Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Songs you play wrong on purpose
- Thread starter DaveParker39
- Start date
We decided to try Suburbia by Pet Shop Boys. We're an 80's band but its not a perfect fit - too sterile keyboards for a live band, but anyway... I got the main parts figured out enough for a first run through at rehearsal. After we played it through the keyboard turned to me, and asked "what were you playing during the middle, break down section?".
Rumbled! - I hadn't really looked at that section yet, and I just jammed something funky over the chords... As I was saying something about finding time to have a proper listen to it, he said "Do not EVER listen to the original, and do it exactly the way you just did it"! That was a year or so ago, and I've still not listened to the original. No idea how accurate it is!
Rumbled! - I hadn't really looked at that section yet, and I just jammed something funky over the chords... As I was saying something about finding time to have a proper listen to it, he said "Do not EVER listen to the original, and do it exactly the way you just did it"! That was a year or so ago, and I've still not listened to the original. No idea how accurate it is!
The guitar player/vocals in our band gets mixed up and loses his timing if I play anything too complicated. I've had to simplify some songs for him. It is painful when I nail a bass line then he asks me to simplify it. He is a good singer and I can't sing while playing bass so his wishes get preference.
I'm usually in trios in cover bands, or trio + singer, and Sweet Home Alabama is an inevitable tune to play sometimes. If I just played the bass part the way it's recorded, it would be an empty, dull tune. There's multiple guitars and a keyboard all going at once in it. So the bass and guitar each have to do a lot to fill in on that one when you're in a trio setting.
Going way back to high school garage band days, we had a few rehearsals auditioning a singer. We were pretty quick to notice he was tone deaf so we had some fun with one of our covers, Walk This Way.
The verse is C7 so half way through each verse my guitarist and I would shift up to D. Singer didn't notice while we're crying tears of laughter. I think he lasted a few sessions because we wanted to get together to do it again and again.
The verse is C7 so half way through each verse my guitarist and I would shift up to D. Singer didn't notice while we're crying tears of laughter. I think he lasted a few sessions because we wanted to get together to do it again and again.
There are a couple of licks in Wishing Well by Blackfoot that I play Happy Birthday in. I'm not sure but I know my drummer hears it but my guitars, not so sure? Haven't got the stink eye yet, so?
i can't say that i play any tune "wrong on purpose." but, i don't really care much about what anyone else played on that tune when i'm doing our version of a cover. if our arrangement is a sendup of the original we'll cop the vibe. what else is necessary?
FWIW, my band isn't doing note-for-note (melodies are accurate enough). we do legitimate arrangements of popular tunes. everything is written, we play our arrangement per the sheet and we jam out (solos over changes) when it's time to wank. the closest i come to "wrong on purpose" would probably be quoting other tunes/parts in an act of rebellious spontaneity.
we're an instrumental 7pc. with three horns. we can do whatever we want. it's all an expression...with lots of freedom.
FWIW, my band isn't doing note-for-note (melodies are accurate enough). we do legitimate arrangements of popular tunes. everything is written, we play our arrangement per the sheet and we jam out (solos over changes) when it's time to wank. the closest i come to "wrong on purpose" would probably be quoting other tunes/parts in an act of rebellious spontaneity.
we're an instrumental 7pc. with three horns. we can do whatever we want. it's all an expression...with lots of freedom.
i can't say that i play any tune "wrong on purpose." but, i don't really care much about what anyone else played on that tune when i'm doing our version of a cover. if our arrangement is a sendup of the original we'll cop the vibe. what else is necessary?
FWIW, my band isn't doing note-for-note (melodies are accurate enough). we do legitimate arrangements of popular tunes. everything is written, we play our arrangement per the sheet and we jam out (solos over changes) when it's time to wank. the closest i come to "wrong on purpose" would probably be quoting other tunes/parts in an act of rebellious spontaneity.
we're an instrumental 7pc. with three horns. we can do whatever we want. it's all an expression...with lots of freedom.
Like that and love the way you wrote it up, made me laugh my a$$ off.
- Mar 19, 2013
- 1,612
- 2,694
- Disclosures
- If only I were that good....
We used to play Prince’s “Kiss”
So obviously I was playing wrong as soon as I started in.
So obviously I was playing wrong as soon as I started in.
All of them? 
I have no interested in hearing covers, unless someone is going to make them their own.
So not wrong as in wrong chords, keys, just de- and reconstructed.
But even I have my partial exceptions. Like, I did a collab on a grunge tribute album and most parts we played note for note because the songs actually had leads I remembered (95% of guitar solos go in and out my ear). However, we did the whole thing without any distortion, overdrive, or fuzz. That was our deconstruction.
