New Years' Day - U2

[Diamond_Dog]

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Covered This Back In The Day

Oddly enough, we knew very few bands that dud it because they had no keyboardist.
That piano part is super important. There's nothing to it, but it has to be there.
Great sing; very popular; and our audience got a surprise when a club act did it.

[Diamond_Dog]

2. You're absolutely right about the piano part!

It would not sound at all the same without it. Another one is “The Sweetest Thing”

I love U2, they are a great band. You chose a good one to cover.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. Another We Covered For Many Years...

...was "I Will Follow" but we didn't adopt their spacious, open sound.
Our version was big & bombastic with high harmonies and lots to texture.
In that song, I used a choir sample, a string section, gong, orchestral hit, a sparkly synth sound and a touch of Fender Thodes.
Smoke, fire, the lights going nuts.
It was a long-standing production number for us.
We played in on & off the great majority of gigs for all 20 years. That's such a good tune & provided such a pallette.

[Diamond_Dog]

4. Awesome. I can totally understand

how that song provides such an opportunity for lots of different textures in all directions!

Did you cover any other U2 tunes? Since I’m in love with Bono I just adore “With or Without You”. Love Edge’s guitar work on that one, too.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. A Couple Yes

Did Pride in a different band.
Did Desire with my last band (we lasted 20 years together).
We did a lot of alternative, power pop, & prog pop.
Basically (aside from the stuff we wrote) people would know 80-90% of the songs, they just didn't think they were going to hear a club act doing them.

[Diamond_Dog]

6. Those are both such great tunes.

If Desire doesn’t get you going, then nothing will!

What instrument did you play & did you sing?

I have heard some fabulous covers in my day. I love a good strong singing voice. I saw Chris Daughtry live and he absolutely nailed Wicked Game. Another that I’ll always remember was Brit Floyd and the singer who did the Clare Tory solo in Great Gig in the Sky.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. On Desire...

...I played mostly guitar but did the harmonica part on keys using my Akai sampler.
In that band that lasted forever, I was predominantly keyboards. Played guitar only on about 3 or 4 songs, played both on another 5 or so.
I sang lead on 40%, the guitar player sang 40%, and the drummer & bass player sang the other 20%.
We put harmonies on everything so I ended up singing on nearly everything. I nearly always took the highest part for harmonies.
We were predominantly covers, but we willfully stylized them so they were somewhat different than the record.
One example: the REM tune "To The One I Love". I played a combo sound of a DX-7 type electric piano with an "Ahh" choir layered. I played all 5 tone chords. During the "Fire" part, three of us did harmonies that crossed each other where we passed through a 6th chord before resolving. Think Manhattan Transfer.
We repeated the 2nd verse where everything got really quiet and I literally closed my eyes and hit notes at random while the guitar player had to sing over that! Still maintained the structure, but sounded nothing like REM.
Another example: here are some covers I recorded a couple years ago. This isn't a band; I'm playing everything here.
https://m.soundcloud.com/user-134084288/tracks

[Diamond_Dog]

8. Thank you Professor

I loved hearing those selections! TY so much for sharing! You are very talented!

I totally get the Manhattan Transfer effect you spoke of. Very creative! And fits well in that song.

All my boys were here today and I just now had a chance to listen.