Doing a Zep cover...note for note or improvise?

supermac

Senior Member
We're learning I Can't Quit You Baby from Zep I in my bar band.

With most covers I pretty much do my own thing, while still paying attention to the original groove and spirit of the song.

With Bonham it seems almost like heresy to do anything other than the recorded version - even though he was himself a great improviser.

I'll probably end up doing 90% Bonham and 10% me.

Wondered what you guys thought of covering classic rock songs???
 
If your playing covers you should play them pretty close but not exact as long as the audience knows what tune you're playing. It's always nice to have your style in the tune but when you're doing songs with great drummers in them it always cool to at least get the fills right, you are playing the tune so make it cool but keep the structure there.

Bonzolead
 
If your playing covers you should play them pretty close but not exact as long as the audience knows what tune you're playing. It's always nice to have your style in the tune but when you're doing songs with great drummers in them it always cool to at least get the fills right, you are playing the tune so make it cool but keep the structure there.

Bonzolead

Great advice. The only departure from that is if you intend to rearrange the track totally (i.e. a funk version, etc). Be very careful with new arrangements though, they have to be totally different otherwise they just sound like a train crash of a cover. Good luck.
 
Great advice. The only departure from that is if you intend to rearrange the track totally (i.e. a funk version, etc). Be very careful with new arrangements though, they have to be totally different otherwise they just sound like a train crash of a cover. Good luck.

A band i'm in played in Hamtramic a town just outside of Detroit that is known for it's Polish culture recently and we did a few Bob Segar tunes the catch is we did them polka style. Nothing like a "Turn the Page" polka to get the crowd going LOL

The crowd really enjoyed it and we had a great night but that's one of the only times we went out of the box and it worked.

So be careful.

Bonzolead
 
I play in a band that plays mainly 70s music. Doobie bros, eagles, seager, blah blah,
you can get away with your own stuff on most of the songs as long as you keep the main template intact. as far as zep or rush goes everyone will be listening to see how good you play bonham. I would go the note for note route.
 
i don't ever play any cover songs %100 note for note. i usually try to get the basic groove down, and maybe play intros and some "signature" fills note for note, but other than that, I improvise. it's too much work and stress to try to play everything note for note. maybe if i was in a tribute band i'd think differently.

also, when we try cover songs for the first time at practice, i often don't really remember how they go so i'll make something up. a lot of times when i listen to the original version of the song and compare it to my guessed version, i like what i'm doing better, so i go with that. since "no one cares about the drums" i get away with it.
 
It's an interesting question because you are not doing a Led Zep song in this case. You are doing a Willie Dixon song that Zeppelin covered. Playing it note for note is really not in the blues improvisational style. Playing in a Bonham style would seem what was expected if you want to do a Led Zepish version.

If you were doing Rock n Roll, you would want to have that opening verbatim and that ending you would want based on some kind of a triplet motif, maybe even quoting the solo and doing your own thing. But those accents and rhythms throughout need to be there.

You have to play the classic grooves and the classic fills. Someone mentioned Eagles, you have to have those timbale fills in Hotel California if you do the song. Use your best judgment; but there are classic fills and grooves that people know and will expect.
 
Given Led Zepplin rarely (never?) played their own songs note for note like the record live, I don't see the point in getting everything perfect.

I'd think putting a little improv into the song would actually be closer to the spirit of Led Zepplin live than the record.

Same goes for early Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and of course The Who.
 
Whenever I'm doing a cover of any sort (be it classic rock, big band, or bebop jazz), I take the time to analyze the drummer's mentality while playing the song. If he sticks to the general subdivision of the song with his fills, or digs deeper into the various subdivisions/polyrhythms available to him. I think about his use of dynamics, the way he plays the kick drum (always important with Bonham), the way he sits on the beat (Bonham will play a bit behind the beat, almost to the point of swinging his eighths), etc. Then I sit at home and practice the TECHNIQUES necessary to play all the original fills/groove in the song, and that way, when I'm rehearsing and on stage, I can add my own fills if I'm feeling it, but if I've worked at it hard enough, it will sound as if it belongs in the song's original vocabulary. This method is a great way to foster creativity through mimicry.
 
Play it "close enough for rock 'n' roll". Some people put way too much emphasis on this note for note crap. Watch the audience. If their having fun, that's all that matters. Most of them probably care more about their ale than if you "nailed a Bonhamism" just right. Zep was notorious for "jamming" out on a tune. Turning a 5 minute song into a 20 minute song. If you were a "tribute" band, and played "just Zep", then yeah, you'd better be closer on the mark. But if it's just one Zep song in 100 covers that you do, don't worry about it.
 
I love hearing local bands play cover songs with a little variation. Being old and having lost half of my mind and memory, I remember a local band with a female singer doing a cover of a Phil Collins song, that I can't recall, that I liked much more. I have always said that to cover a band 100 percent is like turning on the jukebox. Play the song with some variety and see how the audience reacts. You just may be surprised.
 
Honestly, very few cover drummers play songs note for note. If they could they would. How many drummers would change something like Tom Sawyer if they could play it note for note? I don't think I've ever heard the song played anywhere near note or note from a cover band--and not just the drums.

If you have the choice of improv or note for note, why would you change it unless the band did a different arrangement? The question is not an attack on anyone, but a curious question of why change anything in a cover band?
 
