What Song to Cover?

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Anonymous

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I may get a chance to cover an Iron Maiden song with a few friends at a local show. One guitarist is great, the other is... Ehhhhhh, a bit iffy. Can you think of a song we could cover where there isn't anything too hard being played by both at the same time? The good guitarist could cover the solos, and basically play anything, but the second guitarist can't. Therefor, we can't have two guitars doing difficult things at the same time, so the good could cover all the harder parts... Get it..?

Now, which song should we cover?

(I'm thinking Hallowed Be Thy Name, possibly 2 Minutes to Midnight, maybe something like WickerMan? Ummm, I dunno, just thinkin...)
 
Try I've got the Fire, not strictly Maiden, I know, but more people will know their version as opposed to the Montrose one. Need a drummer?
 
Right here. [!--emo&:D--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

Flight of Icarus is probably the easiest Maiden song (for everybody except the singer, there are some high notes in there). The Prisoner and Wasted Years are also easy.

The songs you mentioned:
2 Minutes To Midnight and The Wicker Man are fairly easy, but the rhythm guitar parts are slightly harder than the songs I mentioned above. Hallowed is going to be rough on the lesser guitarist. You'd probably have to ask him to play only chords, and just have one guitar playing the melody lines.

The biggest questions you should ask yourself are:
Is every band member committed to learning the song before the rehearsal?
If the answer is yes, all these songs (except maybe Hallowed) should be something you can nail down as a band within one hour. If you're in a situation like my band, where sometimes our lives are too busy to practice individually between jam sessions, you may need 2 hours or more.

How many rehearsals will you have before the gig?
If you have 2, tape your band at the first rehearsal. Then you can hear on the tape what needs the most work, and try to get it right the next time. It always sounds better (in your mind, at least) when you're playing it, so rely on a tape to hear the truth.

What's your audience like?
It's always more fun to play something that the audience enjoys. If it's not strictly a metal/hard rock audience, then I'd stay away from Hallowed or 2 Minutes. I've had the experience of perfectly performing obscure metal songs only to have the non-metal audience collectively not care at all, and it really is a drag. (And yes, Hallowed is obscure to non-metal audiences.)

If you're playing at a bar, remember that drunk audiences don't have a discerning ear - you can get away with an imperfect performance, which gives you more freedom to experiment.

Then again, Maiden got where they are by playing what they wanted and not giving a damn if it pleased the crowd or not. (Fortunately, it did and then some.) So just make sure you like what you're playing. If you have fun, the audience will follow.
 
Now the evil wiseass half of my brain takes over:

Play Sign of the Cross!
Alexander the Great!
The Nomad!
Phatom of the Opera!
Paschendale!
Rime of the Ancient Mariner!

(Actually, Mariner isn't any harder than Hallowed, just twice as long. With a lot more lyrics to memorize. And don't forget the dry ice for the middle section.)
 
id go for

paschendale
the wickerman
aces high
flight of icarus
the ides of march if ye want an instrumental
and run to the hills [!--emo&:rock:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/headbang.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'headbang.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
Well, having seen a guitar lesson from H where he shows it, it does look pretty damn tough to do, it's one of Maiden's fastest riffs.
 
Run to the Hills would be the easiest and Flight of Icarus... running free apart from the harmonies..

Wrathchild is an easy one
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Shadow+Mar 22 2004, 05:08 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Shadow @ Mar 22 2004, 05:08 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--] I know the lyrics perfectly for that song  [!--emo&;)--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/wink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'wink.gif\' /][!--endemo--] [/quote]
Me too, but that doesn't do me too much good on drums...

Wrathchild, ehhhh..... Don't like that song much...

Trooper... I asked him, and he tried but it's way too fast. I'm getting him to learn Hallowed, and we're practicing tomorrow. We'll see how that one goes over.

I also might be able to record the show, anyone interested in hearing the recording if it comes together? I can put it online...?
 
[!--QuoteBegin-GodBeWithYou+Mar 22 2004, 10:53 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(GodBeWithYou @ Mar 22 2004, 10:53 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--] I also might be able to record the show, anyone interested in hearing the recording if it comes together? I can put it online...? [/quote]
Yeah, could be worth a listen [!--emo&;)--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/wink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'wink.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
Im doing 2 covers at the time, Where eagles dare by iron maiden and "just" by Radiohead. 2 very good songs in my opinin
 
in the band i was in we actually covered heaven can wait not very hard and the solo's are quiet easy as well and we also did Metallica Orion that was crazy but it turned it well...

was listening to NOTB and ill even say Ganglands aint hard to play should make an interesting cover
 
We've decided on Aces High, I'm just hoping we can pull it off. Even if not, it'll be fun to fail miserably with that song.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-GodBeWithYou+Apr 8 2004, 06:04 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(GodBeWithYou @ Apr 8 2004, 06:04 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--] We've decided on Aces High, I'm just hoping we can pull it off. Even if not, it'll be fun to fail miserably with that song. [/quote]
wasnt your guitarist not that good? and you gonna play Aces High? what about the bass player? is he up for it?

and... Not Phantom... that can be an hard one... i just learned it.. its fast
 
Well the second guitarist was not good, but I think he might be able to pull it off. If we have to, we'll just slow it down a tad. And as for Phantom, I haven't heard it yet =(. I only have NOTB, Powerslave, and Piece of Mind. I'm planning to get all the studio albums, though. We can play it all the way through without the second "Iffy" guitarist, and he just told me a few days ago that he'd learned it, we just haven't practiced it with him yet. Should be fun. Very fun. Plus, the second guitarist has another drumset, so we can combine our cymbals, and I'll be in a cage of bronze and chrome. It'll be heaven for me whether or not he does well because I know I will [!--emo&:D--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
[!--QuoteBegin-GodBeWithYou+Apr 8 2004, 06:04 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(GodBeWithYou @ Apr 8 2004, 06:04 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--] We've decided on Aces High, I'm just hoping we can pull it off. Even if not, it'll be fun to fail miserably with that song. [/quote]
Aces High...huh im playing guitar for a long time and i can tell u it is not hart to paly it but it is one of the higher songs that bruce has hever singed so if u think that your vocal can do it than u have a men with an iron balls [!--emo&:rolleyes:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/rolleyes.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'rolleyes.gif\' /][!--endemo--] , my advice is Virus, it is very eazy to play and sing dot push to hard with Aces High...Good luck.
 
We know all the instruments but still don't have a vocalist. If we have to we'll just go instrumental, but that'll probably be............................. Yeah.
 
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