Lately, I've been thinking about the very point that Feinstein brings up and talks about - at great length - in this particular chapter. If you're going to cover a song, you have to do something differently than the original. The challenge in doing that well is knowing what elements you can change and what elements are absolutely necessary.
But that's not the way I approach doing cover songs. And that's because I have a different purpose in covering songs than most people. While most people cover songs to get attention, to build their repertoire, or just because they like the song so much, I cover songs in order to learn the parts. I've not had much formal musical training, so I tend to do what most of the musicians I admire did - learn to play by listening to records. I can remember listening to the Zombies' "Maybe after He's Gone" one day and realising that that song (no doubt among many others) had taught me the simplest finger-picking pattern. I internalised strumming from listening to a lot of America songs. I'm sure listening to Chris White and Jim Rodford taught me something about playing bass. Later on, I started watching videos of old performances, and I learned things from them too. I learned economy picking from watching Tony Hicks and the chugging guitar rhythm from watching Keith Hopwood and Al Jardine.
Around the same time I was learning these various techniques, the idea to cover all of the Zombies songs started forming in my head. I've never really sat down and defined my reasons for it (aside from the nebulous "they're my favourite band"), and since Feinstein's remarks got me thinking about why people cover songs, I thought I would do that.
I think part of my apprehension at changing parts in songs that I cover is that I like the original too much. It's the epitome, and I have to try my best to get it exactly right. I've spent hours closely listening to songs to get parts right. Often, it's taken months before I can play a part right. (I just recently learned the opening mellotron part from the Zombies' "Changes." I've been working on it since November 2011, and I have early recordings to prove it.) So when I cover a song, I don't want to throw all of that work and faithfulness to the original out of the window. It's in learning those parts exactly that I've learned a lot about music.
So when I cover a song, my primary motivation is not to entertain people with it; it's more to prove that I've spent enough time with this song that I know every part down to the exact notes. Sure, part of it may be to gain some attention, but - like Feinstein says - doing covers that are more like karaoke than my own style won't keep people coming back for long.
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