An original approach of covers

While running through random music clips on YouTube earlier last week, I came across the’ Kennedy Honors’ which featured Led Zeppelin and a whole host of artists who covered their songs. While the covers were not particularly memorable, there was this one cover by Heart who did ‘Stairway to Heaven’ which was so moving that all the members of Led Zep had tears in their eyes at the end.  The video is at the end of this post for you watch and bawl along. (I saw the video multiple times and had tears in my eyes because it was just so well done).

At some point later in the week, probably during a mindless corporate meeting, a question struck me. If a band were to go about establishing themselves, what’s the right way to go about doing it? Is it through playing killer covers of other bands or making original music right at the start?

So how does Led Zeppelin come into this?  I take the example of the folks in the band, who are ‘Gods among Gods’ in my book. It is a known fact that they started out going about mastering covers of other early blues artists from across the Atlantic, probably an influence from Page’s early days as a session’s guitar player. And it was this exercise to sound like them that started the Led Zeppelin saga.  An outcome of this was that along the way, they did have a fair share of covers that found their way into their albums. Take a song like ‘Gallows pole’ or ‘Babe I’m gonna leave you’ which are a folk songs (The latter got them into a bit of a legal soup with Anne Bredon who wrote the original). There’s even the song ‘Trampled under foot’ which sounds a lot like Robert Johnsons’ ‘Terraplane Blues’ (which the band acknowledges was the inspiration).  ‘You shook me’ is a known Willie Dixon number (Thankfully credited by the band). The band has been known to put their twist on a lot of blues songs during their live gigs.

All this said, Led Zeppelin still have their own original songs which are classics and immortal. But the question still remains (much like the song) of whether covers are the path to writing great originals or do originals evolve themselves. I listen to a song like ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and all I want to do is learn the blues. I take the example of another great guitar player - Eric Clapton who shot to fame with covers such as ‘I shot the Sheriff’ (Bob Marley) and 'Cocaine' (J.J.Cale), but still stands out on all his originals. Even bands like Metallica covered Diamond Head, Motorhead and the early metal bands before coming out with their mind-blowing debut album ‘Kill Em All’.  

Now let’s look at those musicians creating a completely original sound.  The first band that comes to mind for me is Nirvana. Grunge was a completely unknown concept until Nirvana, along with Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, broke through from Seattle and gave the world a whole new sound. While I’m not extremely well-versed in rock history, I don’t think there was a sound like Nirvana before Nirvana. Take a band like ‘Rage against the Machine’. I don’t know of any band that dared to take the respective holy houses of rap and metal and put them together and actually have commercial success. I vaguely remember reading of earlier collaborations, but they did not go so well considering I don’t have immediate recall. 

So here are two very distinct approaches to becoming a great band. On the one hand, you've got bands like Led Zeppelin who've tried to emulate blues artists before them and introduced a contemporary sound. And these bands have chosen to blend covers and write mind-blowing original songs. And on the other hand, there are bands like Nirvana who don’t have any known predecessors and yet find themselves being equally revered. So what’s the best route for a band? Start out with mastering covers and blend your feel into them, or start out completely original and uninspired by anything that exists before them.

Being a guitar player who’s struggling to write his own material, I've no answer. I tend to find myself blending bits and pieces from tons of artists I listen to. Hope fully better and more accomplished musicians have an opinion on the matter. Look forward to hearing from you guys.

PS: Here's probably the awesomest cover (yes... I used 'awesomest') of 'Stairway to Heaven'. Much respect to the ladies from Heart