Songs you play wrong on purpose

[Cristo]

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.

How interesting! We do that one as well - only it's one where I stick to the original part (well mostly.)

 

[Not Again]

YYZ.
I play it wrong every time, so I don't seem arrogant.






(that lie is absolutely inaccurate and is a compensation for my deficient lack of Geddyness)

 

[2112]

We do faithful covers, but on the rare occasion an audience is not into Working Man, we chop out a minute or so of the main guitar solo. Same for Twilight Zone.

 

[DaveParker39]

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.

What I mean, is a small change you make to how you play a song to serve the song even though it wasn't originally played that way.

 

[LowActionHero]

Can't think of an example off hand, but I used to have a couple that I changed a little, or I learned wrong and liked my way better.

 

[Ralph Manak]

I sometimes mash up “Ramble On” with the line from “My Girl.” So far, though, the front people have not announced it as “Ramble On, My Girl.”

 

[Jeff Michael]

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’m a blues bass player. I place a very high premium on trying to nail every nuance of the original records. With that said, some tunes are too weird in their original form to try and perpetuate. The original bass line to Howlin’ Wolf’s Evil is hard to hear and harder to explain once you do.

Pursuant to the OP, I play a minor figure under My Babe, which I probably wouldn’t left to my own devices. But I nicked the idea from a video of Dillard Crume playing bass with Little Walter, which itself was an unusual lineup. Nobody complains.

So to make a long story short, I try to get the part right, and then proceed to either use it or discard it.

 

[Kerry Brown]

For me it depends if the original bass line is integral to the song then I stick pretty close. A song like Driving my Life Away isn't going to be right without the bass line, as simple as it is. Other songs where the bass doesn't define the song I often go my own way. Once I have my line and the rest of the band is ok with it I don't change it much.

 

[Michael Stanley 2112]

(Emphasis is added)I’m a blues bass player. I place a very high premium on trying to nail every nuance of the original records. With that said, some tunes are too weird in their original form to try and perpetuate. The original bass line to Howlin’ Wolf’s Evil is hard to hear and harder to explain once you do.

Pursuant to the OP, I play a minor figure under My Babe, which I probably wouldn’t left to my own devices. But I nicked the idea from a video of Dillard Crume playing bass with Little Walter, which itself was an unusual lineup. Nobody complains.

So to make a long story short, I try to get the part right, and then proceed to either use it or discard it.

I had a professor who told me: "Of course you break the rules. I break the rules we're both good at what we do, but you have to know what the rules are so you can break them correctly."

 

[Ewo]

I don't fuss so much about exactly duplicating the bass part on a cover tune. I try to play the signature parts exactly--the lines that make the song what it is--and then cop the feel of the rest, adapting rhythmically and melodically to what my bandmates are playing. IMHO that's playing the song faithfully, but allowing myself a bit of creativity.

 

[themickster]

What I mean, is a small change you make to how you play a song to serve the song even though it wasn't originally played that way.

Different doesn't mean wrong. The first recording made might not have been what the writer had in mind. Blondie took a reggae song to the studio. Producer Mike Chapman got them to do it disco. It went to #1.

 

[Nev375]

It's not just songs. Sometimes people tell me that I'm playing bass ALL WRONG or that I'm a wannabe guitarist, or I have too many strings, or I'm trying too hard or playing too many notes.

I've come to the conclusion that my playing is fine, but they aren't listening correctly.

But a specific example is Amazing Grace. I have shortened simplified minimalist solo version of the melody that is inspired by blues guitar, but deeper. It's all slow and moody.

 

[Bassed in NZ]

Don’t know if this counts, but I played in a Stevie Nicks tribute band. Edge of Seventeen has a long guitar solo at the end over ||: C | D | Em | Em :||

i took to throwing in other basslines on the Em bars just to mess with the rest of the band and see if they’d notice - Livin on a prayer, Billie Jean, Come Together, Play that funky music, Another One bites the dust, Carry on my wayward son etc.

Yeah - they noticed . Only did it in rehearsal though - never in a gig with paying punters!

 

[dreamadream99]

I typically strive for accuracy, but I can think of one instance where I play the song wrong on purpose: Footloose

At the chorus, when it starts on the I chord it ping-pongs on a 6-b7 lick, then when it moves to the IV chord it does a walking 6 chord thing. I reverse those patterns. I play the walking 6 chord on the I, and the ping-pong 6-b7 thing on the IV. Why?… because it sounds better to me than the way it was written.

