Open Lunch Report - Thursday April 29th

..so, have a few moments to spare, so I thought I'd jump in and start the LR today.



Had a quick lunch today. Hot dog, chips and tea. Low cost, and filling!

G&L Topic

Do you think the time is right for G&L to reissue some of their more "exotic" designs?? ie - X wing Interceptors???

Would you be intersted in such a guitar? If so, which model??

General music question

Cover Bands....Do you prefer them to do the songs as close as possible to the recorded version, or embellish them a bit with their own spin??

If you play in a band that plays covers, what do ya'll do??


Looking forward to your answers!

Do you think the time is right for G&L to reissue some of their more "exotic" designs?? ie - X wing Interceptors???
Would you be intersted in such a guitar? If so, which model??

Cover Bands....Do you prefer them to do the songs as close as possible to the recorded version, or embellish them a bit with their own spin??
If you play in a band that plays covers, what do ya'll do??

I think an X bodied Interceptor or a G200 would generate some real interest. As for any personal interest, probably not so much now. I'm kind of settled in on my gear, but I bet others would jump on it or at least it'd turn a few heads in the local guitar shop.

I'm in a classic rock cover band. We play some songs as close to the recording as possible, but in other cases we've done a little re-arrangement, like Movin' On and Walk Of Life with a pedal steel thrown in. We steer clear of changing tunes or signature licks that are known, note for note, by 100% of the population. For instance, if you play Layla, you'd better nail that intro and it better sound like Clapton is in the room.

Thanks for jumping in!

I'm in a classic rock cover band. We play some songs as close to the recording as possible, but in other cases we've done a little re-arrangement, like Movin' On and Walk Of Life with a pedal steel thrown in. We steer clear of changing tunes or signature licks that are known, note for note, by 100% of the population. For instance, if you play Layla, you'd better nail that intro and it better sound like Clapton is in the room.

Well, in my current band, most of the songs are pushing 60, and some are very obscure, so we tend to interpret them a bit. Some songs, like the Eddie Cochran jams, and Elvis stuff is so iconic we play it pretty straight. Songs like "Little Sister" and the solo to "That's All Right A Mama" need to be played like they were originally down, IMHO.

There could be interest in those reissues, but like Ches, I'm pretty settled with my gear right now...but who knows in a year or two!!

As for covers, it depends. Generally, I like to hear them as close to the original as possible. BUT, I have heard some very cool covers that definitely took artistic license with them. It sort of comes down to, if I like it, I like it, if I don't, I don't! You know, good scientifically quantifiable stuff!

I was in a cover band some years back and our policy was to get as close to the original as possible...it worked for us.

..so, have a few moments to spare, so I thought I'd jump in and start the LR today.

General music question

Cover Bands....Do you prefer them to do the songs as close as possible to the recorded version, or embellish them a bit with their own spin??

If you play in a band that plays covers, what do ya'll do??


Looking forward to your answers!

Cover bands eh? I prefer bands to give their own spin to covers, I didn't pay (hopefully at all) to see the bands play and try to mimic other bands note for note etc. I like to see other peoples takes on songs. Some of my favourite covers on that note are "Wind Beneath my Wings" -Sonata Arctica (Bette Midler) , Blind Guard - "Mr Sandman" , "Still Loving You" - Sonata Arctica (Scorpions). Those are the only ones that come to mind, you owe it to yourself if you like hard rock to check out the 2 by Sonata (I hesitate to say metal to not scare people off, they are not blow your face off by any means)

Lunch Report eh, I haven't had lunch yet, that must be that hunger sneaking up on me!

I like cover bands to put their own spin on a tune. I want to see tribute bands pull the songs off note-for-note.

If they ever do reissue the Interceptor they really should put a humbucker in it. For an interesting twist I’d like to see them offer a contemporary Invader with a Fulcrum and a sickle head stock. But I don’t think either would be a big seller, G&L has never been a big contender in the rock world.

It would be interesting to get a relatively accurate percentage of sales figures for the three categories of T-styles, S-styles and everything else. I bet ASATs would account for over half.

Cover songs……….interesting topic.

I’ve been in a few blues/R&B oriented cover bands and for the most part, I tried to merely get the “feel” of the song down rather than copy directly any version. Over the years, there were certain songs with signature parts or that I felt belonged to certain artists that I intentionally never even tried to learn…..Jimi Hendrix comes to mind……someone else here mentioned Layla.

That being said, some of my favorite recordings are covers done by other artists. I’ve been a long time “Deadhead”. The Grateful Dead as well as Jerry Garcia’s side projects always included many covers of old traditionals as well as covers of R&B, Country and others, from Bobby blue Bland’s “Lovelight” to Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried”, Johnny Cash’s “Big River”, Hank William’s “You Win Again”, George Jones “The Race Is On”, etc. Jerry Garcia has probably covered more Bob Dylan songs than anybody out there—fantastic versions of “Simple Twist of Fate” and “Senor” among a plethora of others.

