Idea for a new game - Covers vs originals

[spiritualized]

Just popped in my head whilst listening to my favorite Spotify list...I have a reasonable number of cover songs which I sometimes think are better than the original (I must say that finding out that Brass Against are going to open for Tool made me salivate in advance)

How about we pitted some covers which we think are better than the originals and let the forum decide ?

Nominations : one per day until we reach a decent number (to be decided here)
One on one matches, cover vs original, but format to be also determined (pools of 4 ? ranking through polling ?)

I don't think this was ever played, but I may be wrong ?
What say you ?

[Madzong]

Sounds good! I’m in!

[hero]

Shoot!

Suggestion to be the other way around as well. Not only nominating covers that are "good" but also originals that you wanna see spank the more acclaimed cover. e.g. Jesse Harris - Don't Know Why

There are also a lot of tracks with multiple covers that could go up against each other. E.g. The Crickets, The Bobby Fuller Four and The Clash - I Fought the Law.

[spiritualized]

Suggestion to be the other way around as well. Not only nominating covers that are "good" but also originals that you wanna see spank the more acclaimed cover. e.g. Jesse Harris - Don't Know Why

That'd be down to the nominator - and maybe there will be indeed a few surprises.

There are also a lot of tracks with multiple covers that could go up against each other. E.g. The Crickets, The Bobby Fuller Four and The Clash - I Fought the Law.

A bit more difficult in the format "one vs one", unless there are multiple nominations for the same song.

The first round seems reasonably easy to put in place, it's the second round, if there is one which is more complex.
I can't decide whether this should be a simple "covers vs originals" and leave it as a single round, but it feels unfinished in this case. The second round would see some original winners vs other covers, and that doesn't sound right either.

Or we do a classic "covers" game where we vote for the best cover song ever. I'm torn.

[Rob]

This is up my alley. I sometimes find myself listening to a lot of different versions of a classic song on Spotify. A great song that is covered in an usual or just even better way is just something I find very interesting.

The first round seems reasonably easy to put in place, it's the second round, if there is one which is more complex.
I can't decide whether this should be a simple "covers vs originals" and leave it as a single round, but it feels unfinished in this case. The second round would see some original winners vs other covers, and that doesn't sound right either.

Or we do a classic "covers" game where we vote for the best cover song ever. I'm torn.

I wouldn't mind a simple single round game here.
What about traditionals that don't have a clear 'first' version, but have been recorded many times? Is it better to ignore those here?

[hero]

.

A bit more difficult in the format "one vs one", unless there are multiple nominations for the same song.

The first round seems reasonably easy to put in place, it's the second round, if there is one which is more complex.
I can't decide whether this should be a simple "covers vs originals" and leave it as a single round, but it feels unfinished in this case. The second round would see some original winners vs other covers, and that doesn't sound right either.

Or we do a classic "covers" game where we vote for the best cover song ever. I'm torn.

The classic cover game is one way to go. I thought it'd be fun to see how versions of the same song stands towards each other. But in that case you wouldn't have a clear winner and multiple rounds. Only stating the fact that World Partys version of She's the One is better then Robbie Williams or vice versa. And if you want to structure it like that, you could of course have 2, 3 or more versions of the same song since a lot of tracks been covered multiple times. Maybe one track a week or something?

[spiritualized]

To be fair, the original idea of pitting the original vs the covers seems the closest to what I had in mind.
So I'm thinking of a system which would allow some kind of ranking, but haven't decided which one yet - feel free to chip in.

[spiritualized]

Maybe pool by matches of 4 face-offs, and ask ppl to choose their favorite between the original and the cover. If the cover wins, it goes to the second round. If the original wins, they are eliminated.
Then we move to a more classic format of covers against covers.

There are so many to choose from that I'm thinking 2 x pools of 4 per week (à la unacclaimed) with 128 in total, or is this too long ?

[Rdwdbob]

Maybe pool by matches of 4 face-offs, and ask ppl to choose their favorite between the original and the cover. If the cover wins, it goes to the second round. If the original wins, they are eliminated.
Then we move to a more classic format of covers against covers.

There are so many to choose from that I'm thinking 2 x pools of 4 per week (à la unacclaimed) with 128 in total, or is this too long ?

I like this idea. Looking forward to it. The nomination phase will be fun!

[TheLastEnemy]

Love this idea. I think 2 x pools of 4 songs per week is doable, but you could have any number of versions of each of the 4 songs to begin with.

[mileswide]

Could there be potential for sampled song vs. sampling song or would you just want straight covers vs. originals? I have a typically convoluted idea if you do want to settle on originals v. remakes!

[Rob]

Could there be potential for sampled song vs. sampling song or would you just want straight covers vs. originals? I have a typically convoluted idea if you do want to settle on originals v. remakes!

I personally would prefer to keep sampling out of here. Seems like a different art, that could use it's own poll.

[Romain]

This is a great idea, I hope covers in other languages will be accepted!

[spiritualized]

1- I agree with Rob, the samples idea, be it a good one, is a different game altogether.
2- Romain, of course, it wouldn't be as much fun other wise !

Now that I have a rough idea, how should we nominate ?
Nominating one song a day per person may take forever if we're just a few, so I was thinking of doing it MAA style, with nominations of 10 songs by PM.

Ok with that ?
If so, I'll start soon

[Cadavaca]

I'm interested in this. What is MAA style?

[spiritualized]

I'm interested in this. What is MAA style?

You just nominate your 10 songs via PM to me.
MAA is our long standing poll Moderately Acclaimed Album.

I'll create a new thread for the nominations.

[Live in Phoenix]

If I had found this out a week ago, I probably would have submitted something -- I can't believe there was a James Brown song just sitting on a Joni Mitchell album that I've heard for years.