ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Sept 24, 2024 10:08:36 GMT
Even Youtube's eagle ears didn't recognise this as having copyrighted content ...
...maybe we should have worn cowboy hats...?
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Post by PistolPete on Sept 24, 2024 10:21:05 GMT
I don't know how we were going to mimic the bass, keyboard and drums from the original. While there's sometimes mileage in changing things just to be different, for me this is usually the most interesting challenge when it comes to covers - how to get one acoustic guitar to do as many of the things that make the "essence" of a song at once. If the stuff that makes it sound like Born Under A Bad Sign is all happening on bass & horns there's no point trying to learn the guitar leads, however elegant they might be.
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Post by scorpiodog on Sept 24, 2024 11:07:44 GMT
I don't know how we were going to mimic the bass, keyboard and drums from the original. While there's sometimes mileage in changing things just to be different, for me this is usually the most interesting challenge when it comes to covers - how to get one acoustic guitar to do as many of the things that make the "essence" of a song at once. If the stuff that makes it sound like Born Under A Bad Sign is all happening on bass & horns there's no point trying to learn the guitar leads, however elegant they might be. This engendered an interesting thought (well I think it's interesting) which is that some songs rely on a particular tempo, harmonisation, or sometimes just a riff for its familiarity. This gives two options when trying to arrange a cover: either preserve that element in your arrangement, or totally abandon it and use the value of the song itself to create something a bit different. Both strike me as equally valid (where changing the melody wholesale, for example, wouldn't be) but they have, I think, a different effect on the audience. If you're leading a robust singalong session, for example, then trying to achieve something essential about the original is neccessary to give the audience a foothold so that they can sing along as easily as possible. However, if you're lucky enough to have an audience keen to actually listen to what you're doing, the other method of taking the song as though it's never been recorded before can work as well if not better, particularly when they finally twig what it is you're singing. The expressions on their faces as they realise what's being sung are extremely gratifying.
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Post by NikGnashers on Sept 24, 2024 16:14:25 GMT
Music is about expression and making the most of what you have. There is nothing original about doing it the original way. This ^ My 'hero' Jansch never seemed to play songs the same way twice either. I think (just my 2p), so long as somebody who covers another's song/work, acknowledges that they are covering somebody else, and gives respect to the original, then that is the main thing. So many covers I hear, are so much better than the original, but without the original, the cover would not exist.
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Post by martinrowe on Sept 24, 2024 20:00:57 GMT
Here's Ry Cooder doing Charlie Wesley's 'And Can it Be'. (The title is wrong) What would they be - 200 years apart.
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Sept 24, 2024 20:51:59 GMT
martinrowe - That's a cracker alright, Martin! Lovely - thanks for posting. Charles Wesley did indeed write the words for And Can It Be? But the music used for it, the tune as played by Ry Cooder, was written by Thomas Campbell. it works well Spenced up! Keith
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Post by martinrowe on Sept 24, 2024 21:48:21 GMT
Ah, thanks for that. I knew that Wesley wrote the words; I wrongly assumed that the music was by him as well. Ry Cooder says in the preamble that Joseph Spence taught him the tune, so there is some probability that it may have gone from Wesley, via a Methodist missionary to the Bahamas, then via Joseph Spence to Ry Cooder - Interesting....
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Post by hughesy on Sept 26, 2024 12:49:21 GMT
This is something I have been thinking about lately as I can be somewhat guilty of sticking to the original arrangement quite closely. Obviously, this is more the case where the original song is based around a solo guitar/singer.
When I first started trying to learn steel string acoustic this was because I wanted to specifically learn the guitar parts moreso than learning the song from a performance perspective.
Recently, I have started to perform a little more often and have learnt songs that are multi instrument or piano-based in which case, arranging is a necessity. I do feel a bit more conscious when performing a song that is a fairly close copy of the original but I still enjoy it.
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