View Full Version : beatles, stones, dylan
practicing with my partner last night, and as usual after some settled, focused practice, we kinda rambled into songs we like, had recently heard, etc.... once again, fell into playing around with tons of beatles, stones, dylan tunes, and we talked about how if you are doing covers, they kinda run the gamut of rock, pop, blues, folk, and more... we played a ton of tunes and had a blast. though we will continue to play our orignials and lots of other blues, folk, rock covers, we could prob. fill our catalog of tunes with just these 3 musical acts and their numbers....
just thought i'd share my love and appreciation for these incredible bands/performers and their music......
ira
ps-we will now be doing a killer version of revolution #1 on mando and guitar....
Chris Cantergiani
Dec-02-2004, 8:45am
Ah yes... the Holy Trinity.
I wonder if you could do the same thing with Bob Marley, Neil Young and The Grateful Dead?
Chris
muzicfreak
Dec-02-2004, 10:03am
Fair enough:) Two great trios of Classic rock and beyond! I have been really into playing Dylan's "Lay lady Lay" and "Tonight i'll be staying here with you" off of Nashville Skyline that album is juiced with all sorts of perfect songs for the mando... Also I think i am going to try to work out i'm only sleeping.. Sometimes i find it more fun to play these type of covers than bluegrass or old time music...Any suggestions of other songs to play anyone anyone? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif
Uncle John's Band is really neat as a duet. Mando plays lead lines at the openning and the break, guitar plays chords throughout doubled by the mando. You can play it with 2 finger open chords so its pretty easy. I simplify it a bit, particularly the guitar chords at the break. Don't know if you know the tune, but Buffett's Distantly in Love is another great mandolin guitar duet, I think its off of One Particular Harbour and its pretty much DGA progression. Final recommendation, Copperhead Road by steve Earl.
duuuude
Dec-02-2004, 12:01pm
What, no Clapton?! # http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif
Acoustic version of Layla works well.
mad dawg
Dec-02-2004, 12:55pm
Oh man, you left Kansas and Styx off of your list! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif
How about Dixie Chicken, Lowell George era Little Feat. The mandolin can mimic the staccato piano line, and its fun to sing.
Some Taj Mahal is always good fun. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
jefflester
Dec-02-2004, 6:46pm
Van the Man
madog99
Dec-03-2004, 8:16am
I have hooked up with a new playing partner , young guy ,28, and he's a walking talking Dylan guy , must play every dylan song !! But he plays a ton of guthrie also and I'm having fun with those ! We have doing Dylan's "love minus zero " and it works good with the mando. I'm kind of hooked on any of the old Motown/pop tunes folked up .
luckylarue
Dec-03-2004, 10:40am
Don't forget the Stones. "Wild Horses", "Dead Flowers", "Can't Always Get What You Want", and many more....
madog99
Dec-03-2004, 10:45am
We're doing a medley consisting of "sea cruise/lion sleeps tonight/dead flowers/dead skunk/eve of destruction " or how to fill 5 minutes with 3 chords! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
John Soper
Dec-03-2004, 12:42pm
Little Feat- one of my favorite bands! #"Willin'" and "Roll'um Easy" (both later covered by Linda Ronstadt), #and "Sailin' Shoes" (Sam Bush has covered this, at least in concert) are other great LF tunes that my friends & I pick on, in addition to "Dixie Chicken". #Used to play in a country-rock band that would bang out "Truck Stop Girl" and "It's so Easy to Slip" at late hours also...
Fond (and dimming) memories...
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
Dr. Hook?..... Cover of the rolling stones http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sleepy.gif
johnwalser
Dec-03-2004, 5:35pm
Heard the Beatles at Cleveland Stadium, Bob Dylan in Columbus, Ohio a few years later and still play songs of both. I sometimes wonder if groups of today will be as highly regarded 40 years from now.
