'sweet home alabama'

[Griffinator]

Yeah It's dumbed down so much it's rarely played right.

 

It's rarely played right by bar bands because most bar bands rarely play anything correct to the record, because they're too much in a rush to just "get out there and make some money" to learn the songs correctly.

 

True, but sometimes bar bands give a new twist to those songs cause they can't stand it anymore. (Not saying they make it sound better, just saying). 90% of the songs i've played with bar bands was never played exactly like the record, to me that's called a tribute band, not cover band. (even though both plays cover songs, the latter isn't trying to sound/look exactly like one specific artist.)

 

I guess I should clarify - lot of average (and worse) bar bands dumb songs down so they can learn them faster.

[CrimsonianKing]

Gotcha They know the average crowd won't tell the difference, that's why they do it.

[MikeT156]

Frankly, the average audience will only recognize the dominate licks or signture parts of most popular songs. There's a lot of latitude for a cover band to play songs their own way.

 

I know that the most important thing for me to do was use the style of the keyboard parts rather than playing every lick exactly as recorded on the original record. Just about every big name act I ever saw did not play their own material note for note as their original recording. I never cared for being a human jukebox anyway.

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

Mike T.

[Griffinator]

Frankly, the average audience will only recognize the dominate licks or signture parts of most popular songs. There's a lot of latitude for a cover band to play songs their own way.

 

I know that the most important thing for me to do was use the style of the keyboard parts rather than playing every lick exactly as recorded on the original record. Just about every big name act I ever saw did not play their own material note for note as their original recording. I never cared for being a human jukebox anyway.

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

Mike T.

 

I completely agree, though it does help to learn the actual parts, so you can be a bit more intimately familiar with the vibe the given parts were intending to emote.

[b_3guy]

I can't believe this tune got over 3 pages of posts. . . As far as I'm concerned it's right up there with your Brown Eyed Girl & Old Time Rock & Roll - done like dinner.

[Griffinator]

I can't believe this tune got over 3 pages of posts. . . As far as I'm concerned it's right up there with your Brown Eyed Girl & Old Time Rock & Roll - done like dinner.

 

Don't forget Mustang Sally and Wonderful Tonight.

[Bill H.]

Here is a rendition of my tribute band doing it. Didn't really hit clean on this particuler night, but it's passable i guess..

 

View count on this video is just shy of 8000 - very decent indeed and better than many name recording artists in live performance.

 

That says a lot about the success of your tribute band (congratulations!) and the continuing endurance of this song (which is why this thread refuses to die).

[b_3guy]

I can't believe this tune got over 3 pages of posts. . . As far as I'm concerned it's right up there with your Brown Eyed Girl & Old Time Rock & Roll - done like dinner.

 

Don't forget Mustang Sally and Wonderful Tonight.

 

To quote a famous comedian who has passed on

 

"Don't get me started. . ."

 

Hurts So Good or any CCR tune.

[JeffLearman]

Aren't we done with this song yet?

 

About the key, I like what I'd learned here. Everyone says it's in "D", but I always maintained that it's in the G blues scale, since that's what all the notes are in. But at least most of the time, the tone center really is D; the G resolves to D, and one wants to end the song on D, so I was perplexed.

 

The simple answer of D Myxolidian resolved that pretty well for me. Of course, I won't argue with Steve Nathan that even this isn't the final answer, and that at times during the song the tone center shifts.

 

Words are for communication, and not to make music slaves to the concepts. Communication is almost always incomplete and usually leaves considerable ambiguity. That's not a bad thing, it's just reality.

[Griffinator]

I can't believe this tune got over 3 pages of posts. . . As far as I'm concerned it's right up there with your Brown Eyed Girl & Old Time Rock & Roll - done like dinner.

 

Don't forget Mustang Sally and Wonderful Tonight.

 

To quote a famous comedian who has passed on

 

"Don't get me started. . ."

 

Hurts So Good or any CCR tune.

 

Around here, Pink Houses gets a lot more action than Hurts So Good.

[MikeT156]

by Griffinator:

 

I completely agree, though it does help to learn the actual parts, so you can be a bit more intimately familiar with the vibe the given parts were intending to emote.

 

I agree too. Its really SCARY when a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and a New England Patriots fan agree on much of anything.

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

Mike T.

[b_3guy]

Never played Pink Houses, but I wish I had a buck for every time I've played Raise a Little Hell.

[Griffinator]

by Griffinator:

 

I completely agree, though it does help to learn the actual parts, so you can be a bit more intimately familiar with the vibe the given parts were intending to emote.

