Poopot's Cover Challenge #31 - R

flying_pie

Welcome to the 31st Poopot's Cover Challenge


The winner of our last challenge was @Bezzer . This is a man with a long history of dubious song choices when tasked with choosing but I'm sure he'll redeem himself this time. I mean, R is a letter with a wealth of great tunes. Off the top of my head I can think of Roundabout by Rush, Rockin in the Free World by Neil Young, Running Free or Revelations by Iron Maiden, Runaway by Bon Jovi, Roygbiv by Boards of Canada, Rising Force by Yngwie Malmsteen and yeah, I'm sure he'll pick something awesome.

And bezzer has gone for...

...


Rise Like A Phoenix by Conchita Wurst



If don't want to cover the chosen track then you can choose any song starting with R or R preceded by "the" from the millions of other songs beginning with R like all the perfectly good ones bezzer didn't think of.

But if you cover the chosen track you will automatically receive a bonus 5pts as a head start


* RULES:

Entries to be sent in mp3 format to the following Email address:

covers@thefretboard.co.uk

Please comment in the thread when you've sent an entry as it often ends up in my spam folder. And feel free to submit more than one entry if you want.

You may wish to submit artwork to go with your entry. It brightens up the playlist and might subliminally get you more votes but it's not mandatory. 

Entries close at 11.30pm on Friday 30th May 2025... so get onto it!!!!
 

A playlist of all the entries will be posted below:

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/poopots-cover-challenge-31-r

Good luck!

flying_pie

And I've already uploaded a track

After taking a huge shit on Chris Cornell's grave lady month, I needed to do something cathartic so I decided on a non parody cover of Iggy Pop's Real Wild Child. At least I don't think it's parody but it is gratuitous as far as the guitars go. I blame the Friedman IR-J for encouraging a more raucous approach 

stratman3142

I believe the harmonic minor scale will fit over @Bezzer's song choice. I reckon he's picked it so he can throw in some Yngwie licks

flying_pie

stratman3142 said:

I believe the harmonic minor scale will fit over @Bezzer's song choice. I reckon he's picked it so he can throw in some Yngwie licks

@Bezzer also has his mandatory challenge of Race With The Devil on Spanish Highway 

Habanero

Those injuries from the last round were worse than first thought.

thecolourbox

Just listened to the chosen song for the first time, it's certainly not the worst cover challenge song choice I've ever heard!

Bezzer

flying_pie said:

@Bezzer also has his mandatory challenge of Race With The Devil on Spanish Highway 

Bollocks

Bezzer

thecolourbox said:

Just listened to the chosen song for the first time, it's certainly not the worst cover challenge song choice I've ever heard!

That’s the spirit!

It’s got some nice chord changes and loads of drama. Also we’ve never had a Eurovision song on here before so … nerrrttr

thecolourbox

Bezzer said:

thecolourbox said:

Just listened to the chosen song for the first time, it's certainly not the worst cover challenge song choice I've ever heard!

That’s the spirit!

It’s got some nice chord changes and loads of drama. Also we’ve never had a Eurovision song on here before so … nerrrttr

I can't believe I missed such an open goal, I'll rectify it here

 it's certainly not the worst cover challenge song choice I've ever heard...but it's certainly the wurst

idiotwind

I've sent in an entry and it didn't bounce, so I guess covers@thefretboard.co.uk is back up and running.

Little bit of Beatles.  This one was fun to do as I tried to recreate some of the studio process.  So, the drums and guitars were done at 128bpm in A then slowed down to 113bpm so that it all sounds in G instead.  The lead vocals were done at 108bpm in Gb and then sped up to 113bpm to get them in G.  Then the bass, backing vocals and tambourine went on at 113bpm.  The main guitar is in open A (well G but capo'd at 2).

I found a reasonable tab for the drums and bass, but still only about 75% correct, so got that cleaned up.  The bass part was tricky in places, but I just about managed it on the fretless - let's see McCartney do that.  I threw in some slightly anachronistic delay on the BVs at the end, but they could have got close with tape echo.  The nice thing with it being by the Beatles is that there's masses of videos dissecting every aspect of it - I was able to find a video breaking down all the vocal parts so all the harmonies are the correct notes rather than just me randomly singing it three times

Bezzer

flying_pie said:

it is gratuitous as far as the guitars go.  

No such thing my man! That was great! I probably need to check the Friedman out

thecolourbox

Inspired by R being such a relief of a letter after the farcical Q, I've sent one in already as I was playing around at lunch and thought it sounded ok.

Liner notes: Ramblin' On My Mind by Robert Johnson
I really love blues music, proper actual blues not the kind of cheesy crap caricature that people like Clapton and Bonnamassa turn it into. However my voice doesn't really suit it that much so I rarely do much playing in that style. But I thought I'd give it a go, and I headed down to the Crossroads - unfortunately for me I live in Birmingham so I sold my soul to the devil at the old motel instead. My blues name shall be Tony "Deaf" McWailing on account of my singing on this one.

 Tuned my Tele to open E and got the slide out, which i've not used for some considerable time. Amp is the Supro model in Helix, with a compressor in front and some significant eq messing about to try and stop it clashing with the vocals.
Vocals are just me wailing along and trying to remain interesting. I'm not sure i succeeded. 

flying_pie

Thanks guys. Nothing in my inbox but I'm sure we'll get that sorted soon

flying_pie

@idiotwind and @thecolourbox can you resend your entries please?

idiotwind

flying_pie said:

@idiotwind and @thecolourbox can you resend your entries please?

Done

thecolourbox

Also done

flying_pie

@idiotwind and @thecolourbox in the playlist

Off to a flying start this month

flying_pie

Bezzer said:

flying_pie said:

it is gratuitous as far as the guitars go.  

No such thing my man! That was great! I probably need to check the Friedman out

Thanks @Bezzer .

Obviously all gear is for individual taste but I love the IR-J as it easily gets the tones I like. With the built-in boost I've set it up as a 4 channel amp. Can do clean, ACDC,  a bit more gain (which was what I used here) and hair metal. Each channel can have 3 switchable IRs which makes recording easy - I used a York Audio MESA V30 for the left and centre guitars and a YA Blackjack for the right guitar as I wanted different tunes and approaches for each side otherwise it can be quite a repetitive number.

FWIW this is now my gig rig straight into PA:

https://i.postimg.cc/8k3nsxY5/PXL-20250309-135050867.jpg

4 channels, delay, reverb and utility pedal for level boost and any song specific effects. Noise suppressor is more of a buffer than anything else

thecolourbox

I've done gone sent another one in

flying_pie

@thecolourbox in the playlist

flying_pie

And I've uploaded a second track too. I actually recorded it a few years ago outside of the cover challenge. This is Dio's Rainbow In The Dark in the style of Depeche Mode - specifically the song Precious