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From: Mike Curtis
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 1998 17:10:17 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: Playing what the audience wants

On Sun, 18 Jan 1998, Bluesonics wrote:

>In a message dated 98-01-18 12:14:45 EST, wd6e~aiwan.com writes:
>
><<
> >If you feel the need to COPY a record, as opposed to covering a tune, then
>> I can see the point. But there's no reason you couldn't do Freebird as a
> >jump blues, etc. :-) >>
>
>You have some well taken points, Mike. But in all honesty, if someone is
>listening to our band all night and then requests Freebird, my guess is that
>they wanna hear Freebird ala Skynard and not some jump blues version of it.
>You can please some of the people some of the time ...

If you do a hacked version, of course they'll be upset - I would too. But
if you can do a GOOD version, they'll enjoy it.

I don't know if I would do FB as a jump - it was just a passing thought.

When I do Freebird, I play it from the music. I've heard it a couple of
times, and didn't much care for it, so I never learned it by ear. Playing
from a chart, it probably sounds more like me than Skynyrd. And of
course I feature a LOT of harmonica on it, something I don't believe
Skynyrd did.

>The whole point here is that there are some of us who enjoy the sound of
>copies and some who don't. Neither are inferior to the other.

While some (many) prefer copies of familiar tunes, if you ever want to be
a big name artist, you need to do things your way. Copy-cover bands
rarely make it to number one, in any genre. So if this is your goal,
copying records is the wrong route. If your goal is to play popular music
in night clubs, good copy-bands work a lot and can make excellent money.

Many big name blues artists cover tunes, but in their own way. All of the
most popular blues artists have an instantly recognizable style and sound.
Is there ever any doubt that it's Muddy, SRV, Charlie Musselwhite, Junior
Wells, Jimmy Reed (who started an entire genre of music), Wolf, Wynonie,
et al, even though the tune may have been covered by everyone and their
mother?


-- IronMan Mike Curtis
My CD "Doin' It All Myself" available in Tower, Blockbuster, Camelot, PX