Cover Band Drummists - How accurate are you?

Alot of tunes these days are done on the fly. For example, a couple of months ago the band decided to do the letter by Joe Cocker, no rehearsal, now I know the basic format so we just did it. Later on I had a chance to listen to what the drummer was doing and was able to do a much better job on it. At our age if we practice a new tune and wait a week before we play it live, forgetaboutit Lucky if I remeber how to count it in! LOL

GeoB said:

I really was inspired back in the 80's listening to Dread Zeppelin and what they did to some of the Zep catalog.

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Love them, and the Reggae thing is their shtick. They undoubtedly worked harder at consciously changing the style of those songs (and not just Led Zep, either) as opposed to changing them by virtue of not learning them in the first place.

Also, Dread Zeppelin was not a cover band in the way that I believe the original question suggested. that is, I think it was directed at those whose bands play covers, but not at the professional tribute level.

But whenever I talk about doing original parts, I cite the caveat about bands who radically change the style, and are known for that, like Dread Zeppelin, where playing the original part is usually the last thing you'd want to do.

Bermuda

The band I am in now are dead set on doing covers in a different way to the original. We feel there are lots of bands doing copy covers, and lots of blues bands out there, so the only way to stand out is to do a song differently from the mainstream.

I have always been a drummer that gets the feel of a song but lends my own style to it. Signature drum parts are often left as original though.