So I stumbled upon Live At The Rainbow and as pretty predictable and understandable, for a relatively new band, there are some cover songs in the setlist. Which is just fine.
But does anybody have a good explanation (or maybe the band has said it themselves), why they had cover songs in the later times of their career? 86 tour comes to mind for example? By that time they were more than accomplished band with a decent catalogue under their belts.
Why did they opt to do some covers? Any reasonable ideas?
Sry, if the subject has been covered - didn't find the same subject after a quick search.
Chief Mouse wrote:
Probably to have some fun and sort of take a break from the 'serious' set. Maybe also to remember the old days.
Exactly this - I recall reading a quote of Brian's somewhere that the Magic Tour setlist included the likes of Ricky Nelson, Little Richard etc... because those were the songs the guys grew up with and were their first musical loves, and the tracks they first jammed when picking up instruments for the first time, and so that's the main reason for those specific tracks.
Scroll forward 10, 20 years etc.. and see The Darkness, Extreme, Guns n Roses etc.. playing covers of tracks by Queen, The Who, Guns n Roses etc.. for the same reasons.
They also occasionally jammed covers during sound checks. Jail House Rock was a regular setlist cover until The Works Tour.
Queen, as pointed out by cmsdrums, are not the only major band to play covers, almost every Heart gig includes at least one Led Zep Cover. Many bands/singers have recorded covers and have included them in their live sets.. Jimi Hendrix, Springsteen, Zappa, Judas Priest, Dream Theatre, Nine Inch Nails, Tori Amos the list is never ending, almost!
@cmsdrums: Guns 'n Roses covering Guns 'n Roses? hmm....
But yeah, this is basically Queen wanting to pay tribute to the music and musicians that got them to where they are. In the case of Hello Mary Lou, it was also done out of respect for Ricky Nelson, who died just before '86 started
