A Day On The Green in Oakland. The Dead opened the show and played Johnny B. Goode as their “encore”.
The Who delivered their usual blistering set and also closed with Johnny B. Goode, with Keith Moon on lead vocals. Kind of sloppy, but very fun. It’s one of the very few times they played the song in concert.
ps: Heart also does a mean cover of “Love Reign O’er Me”.
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### Author:  [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/8 "2019-08-08T22:17:18Z")
We saw Kacey Musgraves at Red Rocks in late June, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear her cover “Do You Realize” by The Flaming Lips. I’ve since found that she did it at Bonaroo and presumably it’s now part of her tour – but she and her band did a terrific version (and the accompanying light show was fantastic). There’s a bootleg YouTube video of that part of the concert, but it does neither the audio nor visuals any justice.
(There’s a YouTube video of the Bonaroo performance as well, but there’s a lot of singing along by folks near the bootlegging videographer.)
Musgraves’s career has been a lot of fun to watch. Her lyrics and overall songsmithing have always been top-notch, but beginning with her last album “Golden Hour” she’s really stretching out into some interesting and more challenging choices.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/9 "2019-08-08T22:40:18Z")
Nirvana covered 5 songs in their Unplugged performance and gave, I think, the iconic performance of each. They did:
**Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam** - The Vaselines. I know almost no one who listens to their version.
\*\*
The Man Who Sold the World\*\* - David Bowie - I’m sure the original is famous, but I think Nirvana really did increase the fame of this song by a lot.
**Plateau** AND **Oh, Me - Meat Puppets** - I only know these songs because of Nirvana.
\*\*Where Did You Sleep Last Night? \*\*- Lead Belly - Kurt Cobain ensured this is the definitive version of this song.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/10 "2019-08-08T23:05:06Z")
> [@Ashtura](#):
>
> On the other hand, when I saw Barenaked Ladies, and they played a medley of currently popular songs, I absolutely adored it.
I saw Barenaked Ladies playing a Canada Day concert in 2017. A beach ball was being bounced around the crowd but it was losing air, so they were joking: “Does anyone have an inflater pin so that we can put some more air into that ball?” Then Ed Robertson started rapping “Inflater” in a parody of Snow’s song [“Informer”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StlMdNcvCJo). I thought it was hilarious.
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### Author:  [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/11 "2019-08-08T23:07:55Z")
No spoiler alert? I’m sitting waiting for the Heart concert to start. Actually I had already checked out the set list for previous concerts. I will see what they sound like.
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### Author:  [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/12 "2019-08-08T23:16:07Z")
FTR in my opinion, the Grateful Dead, though they had a LOT of original material, were the quintessential of all cover bands.
There body of work including covers is staggering. Same with The Jerry Garcia Band. Two exceptional covers…\*Evangeline \*and \*Tangled Up In Blue
\*
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/13 "2019-08-08T23:20:17Z")
Fountains of Wayne used to play a neat 70’s medley with songs like Jet, Do You Feel Like We Do, Carry On My Wayward Son, Double Vision, Story In Your Eyes, Everybody Wants You, Jet Airliner, etc.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2019, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/14 "2019-08-09T00:35:08Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> **Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam** - The Vaselines. I know almost no one who listens to their version.
Nirvana also covered _Son of a Gun_ and _Molly’s Lips_ on _Incesticide_. It’s a measure of how much money floats around a truly successful band that the Nirvana-generated royalties were enough to buy Eugene from The Vaselines a house - something he’d cheerfully admit that his own recording career was never likely to do.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2019, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/15 "2019-08-09T00:53:16Z")
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> I wouldn’t call a Zeppelin cover by Heart exactly a “surprise”, as I have heard them cover Battle of Evermore, Black Dog, Misty Mountain Hop, and the Immigrant Song live (in addition to of course their cover of Stairway in front of the remains of Zeppelin but I did not see that live.)
Miley Cyrus covered _Black Dog_ at Glastonbury this year as part of her hugely entertaining set. Also Metallica, Amy Winehouse, Dolly Parton (well, of course) and Nine Inch Nails.
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### Author:  [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2019, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/16 "2019-08-09T01:16:56Z")
I happened to see Dylan after the deaths of both Carl Perkins and Warren Zevon. He did “Blue Suede Shoes” with Van Morrison and “Werewolves of London”.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2019, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/17 "2019-08-09T01:22:54Z")
I saw the Hooters perform in the mid-1980s and was pleasantly surprised at their cover of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2019, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/18 "2019-08-09T01:28:30Z")
I was at Todd Rundgren/Utopia’s New Year’s Eve concert in 1979–1980, and at one point with no warning the band broke into “96 Tears” by ? and the Mysterians.
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### Author:  [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2019, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/19 "2019-08-09T01:32:12Z")
I saw the Who once in concert (well, I’ve actually seen them three times) and they did “Twist and Shout” as their last number. And speaking of Heart, I’ve never caught them live but they’ve done a pretty strong versions of “Unchained Melody” and Nilson’s “Can’t Live”.
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2019, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-doing-surprise-covers-in-concert/838373/20 "2019-08-09T01:41:42Z")
I saw the Jerry Garcia Band in Hartford, Connecticut, about two weeks after the murder of John Lennon. It was their first performace of “Dear Prudence.” Which caused quite the uproar.
The _Stolen Roses_ album includes Bob Dylan’s version of “Friend of the Devil,” which he included in live performances shortly after Jerry Garcia passed. The audience chatter during the opening chords is particularly delicious.
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