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Non-Guitar Songs that Work on Guitar and Guitar Songs that Don't Work on Guitar
Despite being a snobbish Gen X songwriter with a penchant of complex, Dylan-style lyrics (or the bashed out chording of Joe Strummer or The Jam's Paul Weller), a few years ago I set out on what I'm calling "My Big Brother's Lame Jr. High Record Collection" and learning a few mid-70s pop songs that I grew up on...before I started buying my own records.
In other words, I've been wallowing in pure, uncut nostalgia. After about four years of this I've noticed the following: There are a set of songs that don't feature acoustic guitar, perhaps at all, that are easily adapted to acoustic and just a blast to play and sing. Example: Rocketman, by Elton John, which, to be honest, I'm really embarrassed to have learned but just love to play. And it's easy to find cool, creative arrangements on YouTube or to stumble across new covers etc. Man, I can fingerpick that song for hours. Then there are songs that were written on the acoustic guitar and are built around the acoustic guitar in the original recording, but, strangely, ironically, frustratingly, seemingly remain impossible to do justice to with just a solo acoustic guitar. Example: Night Moves by Bob Seger. I've long held this is one of pop's most overlooked brilliant songs...although, the more I've tried to work it up, the more I realize its brilliance largely rests in overall production -- without all the recording's elements it is **** near impossible to capture the mood, to get that hair on the back of the neck, sublime feeling of nostalgia, of longing.... It's easy to pull up videos or tracks of Seger playing it solo on guitar...and they are lame. I actually thought he was playing it too fast but nope, the original, studio version isn't slow...it's just rich and cinematic. There are many covers...and they are lame. If there's one that's not lame, I ain't found it. I'm not talking about "look, these are the chords and these are the lyrics: bam;" I'm talking about: "can I cover this song in a manner that gives you the same lump in your throat you've been getting when you hear it for nearly half a century?" And the answer is no. Because I've moved people to tears with my lil Rocketman. But I won't even perform Night Moves for friends for risk of undermining my claim that it's one of the world's greatest songs. It's then I realize how much emotional force the bass, for example, brings to the mix, as it drops in or drops out or adds harmonic complexity. In the interest I'll note that I, not my brother, bought this album when it came out. I was 13, and even then loved songs that painted pictures: setting, character, theme.... I'm nearly 59 now and teach literature, and have been playing music for forty years, and those concepts remain my life's passion. And so I'm still struck, after all these years, at how well a 4:00 or so minute song can deliver such lyrical and emotional intensity...which many authors fail to do even when you give them 300 pages in which to do it. I ain't giving up on Night Moves, btw. But I am back to hunting for old stuff that simply works and works really well. Last edited by tdrake; 09-13-2022 at 11:26 AM. |
#2
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Interesting post, good points that had never occurred to me. Thanks for sharing.
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#3
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Tears For Fears' "Mad World" is another that seems "better" when stripped down to its essentials -- a "not an acoustic song" that really simply seems made for being an acoustic song.
This one's really heartwarming -- Curt Smith of Tears For Fears and his daughter. And then Gary Jules and Curt Smith -- ultra minimalist arrangement and yet just stunning. (note to self to steal this arrangement!) |
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Chord movement and it's emotional and/or physical repercussions is what got me headed down the country rag and original jazz rabbit hole. Completely different than the drama filled singer song writer type of material but similar in the sense that after a while you start to recognize them and that you have to set them up to have them work their magic. This leads to how songs are arranged and their structure.
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#6
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Marty Schwartz makes a point on his lesson for The Beatles Let it Be that piano songs are really fun to play on guitar. Let it Be is a great example of that.
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#7
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I rearranged this Bruce Springsteen song which on the record was mostly piano and sax...
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tdrake, we are the same age. Hard to believe I'm going to be SIXTY next year?!!?!
