Acoustic Covers Thread Pt.II

Yeah, we had one of these and it should probably still be open I reckon, so....

 

Does it count as a cover if a bloke does one of his own tunes with a 'coostic geetar? Every time I am lucky enough to go and see Joe Bonamassa I come home and look at my beautiful Stratocaster* and think 'fuck it, no point really' then my guitar gently weeps.

*Yeah I know, she's American she is a Fender AmericanDeluxe Stratocaster, shows what a fucking hypocrite I am eh?

 

Since I know very little about music apart from what my ears like, and guitarists in general, apart from I know Skiathos is one of them, my question is - Where does Mark Knopfler rank in the scheme of things for his work on the long versions of 'Sultans of Swing', 'Telegraph road' etc.

My ears tell me that it sounds really quite good.

 

you missed out,now it would be a "fender amazing american superdeluxe strat".
Its a paradox cos Fender make the worst fucking acoustic guitars in the world only fit for sale in argos,all these wankers buying it and name dropping,bit like me with my chevrolet matiz,yeah its a chevvy,made in korea and a daewoo in 90% of countries.

Not a cover,but possibly the most beautiful sounding acoustic,and fucking incredible playing,Roys son Nick Harper,"hats off to him" eh.Very nice bloke too,having had the pleasure to see him&do the after gig party,yes I have passed a spliff to roy harper !!!!

 

When me and my mate were playing together (oo-er!) we did a cover of ace of spades but slowed it right down and gave it a country twist for a laugh, the ten or so people in the pub really loved it they did, always remember that. Unfortunately there is no video of it so you'll have to take my word that I was rad!

 

@skiathospurs What do you play? I've got a Washburn Mercury Series (mid 90s) sunburst going through as a Yamaha DG80. All a bit retro now but it does for me to annoy the neighbours!

 

That is a very complex question!!but your ears are right because if you like it,it is good.Same as if you look at a jackson pollock and think you love that it must be,or watch a film,or read a book,art/entertainment/literature/music,if you like it ,it is good.However there is an industry saying "blander the meal the more people will eat it".its my fav quote to up their arses beatles fans who insist they are the best thing ever in music,really because you sold the most its the best? normally followed with a comment about McDonalds!!
He does (knopfler) have most of the gifts though,tone and melody if we`re going to get deep about it.I dunno if dorset agrees?,but most guitar solos are smoke&mirrors,a bit like if you can juggle,looks amazing but actually not that difficult with practise.But its being 1st to do it and creating it that counts.

 

have you seen the kronenberg advert with lemmy doing it slowed down acoustic?

 

This one - yeh it's cool. This is basically what we did but without the mouth organ!

 

Acoustics,I have a Taylor 555 which i work with,a Gibson J200 blonde about 20yrs old,and a L`arrivee OM10 (I think),i use a AER acoustic 60 amp for me to hear it and generally hook up to a PA thro a little beringer mixer.I have les paul,72 strat and gretsch silver jet,but havent even taken them out of their cases for 5 years??I do have an original 1960 vox ac30,original speakers,which the shadows borrowed for tours and wanted to buy,but I aint selling!

 

Blimey that's some gear you've got there. I know what you mean about not taking the guitars out of cases, I hadn't played mine in over a year when my mate came over from Oz this year and convinced me to dig mine out for a little pub gig he wanted to do - quite enjoying getting back into it, now my boys learning bass and wants me to jam some Foo covers with him, be rude not to! Just need a drummer in the house now, sadly not enough room!

 

Ta, interesting stuff and great quote, like it. When i don't know about something I like to have a little read. I've just read about Ray Harper, his musical history and his recent trials and tribulations, that must be a real bastard, feel sorry for him and others like him - Max Moseley and a politician I've forgotten the name of, our press are real wankers sometimes. Hope he can recover his financial situation, reputation and extensive career.

Also had a quick delve into Knopflers 6 most important guitars, which was apparently a TV doc. on Sky. Great story and comes across as a decent bloke, with some pioneering sounds and good mentors and mates.

Personally I don't much like a lot of Brothers in Arms and songs about Refrigerators, but I do like the 'Live at Hammersmith' gig featuring the songs I mentioned.

I don't own a Beatles album or have any song of theirs in any form. If I was on a beach, a bit pissed and stoned one night with a few friends and someone had a guitar and I was forced to choose a track then Norwegian Wood would probably get my only vote.

 

Are you just making up cool stories for the fun of it now......???!!

here is my own...I walked into Tottenham for the Wycombe game on Saturday whilst chatting to Michael McIntyre and his two sons, about his cooking. OK it's not great but best I can do for the moment, apart from my Mum has seen the Queen in her knickers at Buck house - she used to supply clothes, whilst working for Simpsons in Piccadilly. Posh shop that's not there any more.

