I freely admit that while growing up I hated it when I found out something was a “cover.” In the music industry we know this to be when a band played or recorded another artist’s songs. In the movie industry they call them remakes, but the essential premise is the same.
I would hear a new song, a song that really spoke to me, and I would listen to it over and over again. But sometimes the inevitable would happen, and I would find out that it was a cover. I would feel so jilted that I would track down the original artist’s rendition and from that point on, only listen to the real thing. It was the pure one, not that copycat garbage.
A few years ago I was sitting in an adult drinking establishment in Fort Collins, Colorado… you probably know the kind. A new establishment, sports bar type, with all the bells and whistles but none of the soul.
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s song Simple Man, an old favorite, came over the bar’s loud speakers. It was close, but I knew automatically that it was a cover. Sitting beside me was Laurie, and on the other side, a younger guy. To be honest, he didn’t look quite old enough to be there but he was.
When the song started we both started singing it a bit and laughed. This is where things went from there: “Man, what a great song,” the kid said. I agreed and offered my glass for a cheers.
Just a few minutes earlier he had proceeded to tell us that he was a musician and that he had a CD and was trying to make it to California so he could get into the music industry.
“But man, this song by Shinedown is awesome,” he continued, as our mugs rang together. I paused, and looked at him out of the corner of my eye, trying to judge his sincerity.
“Ahh… it’s too bad they didn’t write it,” I offered. Being a musician myself I had made a snap judgment that as a budding musician he should have known who the original artist was.
It took his smartphone only a few seconds to prove me right, but watching him, and how much he had loved the song, I realized something. For a new generation, new covers are the only way they could be introduced to some of the greatest artistic endeavors from the past.
So we bought him a beer, then bought his CD (which had several covers on it), wished him luck and headed home.
From that day on I have had a different perspective on covers. Sometimes a new rendition of something old is just what is needed to introduce it to new fans.
Why am I telling this story? Well, because in the spirit of revitalizing something and introducing it to new fans, we are releasing a new “cover” for the book cover of Conscripts: the first book of The Off World Trilogy.
In this case, although I made the first cover myself, I have to admit I like what the awesome designers at damonza.com did with mine. And that it’s going to have a similar look and feel with the second book that you’ll see this fall! Let us know what you think!
Cheers,
Patrick
