What does the word "cover" mean to you?

[don_b]

In my opinion if you are playing a song that you did not originally perform, and you’re doing it for the express purpose of performing it for others. My band has covered “jack the ripper” by screaming lord sutch and “riverbottom nightmare band” from emmet otters jug band christmas for years and people are always disappointed to find out we are covering those songs and didn’t actually write them. Not that covers are disappointing by nature. It just reveals we aren’t the geniuses who they thought wrote those songs lol.

 

[bbkobabe]

3 -Yes, Bob Dylan started out as a folk singer and his first LP was entirely folk songs except for two, Talking New York, whichused Chris Bouchilon's Talking Blues chord and rhyme pattern and Song To Woody which used the tune and chords to Woody's 1913 Massacree.
Like Woody, Dylan often borrowed from other songs.

Good points... but this example this points more to the difference between a cover of a song and "The Folk Tradition" of repurposing older melodies and mating them to a more modern topic with entirely new lyric...

Mating them? Did I really say that?

OK- I'll stick with that for now... but with this disclaimer: CYA.

 

[bbkobabe]

Often when I "cover a song" the order, lyrics and chords change. Not by design.

So true... and the older I get the more often this happens.

I irritate the hell out of the friends I play music with because some people just can't tolerate a song that has been modified. For example, I like to sing and play the song Fathom the Bowl on new years eve. I've changed the tune quite a bit over the years. Enter my traditionalist buddy who worships these old British folk songs. When I tried to teach him my version, he flipped out:

"You can't play the song that way!"

Why not?

"That's not how it goes!"

Not proper English I guess...
<sigh>

 

[Stoneyrun]

In order to not influence any answers, I'd like to simply ask, "What does the word cover mean to you when referring to a song?"

If I didn't create a song, and I play it, it's a cover. Lines blur when songs sound similar but are different enough to be different.

 

[KohanMike]

If the composer of the song performs, it's not a cover, if anyone else performs the song, it's a cover,

I always think that it is fun to point out that Arlen and Harburg also wrote "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" in 1939 for Groucho Marx in At the Circus. I always find it funny that you could not imagine two more different songs.

I watched the PBS documentary the other night about Groucho and Dick Cavett, where Harburg said he had to add a stanza at the end of Lidia the Tattooed Lady that the judge marries her, to prevent censors from banning the song.

 

[Bibs]

Fancy way of saying [admitting] I'm performing [playing] a song that's not 'mine', which is everything I play. I also have never even thought about saying it either. In most cases it's probably pretty obvious to those in the music business, and many others, that the song [either words/music or either] does not legally belong to the performer, although they may have one of the various 'licences'.
The same as saying 'Here's my version of xxxxxxxxx', which may or may not be like some other performers version.

 

[70sSanO]

I’m thinking the term “cover” originated from bands that performed non-original work.

The term cover band may have evolved even further to tribute band as the original performers aged and no longer performed.

Either way it is performing non-original work.

John

Edit Added: It would be interesting to know how Jake’s Guitar Gently Weeps played out with copyright laws; especially the Central Park YouTube.

 

[Bill Sheehan]

Many times, when people do a "cover" of a song, they do it in the veterinary sense, whether they intended to or not.

-Kurt​

Hahahahahaha! Kurt, that is the best line of 2023!!!!! Loved it!!!

 

[Bill Sheehan]

Good points... but this example this points more to the difference between a cover of a song and "The Folk Tradition" of repurposing older melodies and mating them to a more modern topic with entirely new lyric...

Mating them? Did I really say that?

OK- I'll stick with that for now... but with this disclaimer: CYA.

Hahahahaha! Bbkobabe, I think you've been hangin' out with Greenfrog too much!

 

[UkeOkay]

When I hear the term “cover band”, I tend to think of them attempting to sound as close to the original (or most popular) versions of the songs they play as possible.

When I play a tune, no matter how hard I try, it’s definitely a reinterpretation.

 

[KohanMike]

Fancy way of saying [admitting] ...that the song [either words/music or either] does not legally belong to the performer, although they may have one of the various 'licenses'. The same as saying 'Here's my version of xxxxxxxxx', which may or may not be like some other performers version.

Performers don't get licenses, only venues where the performance is done (based on legal occupancy or measurements of the space), or to the production company to use a specific song in a film or TV show and such (which is very likely what happened with Jake). I just went though this with BMI when they contacted the sandwich shop where my group was playing every other Sunday on the outside patio. (The BMI yearly license fee was $425 that the owner of the sandwich was ready to pay, but the owner of the property nixed it so we were out.)

When I play a tune, no matter how hard I try, it’s definitely a reinterpretation.

In either case, you're covering the song, no matter the arrangement you do. A 'cover band' might do their own arrangements, a 'tribute band/performer' would do the songs exactly as the original band/performer.

