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Songs you play wrong on purpose

Anyone (particularly in the cover scene) have songs you play incorrectly, but you do it on purpose because it works for your band or the arrangement, or just sounds right to you?

Not including songs that you play wrong just because you haven't mastered them yet... these have to be planned deviations.

I'll start:

Like a Prayer by Madonna (Guy Pratt)... when he runs up the fingerboard in the D Minor part to do the Bb, A, Bb, C octaves, I substitute the A's with F's to match the guitars.

Others?

No I don’t. I do play the arrangement and serve the song. Within that there is plenty of space for my art.
 
All the time. Everything. I don’t subscribe to the “It should sound just like the record” ideology. It sounds like our rendition of a well-known song. And honestly, it never sounds exactly the same way twice!
 
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I don't play it wrong, I play it better.

Funky Music - on "lay down that boogie and play that funky music till you die" I play what sounds right, because the bass on the record plays something atonal.

This. I don't see what's on the record as sacred. Sometimes changes are required because of differences in instrumentation. Heck, even the band who recorded the record often don't play it note for note in a live concert.

Sometimes I just think that what's on the record was not the best choice of notes. If it's a cover song, I see no problem with either minor changes, but true to the original, or going into an all-out genre-bending original interpretation.

RE: "Play That Funky Music." I always felt that the riff in question just didn't sit right. I have always played it by doubling the vocal line.
 
John Paul Jones plays atonally in the guitar solo/jam part of Black Dog.
Most people don't notice, or wouldn't notice until I point it out to them.
Since I cover his work, I play it like that during the first time (it's a bigger stretch down to the F) thru, as a nod to JPJ. The second time thru, I go down to the G like I think most people would do.

JPJ does a lot of cool sheet that you only discover when you dig deep into his work. The isolated bass videos and stuff like that are cool for that.
 
Anyone (particularly in the cover scene) have songs you play incorrectly, but you do it on purpose because it works for your band or the arrangement, or just sounds right to you?

Not including songs that you play wrong just because you haven't mastered them yet... these have to be planned deviations.

I'll start:

Like a Prayer by Madonna (Guy Pratt)... when he runs up the fingerboard in the D Minor part to do the Bb, A, Bb, C octaves, I substitute the A's with F's to match the guitars.

Others?
By wrongly, do you mean playing a song our own way? My band plays all our own songs live, but we have released a charity album of songs written by folk we know. All 25 are done our own way.
 
First tune that springs to mind... Margaritaville!
Most of the time I try to get the feel of a song, and show a little restraint. This has served me well, especially with country music. But if I'm required to play Margaritaville (thankfully a rare occurrence any more), I try to cram in pas many notes as humanly possible. That's the one song on which I allow myself a complete lack of taste. Forgive me, Jimmy Buffett! LOL
 
Anyone (particularly in the cover scene) have songs you play incorrectly, but you do it on purpose because it works for your band or the arrangement, or just sounds right to you?

Not including songs that you play wrong just because you haven't mastered them yet... these have to be planned deviations.

I'll start:

Like a Prayer by Madonna (Guy Pratt)... when he runs up the fingerboard in the D Minor part to do the Bb, A, Bb, C octaves, I substitute the A's with F's to match the guitars.

Others?
Pretty much all of them!
 
I approximate the bass in songs, but I see no need in trying to copy the recordings exactly... Not to mention, in a 3 piece, almost any song you play is going to be missing other parts that are present in the recording - more guitars, keyboards, etc. So I might sometimes play something that is a hybrid of other parts.

Same here.

An example is REM's "The One I Love". When we first went to play it, I improvised a part from memory, which used a lot of the lead guitar riff. Afterwards I listened to and worked out how to play the correct bass part, as was actually recorded by the band.

But since then I've been playing a hybrid of both parts, which to my ears just sounds better than the recorded bass part alone.
 
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We recently added Burning Down the House. I love Tina, but she plays a bass synth on that and to me, it's one of her less interesting lines. Certainly has a cool little syncopated groove, but our keys player is not as funky as Bernie Worrell, so I've taken the following approach to the song: I stay fairly true to the bass line through the verses, but I added my Mutron for some squish, and I'm playing Bernie's synth solos. Just added it last weekend. I told them about the envelope filter, but I sprung the new riff on the gig, and drummer just looked at me, grinning. Keeper!
 
Funky Music - on "lay down that boogie and play that funky music till you die" I play what sounds right, because the bass on the record plays something atonal.

We use it as a vehicle for one of the guitar players to show off. I know he's gonna go on for a while, so I amuse myself by throwing in references to "Them Changes" and "Express Yourself."
 
Anyone (particularly in the cover scene) have songs you play incorrectly, but you do it on purpose because it works for your band or the arrangement, or just sounds right to you?

Not including songs that you play wrong just because you haven't mastered them yet... these have to be planned deviations.

I'll start:

Like a Prayer by Madonna (Guy Pratt)... when he runs up the fingerboard in the D Minor part to do the Bb, A, Bb, C octaves, I substitute the A's with F's to match the guitars.

Others?
I play things wrong on purpose to pass my guitar player off.

But, it's in key, and usually following the key boards. Just things that he wants me to follow him on instead. But, I just do it to make him mad.

"Oh yeah. My bad. I forgot."