 

get one of them little japanese drummers in a box lol (i hate them myself,if it has a machine its not live!)
I do everlong&times like these by the Foos.Generally now I dont touch a guitar for 6 months in the winter,which I knew (&feared) would happen,march i break it out& set a timer so I do 2hrs every day,just playing not rehearsing.Then 3 weeks pretty much playing&singing full tilt,even your throat is a muscle and has to get in shape before gigging,its normally a couple of weeks before I start to sing everything I do.The preparation is really boring,people really do think you just get up there and "have it" a gift ,yeah right,my hourly rate is so unfair because OFC all I do is work 2 hrs a few times a week,money for nothing !!

 

Yep thought so - Knopfler fan......

 

lol thats good,but like mine I suspect also a true story.Actually in general i hate muso people,its all so false the fawning and bollox around it,the good ones generally dont give a hoot about what you are playing (songs) but what you are playing (instrument).I can tell you a good story about how I met Jo Partridge,in a studio,he looked at the les paul goldtop I was using,said I got a real one,meaning instead of being a 1960 re-issue he had a 1960 original (worth over 40 grand I guess).When he left I asked the engineer who that short fat balding bloke was,only the geezer who did the "heat ray" solos in war of the worlds,if i had known I could have gone "ooooooh laaaa" like he hadnt heard that one 10,000 times i bet.
But then again you`ve met Ledley.

 

Lead guitar is just scales innit? I prefer music with gaps in myself. I always thought Knopfler sounded like George Formby on the ukulele, plunk plunk plunka plunk, not a fan myself but I obviously appreciate his talent. I prefer good rhythm guitar to fancy twiddling any day, Andy Fair-weather Low has done some awesomely amazing stuff, folks should have a watch and a listen to him on Roger Waters 'In The Flesh' DVD - also featuring another one of my faves - Doyle Bramhall II, he plays a standard strung guitar upside down rather than use a lefty, producing an intriguing sound. Back in the olden days I saw Bo Didley a few times, totally simple style but massively effective. Keith Richards I reckon was one of the most underrated rhythm guitarists around - that bloke REALLY knew when to leave a gap. mind the gap Keef! He wrote some cracking tunes as well.

You are right of course, if whoever is listening likes the noise then it is the bollox of the dog. I remember one night we decided to test the musicality of the paying public at one of our club gigs by playing in different keys, the drunk cunts never noticed. Fuck, how I hated playing for those Philistines, not that I have anything against folks who come Philistineland of course, they are probably much nicer than Romanians.

 

How do they fit those little Japanese blokes into the boxes? I've been playing with Toontrack EZDrummer recently, that knocks out some proper sound drum stuff, a fuck site easier than using a real drummer, in my experience they are all mental as an oval office full of Trumps.

 

and none of em ever had a fucking car,all that gear and they dont have a fucking car!!

 

The best 'covers' band I ever saw were the Ukele Orchestra Of Great Britain at the very posh upmarket Larmer Tree Festival, they did Anarchy in the UK and loads of other stuff it was triffic ....

 

Right! There was always one band member who was shite at whatever they did - but they had wheels, so they were in!

 

I wanted to see these at Dorking but the missus wouldn't go and I bottled going alone!

 

Stripped down cover of their own song!

10 years ago when it first came out,I had friends in wigan,used to come here every year,he was all rugby league,she was a mad wigan fc fan.She took my reply to her very badly when she text taking the piss when wigan took the lead against us once (and then lost!).She was a big monkeys fan,it just came to me so I texted back something like this;
Now then maudy bum,
you thought you were going to win,but now you`ve gone&lost 2-1
The wheels come off
The yids are in the town
we beat your lot again youre probably going down
Why cant we.laugh&joke around
remember super edgars goal in your tiny little ground
and we`re up and and away

She answered back in a hail of swear words about the tiny little ground jibe,we havent spoken much since

 

Guys for those of you who know a bit please have a little listen to my pal.

He's doing great things in my home town and building a platform for local artists.

We to one of his shows last night and it is getting better and better and better.

New EP out and there are some superb songs on there imo.

http://www.altonwahlberg.co.uk

He's all over youtube has a chanel or suffin like that.

Album is out on iTunes and other platforms also apparently.

 

"Crawling back to you,
ever thought of calling when you`ve had a few"

What a line!!

ICYMI how different this is to the orig version its 1st song on this whole gig video,just the quality is better on the gig video than the individual song one,and anyway by brianstorm the 2nd song you`ll be in!!

 

Love a bit of the Arctic's! Remember going to see them in Dublin the day before their debut album was released. NME award's gig it was, Maximo Park were headlining, we are scientists on the bill as well. Arctic Monkeys blew the place to bits, was only a 1 hour set as weren't headliners but the energy in the ambassador (I think that was the name of the place) was just mental that night, the smoking ban had already started in Ireland but not the UK so we went out for a cig in the car park after the Arctic's set and it was pretty clear nobody was there for maximo park as threquested were more people outside drinking, smoking and and talking about the show they'd just seen than was inside watching the supposed headline act. Seen them a few times since and always enjoyed them but there always seems to be a bit more of an edge to bands live performances when you catch them just at the point before the explode. By the time we came back to the UK they gone from being a band not many knew of to having the fastest selling debut album in UK history.