John
muzicfreak
Dec-03-2004, 6:03pm
The only band i feel that can compare is Wilco.. They are amazing... Great lyrics, push the envelope.. and are very very talented live... I highly recommend "A ghost is born" or Uncle Tupelo if you have not heard them. Uncle Tupelo is wilco's first band...
cheers
Gary
Will bands today be as highly regared as the Beattles and Bob Dylan? Probably not, though I would submit Metallica and REM as bands from the 80s/90s/ that probably deserve more consideration than they receive because they really transended their genres. As another cool rock song on mandolin I submit "Birdhouse in Your Soul" by They Might be Giants. I do an instrumental version 'cause I can't sing.
fangsdaddy
Dec-03-2004, 9:11pm
i spent the summer playing on the street w/a guitarist, a fiddle/harmonica player and the songs of the stones (beggars thru exile only), dylan & van morrison. the guitarist kept trying to bring in other material but there was no way in hell i was playing the counting crows so we stuck to the big 3.
i gotta take exception to this statement.
"Uncle Tupelo is wilco's first band..."
actually wilco formed after jay & jeff decided they couldn't be in uncle tupelo any longer. uncle tupelo started the whole "no depression" movement in the early 90's. when tupelo split, we got sun volt & wilco out of the ashes. personally, i prefer the work of jay farrar & son volt to wilco but that's because wilco is a little too pop/pretty for my tastes (although a friend of mine saw wilco over the summer & described them as "90 minutes of E minor."). i will give wilco some props because jim o'rourke plays with them sometimes.
check out the uncle tupelo discs. they're all in print. i highly recommend "no depression" (sst era husker du punk rock meets trad country. it's kind of a skitzy disc, but with wonderful energy ) and "march 16-20,1992" (a peter buck produced acoustic disc) that contains a great version of "satan your kingdom must come down" & "atomic power."
sam
I'll also second Van....
Brown Eyed Girl; Jackie Brown.... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/coffee.gif
"Brown Eyed Girl" is cool and pretty easy. I tried "Oliver's Army" By Elvis CFostello last night, boy was that a disaster. Anyone ever try "Wilderst Dreams" By the Moody Blues? I just can't get it to sound right.
mandocrucian
Dec-04-2004, 3:51pm
As far as the quantity and quality of highly coverable material, it's hard to think of many that can compete with the output of the Beatles, Stones and Mr. D. The sheer number of tunes/records from each makes it hard for any band that only recorded 5 or 6 albums together to compete with.
There were a lot of bands that put out good stuff, but much of it is so idiosyncratic or intrinisically tied to the original performer that the songs don't seem to have as much all-purpose usage. #I'm thinking of Jethro Tull, Tom Waits or Pink Floyd. A lot of the Dead stuff falls into that area too.
Or else, the song is intrinsically tied to the original groove/riffs/arrangement, and divorcing the two aspects has less than desirable results. (AC/DC, Led Zep, etc.). If you're not able to get that original feel to some extent, the song may just fall apart.
Or... it takes a really good singer to pull of the song, because the original version was so strong vocally, that comparisons are inevitable in the mind of the listener. (early Allman Bros., Bob Seger)
However, I think that The Kinks did a lot of great material (which very few cover), as did The Band and Creedence Clearwater/John Fogerty, and (my favorite songwriter) Randy Newman. #You might add Elton John, CSNY (and individual components), Eagles, Rod Stewart/Faces, James Taylor. #
Linda Ronstadt didn't write most of the material she performed, but she really had very good instincts as to what to record. (I'd rather listen to an album of ultra-strong non-originals, than mediocre self-penned stuff.) Ditto for Emmylou Harris and Bonnie Raitt.
Niles H
mando bandage
Dec-04-2004, 8:42pm
I tried "Oliver's Army" By Elvis CFostello last night, boy was that a disaster.
Try "Comedians" by the latter day Saint E. Also covered by Roy Orbison with a very different feel. Elvis's version bitter and angry, Roy's mournful (of course). Works great on the mando if you, or someone you know, has the vocal range to pull off the crescendo at the end.
R
handpicked
Dec-04-2004, 9:32pm
"Lodi" by CCR is a great mando tune IMO.
