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Cover Songs that Became Iconic for the Cover Artist, Pt. 1 of Many

A list of really good cover songs that have become identified with the cover artist as much or more than the original artist

I was working on a version of one of the songs on this list (answer at the end) and started thinking about cover versions of songs that are associated with the cover artist.

I do not mean silly or novelty covers, like Limp Bizkit covering George Michael or Faith No More covering Lionel Richie.  I mean serious versions of older songs that genuinely bring something new and different.

This is not a “Ten Best” list or hierarchical arrangement designed for cheap clickbait.  This is simply a list of songs that came to mind that were notably covered.

In no particular order:

Johnny Cash, ‘Hurt’ (Nine Inch Nails)

To me, this is the arrangement this song was supposed to have.  Acoustic and sparse is the perfect backdrop to the dark lyrics.  There is nothing extra in the arrangement to distract from the essence of the song.

Power Station, ‘Bang A Gong’ (T-Rex)

When a couple of dudes from Duran Duran teamed up with the guy in videos wearing the suits with sexy robotic backups and a disco drummer, many in the rock world didn’t think much because of Duran Duran.

However, Andy Taylor and John Taylor showed they could rock, Robert Palmer was just plain cool and Tony Thompson was a monster drummer.

Secretly, most rock bassists wished they had John Taylor’s chops and originality.  Andy Taylor showed he could rock play some lead.  Robert Palmer was cool.  Tony Thompson had nothing to prove to anyone.

Together they took a great example of typical 70’s classic rock and updated it with a dose of high powered funk ‘n’ roll.

Jimi Hendrix, ‘All Along the Watchtower’ (Bob Dylan)

The Big Daddy of covers that most people associate with the covering artist and not the original artist.  You knew this would be discussed, didn’t you?

Has anyone ever taken a song and made it so truly their own . . .

All Along the Watchtower from Michael Ackerman on Vimeo.

Red Hot Chili Peppers, ‘Higher Ground’ (Stevie Wonder)

Asked and answered.  Add a high dose of funky, hard rock energy and RHCP transformed this into a song that one could easily mistake for their own.  As great as Stevie Wonder’s version is, when many people hear the title, they think RHCP, Flea’s brilliant bass interpretation and John Frusciante’s amazing riffs that pay homage to the original while taking it someplace new.

 

 



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Looking for Partners. Documenting a Tech Startup Pt. 4

Part of starting a tech startup is finding others for collaberation.

No matter how self-reliant you may be, starting a new company is usually a collaborative effort. This can be as obvious as hiring employees or engaging consultants. It can also be finding another company with mutual interests, what is often referred to as a “strategic partnership”.

We spent a good part of the weekend considering who we could reach out to for mutual partnerships. They tended to fall into a few categories:

1. Artists. This is obvious. At some point very soon, we will need artists and teachers who want to reach our audience. Our technology revolves around innovative learning technologies for drummers, and we will need the actual drum lessons to format into our platform. So, first come the artists and teachers.

2. Tech Companies; Hardware. There are a few companies that make physical products that would be great partners for us. Obviously, electronic drum companies would be a great choice. After all, my Alesis drum set started this idea. However, video camera companies would be a natural fit as well.

Strategic partnerships are often a key part of building and growing a tech startup.
Strategic partnerships are often a key part of building and growing a tech startup.

3. Tech Companies; Software. The most obvious need will be software development, and we intend to find internal and external developers for that task. However, there are a lot of opportunities for co-branding with music software companies and even music streaming sites.

4. Music Education Companies. This is a lesser priority for the short-term. While working with these companies can give some insight into business models and access to new audiences, these are priorities down the road after more immediate priorities for development and short-term growth are met. However, music education organizations are a high priority over the medium and longer term, which we hope to make sooner rather than later.

5. Entertainment and Gaming. Working with entertainment companies for music, video and gaming will be and remain a high priority, considering the nature of the app.

Rhythm Accomplice Logo
Rhythm Accomplice Logo

We have targeted names for each of the categories and look for connections and contacts in each category. The key is remain focused on how a strategic partnership can help propel both parties forward.

