Songs you would not expect to be played on an acoustic...

Cafe Society
21

If you can play some old-school Metallica on acoustic you could surely impress your audience.

22

Nitpicky, but “Feelin’ Alright” was originally a Traffic song (Sung by Dave Mason rather than Steve Winwood.) IIRC, it prominently features an acoustic guitar for the rhythm part.

23

Outkast’s “Heya!”

http://www.smithappens.com/video/141/Hippie-covers-outkast.html

24

Heck, I do this all the time - my band works out songs unplugged first, because if you can’t get “the lock” on the groove acoustically, it will sound like ass when electrified.

  • My Sharona
  • That’s What I Like About You
  • 867-5309/Jenny
  • Are You Gonna Be My Girl (the “1-2-3 Tell me how it’s gonna be” song by Jet)
  • Most AC/DC - I can kill on Problem Child or If You Want Blood on acoustic

The list goes on…

25

So many Alice in Chains songs sound great when done acoustically, even the ones that weren’t written that way. That one would be a challenge.

26

I was in a band once and we did some rather odd covers. For example we did Loverboys ‘Turn Me Loose’ but did it way heavy and it was actually pretty cool.

We also did ‘Fairies Wear Boots’ by Black Sabbath on acoustic. That turned out pretty cool. The bass player had a stand up and played the song on that. It also helped that the singer was a fantastic rhythm player on acoustic. She rocked and added a lot of nice touches.

Slee

27

“Rooster” turned out great, and “Nutshell” and “Down in a Hole” are better acoustically, so I’d love to hear someone take a shot at it (any SDMB guitarists want to give it a whirl?)

28

Anthony Hayden Guest did pretty good acoustic versions of “Freebird” & “Behind Blue Eyes” on BtVS.

And a Houston band called The Dishes did a knockout “I Am The Walrus” live. Not quite acoustic–but amazing that a pretty basic rock band could reproduce that particular number. The guitar line was played on a lap steel.

29

There’s a bluegrass band called Hayseed Dixie that covers songs from a bunch of different artists like AC/DC, Kiss, Black Sabbath and others. Most are covers of rock songs, but their cover of Outkast’s “Roses” is really good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0FuMRHRCVY

Their cover of “Ace of Spades” is good too.

30

HERE is a good example of what I am looking for…

31

Def Leppard put out a bonus live acoustic CD a while back and I was amazed at how they could perform even a slick, multi-layered studio track like Pour Some Sugar on Me fantastic acoustic!

32

I saw Springsteen do “Born in the USA” just him & a guitar on his Ghost of Tom Joad tour, almost made me cry …

33

And I heard Jill Sobule do an acoustic (banjo or something like it) cover, with her mom, of "it’s getting hot in here (so take off all your clother). And it actually worked, and not just for it’s ensuement of hilarity.

34

It’s funny, many of those hair metal bands with their silly spandex, makeup, and teased hair, were actually decent musicians. I’d imagine when you’re writing a song you’d use acoustic guitar or piano, that’s probably where a lot of good rock songs started.

I’ve got a bootleg Guns and Roses unplugged album and it’s great, I listen to it a lot. They do a great cover of Dead Flowers.