Dweezil and Me Regarding the Right Way to Cover Songs

In an interview, Dweezil Zappa chimed in on what he perceives as apathy or laziness from guitarists playing covers. From the article:

"There's a lot of people that — and sometimes it just comes down to laziness — they're like, 'Well, I'll just do my own thing.' Because they hear enough of it, and they're like, 'I'm in the ballpark. I'll just make my [own thing].'"

"But to me, when I was learning songs, if it was Van Halen or if it was something that Randy Rhoads was playing, I didn't feel like I was playing the song at all unless I played exactly what I heard them doing. And I wanted to learn the nuances. I wanted to try to get the sound. I wanted to do that. Because to me, that was the whole package of playing the song."

Dweezil recalled that his goal as a young player learning the instrument has not deviated much from today. That is, to recreate a piece of music he is covering authentically.

"So when somebody says, 'Hey, I can play 'Eruption,' I'm like, 'Great! Let me see it.' And if it's not what I heard on the record, then, to me, it's not it. As a kid, that was the goal: was to try to get as close as I could on any of that stuff, which is not easy. I mean, it's been a lifelong obsession to learn how to play a lot of this kind of stuff."

This has been a point of contention for me, for a very long time now. Up until about 15 years ago, you'd only catch me playing cover songs as filler in between original compositions, and on my terms. No "Skynyrd" (or other overplayed stuff you could literally go to the bar next door and hear some other terrible group do crappy versions of), no godawful modern "country", and no flavor-of-the-month garbage. I generally disregarded and frankly mocked the idea of being in a cover band (because more often than not, cover bands are where musicians go to die), and the only thing that changed that slightly was when I started getting calls to get paid to fill-in for whatever tweaker/drunk (hi, Joey!) failed to show up to a gig, or who got banned from a venue (again, hi, Joey!), or who flaked-out and didn't learn his material. Even 15 years after conceding to the lure of the quick and easy weekend dollar playing lousy, corny-as-hell, played-to-death songs, I still think it's often hokey and halfassed, and I learned really quickly just how low the standards were, and are. But, I guess there's something to be said for getting paid to put about 60-70% into a performance and still have people act like you're some kind of god among men, so whatev's. 

By "low standards", I mean both musicians AND audiences. I was doing hired-gun cover gigs for 3 or 4 years before I actually really sat down and learned any "new songs", because 9 out of 10 bands literally play the same crap, and 99 out of 100 don't really even play their covers "right". I think one would use a description like "loose interpretations",even with chord charts, lyric sheets and other crutches. I just winged it, played whatever sounded "close enough" and didn't worry about investing too much energy into it since everyone else seemed to be screwing around and not playing them properly anyway; funnily enough, I "learned the right way of playing" most of the songs onstage, by accident, polishing turds and using the experience as "paid practice". For performing musicians in the bar scene, those low expectations from audiences just looking for a good time are a godsend. It's decent money for not a lot of actual work. Never let a musician talk your ear off about "hard work", because the hardest part of playing a cover gig is loading in/out. And dealing with cutthroat egos. The rest is like hunting dairy cows with scoped high-powered rifles and calling yourself a "skilled hunter".

Cover musicians are a dime a dozen (and that might even be a GENEROUS estimate...should be more like, a nickel), in particular "singers" and guitarists. Some are decent, most really aren't. But the ones who stand out are the ones who pay attention to detail. It's often a subtle contribution, like a certain chord voicing that most players are lazy with, or playing the hummable, recognizable parts of guitar solos and not just some doltish fast blues-pentatonic or wheedly-wheedly masturbatory exercise that screams "look at me, okay, that'll do!" I do believe there is room in most songs one might cover for players to put a little stank on parts, but you also have to nail the important bits. I see a lot of guitarists play too much and more or less ignore what NEEDS to be played, and I'm not a fan. It's self-serving and hacky. The exception is when you're doing a completely different format than the source artists (like Local H or the Presidents of the USA), or are reinterpreting songs in a different genre (Cake, Dread Zeppelin), but otherwise, show a little self-respect and play it right if you're not just goofing off.

I still learn 90% of anything I end up playing onstage by listening to something while driving around, or streaming music in the background when I'm working, and then eventually I'll dink around and figure out the remaining bits before I go on. I think Dweezil's right, insofar as if I'm listening to someone performing a familiar song and something is notably "wrong", I check out in 20 seconds or less. Crummy guitar tone? Bye. Using power-chords when you should be using full chords or vice-versa? Nah. Wanking around instead of playing a revered lick or solo? Gross. Overplaying literally at any time? Fucking weirdo. Using too much distortion or delay and turning a straight-up rock song into some bedroom-guitar-hero, dated, pseudometal cacophony? Get the hell out of here. Even though I am not exerting myself physically, mentally or artistically by playing other people's music, I try (in most cases) to pay proper homage to the original artists and keep the song sounding familiar. Depending on which band I'm playing with, I may have my trusty old Digitech RP500 with dozens of patches to emulate Angus' or Slash's Marshall, Mike Campbell's or Neil Young's Fender Deluxes, Lindsey Buckingham's volume-pedal-swells, an old Twin Reverb for some chicken-pickin', and so on. Or, in another band I just stick to a basic pedalboard with a couple different drive pedals, a delay, a wah and a Whammy Pedal, done. Depends on the quality of the crowd for me. Meaning, I'm more interested in "impressing" the attendees of a high-paying gig (corporate event, frat/sorority functions, etc) by nailing "the tone", whereas for the average shitty dive bar crowd who'll be buzzed midway through the first set and drunk by the second, an approximation will do. 

But regardless of what guitar or rig I pick, I try to keep covers familiar sounding and close to what the audience expects. I have watched bandmates and fill-in/substitute players turn gigs into an opportunity to force people to listen to them exercise their scales (and to show off their gear/wardrobe), and it's painful to listen to/watch, to the point of me being embarrassed FOR them. I would be insulted, as an audience member, having to listen to some twat goof off on guitar noodling and fucking up a song I like. But I always have to remember that audiences are largely made up of people who are not musicians, or are not actually all that musically knowledgeable. Most of them can't tell the drummer hiccupped a beat, or that the bass player was playing the wrong notes entirely, or that the singer actually kind of sucks, so I'd guess most of them aren't worried about atrocious guitar tone, wanky guitar playing or fucking up a chord progression. However, I see it more of a self-respect thing in those instances, where sure, THEY might not know what I'm doing (right OR wrong), but I do, and I have to evaluate my performance and be proud of it (or mortified by it).

So decide if you're comfortable just halfassing it and be "good enough for the drunk dive bar crowd), or if you want to sound actually good, competent and have something to be proud of---well, as "proud" as one can be simply covering other people's work, anyway. But don't be too awful offended when some of us aren't the least bit impressed by horrible renditions of songs and piss-poor musicianship that overshadows any technical prowess or street-cred you think you may have.