Yep, whether or not we liked it, the Zep surviving members and Jason did. Not a dry eye among them.

Speaking of great covers. Check this out. In a pizza shop......boys can sing.

Toto's Africa....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLrC7e3vSv8

Beautiful job!

Bill,
If you have an iPad, check out Onsong. It's a cool app for organizing songs, changing keys, etc.

As far as playing music you don't care for....my band pretty much plays the Big 100 playlist. Some of this stuff I have heard so many times, it's back ground noise. So when we pick something, I go learn the guitar parts. I have learned a ton and found that I really enjoy the challenge of it and I find a lot of stuff to appreciate about most songs. We're a one guitar band, so we have to arrange stuff and occasionally I do some singing... In playing some of these tired classics, I start to see why they were popular and people like them.

Is playing originals not an option?

I swear, I will never get the appeal of playing in a cover band. To me, playing in a band is about writing, arranging, and performing one's (the band's) own songs, rather than playing stuff that the audience has heard literally thousands of times.

Plus, I'd rather come up with my own bass line (and arrangement) than try to mimic what somebody else has done.

(Prolly because I suck!) SmileWavy

I went through this last July and spent about six weeks totally woodshedding six songs they gave me to learn. They are some of the most challenging guitar songs of the 80s and I was really glad the audition forced me to finally learn these songs. We just had our second gig this past Fri. night. It's been non-stop drama going through bassists. The first one had a death in the family two weeks before the first gig and said he couldn't make it. The guy who was to fill in got West Nile Virus five days before the Sept. 19 gig and he's still in a coma. So the first one filled in for the gig and then took off permanently. It just went downhill from there. This past Fri. night we had a fill-in bassist who had never practiced with us before and we hadn't even had a band practice in two weeks, as our regular bassist was also deathly ill and canceled practices. All we could do was practice at home and encourage the fill-in bassist to do his best to learn 35 songs and perform them without a single band rehearsal. Last Sunday the singer called and asked me to learn a few more Ozzy tunes just to accommodate the bassist, who was from an Ozzy tribute band. I spent countless hours on the solo for Flying High Again and then we ended up having to cut it out at the end of the last set. So pissed.

I'm trying to put together a VH tribute after seeing such a gawd awful one here a few weeks ago. The drummer who responded to my CL ad, and whose old band I had seen a few times, invited me to come to his gig the following Sat. Once there he asked if I would sit in for a few VH tunes. I was totally not expecting to have to play and had about seven beers in me. But I figured it was a test and I had to do it to prove myself. So I did and it went ok. He definitely wants to work with me now.

Band stuff has been consuming me for a few hours every single day and it's really brought my chops up. But it can be exhausting and very stressful.

Rick its all very silly, but it keeps you sharp. There are few things finer than feeling a guitar singing away in your hands. Its good for the soul.

Well, you know what I mean.

Sure- but if you've BTDT, and youre a bit older (with all the commitments tat brings) and you've still your chops and want to play (its a drug)....

It doesn't have to be Jessies Girl, Proud Mary and Hit Me with your Best Shot...it can be Black Betty, Lazy and Black Rose.....

if you don't like the material, don't join the band. You will eventually quit and you have wasted their time and yours. I had a local cover band call me about joining to fill the gaps. They are a well known local band, been together since the 60's. I gave them my resume' and asked them to send me a play list. Knowing they were a cover band I figured I knew most of the material so it would be easy. Then I got the list and started going through it....hooo boy. Like finger nails on a blackboard. Every song I have played a thousand times was on that list. If I had to play Mustang Sally one more time, I think I would hang my self. I just couldn't do it. Not that I feel I'm above that list, it's just that I knew I wouldn't be happy and I would be wasting both our time. I referred them to a friend of mine who is with them still. It was the right thing to do.

Depending on where you live, if you only want to play originals, get used to having a very light gig schedule and, when you do gig, playing in front of very thin crowds of mostly close friends and family and maybe even whose tickets you paid for just to get them to show up.

I'm not doing this to get famous or sell albums. I just want to play the music I grew up on, always improve at playing it, hone the chops and have some fun watching old people dance and sing after getting a few drinks in them. The money is icing on the cake.

Good luck. I've done this many times and it sucks. I won't play anymore unless I'm in charge and the set list is 100% agreed to and loved by all. If I hate the song or the band, why would I want to stand there pretending to like it as well as having to learn it.

These are the WORST types of bands. Ill go so far as to say that any person willing to stand there and listen to it is a moron

My local Craigslist had adds for these types of bands more than anything else. It's depressing.

The last 20 years has seen a serious decline in creativity and intelligence in the music scene if u ask me

There's a local band that plays only British Invasion music and they are the best. You can't watch them and not sing along with every song - Beatles, The Who, Yardbirds, Kinks, etc. I am so happy that band exists. You can't see that anywhere else and it's such great music.

We have several of these and I love it too. I like when a band focuses on something specific and does it well. Going from beatles to Judas Priest is lame as a player and audience

Oh, man. Just depends how strongly you feel about things, I guess. I was in a band whose leader wanted us to cover "Sweet Home Alabama," the Lynyrd Skynyrd tune. We ran through it and I just stopped because I found it to be such a racist piece of crap ("...in Birmingham we love the governor....", referring, I deduced, to George Wallace, the segregationist). Wouldn't do it. Would quit before I would do it. Now this is just me, mind you. But you have to have your standards, I think, and you owe it to yourself to stick to them. (Oh, wait, I hope this comment does not condemn this thread to PARF - that's not at all the intention.)

There is a lot to be said for keeping great music like that relevant and alive. My band recently took a foray into modern stuff and I play it, but this stuff will not endure. I cant even tell you what the songs are called.

Great songs stand up. Not all of us can write them.

I hope not either, but I have never seen anyone make that argument before. Interesting. I don't think you could get away from NOT playing that on the east coast.



Interesting.

Funny thing, Targa, for everyone that ****ing sick of it, there are others willing to do it. I am on another forum and basically I looked at the list of stuff that people are tired of playing and I figured I needed to learn those. Sort of like the ABCs of playing with other people. I'm an admitted hack, I have played on and off a while, but I need these tunes to play with other folks. Our drummer has emerged from his basement having not played with folks before and it's sort of like we have enough skills to work well together but we're not tired out of all these tunes. If I had to hear them, like on the radio, yes, but it's an easy way to connect quickly. I had never played mustang sally or brown eyed girl before. I had to learn them. LOL

Wasn't it just the opposite? Hence the "boo hoo hoo" in the next line.

You know, Skynyrd hated Neil Young also.

I understand, believe me. If you want to fill a dance floor, play brown eyed girl or mustang sally I get it. However, I have been a bass player since those songs were first released. Believe me it gets old after 50 years. If I had a dollar for every time I've played just those two songs I would have a big pile of money. I'm not being a snob by any means and if somebody requests it in a 4 set show, we will play them, but we all kinda roll our eyes and moan under our breath. :rolleyes: