Actually horhay_achoa I downloaded one of your songs. Mind if I cover it?
Now thats a cover i can get into!! ;0
Can we interject some terms into this discussion? It sounds to me like some people are talking about Tribute bands, others about bands that play covers by a wide variety of people, “original” bands that occasionally play covers, and I think that there are different motivations behind all these different types of band.
As I see it, there are:
Original bands, who’s main focus is to play their OWN music - in that, they feel the need to express themselves using music that has not been written for, and are trying in whatever way to make their own statement. That an original band might or might not play a cover or two is immaterial in the discussion - that’s done for fun/to give their audience something “known”/as a study/as a tribute.
There are Cover bands, who play almost exclusively covers - they are out to have fun playing music that has already been written, and are not concerned with the song-writing process, do not feel the need (so much) to express themselves in that fashion, and instead choose to express themselves through their interpretation of something already written. In that way, they pay tribute to the blues roots of rock n’ roll, which IMHO is at least a root of all modern pop music.
Then there are Tribute Bands, like American English (IIRC), who make their business copying as close as possible one band’s sound. They get the same instruments, same amps, play EXACTLY the same notes, including solos/intros/ornamentation, and in general are pretty impressive, depending on how successful they are at pulling it off. They are almost a category unto themselves.
If I wanna have fun, keep my chops up, that sort of thing, but without the “ring on my finger” of writing originals, then I’d choose to be in a cover band - why not? I still get a chance to put my own spin on the music, and show off my knowledge of my instrument (or at least work on it), without having to go through the birth pain of writing, which may not be worth it if I’m not motivated that way. There is a huge population of blues players who never write, just play standards - why is it weird when “pop” players do it?
I happen to feel that I have something to say that no-one else has said/can say, and to that end I MUST be in an original band. I’ll likely play covers in that band, as I feel reinterpretation is fun now and again, and also I can learn from how somebody else put their song together.
I don’t know what drives members of Tribute bands, perhaps a fanatic devotion to one group’s sound, but as an audience member, I find it impressive to see/hear if it’s done well, especially with older bands that are no longer together/with us.
Jeez, this thread doubled in length between when I started reading and hit “reply”…
Just chiming in with my own current experience - two all-original bands, one cover band. I just rehearsed with the cover band (El Kabong!) last night, and it’s a blast to take the Beatle’s “She’s A Woman” and try it out in a Reggae feel. It’s also great to play in a situation that is purely for fun - dance-party gigs only, always LOUD!!!
I sometimes book for all three bands, and none of them are competition against the others (I went into all of them with the full knowledge and disclosure that one of the bands would always get preference in case of a conflict - there’s never been a problem). The two all-original bands are so different there’s never any question about which one will fit a given gig.
I play music for music’s sake only, if I get home with $20 and three beers in the belly, it’s a good day in America…
I would like to add that one advantage of playing cover music is that you make money. I’ve been writing and performing original music for many years and one thing that I have learned is that in the early stages of a project, you are damn lucky if you make 10 bucks. I have personally financed many original projects through playing cover gigs. I would much rather be earning a living playing music than working a “straight job”. If I can play covers and support myself and my projects, I see no harm. The idea is to make a living playing music and not digging ditches.
Another thing, any boredom that one might get from playing “Louie Louie” for the 10,000th time only makes you appreciate when you have the opportunity to put that creative hat on even more.
In Zappa’s biography, he remarks that if you have to take a regular job, make it as boring a job as possible so that all your creative energy goes into your art. Further justification for that cover gig 
And if it weren’t for cover bands Cover Wars on VH1 wouldn’t exist. I love that show.
Manda, baby, I luv ya, but as a former English grad student myself, I gotta say that you need to stop hitting the juice before posting. The typing fingers get all tied up.
As a nitpick, OTR was only written that way as a first draft…it didn’t get published until many, many revisions were made. In fact, it didn’t get submitted until there were several revisions. For an example of JK’s (my literary hero–I jealously protect my Largely Literary Kerouac coffee mug & sweatshirt, and I’ll give you a dollar if you can tell me where my screen name comes from)real “spontaneous prose,” see the incredibly unreadable Visions of Cody. Hell, I haven’t finished it in 6 or 7 years.
As a hijack, has anyone heard anything more about Coppola’s “On the Road”?
In Japanese theater, there are noh plays, in which, totally unlike Shakespeare which is reinterpreted every day, the instructions of each nuance, gesture, speech inflection, dance move, musical note, and stage direction are said to be meticulously handed down from generation to generation. Actors and musicians in these plays are told to perfect the role of the characters, and thus the play, by following exactly the instructions handed down. In a way tribute bands are like noh musicians for the pop/rock stars they are emulating. And no, for this purpose, fake Elvises do not count.
Stofsky, I apoligize for that last post–it was particularly terrible, and my only excuse is that I had a good out-of-town friend stop by right as I was finnishing it up, and she’s the type to not take message boards seriously, and hence, get offended if I asked her to watch TV for 15 minutes while I polished . . .I perhaps should have put off posting it until I could come back to it, but I am weak enough that I worried my post would be ignored if the thread count hit 49 before I could post it. Forgive me Strunk, for I have sinned.
Anyway, your point that
I just want to say that that dosn’t affect the point of my post at all: the myth of OTR is what is used to sell it, is an intrinsic part of the work, in the same way that the Preface is part of the myth behind Lyrical ballads. I don’t think you’ll find a copy of OTR that dosen’t include a version of this myth in the beginning, as proof that this is real, authentic, from the gut “art” as opposed to carefully wrought craft. The fact that it is craft as much as art has to be buried because we don’t really even want art. We want to commune with an artist, a special unique kind of being who dosen’t have to craft anything.
Without the myth OTR might still be read by literary types, but it wouldn’t be read near as much by pimply-faced teenagers who hate their mom. Mind you, that myth makes a great “gateway drug” for those of us pimply-faced teenagers who get hooked and go on to be English majors.