What Songs have you Reworked into Different Styles?

"Clap Hands" done with a latin flavor, same with "Jockey Full of Bourbon"

"Your Mind is on Vacation" as a 12 bar blues.

"Ring of Fire", "Folsom Prison Blues" medley...Johnny Cash meets the Clash

"Sweet Home Alabama" as a reggae tune

Don't know if this qualifies as the lyrics have been altered, but "I Need Somebody to Love" as a punked up "I Need Somebody to Shove"

We've been messing around with "Bat Chain Puller" and "Floppy Boot Stomp" but no love so far.

 

Hi,

Because of my main genre, we're always putting a country spin on pop and rock songs. I think some of the covers that country artists do are better than the originals.

The band "Boy Howdy", which was led by bassist Rick Steele, was really good at covering other genres. Like this:



They also kicked butt on their cover of "You Really Got Me" (Kinks), but I couldn't find it on the 'tube. Rick Steele has had some success in Nashville as a producer and songwriter. He's a local guy and our bands used to play the same club circuit back in the day, but he probably doesn't remember me.

We do Blake Shelton's version of "Footloose" (Kenny Loggins). We used to do Trisha Yearwood's version of "Piece Of My Heart" (Janice Joplin).

My band covers a lot of pop and rock songs, from Journey to Michael Jackson to No Doubt, and while we don't purposely try to do so, they always have a little country edge to them. It's fun and the crowd loves it.

Last Thursday, when I filled in with Rodeo Revival at The Brandin' Iron, we played "Wagon Wheel" and went into a reggae feel during the breakdown verse/chorus. It was fun musically but the two-steppers don't really care for it when we drop the one.

Here's my former band putting a country spin on a few rock songs...



Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

I was in a band that did "Rock and Roll All Night" as a country waltz. We had a fill-in drummer one gig and he told us to never play that song that way again. LOL. It always went over well. We also did Huey Lewis' "Bad is Bad" as a slow Texas swing and has a contest with the audience to see who could name the original artist. I think someone got it right once.

 

I love it when bands do a completely different take on a well known (and oft overplayed) song.
It takes great creativity and imagination to make it really work.

 

Big JJ Cale fan here. I always love to see the reaction on people's faces when we introduce "Traveling Light", "Call me the Breeze", and "Cocaine" as JJ Cale songs.

Sounding good man!!

 

All of them. Not always on purpose, though. Probably the most complete redo started with the Flamingos version of "I Only Have Eyes For You" and went somewhere else. The latest project plans to see about transmorgriphying Diana Krall's version of "Temptation" into a rockabilly song without wiping out its identity. That's the goal, anyway. We are also trying to figure out how to do James Brown's "I Feel Good" with an upright bass and no horns or keyboard and get away with it. And maybe vocals. Maybe not.

 

Well, Meditation makes a nice up-tempo samba, and All the Things You Are works nicely as a waltz. Giant Steps is quite nice as a ballad, and that's the only way anyone can really solo on it, it seems! And "I Feel Fine" with a tumbao.

 

Hi,

Thanks! I always introduce "Crazy Mama" as "a relatively unknown, yet obscure, song from JJ Cale".

And we always do "Call Me The Breeze" like The Mavericks, just a big ol' three chord country shuffle. Great stuff.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

Billy Jean country feel with fiddle.

 

Too bad these two broke up...

 

Wow--too many to list them all--that's one thing I have done for many years--
-Love is Blue (instrumental rock)
-Communication Breakdown (Acoustic and slow)
-Book Of Love (semi-punk)
-etc, etc.

 

Wife and I saw those two a couple years ago good singers but pretty boring live. One thing I loved about being in an Indie folk, Ameriana band was creating the music and sound.

Getting to twist cover songs was a blast. We also folked up Werewolves of London and I will survive...people loved them.

 

A local guy does a great reggae version of "The Authority Song" by Mellencamp.

 

They are both married but not to each other and apparently that was the problem.

 

Not very radical of a change but this one springs to mind.



And I always though that Silver Ships by the Doors would make a great Jazz ballad.

 

Blues version of AC/DC's Dirty Deeds (done dirt cheap) on acoustic.

 

Yea kind of seen that coming.

 

I've always wanted to do a country version of Rush's "Time Stand Still." Sadly, I don't play in a country band. Or listen to country music.

 

Baby Got Back - By Jonathan Coulton. His arrangement was stolen for an episode of Glee...