I also like to tremolo the hook to Clapton's "Wonderful tonight" (though I like to sing "and she helps my drunk a** to bed" in the last verse...)
"The Weight" by the Band is another good jam tune (great sing-a-long).
I also LOVE Little Feat, but would have to file most of my favorite Feat stuff under the heading of "intrinsically tied to the groove" (to quote Niles)..and dare not booger around with it. ("Cold, Cold, Cold" comes to mind) Yikes! Like Wayne's World...("We're not worthy!") I bow down before the genius that is (was) Little Feat.
OdnamNool
Dec-05-2004, 5:45am
As far as the quantity and quality of highly coverable material, it's hard to think of many that can compete with the output of the Beatles, Stones and Mr. D.
Jim Morrison and the Doors...
OdnamNool
Dec-05-2004, 5:50am
(A) What is "coverable material?"
(B) Who's Mr. D.?
mandocrucian
Dec-05-2004, 9:24am
(A) #What is "coverable material?"
(B) #Who's Mr. D.?
A) Any song is potentially "coverable" by someone. Lyric content (*does it jibe with your religio-politico-moral alignments, and more importantly, your audiences?), complexity of the chord progression, difficulty level of singing the melody ("Blue Bayou", "Crying", "Total Eclipse of the Heart", "Prisoner In Disguise", RT's "Poor Will & The Jolly Hangman") or the density of non-stop lyrics ("Boogie Back To Texas", "The Auctioneer Song"). Or does the song really need a lot of quality vocal harmony to do it justice - Temptations, Smokey Robinson, post-Green Fleetwood Mac, Doobie Bros., Beach Boys, Eagles.
"Bad Moon Rising", "Green River" or "Brown Eyed Girl" vs. "Aqualung", "I Can See Clearly Now" or Richard Thompson's Walking On A Wire. #
"Cripple Creek", "Foggy Mt. Breakdown", "Old Joe Clark vs. "Limerock". "Tom & Jerry", "Scrapple From The Apple".
(*Leon Rosselson, Randy Newman, vs. Hank Jr., Toby Keith. Motley Crue, Metallica, Twisted Sister, Madonna vs. Carpenters, Ricky Skaggs, Bee Gees)
Obviously, the better your chops (and the capabilites of your bandmates or jamming buddies) the more material is within your reach to pull off. Unless it gets vetoed due to politcal/religous/etc. issues, tending to rule out the more "controversial" material.
In terms of practicality, there's always the issue of the laziness factor concerning musicians learning material which is more complex than the usual 3 or 4 chord stuff. #I can't even add up the number of times I, or my wife, have heard musicians or bandmates say "I really want to play something different, more complex" blah blah blah, but when it comes down to it, anything more complicated than "Gimme Three Steps", "Proud Mary" or "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" is too much trouble to deal with
B) Mr. T's cousin.
<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>(No not really, it's Bob Dylan).</span>
Niles H.
i think folks kind of misunderstood my intent,(though this has been fascinating). we do lots of originals, and covers ranging from newer stuff-ben harper, loslonelyboys, to the dead, little feat, gershwin, leadbelly, yank r., bb king, the violent femmes, pete seeger, the talking heads, kris kristoferson, santana, warren z., and more. i was just thinking that in terms of musical feels, poetic expression, etc... those 3 groups covered so much, that in looking at cover tunes to play, you could just use their catalogs and have a complete range of songs to offer an audience.
OdnamNool
Dec-06-2004, 2:17am
[quote=OdnamNool,Dec. 05 2004, 05:50](A) #What is "coverable material?"
(A) Any song is potentially "coverable" by someone.
Or does the song really need a lot of quality vocal harmony to do it justice - Temptations, Smokey Robinson, post-Green Fleetwood Mac, Doobie Bros., Beach Boys, Eagles.
Oh, I think I understand... #"Coverable" is like doing a "remake" of somebody's tune... #Right?
But what I don't understand is why you would say that (Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Beachboys!) would "need vocal harmony to do it justice" #Huh???