P.S. Footloose is one of the hardest songs to play and sing.

 

[HHudson]

Pretty much everything.

We play Punk/Hard Rock/Metal. None of us are gifted songwriters, so we play mostly "covers".

The only stuff I try to keep as close to the original as possible (and not always succeed), are songs which are foreign to me (think especially Burton, but also Harris, Lemmy) ... mostly metal, E2 or riff oriented stuff.

The songs I have introduced into the band is stuff I enjoy, 50s-60s Soul, R&B & RnR. Playing that straight is not an option for most members, so we adapt it. I usually bring along the original and some covers which are closer to the tastes especially of the guitarists to give them ideas on how they might approach it. Soo, for instance for Cochran's Summertime Blues, Rush & The Who; Rufus' Walkin' the Dog, Aerosmith & Stones; Berry's Have Love Will Travel, Black Keys & Sonics; Robnson's Tears of a Clown, The [English] Beat... etc.. We work out our own versions. Fortunately our drummer really likes this approach and helps me keep the tempo within bounds & not loose the groove in the resulting harder versions.

I have recently been on a Disco [which I used to hate with a passion] and Funk splurge on bass, haven't figured out how to approach that in the band context yet though.

Works the other way around as well, our lead guitarist & singer brought in Talco's punk rendition of Bella Ciao & the two played/sang it for us. I had never it head before. In my head I heard Braud's 1932 bass line from It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got that Swing), borrowed & improvised on that. I know the original now, but I still play it that way.

For me it is a lot more challenging & fun to play things the "wrong" way & keeps me in the band.

-Henry

 

[Lazylion]

Another one... Old Time Rock n Roll!
Once I tried playing it like the record - pounding the root of each chord, instead of my usual 1 - 3 - 5 - 65. When we finished, the drummer hollered "that sucked!"

I had to agree, and I never did it again.

 

[dbase]

I start the bass riff for Lido Shuffle in E instead of F to screw the lead singer.

 

[5StringBlues]

I probably play the thrill is gone by BB king a little bit different every time I play it. I'm sure a lot of it depends on how aggressively the band is playing. If the bands playing very laid back I play with the very laid back tone, if the bands playing aggressive I'm my slap it with my thumb to get a little growl.

 

[5StringBlues]

Without a doubt I play rainy night in Georgia much busier than the recorded versions. I'm playing in a 3 pc when I play this and there's just no movement if I don't do something with the bass part

 

[HHudson]

I probably play the thrill is gone by BB king a little bit different every time I play it. I'm sure a lot of it depends on how aggressively the band is playing. If the bands playing very laid back I play with the very laid back tone, if the bands playing aggressive I'm my slap it with my thumb to get a little growl.

For me that sounds like how the blues should be played, expressive and in the mood.

I dono, it may be my age, it may be due to the music I grew up hearing. For me it has always been about improvising and making it your own (unless you are in e.g. a tribute band, which e.g. dresses up to give the audience the illusion they are seeing/hearing the originals).

Aside from Blues/Soul/R&B/R&R/Brit Invasion/Folk & Folk revival/Trad country/Rock/Funk... I grew up hearing pre hard-bop jazz constantly in the background, and later when my journeys took me there in the foreground. My step dad had been a jazz drummer and was a huge jazz buff, rare when it was not spinning on the turntable.

Many of the "Jazz Classics" were origionally really flat and often horrible pop/dance/schlager tunes, which the musicians took and made their own and spectacular. There were of course many others which were also composed specifically as Jazz tunes with open space for the soloiists (especially Ellington/Henderson). Each musician interpretating it very differently and uniquely. Think of Billie Holiday or any of the Cafe Society bands & musicians. None played it as it was in the original.... often in those cases fortunately. The same is true of Blues/Soul/R&B... Think of Aretha, she never sings the same tune twice the same way, even her own self written songs. The Jump/Country Swing/Doo-wop/Rock 'n' Roll bands were doing the same often with a riveraly competing back and forth each trying to outdo the other with the same songs.

I'm not critizising what a cover band now appears to mean/be, you can learn and perfect your technique a lot by copying your role models exactly and there are apparently eager audiences who want and perhaps now demand to hear it played that way. I just wonder when this started, I fear I missed that bus when it came by.