Do you listen to alternate versions of the same song?

guitarfishbay

I quite like alternate arrangements of songs.  My feeling is if a song has a strong melody it'll often work well many ways.

Here's one I've been listening to lately.  Devin Townsend has done a fair few versions of Hyperdrive.

This is my current favourite.  A live acoustic version.



With Anneke Van Giersbergen singing



With him singing

fandango

Pink Floyd’s ‘On The Run’ from DSOTM is a great example of a song where the original concept (aka The Travel Sequence) is very very different to the song as appeared on the album. It was originally a guitar jam with some well balanced delays, which metamorphosied into an urgent sounding synth track. Chalk and cheese.

Anyway, i love listening to different versions of the same song. Although Yello might have stretched this when they released Jungle Bill. This had several different mixes of the same song on the one CD.

MTV’s unplugged is a great source, and talking of unplugged, note Status Quo released an album 2/3 years ago containing acoustic version of some of their greatest singles. That was back when Rick Parfitt was still alive and kicking. Even Rhino was playing an acoustic bass. Cool.

Another example is the blues standard, Rollin’ and Tumblin’. Jeff Beck, Led Zep, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Canned Heat and many others have left a fantastic legacy of different interpretations of that song.

StageStruck

There's merit in listening to how different bands interpret a song or maybe how they expand or improvise over a theme. For instance The Duane-era Allman Brothers band would frequently expand songs so they were never quite the same every night. The original era Deep Purple were another band who would develop songs and improvisations over the course of a tour.

Jez6345789

its often a cover that gets me listening to a song that perhaps had passed me by at a previous time. 

I also like to hear bands change stuff. The bootleg I had of Floyds  DSOM on a cassette years ago Great Gig in the Sky was just the piano part played with the Lords Pray being used as a piece of found sound. 

There are plenty of Song Writers who's songs only really come to life in the hands of others Dylan would be a prime example who's arrangements sometimes seem to not really help the song. 

stickyfiddle

I like a good live album, so certainly happy to listen to multiple versions of a single thing. 

I'm currently listening to the original icelandic version of Asgeir's debut album, which is rather lovely, and better than the English version that came later. Possibly because the english lyrics are a bit poo.

not_the_dj

I lap up the special editions and "unreleased" bonus discs from a lot of my favorite artists. There's some great Springsteen stuff on (Tracks, the RIver Box Set, The Darkness Box Set) where you hear other versions, or just the odd line that he'd reuse later. I love spotting things like that.

Likewise the Dylan "Bootleg" series has been a fantastic.

There's a great box set of The Waterboys Fisherman's Blues album with practically the whole sessions, again fantastic to hear the development.

There was a bonus disc on a re-issue of Fleetwood Mac's Rumors that has early versions, and that "Grand Prix" section of the Chain pops up a number of times on different songs until they found where to put it.

So yes, I love getting that insight into a songs development.

Sporky

I generally feel there's a "right" version, and all the others sound wrong.

When I saw Smashing Pumpkins on the Machina tour they did "Disarm" fast. It was awful.

guitarfishbay

Sporky said:

I generally feel there's a "right" version, and all the others sound wrong.

When I saw Smashing Pumpkins on the Machina tour they did "Disarm" fast. It was awful.

I can understand that, I love the original of disarm and would like to hear something similar live.

mudslide73

I very much like this type of stuff. There are some great Beatles boots from around the Rubber Soul/Revolver time - I've heard about 5 versions of "And Your Bird Can Sing" and they're all great in their own way. It's amazing stuff when you can hear what they didn't use.



The Band's remasters program had alternate takes from the same day on a lot of the early stuff - you can often hear why specific versions made the cut. 



I like the alternate version of "When The Levee Breaks" from Zep 4 also.

Roland

Always! Live recordings are invaluable. It’s really interesting to hear how the original artist arranged the song for live performance, or reinterpreted it in a later recording. Often the original recording was done by a young artist under the “guidance” of the record company’s chosen producer. When successful the artist can record the song the way they wanted, or maybe experience has lead them to do it another way. 

Sometimes cover versions are better than the original. Hey Joe for example

Alterlifeson

not_the_dj said:

I lap up the special editions and "unreleased" bonus discs from a lot of my favorite artists. There's some great Springsteen stuff on (Tracks, the RIver Box Set, The Darkness Box Set) where you hear other versions, or just the odd line that he'd reuse later. I love spotting things like that.

I have those Springsteen boxsets, really impressed at how they are put together. Particularly the Darkness one in its bound notebook.

munckee

Sporky said:

I generally feel there's a "right" version, and all the others sound wrong.

When I saw Smashing Pumpkins on the Machina tour they did "Disarm" fast. It was awful.

Smashing pumpkins released loads of alternative versions of a number of songs, the acoustic guitar disarm compared to the full strings version changes quite a bit and both are good.  The versions of tonight tonight from acoustic only to full rock to original strings are all good too.  Theres a Youtube of Billy Corgan doing tonight tonight on howard stern radio show which is great.

Phil_aka_Pip

Yes, always interested, especially the live version vs the studio version.

Sometimes a cover will attract my attention towards the original artist(s)

LesbianWithAGun

Yes...
I like early versions and demos of songs I grew up listening to the released versions of.

RobDavies

Too right..... this is great.....



....and the guitar sound is SO much better than the mushy bollocks on the 'proper' album version. 

Sporky

munckee said:

Sporky said:

I generally feel there's a "right" version, and all the others sound wrong.

When I saw Smashing Pumpkins on the Machina tour they did "Disarm" fast. It was awful.

Smashing pumpkins released loads of alternative versions of a number of songs, the acoustic guitar disarm compared to the full strings version changes quite a bit and both are good.  The versions of tonight tonight from acoustic only to full rock to original strings are all good too.  Theres a Youtube of Billy Corgan doing tonight tonight on howard stern radio show which is great.

I can imagine it working a lot of different ways, but much too fast is not one of those ways!