a generic blues band can be very cool if done with passion & conviction.
little bit 'o soul helps, too.
little bit 'o soul helps, too.
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Generic Blues Band Rant
- Thread starter RoadRanger
- Start date
If you ignore the little things that make the song non-generic that is wrong IMO.There are many versions of blues standards, take Stormy Monday, there is the T-Bone Walker version and the Bobby Blue Bland version among others, same song, different chord progressions. No one way is the right way.
By "generic" I meant they play everything as a straight up 8 bar blues - not cool IMO and the reason why the blues don't get no respect...
BTW i never actually got around to learning "Mustang Sally" until today - the Wilson Picket (original?) version has a pretty cool beat to it and I'm going to try to sing lead on it too, I've never done more than sing harmony when playing before
. The turnaround is interesting:|gg -d -d -d|g g - d g d g g(flat)|fx|x x x x x b(flat) g e(flat)|(CC)
Ummm.
I would never consider HotRS to be a Blues tune. No blues band I ever played in did that tune.
Further, the Animals recording is no kind of good reference.
The tune is an old American folk song of unknown origin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Rising_Sun
It is a narrative of a New Orleans prostitute. Dylan sings pretty much the correct lyrics on his recording. Eric Burdon, who I otherwise like, decided he didn't want to sing a female song and changed the lyrics so much that the song no longer even makes sense.
Good song, but not even in the same realm as any kind of a blues tune. In fact calling it a blues tune betrays a certain lack of knowledge about blues altogether. No offense intended.
As to correct changes, who really knows. Its a really old folk song. I suspect it may only slightly resemble the way it was originally played. Original recording or score does not exist for reference.
I think it is a good idea to try to get a hold of reference recordings and hear what is going on before changing things up. I suspect that is your initial point.
I would never consider HotRS to be a Blues tune. No blues band I ever played in did that tune.
Further, the Animals recording is no kind of good reference.
The tune is an old American folk song of unknown origin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Rising_Sun
It is a narrative of a New Orleans prostitute. Dylan sings pretty much the correct lyrics on his recording. Eric Burdon, who I otherwise like, decided he didn't want to sing a female song and changed the lyrics so much that the song no longer even makes sense.
Good song, but not even in the same realm as any kind of a blues tune. In fact calling it a blues tune betrays a certain lack of knowledge about blues altogether. No offense intended.
As to correct changes, who really knows. Its a really old folk song. I suspect it may only slightly resemble the way it was originally played. Original recording or score does not exist for reference.
I think it is a good idea to try to get a hold of reference recordings and hear what is going on before changing things up. I suspect that is your initial point.
BTW i never actually got around to learning "Mustang Sally" until today - the Wilson Picket (original?) version has a pretty cool beat to it and I'm going to try to sing lead on it too, I've never done more than sing harmony when playing before
|gg -d -d -d|g g - d g d g g(flat)|fx|x x x x x b(flat) g e(flat)|(CC)
Wilson Pickett's was the 3rd version of Mustang Sally.
The original is by Sir Mack Rice as follows
BTW, if you read down a bit on that wiki reference, you will note the version released by Frijid Pink. That brought back some memories. FP used to play the high school dances I went to. I danced to that one "live." LOL. Just about the same time I started playing bass.
According the Wikipedia it was called "The Rising Sun Blues" in 1937 when first collected by folklorist Alan Lomax. But I suppose a title not a blues tune makesUmmm.
I would never consider HotRS to be a Blues tune. No blues band I ever played in did that tune.
Good song, but not even in the same realm as any kind of a blues tune. In fact calling it a blues tune betrays a certain lack of knowledge about blues altogether. No offense intended.
. Lead Belly did record it (as an 8 bar) but most of his tunes were arguably folk and not blues. I suppose it's all about how narrowly or broadly you define "Blues" vs bluesy tunes. Some good reading:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues
+1According the Wikipedia it was called "The Rising Sun Blues" in 1937 when first collected by folklorist Alan Lomax. But I suppose a title not a blues tune makes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues
You highlighted the g(flat) - dunno if you are trying to say that is not the right note or that it should be written as an f#? If the latter it is the diminished fifth (AKA "blue" note) so g(flat) is proper AFAIK. In my own charts I write it as a gb but that is confusing if you can't make the "b" small - but I guess you can hereYou're fired!
.I'm pretty sure there's no g flat aka f#
More like g g f, but I think it's a f_g slur/hammer on for the g's, like
f_g f_g f
I'll check it again next time I'm playing along - my charts tend to be works in progress
.I should probably chart out the version by "The Commitments" too - that actually might be the one most folks play?