I love trying to do stripped down versions of songs that were not originally done acoustically! We do a number in my duo. One we just learned is Little Lies by Fleetwood Mac. Cool song and very much a keyboard song. We also do You Make Lovin Fun. I'm lucky to have a partner in my duo who can sing like a woman in the original key! Ha ha. He's really got a strong high range. Other keyboard based (or at least not with guitar as the primary driver) tunes we do: She's Got a Way - Billy Joel Logical Song - Supertramp Reminiscing - Little River Band Holding Back the Years - Simply Red Saturday in the Park - Chicago Silly Love Songs - McCartney Something About You - Level 42 Takin it to the Streets - Doobies Tempted - Squeeze Rosanna - Toto (it's got some great guitar in it but I'd say keys are dominant) For what it's worth, we do Night Moves. I do get what you're saying about how it could really fall flat if not done with good dynamics and emotion, but I think we do a pretty darned good version!
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#9
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Quote:
Quote:
1) Piano taught me to really appreciate "Chord movement and it's emotional and/or physical repercussions" and "how songs are arranged and their structure" in a way that had been missing in my more lyric-based ("three chords and the truth") attention to lyrics in songwriting. I'll never have a technical mind for that kind of stuff but that definitely pushed me towards listening to a lot more jazz and, yeah, just enjoying a more cerebral and less emotional/nostalgic etc. experience. 2) Toyed with Let It Be, which I dove into on piano years ago, on the acoustic and really dig it! Thanks for that! |
#10
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The last few years I keep coming back to Lindsey Buckingham's post Fleetwood Mac solo performances -- like Richard Thompson's solo stuff, his playing will always be beyond me but it sets an excellent benchmark for how to boil a band's worth of work into one voice and guitar. Note to self that it's time for my semi-annual Squeeze binge and it'd really fun to learn a couple of theirs. |
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Yeah, maybe more than anyone else from that generation or era, Springsteen's songwriting genius got covered up by that big band and his arena-scale performances. ...I never really listened to him until Nebraska hit me right where I was and taught me to listen for the foundation under the production of the older stuff. Learning/performing a solo acoustic Born to Run remains the hardest, most rewarding song I've ever taken on, I think. |
#12
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Oh, man, I hear you on this! I've given up trying to guess how easy or hard a song is going to be that I hear on the radio while I'm driving and then rush to the computer to try and find a good set of chords.
Like, these two recent ones; "Trouble" by Lindsay Buckingham and "Time To Move On" by Tom Petty. To be honest, I wasn't all that familiar with either one and neither one has much to go on, though Trouble has actual acoustic guitar in the mix, not that that was really helpful to me. They're both fast, pretty easy chords, and similarly easy vocals for me. A tossup if you'd asked me before I tried either one. As it turns out, "Trouble" was a little bumpy to begin with but then, just got easier and easier. After a day, it's as easy as anything I play. I can go straight into it, without really thinking carefully about the song, and it just flows. The song sounds good at almost any tempo. I'm still working on "Time To Move On." It seems easy, it's a pretty simple song but I'm still struggling with it. Sometimes I seem to have it, and then other times it's just off .... it's ongoing. It's the guitar part, that I've had to largely make up. On the recording is everything but acoustic .... electric guitars, bass, drums, piano, some other stuff. Such a great song, I'll keep at it. I can usually eventually get them to work, but not always. "Bus Stop" by The Hollies is one of these. It's still impossible for me to figure out why this one is so unworkable for me ... like a bad relationship, you just have to move on. Another song that's really difficult to translate to acoustic guitar is "This Old Cowboy" by the Marshall Tucker Band. The version I have is off a 1979 live New Year's concert they did in New Orleans. Makes it even harder. Turtle Last edited by turtlejimmy; 09-26-2022 at 11:28 AM. |
#13
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I've played sets that start with Rocket Man and end with Night Moves.
I'm never gonna claim that I can match the original recordings of either of these classics, but the arrangements that I play are ones that tend to get noticed and appreciated. For me the key to Night Moves is to get the breakdown part together. It should turn heads if done right. Both songs are so ubiquitous and familiar that they tend to be good ones for just about any audience. As far as songs that probably wouldn't find their way on to most setlists, I'd offer up: Ashes to Ashes - David Bowie Chandelier - Sia Electric Feel - MGMT Hounds of Love - Kate Bush and Logical Song - Supertramp Ones that you'd think would work better: Hotel California Heart of Gold I'm On Fire and Like a Rolling Stone I've played all of these ones too, but never really been satisfied with what I could come up with. Sometimes it is the magic of the original singer's voice or something beautiful yet indefinable in the arrangement that can't be reproduced in a solo performance.
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