Thursday, September 25, 2014

CD REVIEW: Bob Bucko Jr. “Covers”


                When listening to this BBJr. covers CD (which is actually three discs as he did a song for every day in February) I can’t help but think about cover songs on a whole.    The majority of these songs (If not all of them) aren’t really the type of cover songs you would be used to if you listened to the radio a lot and went with Top 40 hits.   I’m not saying that in the sense of “No Celine Dion” here as much as the fact that when an artist typically covers a song it seems like it is a widely known song, pop in that sense.

                So where do the covers end and begin?   Alien Ant Farm made a great career out of covering a single Michael Jackson song.  Fearless Records creates entire CDs dedicated to bands covering popular songs outside of their genre.  Heck, even Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies… Well, you should already know about them.

                This asks the question whether a song is worth covering if the original is not well known.   On one hand, a cover song that is widely known and well done could bring in a new audience of listeners.   At the same time, covering songs such as those BBJr. chose might not open himself up to a wider audience but that’s never really been what any of this is about, now is it?

                I also feel I must point out that these songs are neither really old in the sense of The Beatles and Zeppelin, yet they aren’t really that modern either though some of the bands do still exist.  (But geez, Rod Stewart and Keith Richards still exist, so there’s that)   It’s this weird in between time that these songs come from and I think it’s only fitting.  (Too new to be on classic rock, too old to be on modern rock radio)

                Do cover bands constitute real bands?   They demonstrate talent because they can play, but they’re not playing their own songs.    Should I watch that movie “Rock Star” again?   You know Marky Mark is in that and he covered “Wildside” with his Funky Bunch.   I wonder if there is a Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch tribute band.   I wonder what happened to the Funky Bunch.     These are questions I tend to try and drown out with the musical styling of Bob Bucko Jr. and I suggest you do the same. 








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