 

I agree too. Its really SCARY when a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and a New England Patriots fan agree on much of anything.

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

Mike T.

 

Well, we both agree that the Steelers stink this year.

[Griffinator]

Never played Pink Houses, but I wish I had a buck for every time I've played Raise a Little Hell.

 

We're rehearsing that. I had never heard that song before this band decided to play it.

 

I wish I could say I still have never heard that song before.

[MikeT156]

by Griffinator:

 

Well, we both agree that the Steelers stink this year.

 

True Dat.

 

I heard an interview with Hines Ward the other day on ESPN radio. Ward said that the "Steelers were trying to find an identity". Right. In the army, they use to call an identity a DOG TAG when they collected them off the dead bodies. Collectively, the Steelers are dead and will be buried before the end of the season.

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

Mike T.

[b_3guy]

We have what's called CanCon. One of the government agencies CRTC (Canadian Radio & Television Commission) decided about 50 years ago that radio had to have 35% Canadian Content & TV was to have 60% Canadian Content. They did this to build the Canadian music & tv scene. I must say it has worked. Because of CanCon we have acts like Shania Twain, Bryan Adams, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Rush, producers like Bob Rock, Daniel Lanois & David Foster. But it also allowed things like Nickelback & Trooper.

 

Another one of their's that if I had a buck for every time I played it I could buy a another new keyboard, was Here For a Good Time.

[MikeT156]

Well, Canadian TV has to be better than what's on American TV, but I suppose that's a left handed compliment. American broadcast TV is lame.

 

At least our friends to the north pay attention to the people that live there, which is a equivalent of the American slang "Dance with the one that brung ya".

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

Mike T.

[b_3guy]

Well it's not any better in my opinion. But CanCon has helped create quite a TV & Film industry. Not just in British Columbia (Hollywood North) but also in the rest of the country. Even here on the East Coast it's worth about 1 billion dollars. Because of it we have skilled movie technicians & the locations are second to none.

 

But the music industry is where it has really shined. There would be no Canadian music worth talking about if not for CanCon.

[Bill H.]

One of the most bizarre stories I have about Canadian broadcasting occurred many years ago when I was playing in a band in Victoria BC.

 

We woke up as usual in the late morning and someone turned on the TV. The noon news was just starting.

 

By Canadian law Canadian news had to be broadcast first, followed by news from the states - called "other news".

 

The newscast started out with the usual stuff about traffic congestion, a story about the Prime Minister, etc.

 

Then the broadcast shifted.

 

"In other news, Mount Saint Helens erupted a few hours ago killing dozens of people, displacing hundreds more, causing huge mudflows, and spewing ash over hundreds of miles."

 

Definitely bizarre and something I remember to this day.

[Threadslayer]

HAs anybody checked out the piano solo to "Sweet Home Alabama"?

[Fusker]

What about Louie Louie?

[Ken Beaumont]

"Can't You See"

[Iconoclast]

I wish I had the strength not to post...

 

Played SHA in two different bands.

 

In the first one, we hated the song so much that we agreed never to practice it but we would play it on request only.

 

In the second one, we would play it in the middle of Sublime's "What I Got" which is two chords, D and G throughout. In the middle we'd add the C and gently switch to Sweet Home, play all the solos, skip the singing, then ease back into Sublime and finish the song. They both have a certain trailer-parkyness about them that complements.

 

Play a couple of Billy's songs now but not SHA. Gimmee 3 Steps and What's Your Name. There was a time when I never thought I'd get some of that stuff but now it's some of the funnest/best stuff I play on the piano.

 

Love Skynyrd...hate Sweet Home.

[mate stubb]

Hint on playing Billy's solos - he used two hands to play them.

[Ionian]

Geez musicians complain so much!

 

I get asked to play to play this with many bands I work with and it never bothers me. I also still consider it a privilege any time I play so that may be part of it.

 

Regarding the solo, as for every song, I will never play a song if I can't nail the solo or the sound. The end. I just consider it respectful to the original recording and artists, and the people who come up and request the song. They want to hear the song, not hear me masturbate.

 

That being said, I don't know about some of you but when I was coming up, how well you could nail a solo was a measure of how good you were as a musician. The idea was to be able to nail the solo with the same feeling and notes as the original. Not a bad copy and certainly not my own.

 

Most of my career is built upon the respect I've gotten from musicians by my ability (read: tendency to not leave the house and see sunlight until I've transcribed and mastered each note) to nail a solo from a record. And in the same vein, my view of a musician is based on how well they nail a solo.