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Logos And Artwork. Documenting a Tech Startup Pt. 3

Your startup needs artwork, graphics and logos. You have no budget and less talent. Now what?

As I was putting the software together, there was a clear need for a logo and other graphic assets.

Rhythm Accomplice Logo
Rhythm Accomplice Logo

There are a lot of free resources to help you make those things, but my talent in that regard is slight at best.  There are resources for free clip art and images, but the available items may not be relevant or useful.

You can hire a graphic artist, but you need a budget for that.

That is where services like fiverr come in.  For about $100, which is a little more than the $5 its name suggests, I was able to hire a designer with an impressive portfolio to design a logo.

I received some samples that looked pretty good while being a bit generic.  However, it was my own fault for providing very little direction to the artist.  In her defense, she did a great job with the little direction I had  provided.

Rhythm Accomplice Draft Logo
Rhythm Accomplice Draft Logo

Here are some tips for getting the most out of hiring a designer for a specific job.

First, have something specific in mind.  I had a general idea around the concept of software drum lessons.  I wanted it to convey “cool”, “innovative” and “fun”.  However, how do you translate that into graphics?

Second, have some samples in mind.  Research logos and taglines for ideas similar to the end result you want to achieve.  I had provided a few examples, but “recognizable like this” is difficult to translate into graphics.

Rhythm Accomplice Draft Logo
Rhythm Accomplice Draft Logo

Third, have an idea of exactly how you are going to use the deliverables.  “Logo” is okay, but do you need a hero image, something for a banner ad, a favicon,  an app avatar?  Does the artwork have a specific purpose on your website or in your app that will need specific sizes, colors or transparencies?

Fourth, have in mind one or more color schemes.  This alone will go a long way toward providing the designer some direction in which to unleash their creativity.

Rhythm Accomplice Draft Logo
Rhythm Accomplice Draft Logo

I did none of the above.  As a result, I received some quality work that flailed to meet the vague directions I provided.  Fortunately, I received one thing that I liked and used, but I had to go back and revise the image.  It involved a lot of cropping, resizing and applying transparency.  Even for $100, the artist could have provided something more tailored to my needs.  However, it was my fault for not giving enough direction.  Follow these tips to get more value from your designer.

Rhythm Accomplice Draft Logo
Rhythm Accomplice Draft Logo

 

 

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Tracking Works! Documenting a Tech Startup Pt. 2

In this installment of Documenting a Tech Startup, we experience software development success!

I am proud to share poorly recorded evidence that the Rhythm Accomplice software can actually communicate with the Alesis electronic drum set!

It has taken a while to get it to this point.  MIDI messages triggered by the drum hits are sent to the computer where they trigger an animated change to the animated drum on the screen and an audio file of the drum sound.  It also triggers a timing mechanism.

This is only one-third of the MIDI issues experienced in putting the prototype together, and that is before we get into the issues of having all of these messages interact with each other.  Surprisingly, the drum set/computer connection turned out to the easier of these challenges, as we’ll explain later.

Here are some mad skillz, and my ‘mad’, I mean non-existent, but it does show the software working.  Below that is a closer look at the screen to see how the UI reacts to the MIDI messages.

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Documenting a Tech Startup

Documenting a tech startup and hoping to eventually transition to documenting a operating education and technology platform.

Thanks for reading.

I have spent months in my spare time developing the demo version of Rhythm Accomplice.  RA will be an innovative platform for people to learn how to play drums.  The demo works, but it needs work.  Unfortunately, it is getting to the limit of my meager coding skills.

The plan is to launch a crowdfunding campaign to either raise the money to complete the development of v1 or to realize that I’m the only one who thinks this is a good idea that people will pay to use.

Last Christmas, I bought an electronic drum set for my family.  My wife and I are musicians.  I play guitar, but I thought I could use the drum set with my Xbox to learn drums with Rock Band.  I saw Youtube videos of people doing it, but Microsoft apparently removed that ability with the Xbox One.

I figured it would be a challenge to build my own solution.  I thought teachers could also use a platform to offer their own courses and students would love a platform for learning drums that offered immediate feedback.

More is coming.  I hope you’ll enjoy living the story with me.

Here’s the drum solo from ‘Whiplash’ with a mispelled title, because why not?