Re: [Harp-L] Coltrane/Afro Blue

[Arthur Jennings <timeistight@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 10:03 AM, George Brooks <gbrooksvt@xxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> .

.
> .
> Now to the point or, actually, the question:  If your band was doing All
> Along The Watchtower the way Hendrix did it, would you say you were doing a
> cover of Jimi Hendrix or Bob Dylan?  If you were doing With A Little Help
> From My Friends like Joe Cocker did it, would you say you were doing a cover
> of Joe Cocker or the Beatles?
>
> I'm big on giving songwriters credit, but that's just me.  It bothers me
> when people performing This Masquerade say they are doing a George Benson
> cover.  George Benson covered the song.  Leon Russell wrote and recorded it.
>
> George
>
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According to Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_cover>

In popular music <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_music>, a *cover
version*, or simply *cover*, is a new rendition
(performance<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance>or
recording <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recording>) of a previously
recorded, commercially released song.

So I would say, in your examples above, that the band was covering Jimi
Hendrix and Joe Cocker. When Beyonce Knowles sang "At Last" at the
inauguration, she was covering Etta James, not Glenn Miller (who first
recorded it) or Mack Gordon and Harry Warren (who wrote it).

-- 
Arthur Jennings
http://www.timeistight.com