I have no interested in hearing covers, unless someone is going to make them their own.
So not wrong as in wrong chords, keys, just de- and reconstructed.
But even I have my partial exceptions. Like, I did a collab on a grunge tribute album and most parts we played note for note because the songs actually had leads I remembered (95% of guitar solos go in and out my ear). However, we did the whole thing without any distortion, overdrive, or fuzz. That was our deconstruction.
When I was in law school, first semester, nobody knew me well (I had a kinda antisocial girfriend that was inhibiting me getting to know people). And we went out to karaoke after finals. I was reluctant to sing because, well you know, I'm used to playing an instrument with my band doing songs I've been practicing.
But my peers were making everyone take a turn, we'd kinda taken over the whole bar. So none of them knew I had been a singer in bands my whole life. And I have no problem hitting some falsetto notes, I have a pretty good range. I killed it and the jaws dropped hahah. Then I was messing with them because I'd been so reluctant..."ya, I don't know, I kinda remember that song from when I was a kid. Naw never sang karaoke before..." (that was actually true) "I'm as surprised as you.."
Last edited:
I always learn exactly what happened in the original version of a song, and then occasionally change it to suit the environment.
When I was younger, I stubbornly played things note-for-note, even if it didn't work with what the other players in the band were doing. I thought, "Well, at least one of us is getting his part right!" But I know now that it's more important to make the whole thing sound good.
Part of my background is in classical music, where being *unable* to play what the composer intended is absolutely unacceptable. So, even if I "arrange" or "edit" or "improvise around" a part, at least I know the original and can play it. And if the genre is more improvisational (Dead, etc.), I do try my best to emulate the original bassist's style and thinking process.
When I was younger, I stubbornly played things note-for-note, even if it didn't work with what the other players in the band were doing. I thought, "Well, at least one of us is getting his part right!" But I know now that it's more important to make the whole thing sound good.
Part of my background is in classical music, where being *unable* to play what the composer intended is absolutely unacceptable. So, even if I "arrange" or "edit" or "improvise around" a part, at least I know the original and can play it. And if the genre is more improvisational (Dead, etc.), I do try my best to emulate the original bassist's style and thinking process.
Last edited:
One more thing:
Someone mentioned "Gimme Three Steps." I have a specific memory of playing it in 1994, subbing in a band at a biker club owned and operated by the Hell's Angels, on Boston's North Shore. There I was with my music stand, reading the part in standard notation. I'd transcribed it from the original studio version. The bandleader was ecstatic. "That's the first time anyone's ever played the bass part right!"
Now, people say, "The audience never notices." But how many times have you heard a concertgoer gush, "They sounded exactly like the record!! (I got my money's worth.)" (Paradoxically, as a Cream/Allmans/Dead/blues/jazz fan, that's *not* why I'm there, as a concertgoer.)
By the way, Lynyrd Skynyrd discoverer and producer Al Kooper said that they worked out all of their music -- *including solos* -- meticulously.
Someone mentioned "Gimme Three Steps." I have a specific memory of playing it in 1994, subbing in a band at a biker club owned and operated by the Hell's Angels, on Boston's North Shore. There I was with my music stand, reading the part in standard notation. I'd transcribed it from the original studio version. The bandleader was ecstatic. "That's the first time anyone's ever played the bass part right!"
Now, people say, "The audience never notices." But how many times have you heard a concertgoer gush, "They sounded exactly like the record!! (I got my money's worth.)" (Paradoxically, as a Cream/Allmans/Dead/blues/jazz fan, that's *not* why I'm there, as a concertgoer.)
By the way, Lynyrd Skynyrd discoverer and producer Al Kooper said that they worked out all of their music -- *including solos* -- meticulously.
Last edited:
Back when I played in church worship bands, I used to insert Steve Miller Band and Beatles riffs into the songs just to see if anybody was paying attention.
A real bedroom bassist here, who's never played in a band. Result: I can accompany my own 'singing' however I like.
It just happened: when playing/singing Have You Ever Seen The Rain, I found myself leading up to the second and last lines in the chorus by running down from root to dominant major instead of going to the minor as CCR seem to do. And in my bedroom nobody's complained
It just happened: when playing/singing Have You Ever Seen The Rain, I found myself leading up to the second and last lines in the chorus by running down from root to dominant major instead of going to the minor as CCR seem to do. And in my bedroom nobody's complained
We play bluescovers. So when you'd hear the original recordings on record and liveshows there's already different versions. So, I listen to a (few) version(s) to get the basic feel and ideas. Maybe there's some signaturehooks. And then play it the way I feel is true to the song and true to me