If you have the choice of improv or note for note, why would you change it unless the band did a different arrangement? The question is not an attack on anyone, but a curious question of why change anything in a cover band?

On the flip side, why play it just like the record when the audience could just sit at home and listen to the record?

But I think it depends on context.

If I were to go see a Rush tribute band, I might expect the song to be played as close to the record as possible, because those parts are so much the spirit of the music.

However, bands like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zepplin, and The Who, among others, would improvise over their own songs live. Listen to Live at Leeds by The Who can try to compare the songs to the studio version, and they're not even close to themselves.
To many bands, improving is closer to the spirit, and the point of, the music.

And as pointed out, many Led Zeplin songs, as well as other famous songs, are in fact, covers themselves, that are not played exactly like the original version. Which begs the question, which version do you cover? Throw random musicians in a room and tell them to play "You Really Got Me" and 1/2 will play the Kinks version, and 1/2 will play the Van Halen version.

Mike Bordin mention in his interview, when he joined Ozzy Osborne, he would start to play the songs like the record, but Ozzy himself didn't want the songs played like the record.
 
Honestly, very few cover drummers play songs note for note. If they could they would. How many drummers would change something like Tom Sawyer if they could play it note for note? I don't think I've ever heard the song played anywhere near note or note from a cover band--and not just the drums.

If you have the choice of improv or note for note, why would you change it unless the band did a different arrangement? The question is not an attack on anyone, but a curious question of why change anything in a cover band?

It's really the style that dictates what happens musically in the cover version. Being able to do a creative cover, to interpret a song, is the mark of true musicianship. I Can't Quit You Babe is a good cover version from that stand point, as is Whole Lotta Love.
 
Check out a band called 'Dread Zeppellin' . They've made a long career out of covering Zep
songs in a reggae style with an Elvis impersonater for a lead singer.....

No rules, just fun.
 
Check out a band called 'Dread Zeppellin' . They've made a long career out of covering Zep
songs in a reggae style with an Elvis impersonater for a lead singer.....

No rules, just fun.

Wow, that sounds interesting.

Years ago when I was doing covers--as everyone did--my goal was always to go for the note for note playing. I seldom achieved it but that was part of the fun for me. Drumeatdrum and Delta, thanks for sharing your attitude and perspectives about covers.

During The Song Remains the Same, I often wondered if they weren't jamming. During the Zepplin video on the Biograply Channel people suggested but never outright said that live they were a very spontanious band. Oddly enough, no one in the band was interviewed during the video. Most of the information came from their soundman and friends not connected to the group.
 
If doing covers, I try and get any signature riffs exact (timbales in Hotel California, great example,) but as long as you are channeling the spirit of the song thoughtfully, I think it's OK to go outside the lines, as long as you never detract from anything.
 
Play it "close enough for rock 'n' roll". Some people put way too much emphasis on this note for note crap. Watch the audience. If their having fun, that's all that matters. Most of them probably care more about their ale than if you "nailed a Bonhamism" just right. Zep was notorious for "jamming" out on a tune. Turning a 5 minute song into a 20 minute song. If you were a "tribute" band, and played "just Zep", then yeah, you'd better be closer on the mark. But if it's just one Zep song in 100 covers that you do, don't worry about it.

great post HC & you're right there are very few people in the crowd that will notice mistakes the biggest mistake is too stop in the middle of a tune people will always notice that mistake.

A lot of times if you look like you're having fun that has almost as much impact as playing the tune note for note people want a show not a jukebox.

But it's a fine line the way I look at it if people are digging it and the women are dancing why change something that works.

Bonzolead
 
Whenever I'm doing a cover of any sort (be it classic rock, big band, or bebop jazz), I take the time to analyze the drummer's mentality while playing the song. If he sticks to the general subdivision of the song with his fills, or digs deeper into the various subdivisions/polyrhythms available to him. I think about his use of dynamics, the way he plays the kick drum (always important with Bonham), the way he sits on the beat (Bonham will play a bit behind the beat, almost to the point of swinging his eighths), etc. Then I sit at home and practice the TECHNIQUES necessary to play all the original fills/groove in the song, and that way, when I'm rehearsing and on stage, I can add my own fills if I'm feeling it, but if I've worked at it hard enough, it will sound as if it belongs in the song's original vocabulary. This method is a great way to foster creativity through mimicry.

This is how I learn songs too. I'll listen to a song 20 times and then I go to play the song as close as I can to the original. Hammering the song into my memory helps me learn the song the way it was played originally. Then I can let my style come out and unless I totally forego a signature part that you sort of know has to be in there, it always sounds good.

It also brings a deliberateness and confidence to my playing that keeps everything solid.

For example: Covering John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change" has to have that that delayed snare hit on bar 4 of the groove to feel right but later toward the end I'll substitute a china hit or a crash for the snare hit to make it my own.
 
I kind of think it should be a band decision.

Is the rest of the band going to do the cover straight?
Or is the band going to redo the song and make it fit their style?

except for the solo, Heart played it straight, It was great. had they put their own spin on it, that would have been good too, I'm sure.

I think if the rest of the band is going to play it straight, it would probably sound better if the drummer did to.. !?!?

but, just my opinion, and certainly not right or wrong..
 
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