Poopot's Cover Challenge #32 - the letter S

flying_pie

Welcome to the 32nd Poopot's Cover Challenge


The winner of our last challenge was @stickyfiddle ;;;;

He has deliberated, and chosen...



(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay - by Otis Redding



Yeah. It's a brackets song. The pedant in me thinks this should be in letter T or even D instead of S but let's just go with S because it feels right and it's a great song with Steve Cropper's awesome catchy guitar parts. And Steve begins with S so that sort of works too I suppose. And it's infinitely better than Stars by Simply Red.... shudder...

If you want to cover something different then you can choose any song beginning with S or The followed by S. 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 29th August 2025... so get onto it!!!!
 

A playlist of all the entries will be posted below:

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/poopots-cover-challenge-32-s

Good luck!

stickyfiddle

I didn’t even realise this had brackets

Anyway, no one should complain because it’s not any of the numerous Oasis options - Supersonic, Shakermaker, Slide Away, Step Out, Sigarettes & Alcohol… 

flying_pie

stickyfiddle said:

I didn’t even realise this had brackets

Anyway, no one should complain because it’s not any of the numerous Oasis options - Supersonic, Shakermaker, Slide Away, Step Out, Sigarettes & Alcohol… 

Shampagne Supernova...

She's Electric...

mrkb

Some might say, Stop crying your heart out, Stand by me…. Looks like a new challenge. Songs beginning with S from a single band.

flying_pie

Executive rule amendment:

Bonus 7 points for a medley of 10 or more songs all beginning with S by a single band

stickyfiddle

Honestly I was thinking about tuning up my Icelandic for Sæglópur. Not sure if I'm brave enough 

But could combine with Svefn-g-englar if there's points on the table... 

flying_pie

I'd have thought that people with loads of albums like Devin Townsend, Zappa, King Gizzard, etc will have 10 songs beginning with S

But I'll allow you a 10 songs starting with S medley by well known Icelandic artists if that helps

FWIW I've already recorded a song from Les Miserables and will upload it soon. I think it's the only song in the show that starts with S. There isn't even a reprise 

robinbowes

stickyfiddle said:

I didn’t even realise this had brackets

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(Sittin%27_On)_The_Dock_of_the_Bay <- Proof!  

idiotwind

flying_pie said:

I'd have thought that people with loads of albums like Devin Townsend, Zappa, King Gizzard, etc will have 10 songs beginning with S

With a slight fudge ("A Satisfied Mind" from "Saved"), with Bob Dylan you can manage 10 songs starting with S on albums that also start with S

Habanero

Years ago my missus bought me a ‘Red Letter Days’ present of recording a song in a pro studio. SOTDOTB made the shortlist, but I won’t be doing it his time either. 

flying_pie

Okay. So I'll start off the playlist.

This is one of my favourite songs to sing, albeit not in the style I've recorded it. I might do a second version faithful to the original - this is the song Stars from the musical Les Miserable. Many years ago I noticed most of the verse is the exact same chord progression as Basket Case by Green Day so I've been waiting for ages to record it

idiotwind

I've sent in an entry.  This is one that I've had in my mind for quite a while, in fact it looks like I made the Reaper project in November 2023.  That was just a quick recording of the idea for the main intro riff and then I worked on it on and off since then.

The jumping off point for the concept was Sweet Child crossed with Dire Wolf by the Grateful Dead, which mainly comes over in the chorus with the C - E7 - Am change and the little run back down to the G.  In general it's more just that kind of 1970 Americana sort of thing.

Tele for the main guitar that does the intro and middle solo, then I think it was the Les Paul for the other electric that goes on to solo over the coda but I can't actually remember.  Couple of acoustic guitar tracks, piano, organ, bass.  I was quite happy with the harmony vocal on the chorus, less so with the vocals over the coda.

flying_pie

@idiotwind in the playlist

stickyfiddle

I have started one. Aiming to get it done this week as MrsF is away and I've been feeling generally miserable so a musical project will be good for me.

Acoustic part recorded tonight. The rest will be fun

thecolourbox

S is looking like a good letter, albeit also possibly a bad letter given my tendency to go shrapnel and do too many. I'm doing a piano concert on 28th where two of the songs I'm doing begin with S, though neither of those were in contention until I noticed. Maybe if somebody records the concert I'll submit them. One is an instrumental arrangement of my favourite non-classical tune in the world ever, the other is me singing a camp 70s rock band's song with hopefully a bit of an audience choir providing some backing vocals. The latter may well happen as a recorded version if I can be bothered to layer it up with harmonies, however I've read the original had 100 ish layers from 3 people's voices so I'm not sure I can commit to that workload (nor keep it in time lol).

I have my original shortlist of two (neither of the above) to work on so will see how it goes

IMC1980

Sent mine in

flying_pie

@IMC1980 in the playlist

Habanero

Sent one in

flying_pie

@Habanero in the playlist 

thecolourbox

I've just sent one in, bearing no resemblance to any of the several other S songs I'd hoped to do (but am struggling a bit with electric guitar at the moment, can't seem to play stuff that I could easily before).

Anyway, I'm hoping to gain some kind of credit for covering a song that begins with S (Shape of my Heart) which was by an artist beginning with S (Sting) and was also covered by another artist beginning with S (Sugababes). Also because it has lots of S sounds in the lyrics and with my singing lisp... I don't think I quite had "early 90s cheese pop" on my bingo card but here we are.

First time recording acoustic guitar with two mics, but still basically sounds the same as when i use the Mic plus Pickup combination so I probably won't bother again. Also first time using Vocalign to get my harmony in time on the chorus

On the bits where it's acoustic guitar and bass, I found I had to amend the bass notes quite a bit to be "in time" with my guitar playing rather than the other way around (given the bass was quantised to midi tempo track) - interestingly i start the first two bars more or less in time, get further and further out by half way, then back in time by the end og the phrase. that happened separately on the intro and outro. I suspect that's a classical piano thing

idiotwind

I've sent in another entry as well.  This is my version of Silver Raven by Gene Clark, done in something approaching a Neil Young/Crazy Horse sort of style.  So it takes bits from the original, but goes a bit heavier.  This was Tele and Les Paul with a bit of electric piano and a Moog that comes in towards the end.  The backing vocals is me transformed into 6 different female voices using the voice AI stuff.