JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Your thoughts on tribute bands

Thanks Marc and Bob interesting stuff. I agree about brand names...I know of a few "used to be" big name groups that retain the "brand name" but have only one or sometimes no original personnel from the original band.
Evolution at its worst. Most of us are unable to put a name to the majority of band members anyway. Heck some people cannot even put a correct band name to hits.
Even more reason to accept that cover and tribute bands have their place. I adopt the opinion that as long as the guys can play and entertain an audience they deserve to make a living.
I have seen a number of original bands who cannot.

Personally, I don't like the bands that come in and try to emulate the album with the EXACT sound, riffs note per note, etc.. But when a cover band takes a great existing band's material and does their own thing with it, I enjoy alot more.

One of my favorites is Dread Zeppelin. Zeppelin covers, reggae style, Elvis impersonator lead singer. Probably an extreme example, but interesting.

Amen to that my Kilt Wearin' collegue!

All music has it's place. Just has to find an audience. I do a bit o' covers meself. (My Scottish roots there) but I always try to find a "twist" on all of them. I perform in Fla. once a month. I do a version of Margarittaville, (The most requested song) but I do it as a "WE ARE THE WORLD" approach with celebrity voice impressions. Julio Englasias, Arron Neville,
Micheal McDonald, Bob Dylan, ending up with a big version of Joe Cocker, complete with spastic facial expressions.
It is about having fun and making the audience have fun, keep drinking and hanging out. You do that and you make money and get rehired.
Tribute bands are usually stocked with some pretty good players. I am with you Dean, I don't care as much for the note by note thing. Even with the "Long Players", who are a Nashville based band of famous studio players, who recreate versions of albums from beginning to endm they try to put something special in. Last year they did Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" album with Al Kooper, who played the original riff on "Like a Rolling Stone." He even did a variation of his own riff on the record. Very cool.

There is nothing wrong with tribute bands any more than anything wrong with music. It is about sharing what is inside of you with as many people as you can. We all should just hope that some day people do a tribute band of us.

Hey, that is pretty cool too. Have you ever had people throw you a birthday party and all do versions of YOUR songs? That is a neat thing. I suggest it whole heartedly. My friends through a 45th birthday for me and about 6 did versions of my songs and the rest made up some songs and poems about me. Very touching.

MAB

Hey Big Jim,

I once was waiting for a table in a resturaunt next to Tony Brown, head of MCA records and very famous producer for Reba McEntire and others. Tony got his big break as Elvis Presley's piano player. I asked him "How did you get from Elvis' piano player to the head of a record label?" he said, "Well the guy died, so I needed a job!"

That is one of the reasons for this "last person standing" version of some of the bands. They simply keep dying off. Music is a Bitch. The road. Drugs, self indulgence, etc. It is really amazing when they make it through to anything.

But again, one of the funny parts of this summers touring season are the "Dinosaurs of rock" bands that are taking up all the big arenas. Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, KISS, Elton John, Billy Joel, The Eagles, are all doing HUGE touring business. The current stars are having problems competing and selling tickets. Even some of the bands like Counting Crowes, are having to cancel due to low ticket sales while the old guys are out there cleaning it up to standing room only crowds.
So go go go OLD ASSED PEOPLE!!! Maybe me and Big Jim will gather up our walkers and do a Scottish Pub crawl around Edinburgh!!!
Hey Jim, are you aware of a local writer/artist in Edinburgh who goes by the name of NOD? I am in contact with him on another forum. Very nice guy. Maybe have to hook you two up.

See you guys. Enjoying your conversations.

MAB

I'm still waiting to see that Joe Wrabek Tribute Band...

Joe

For me, tribute bands have a lot of appeal. I had an absolute blast listening to our local "Zed Leppelin"...especially when so many young bands suffer from a high percentage of mediocre songs, and rarely rarely rarely do the live vocals sound good, either because of a mushy PA or because of a non-singer doing that non-singer thing.

But tribute bands generally work very hard at nailing a sound and image and performance that we already like to listen to, year after year. I like 'em!

There's a great Beatles band called Yellow Matter Custard...they don't try to LOOK like the Beatles, but they play the songs very well. Here's one you don't often hear played live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jxm4KC1hg4

An old acquaintance of mine was an avid Phish fan. On More than one occasion, they would perform various cover tunes - once I was told they performed the entire "Dark Side of the Moon"

I wouldn't classify them as a tribute band, but they are often known for performing other people's music.

One of my other favorite "tributes" was in December of 1980, at the Spectrum in Philadelphia - the night after John Lennon was murdered. Bruce Springsteen walked out on stage and talked abbout John and what he meant to him, then he and the E-Street band performed an amazing tribute of Beatle and Lennon songs to start off a very memorable non-stop 4 hour concert.

That's how we approached our cover of Tarkus by ELP on our 1st album. We started out as a cover band actually and although we drew bigger crowds, even playing relatively obscure prog covers, we found creating new music much more rewarding artistically.

However if we depended solely on music for our incomes I suspect we'd have to sacrifice creativity and play more for the masses.

See you in Nashville!

Perry

Tribute bands have the potential to go either way, and when it comes down to it, it's all about who they are covering and their level of ability.