Jay Socrates

Don Giusepe Bear

Play Songs or Play Recordings?

I'm not trying to come to any conclusions in this piece, just trying to do an analysis of something we all face.
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Ultimately anyone who plays cover songs falls somewhere on the continuum between the poles of playing the song totally your own way and doing as close to a carbon copy of the original recording as you can.

The considerations are the temperament of the musicians and the practical considerations of getting booked and what we think an audience wants and will accept.

Many musicians find great satisfaction playing as close to the original as possible. Others would like to have more latitude with the songs they play but often feel constrained by believing they need to play as close to the original recordings as possible in order to get gigs and satisfy audiences. At what point is it still fun and at what point does it feel like just another job?

Do audiences expect and demand as close to note for note renditions of their favorite songs, the old phrase being "I know what I like and I like what I know", or are they willing to accept our own versions if they are good music, especially if they can feel the band enjoying themselves and the musicians are good at relating with the audience.

I had an experience many years ago where I was playing a Neil Young song and the comment I got was
"that didn't sound anything like the original but it was the best version of the song I've ever heard".
That comment has influenced the whole rest of my playing career, but in fairness most of that was on the West Coast which seems to have a different musical temperament than Indiana.

If we listen to live recordings of a lot of famous songs, especially artists from the '60s and 70s, we very often find that the artist played it a bit differently each time and often differently from the original recording. A lot of times they took what was originally a three or four minute recording and jammed it out for 10 or more minutes.
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