Play It Like the Recorded Version or Improvise in a Concert?

@FourWalls (63074)
United States
September 4, 2015 7:13pm CST
A friend and I were having a discussion on FB about the pros and cons of acts improvising or changing the arrangement of a song when they do it in concert versus playing the song more or less exactly the way it was recorded. She said that's one of the things she loves about the Eagles: they are so identical to the recorded version that we both agreed that we were waiting for their live version of "Doolin-Dalton (reprise)/Desperado (reprise)" (that closes out the Desperado album) to fade out the way it does on the album when we saw them in 1978! In contrast, that's one of the reasons I absolutely refuse to drop a mortgage payment on ONE Eagles concert ticket: they DID sound exactly like their recordings when I saw them live (I saw them twice). Honestly, they were pretty boring when they were in their late 20's and coked up, so how much more boring will they be in their late 60's and on One-A-Day Senior vitamins? On the other end of the spectrum there's Frampton Comes Alive, one of the biggest-selling live albums in history. Frampton's extended version of "Do You Feel Like I Do" is twice as long as the studio version, and it's so popular now that many people don't care for the studio rendition. That goes for other classic "live" versions of songs such as Kiss's "Rock and Roll All Night" and Bob Seger's "Turn the Page." So what does an artist do in concert: do they replicate the studio version of a song so much that you wonder if they're lip syncing? Or, is it more fun if they do something different, even if it means a radical switch from the "original version" of the song? My personal take is that I enjoy the improvisation. The local bar band down the street can duplicate the recorded versions of "Hotel California" and "Free Bird," so what is the "greatness" in seeing a band for about 200 times as much money do the exact same thing? If you've got a great musician on stage, let him/her go to town!
4 people like this
3 responses
• United States
5 Sep 15
That is what I like about Prince. Even though I have never been to any of his shows, I have watched quite a few videos of his performances at concerts, in music videos, and just jammin'. I have seen/heard at least 5 or 6 versions of Computer Blue. He switches up Purple Rain just about every time he plays it. He has done a rockin' version of Let's Go Crazy that I really like. I would imagine that playing and singing music the exact same way every time would be soooooo freekin boring. Would be like factory work where you do that same exact thing over and over and over and over and........... well, you know. Boring!
2 people like this
@FourWalls (63074)
• United States
5 Sep 15
I completely agree. If you see someone once you don't need to see them again because it's the same songs done the same way. If it's boring for the artist (as you said -- it becomes like an assembly line, "here's the notes for this song, heres' the notes for that song") it'll eventually show in the performance that they're "phoning it in," and the audience will realize it. That's why I see Dale Watson so much. Dale NEVER plays with a set list but bases his show on requests from the audience. He couldn't do the same show two nights in a row if his life depended on it!
• Preston, England
6 Sep 15
A live version of a recorded song, even a popular hit should sound fresh and original or the band might as well mime to the recorded edition, and a few artistes have been caught out doing exactly that.
• United States
5 Sep 15
It is highly important that I would see the Eagles once again I dont care if they ae 100 yrs old lolz. I have seen them and Frampton too. In fact, I have seen nearly all bands haha That is all. I dont know about improvising really.
1 person likes this