 

[ripock]

There is also "covering a chord" when you obscure how you're making your chord to thwart someone who wants to cover your song.

But more on topic for me a cover is just an un-original song. And I am probably guilty of using the term perjoratively. I know if I'm browsing youtube and I click on some wunderkind and he or she starts playing someone else's music, I'll just turn it off. If I want to hear that song, I'll put that CD in the stereo. I want to hear new stuff played by new people.

 

[Stoneyrun]

There is also "covering a chord" when you obscure how you're making your chord to thwart someone who wants to cover your song.

But more on topic for me a cover is just an un-original song. And I am probably guilty of using the term perjoratively. I know if I'm browsing youtube and I click on some wunderkind and he or she starts playing someone else's music, I'll just turn it off. If I want to hear that song, I'll put that CD in the stereo. I want to hear new stuff played by new people.

I often enjoy hearing other people's interpretation or version of a song I know when it involves a ukulele. I find it interesting how differently people can perform the same song.

 

[Mike $]

I think you cover something when you are too lazy to arrange your own version of a song. So you cover (or copy) someone else's arrangement. The chords, beat, the feel and grove of the original, solos and possibly vocal stylings as well.

 

[One Man And His Uke]

Interesting question Jim. I do covers week in week out on Seasons of the Ukulele. There is no way I could ever hope to approach the sound or arrangement of the original and I don’t want to in any case. I like a cover that does something different with the source material. Two extreme examples might be Devo’s and The Resident’s’ versions of Satisfaction. I was saying to someone who covered Joni’s River recently, that I hated Ellie Goulding’s version of River because it was essentially a karaoke retread of the original. Utter pointless to my way of thinking and lacking in any originality. So for me you can take anyone‘a original song, but do something different with it. If it ends up sounding nothing like the original so be it, at least it hasn’t been slavishly copied like a counterfeit bank note.

 

[One Man And His Uke]

Also I have to admit it bugs me a little when I hear a song referred to as someone’s when it isn’t. I’ve heard Lilac Wine referred to as a Jeff Buckley song, likewise I Can’t Make You Love Me referred to as a Bonnie Raitt song. It’s not that difficult to credit the actual writer of the song.

 

[Arcy]

In order to not influence any answers, I'd like to simply ask, "What does the word cover mean to you when referring to a song?"

A cover is a song performed based on somebody else's performance. That somebody else may be the original performer (not necessarily the songwriter) or a later arrangement or iconic performance.

The original release of a song written by somebody else isn't a cover. For example, Patsy Cline's Crazy isn't a cover, even though Willie Nelson wrote it. It is possible to cover a cover if you're targeting a specific version: Aretha covered Otis Redding's Respect and made it her own. Most covers are of Aretha's version.

I think you cover something when you are too lazy to arrange your own version of a song. So you cover (or copy) someone else's arrangement. The chords, beat, the feel and grove of the original, solos and possibly vocal stylings as well.

While you can cover somebody else's arrangement, it's still a cover if you do your own arrangement.

Jeff Buckley's cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is a very different arrangement, but it's still a cover. And like Respect, most people cover the cover rather than original. They're covering both Buckley's cover and Cohen's song.

Going circular, Dylan arguably covers Hendrix's cover of Dylan's All Along the Watchtower. Dylan changed his performance based on Hendrix' interpretation.

Several of my favourite YouTube cover bands do extensive rearrangements and still call them (IMHO correctly) covers:

• Scary Pockets (funk covers of popular songs)
• PostModern Jukebox (vintage covers of popular songs)
• Leo Moracchioli / Frogleap Studios (metal covers of popular songs, and hilarious metal covers of children's songs)

I don't put a value judgement in something being a cover or a band being a cover band. I greatly enjoy it when bands share their love for other songs by covering them, and I've happily paid to see and hear cover bands.

 

[keonepax]

When I started posting videos on YouTube 16 years ago, I would always add "ukulele cover" after the title of the song simply to make sure that prospective viewers would know that this was a uke-ified version that I had recorded. My thinking of the word "cover" has evolved, and I now think of a cover as somebody or a group doing a faithful reproduction of the original (or most famous version of a) song, as a cover band would do. These days I use the phrase "ukulele rendition" more often, but I guess people might have something to say about "rendition." "Interpretation" sounds like the singer/musician has really put his or her stamp on the song in terms of vocal styling, tempo, etc.
That said, I still occasionally use the word "cover" meaning "not original."

