Don McRitchie
04-02-2005, 12:00 PM
For an artist, covering a beloved, well known song can be fraught with danger. As a public service (particularly directed to Bo for obvious reasons), I offer this illustrated take on how to succeed in this difficult task.
There is always a temptation for an artist to cover a well known song. Familiarity with an existing song provides an entree to an audience that might otherwise ignore or have difficulty finding you. However, there is the trap of masking your own talents by being too faithful to the original. In such a case, you become just a cheap karaoke version of the original. Therefore, the trick is to strike a balance. You have to display proper reverence to the original song, but enhance the performance with your individual take on its power and resonance. To that end, I cannot illustrate this concept any better than with the following quintessential cover of an immortal song.
http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/27260/
(Thanks to Garry Margolis for the link)
There is always a temptation for an artist to cover a well known song. Familiarity with an existing song provides an entree to an audience that might otherwise ignore or have difficulty finding you. However, there is the trap of masking your own talents by being too faithful to the original. In such a case, you become just a cheap karaoke version of the original. Therefore, the trick is to strike a balance. You have to display proper reverence to the original song, but enhance the performance with your individual take on its power and resonance. To that end, I cannot illustrate this concept any better than with the following quintessential cover of an immortal song.
http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/27260/
(Thanks to Garry Margolis for the link)