Listen to Ry Cooder’s early work for great covers of songs like “Little Sister”, “Money Honey”, “It’s all over Now” among many others. David Lindley does an awesome cover of “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”

Of course the early Beatles and Stones albums contained many covers of early Rock and Roll songs by Chuck Berry and others.

Sometimes a cover of an artist's work becomes more popular than the original. More people probably associate Hendrix with All along the Watchtower than Dylan. John Hiatt has had so many songs of his coverd by others that are probably more familiar to many who may not even know he recorded the original. Angel Eyes covered by Jeff Healy, Have a Little Faith in Me, covered by too many to mention, Riding with the King, done by Clapton and BBKing, and Thing Called Love covered by Bonnie Raitt.

The issue of what cover songs to do can be tricky. I used to get into arguments with band members over what material to cover—they would try to convince me that certain songs had to be part of our repertoire because they were popular. My position always has been that the primary communication between the musician and the audience was the performer’s enthusiasm—regardless of what is being played—If the musicians are getting off, the audience gets off. If I have to plod through “Achey Breaky Heart” the audience will only experience my lack of enthusiasm. I always felt there were enough songs out there to cover to make everyone happy.

We used to do a medley of John Fogerty to get it out of the way—Starting with Green River, into Susie-Q, and finally Old Man Down the Road—all in the same key and rhythm, they kind of just flowed into each other.

Here's a cover of "Dear Prudence" by Jerry Garcia. When I first saw him play this I was mind blown. Of all the songs in the vast library of the Beatles it would never occur to me to do cover of this particular song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqFJ-bRKJr4

Here he is doing a cover of Bruce Cockburn's "Waiting for a Miracle"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYAqomtCsOs


( I tried to paste the links to embed the videos but they didn't work?)

Here's a cover of "Dear Prudence" by Jerry Garcia. When I first saw him play this I was mind blown. Of all the songs in the vast library of the Beatles it would never occur to me to do cover of this particular song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqFJ-bRKJr4

Here he is doing a cover of Bruce Cockburn's "Waiting for a Miracle"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYAqomtCsOs


( I tried to paste the links to embed the videos but they didn't work?)

Here is how you can embed youtube videos:
In the editor, you would select the youtube BBCode and then paste the video ID string (v=<video ID string>)
between the BBcode. See below.

Code:

[youtube]JqFJ-bRKJr4[/youtube]
[youtube]mYAqomtCsOs[/youtube]


Here are the two embedded videos:

[youtube]JqFJ-bRKJr4[/youtube]

[youtube]mYAqomtCsOs[/youtube]

Hope this helps.

Cover Bands....Do you prefer them to do the songs as close as possible to the recorded version, or embellish them a bit with their own spin??

Neither. I like the massive change. Like this:
[youtube]16LI4TUucW4[/youtube]

when you embed a video, should it show up in the post preview?

[youtube]0lNFRLrP014[/youtube]


Search for "Leningrad Cowboys" for more wild cover tunes, many with the Red Army Chorus.

when you embed a video, should it show up in the post preview?

Yes, but sometimes it takes a bit of time for it to initially load.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, I got it figured out now--I was trying to paste the long url that youtube provides for embedding.

Neither. I like the massive change

This one's for you Brock (Elvis fans might not want to watch this)

[youtube]-HIh05FILq4[/youtube]

Hot dog, chips and tea.
Sounds like a great day at the ball park!

Do you think the time is right for G&L to reissue some of their more "exotic" designs?? ie - X wing Interceptors???
Would you be intersted in such a guitar? If so, which model??
Pointy guitars are not in high demand right now so, even as much as I love the Interceptor don't think the time is now. A rear loaded G-200 may have some potential if marketed well. Especially for "that" market. G&L has made excellent in-roads with with both US and import versions and IMHO the G-200 is the only worthy exotic reissue. Don't know if I could get one at this time but have been persuaded many times.

Cover Bands....Do you prefer them to do the songs as close as possible to the recorded version, or embellish them a bit with their own spin??
For cover bands, I like the signature licks to be the same but all else is up for entertainment value. I recall one night of bouncing around a few bars for music and libations and got to hear 4 different vesions of House of the Rising Sun. Traditional, reggae, country and metal The last two by the same band! We just threw that song out and three of the four bands we saw played it for us and all versions were greatly appreciated.

I Love the Leningrad Cowboy's! Someone on this site posted that Sweet Home video a while back and I was hooked. Where can I get some of those pointy shoes?



While we're on the subject of accurate covers or remakes check out this cover of Boston's Foreplay/Long Time. A lot of talent in this video, pretty ass-kickable for three high school kids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H57pWC5rvk&playnext_from=TL&videos=AP_rRUxa-dI

I would like to see G&L make any guitar that they can sell.

Cool music posts everybody.

I am open to all kinds of different stuff. Hail imagination.

I think that any cover band that can pull off an original arrangement should do it, if that is their objective.

Many groups are after something different, so they have to do their own arrangements.

I am in a band that does another into for Proud Mary. The song becomes its familiar self as we get into it but we just wanted to do something unique.