 

[Pier]

Exactly. In the 70es we just played a tune/song it was only later that someone started using the word "coversong" derogatoryly as if it wasn't as good/valuably as the original. But I have heard several covers that were better than the original, so.........

well, actually here in Italy, during the sixties, "cover" was already a word we used to refer to songs, taken from the english vocabulary, or translated into "versione" (version/interpretation/rendition).

most of the famous italian songs in that decade, before we started to recognize the value of our songwriters, were covers of foreign hits with translated or re-wrote lyrics.

for example: "I'm a believer" by The Monkees" was covered by Caterina Caselli as "Sono Bugiarda" (I'm a liar), maintaining the same overall meaning, but changing the actual lyrics. (despite "believing" in love, she says that she "lies" saying she doesn't).

in 1965 the band I Giganti took the song "Down Came The Rain" by Mister Murray, a comedian's song, and completely changed the lyrics, but kept the same structure and sounds.
in this case, the original song was about a couple doing things (going out, reaching for the church to marry ecc...) but when they were about to do the specific thing in the verse... "down came the rain".
the italian cover changed the subject and became "Una ragazza in due" (A girl for two), in which two men love the same woman: in the verse speaks one, in the chorus the other, and they have different approaches to "love": the first one is "sweet and tender", caressing her while talking, and the other one starts the chorus screaming that he'll "never tell that he'd die for her" and will treat her bad same old story.

IMHO it's necessary to distinguish two kind of songs:

1) songs written AND performed by the artist

2) songs written by an author and performed by other artists

if you play "Blowing in the wind", you are covering Bob Dylan. if you play My Way, you are playing a song written by a musician and a lyricist, both french, then played and made famous by the french singer Claude François and then played by many singers (François also translated it in italian), and then translated by Paul Anka and sung by Sinatra.

or like any jazz standard, written for musicals, and then performed by anybody even removing the lyrics and making it just an instrumental piece it's not "a cover".

we can say that you call it a "cover" when there is ad "original recording" with a specific sound and arrangement, but not when it's a song/piece written to be performed by different interpreters.

 

[casualmusic]

In order to not influence any answers, I'd like to simply ask, "What does the word cover mean to you when referring to a song?"

Hi Jim

I never use the word *cover* because it carries lots of irritating snarky negative undertones.

It’s nicer and just as easy to say ‘perform’, ‘sing’, ‘play’, ‘release’, ‘version’, etc.

Cover version - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

They are many examples of *covered* songs that were improved and/or evolved into even nicer variations.

Dolly Parton’s friendship song ‘I Will Always Love You, became a torchy love song with Linda Rhonstad, and then an anthem with Whitney Houston.

Bob Dylan’s sketched out’Wagon Wheel’ on the bootleg tapes, Ketch Secor wrote lyrics that turned it into a road song, and Old Crow Medicine Show made it a favourite.

Wagon Wheel (song) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

And many great performers such as Emmy Lou Harris, Linda Rhonstad, and Grateful Dead did only/mostly other people’s songs.

List of Grateful Dead cover versions - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

>> So I just wrote some original lyrics for this:


<title> Covered by Horses

Some folks sing songs,
and others perform,
Stories and tunes,
old favourites and new…

I like to play your songs,
and you can do mine,
And together we’ll play,
those others, too…

>> But no, nay, never,
no never you see,
Will I use, the word *cover*,
sounds horrid to me…

Music we heard,
on the old radio,
Those wonderful songs,
from way faraway…

And music came home,
to our sweet phonographs,
Neat cardboard jackets, with
fine words and pictures…

>> But no, nay never,
no never you see,
Will I use, the word *cover*,
sounds horrid to me…

We saw on those jackets,
black singers, and white,
They said, keep em separate,
twas proper, and right…

And the music that played,
from race record jackets,
We’ll make them again,
with white folks on *covers*…

But music is music,
where ever it started,
We liked, all those songs,
all jackets, all covers…

>> But no, nay never,
no never you see,
Will I use, the word *cover*,
sounds horrid to me…

We spent lots of money,
at the sweet record store,
Whatever they had,
we wanted much more…

Many more writers,
more and more songs,
Many more singers,
with versions of songs…

Jackets of records,
from those we adore,
Jostled, *covered* over,
by others galore…

>> But no, nay never,
no never you see,
Will I use, the word *cover*,
sounds horrid to me…

Then there were singers,
who made their own songs
With gusto and verve,
and style so strong…

So different, from singers,
who searched out good songs
From many, great writers,
who helped them along…

Some critics say singers,
who make their own songs
Outshine them singers,
who *cover* great songs…

<spoken> Just weird, really weird. <end spoken>

>> But no, nay never,
no never you see
Will I use, the word *cover*,
sounds horrid to me…

Perhaps it’s all *covers*,
and copies, and tributes,
From me, y’all hear, only…

<spoken>

Play it… Sing it… Perform it…
Do it… Glory it… Again again… but, never… *Cover* it.

*Cover* really means that your horsies are getting bleeped.

<end spoken>

Cheers.