1980's Acoustic Covers?
 

I seems to me we had this discussion once, but I cannot recall.

Does anyone know of good / interesting acoustic covers of 1980's songs? That decade was handicapped by bad production and an over-use of synth, but there were good songs underneath it all. Strip them down to acoustic, and their inner light can show.

I am trying to see some good examples of this (bad original / good cover), so if anyone has any suggestions, it would be appreciated.

Here is an example: Colin Hay's own revision of his "Overkill"

Well......How about that? Until you posted the link, I always thought that Men at Work (Land Down Under, etc....) did that "Overkill" tune. It did come out in the same era. There's got to be plenty of covers of these '80s songs. Are you interested in remakes by original artists or anyone that redid (acoustically) any originals from the '80s?

Ryan

Get on iTunes and get "The Stroke" NOW!!!
 

Check out an album on iTunes called "80s Hits Stripped". Here's the list

Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
Down Under - Colin Hay
Your Love - The Outfield
The Metro - Berlin
No One Is to Blame - Howard Jones
Only The Lonely - The Motels
867-5309/Jenny - Tommy Tutone
Missing You - John Waite
She Blinded Me With Science - Thomas Dolby
Promises, Promises - Naked Eyes
Heart of the Moment - Asia
Our Lips Are Sealed - Jane Wiedlin
The Stroke - Billy Squier (My favorite... Seriously, go download this one now!)

Go ahead and listen to some of the samples. They're pretty cool.
Of course, everybody's heard the Chris Cornell cover of Billie Jean. And, John Mayer ROCKED Free Fallin' acoustically.

Colin Hay was (is?) frontman for Men at Work...

:lol:. I dont know whether to be embarrassed that I didnt know that or feel good that I was right about the singer's voice.....

Overkill might be the best example of "wow that 80's song sounds great on acoustic guitar".

I was surprised by david coverdale doing an acoustic version of here I go again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efZzY...eature=related

I went through the same thing when i heard a Glen Phillips song. I love this voice, where have i heard it? why does he sound familiar? sounds like that guy from Toad teh Wet Sprocket......oh yeah, he IS that guy from Toad....

check out some of his acoustic "covers" of his old/own songs!!

Hmmm.. that was a refreshing version of this song. Great guitar playing.

I think you can pretty much do any song in an acoustic version. I recently added the Cars "Just What I Needed" to my acoustic playing.

ha, i play that one acoustic at my shows... :)

Phil Collins' version of True Colors is also a good number to do unplugged (although he remade that in the 90s). Plus you don't have to change your vocals to sound like Cindy Lauper.

I'll mention that someone posted a thread awhile back of Prince (who I'm not really a big fan of) playing all of his tunes with an acoustic (video clip). I thought it was great! A lot of those tunes are from the '80s. Right?:D He is a solid performer unplugged, at least IMO (after watching that).....

Ryan

I LOVE Glen Phillips (Toad the Wet Sprocket)! Agreed, he has some tasty acoustic stuff too, but he (Toad) is more '90's (early 90s and later if I remember right :confused:)..........:)

How about Peter's "Rock Lobster"?



Not acoustic, but a great 80's cover. Postal Service's "Against All Odds"



Chris Cornell's "Billie Jean"