 

When I see a band play, if there's a keyboard solo, the keyboardist might think he's impressing me with his fantastic solo but the first thing I think is that he's not good enough to nail the real solo. I don't care what he's playing or how fast, if he doesn't play the real solo, it's because he can't. I might sound arrogant, and believe me I'm certainly not because these solos don't fall out of my hands; I spend weeks transcribing and shedding them if need be, but I know all I need to know about a musician by how well they can cop a solo from a tune. Are they serious? Do they have chops? Are they willing to bust their ass? Do they respect the music? Does he/she do his or her homework?

 

Now if you want to play the real solo, and then extend the tune another go-around so you can solo your own stuff after that, that's fine as long as I hear the real solo first, done correctly.

 

Quick story because it relates to my post. I was hanging out in a bar with Godfrey Townsend, which believe me, isn't name dropping - he's a local fixture in Long Island and any number of nights he hangs out in local watering holes. And I'm sure many of you cats on this board in NY, especially Long Island might have probably hung with him as well a night or two.

 

Anyway, we were talking about a similar topic, but this was years ago. He was telling me a story about how one night he was at a jam session back when he was in the John Entwistle band. He said he was on stage playing and they called a John Entwistle tune. John Entwistle was in the audience at the jam session hanging out with Eric Clapton. So he said that after he played the song, Eric Clapton says to John Entwistle (not knowing who Godfrey was) and says to him, "That guitarist just nailed that solo from your song. You should hire him." John Entwistle says to Eric, "I know he can nail that solo. That's why he IS my guitarist!"

 

So I know this sentiment extends far past me and the circle of musicians I work with.

 

Regards,

Frank

[Joe Muscara]

They want to hear the song, not hear me masturbate.

So what you're saying is, that want to hear you pretend to be someone else masturbating?

 

 

 

I get what you're saying about learning and nailing the original first. I've said this on these forums before. What you should do live really depends. I've heard people talk about nailing versions of songs from albums that a) were edits from two different shows, 2) are different every time that band plays them, or both.

 

In the case of Skynyrd, my understanding is Powell played the parts the same every night, so in most cases, the cover band keyboardist should as well.

[Griffinator]

I get what you're saying about learning and nailing the original first. I've said this on these forums before. What you should do live really depends. I've heard people talk about nailing versions of songs from albums that a) were edits from two different shows, 2) are different every time that band plays them, or both.

 

In the case of Skynyrd, my understanding is Powell played the parts the same every night, so in most cases, the cover band keyboardist should as well.

 

I concur. Point to the opposite end of the spectrum (guit player, I know, sorry) would be Vernon Reid, who never plays the same solo as the record on any of his material. His solos are dizzying, but they can be mastered. The question is, are you being true to his art by playing his solo note for note, or are you being more true to his art by improvising something in the style that he plays?

[Joe Muscara]

That's a good question Griff. Or would you be more true to his art by playing your own solo and being yourself?

 

That said, some people only know the record and want to hear that.

[CEB]

That's a good question Griff. Or would you be more true to his art by playing your own solo and being yourself?

 

....

 

Maybe, but I think that is often an unconscious defense mechanism used by musicians that can't play certain things right.

 

I change stuff but I do it because I want to. I played a pretty wild minor pentatonic based solo that sort of spews a little too much in this Doobie Bros. tune just because I don't like playing Harmonica solos on keys. I will used a few spots like those to show off a little. I guess it is the old guitar player in me.

 

I like to nail keyboard parts true to the what we are copying. If nothing else it demonstrates a decent ear.

[AnotherScott]

To me it's a judgment call... how integral I think the original lead is to the piece. If I do Get Back, I'm definitely copping Preston's Rhodes solo. If I'm doing SHA, all bets are off. But for the most part, when I am doing my own solo, I do like to do it mostly in the style of the original (something you could have imagined the original player might have done) and maybe throw in a signature riff or two. So for Light My Fire, I don't do it note for note, but the key riffs and general approach are there. Unless i just decide to go off on a tangent one night. ;-)

 

I feel the same way about hearing guitar leads... if bands are doing Zep or The Who... there are places I really want to hear the Page or Townshend licks, and there are other places where it really doesn't matter, as long as they do something that is still in the player's general style. (Assuming they are trying to emulate the original arrangement in the first place, as opposed to just doing their own take on it from start to finish, which is fine too. It's the halfway measures that tend to fail for me.)