Popular bands that are rarely covered

Teetonetal

Really? I know I've played the following songs in covers bands fairly regularly.

won't get fooled again
my generation
Substitute
Crazy little thing called love
Wish you were here
Another Brick in the wall
Black Knight

As others have said, getting the singer right is key - often a semitone down for the tuning is required.

Interestingly, for me, I don't think I've ever played a Clapton or Cream song in a band.

RocknRollDave

Depends on how 'popular' you mean by 'popular'...

Don't see many folk covering Depeche Mode, or The Cure (although I imagine Friday I'm In Love is a bit of a wedding band staple for some bands.)

Yer average punter doesn't care about bands, only songs, hence popular songs are more important to them than popular bands.   Valerie will awalys get a look in, same as Chelsea Dagger, Mr Brightside. Nobody cares, in pub-band land or weddingsville, that The Fratellis had any other songs.



EDIT:

Like a few have suggested, I wonder if those bands that don't get covered all that much are the ones that are trickier to cover, and, especially, to sing. I'm thinking Led Zep...Bee Gees, even.. Even someone like Bowie....well, when was the last time you heard a convincing (non-pro) cover of one of his, outside of tribute bands? 

RocknRollDave

The Smiths?

RocknRollDave

Madness?


(See, again it comes down to what you class as popular...some of these bands certainly won't be on the radar of most people who are anything more than 10 years younger than me....and I'm 48)

Jonathangus

RocknRollDave said:

Madness?


(See, again it comes down to what you class as popular...some of these bands certainly won't be on the radar of most people who are anything more than 10 years younger than me....and I'm 48)

We played Baggy Trousers (in a rock style) the other night.

scrumhalf

Has anyone ever covered anything by The Fall? 

Jfingers

I rarely go to pubs to see bands in a pub setting, especially during the last two years.

The last cover band I saw were more of a tribute band.

For context, I live in a Port town, the pub in question is not for the faint hearted.

I wouldn't take my nice equipment in there, might cobble together a second string rig.

The band were from the next county, name suggested Red hot chilli peppers and they were really good.

Only one or two eclectic covers at the encore, and no I don't know them.

One of my oldest friends is in a great band, mainly Tarantinoesque/Cramps type stuff, but no he'll have to go miles to get a gig because everyone in a pub wants to hear the same old shite weekend in weekend out. I despair.

I know pub gigs are bread and butter, but that isn't where your next favourite band is coming from.

EricTheWeary

RocknRollDave said:

Madness?


(See, again it comes down to what you class as popular...some of these bands certainly won't be on the radar of most people who are anything more than 10 years younger than me....and I'm 48)

I’ve covered many Madness choons although not in a general covers band and heard quite a few others do them as well. To some extent I wish they wouldn’t because all I hear is how wrong they get them (and making no claims for how I did them either). Anything ska, 2Tone, reggae I hear general covers bands do and it’s nearly always painful. Wether that bothers anyone else in the audience I don’t know. 

Jonathangus said:

RocknRollDave said:

Madness?


(See, again it comes down to what you class as popular...some of these bands certainly won't be on the radar of most people who are anything more than 10 years younger than me....and I'm 48)

We played Baggy Trousers (in a rock style) the other night.

Quite a few years ago now I remember an evening in a rehearsal studio where the soundproofing wasn’t entirely adequate and we had to practice whilst a metal version of Baggy Trousers pumped through the wall over and over for two hours. It’s not my happiest memory. 

Poboy

We used to cover lots of Floyd in my youth band. Even did a full production of The Wall.
Played lots of Zappa covers too.
We were special.

Stuckfast

scrumhalf said:

Has anyone ever covered anything by The Fall? 

Are The Fall popular?

(I mean, I like them, but I am not sure there are many Fall tunes that would go well down at the Dog & Duck on a Friday night.)

Nitefly

The audience has changed, and the expectation has changed, since I was last out gigging around the turn of the century.

Back then we billed ourselves as doing mainly some of the best pop songs from the 60's and 70's, with a few more modern ones for the time.  It was a duo, with me on guitar and BVs with a singer along with backing tracks - heinous crime, I know, but that's all you could get around here at the time - no pubs were paying for full bands.

Anyway, apart from a few obvious Beatles and Eagles songs (surprisingly popular) we had a few oddball songs by bands not frequently covered at the time, e.g. 

Sunny Afternoon (Kinks)
Feel A Whole Lot Better (The Byrds, although our version was closer to Tom Petty's)
Oh Pretty Woman (Roy Orbison)

and then more recent stuff like 

The Last To Know (Del Amitri)
Died In Your Arms (Cutting Crew)
Hungry Eyes (Eric Carmen - as featured in Dirty Dancing!)

I don't recall anyone else doing those, and we got plenty of repeat business.  

I could see the end coming though, and I jacked it about 2002.  I still love playing that Byrds song though 

Sassafras

I do a banging cover of Adele.

Roland

Nitefly said:

The audience has changed, and the expectation has changed, since I was last out gigging around the turn of the century.

Back then we billed ourselves as doing mainly some of the best pop songs from the 60's and 70's, with a few more modern ones for the time. 

We’ve been playing a lot of 80s songs for the last ten years, but all the recent additions to our repertoire are 90s and later.

The songs which we find are less covered are the more complex ones, such as Africa, and songs which don’t have show off guitar parts.

TTBZ

When I do my dep cover gigs it's pretty much all 90s-00s stuff. It goes down really well, it's not what I'd choose to listen to (neither is classic rock either tbh) but it's more fun to play when people are enjoying it. I used to play in a classic/80s rock cover band and that stuff doesn't go down nearly as well with your typical pub goer who thinks Kings Of Leon and Stereophonics are the epitome of music.

maltingsaudio

Dominic said:

FarleyUK said:

We do I Want to Break Free - but only as I'm able to use my AXE FX3 for the synth parts, the solo effect and a lot of other stuff in it.

Always goes down really well, and I think it sounds awesome (especially as there's only three of us).

I heard it on the radio yesterday and thought what a great cover to do if you could get a decent synth type sound
well done you

A kazoo is better for the solo, far more stylish!

Ps thanks @bertie ;

Open_G

StefB said:

Def Leppard.  I've seen the occasional band attempt Animal, but nothing else.

Not many bands have the vocal ability to match the multi layered 3/4 part (I'd guess) harmonies..

menamestom

The Stone Roses you don't hear much, outside of tribute acts.  

wesker123

Adam and the Ants 

fretfinder

Wishbone Ash. We play some of their stuff and it goes down very well with our fans - both of them! 

SPECTRUM001

Stuckfast said:

scrumhalf said:

Has anyone ever covered anything by The Fall? 

Are The Fall popular?

(I mean, I like them, but I am not sure there are many Fall tunes that would go well down at the Dog & Duck on a Friday night.)

I was in a terrible band that did a terrible version of Rowche Rumble. We never put it in our live set though.

I did see Andrew Savage from Parquet Courts a few years back, and he (his solo band) covered ‘Frightened’. It was excellent.

Then he did a Cranberries song (I think it was Zombie) and I realised he was homagging the rock deaths du jour.