Material for cover band - any suggestions?

Blueingreen

After a long lay off from gigging I've been speaking to some people about putting a cover band together.  The main focus of the material is going to be on the soul/r'n'b side of things with maybe a nod to jazz and blues.  Artists who've come up in discussion include Hall & Oates, Bobby Womack, Van Morrison, Amy Winehouse, Steely Dan, etc.  We don't want to do the obvious Blues Brothers/Commitments thing and would have a preference for stuff with nice chords and funky rhythms but at the same time we need enough obvious audience pleasers to pull a crowd in a smallish city.  I have a good line up of interested people, bass, drums, vox (and possibly horns if we want to go down that route).

Here's our problem: we want a fairly polished, "finished" sound and in this genre that's very difficult without keys. And in our part of the world keys players are like hens' teeth.  Up to now our approach has been to scour around desperately looking for one, but so far no luck.  

I'm now turning to plan B, which is trying to put together a potential set list of tunes that will work without keys. I don't mean tunes that can be completely re-arranged to work without keys (that'd be far too much work). And I know there's a long, respectable tradition from early Beatles through the Clash and beyond of guitar bands just charging through rough arrangements of big production material with the instruments they've got, but that's not what we're about either.  We need tunes where the record doesn't have keys or the keys can be left out and not be badly missed. 

I'm not sure this is even viable, but I'm hoping it can be done.  I'd be very grateful for suggestions for tunes.

EricTheWeary

Which bit of the world are you in then?

EricTheWeary

For Amy Winehouse choons try finding the live stuff from Dingle. Includes Rehab and Back to Black. Just voice, leccy guitar and bass.

Blueingreen

I know the Dingle stuff.  It's an object lesson of what can be done with guitar/bass playing sparse parts and one vocal. but as I say we're looking for something that's pretty finished and will work for a mainstream crowd who are mainly there for the beer/opposite sex - and who will only know the studio records and will broadly be judging the band by whether it can sound like them.

johnnyurq

What about a similar vein to Biffy Clyro's stripped back version of Killing in the Name.

Or take solo artists, boy and girls bands etc and rock, ska, funk or any genre it up.

A punk rap version of 99 problems or some other such silliness.

Do a Johnny Cash on a song like he did with hurt.

Manics version of Umberella ella ella ella ella, hey hey. 

Generally plunder the back catalogue and substitute guitar melodies for keys as that works on some songs.

Blueingreen

Thanks John but I'm looking for something much more straightforward - circulate the records, everybody learn your parts, a few rehearsals to run through the stuff and bob's yer uncle. It's not that I'm not interested in doing more creative/interesting stuff but this isn't the project for that, too many of the guys involved have serious time constraints.

johnnyurq

No worries I got the wrong end of the stick dude, as usual.

Will have a think and see if I can suggest something more suitable.

RocknRollDave

I know this is kind of contrary to what you're asking, but in all honesty the people in the crowd won't be worrying over whether there was a brass section on that part or whether that guitar line should have been a clavinet etc.
People want tunes they know, played well enough that they can sing along - worrying too much about how close to the record you sound is a trap I have fallen into myself, I have to admit.
I'm not saying complete reworkings of songs, just that, for example, something like Moondance can be played on guitar and no-one's going to miss the piano. (Have I Told You Lately is another one, coincidentally) Still the same song structure, same chords, just needs a guitar break in the middle instead of the piano solo-y bit.

Jalapeno

It's fun getting the horn lines down of guitar.

Anyhoo, you have to learn:
- Mustang Sally
- Sex On Fire
- Chelsea Dagger

HAL9000

How about things like Bad Moon Rising, The Weight, etc. fairly guitar-y (look, I've invented a word) and folks will know them. Or are you after something more up to date? Perhaps some U2 stuff like With Or Without You, or One.

EricTheWeary

+1 @RocknRollDave
Much of the time bass and drums can stay as the recorded version as can lead vox and you have to mooch around with the guitar, unless you are doing a tribute and have the exact line up.
It can also be worth YouTube/ spotifying a song you like and see if someone else has already done an arrangement that suits you better. Then send the link and say ' learn this.' Like the Dingle sessions (just add a drum part), which is where I came in...

Roland

Having brass is a real blessing.  How about:

Superstition - more Jeff than Stevie

Smooth

Feeling Good - somewhere between Muse and the original Nina Simone version

Let's Stick Together - Roxy Music

Valerie - somewhere between Mick Ronson and the Zutons

 

fatherjack

If I were in a covers band again I'd try and persuade them to do Whole Lotta Love as a cheesy funk number, with the guitar stuff after the Clanger Porn section being replaced with a slap bass extravaganza.

EricTheWeary

fatherjack said:

If I were in a covers band again I'd try and persuade them to do Whole Lotta Love as a cheesy funk number, with the guitar stuff after the Clanger Porn section being replaced with a slap bass extravaganza.

I am very keen on the Dread Zeppelin version -  reggae with Elvis impersonator vocals (no, I'm not making this up!).

RocknRollDave

"the Clanger Porn section"....!  HAhahahahahahahahaha

fatherjack

It can also be used to describe the fag break in Echoes.

Blueingreen

Thanks for the suggestions guys.  Some good stuff.  One thing I'd say is I want to keep clear of too rocky a sound/feel.  I'm not sniffy about rock music in the least, but it's out of my comfort zone these days and a lot of guys can play it more convincingly than I can.  If we were interested in playing rock lack of keys would be much less of a problem.

RocknRollDave

^ Plus soooo many bands do "oh so clever" rocked up versions of pop songs. Gets dull after a while and never as much fun for the crowd as they are for the band

EricTheWeary

RocknRollDave said:

^ Plus soooo many bands do "oh so clever" rocked up versions of pop songs. Gets dull after a while and never as much fun for the crowd as they are for the band

wheras those of us working up country punk versions of Who songs are onto a real winner ...
L-)

littlethoughts

How about some Bowie? songs like Drive in Saturday, or if you could get the horns Young americans or Modern love would be awesome.

Bellycaster

These may be in or cross over into the genre your looking for.

Don't forget that working around parts where you don't have brass or keys can produce some great results. If some of you are vocally versatile you can vocalise some of the Horn Parts  eg: Bah Bad Ah Baaa! etc, lol.

Bozz Scaggs

Gerry Rafferty

Climax Blues Band - Couldn't Get It Right

Pasadenas - Tribute (Right On)

Robert Palmer - Best of Both Worlds      or others!

Jackson Browne

Rod Stewart

Del Amitri - See Change Everything or Twisted Albums

Journey - Lights, maybe some more smooth Journey tracks without much keys.

Early 10cc - Good Morning Judge

Tom Petty - Mary Jane's Last Dance

Might be something to take your fancy here, a bit of research required on the ones with no song suggestion but I'm sure some of their tracks fit if anyone has their memory jogged by them.