Thunder Road - Acoustic Duet

  • Thread starter Thread starter rsdean
  • Start date Start date
Always nice to hear some acoustic guitars on the old home recording website...keep on truckin old son
 
I don't pull my punches when commenting on songs posted here- not gonna start today... it really sounds like the first two posters are trying their best to find something good to say about your song. It appears they had to work their asses of to do so.

An acoustic reading of "Thunder Road" is always a good idea, at least at it's inception, and I was looking forward to hearing your version. TR is a song that can easily lend it's self to a slower, quieter and more thoughtful rendition than the bombastic way Bruce usually does it (including when duet'ed with Melissa,) and your guitar playing is fine- fine but uninspired, which is how I feel about the whole thing. Only similarity I see between your cover and the duet by Springsteen and Etheridge (full disclosure: they are two of my favorite singers, performers and song writers, but I do not have any truck with anybody covering their stuff. I only demand the cover be done well...) is that it is a male/female duet- beyond that, hardly the same song. That Springsteen/Etheridge duet was a tour de force- your cover missed the mark by a country mile.

I wanted to like your cover, really, I did. But, sorry- nothing to see (or hear,) here.
 
stevieb,

Thanks for taking the time to listen. I appreciate your honesty. In your opinion what would have made this better?

Bob
 
rsdean said:
stevieb,

Thanks for taking the time to listen. I appreciate your honesty. In your opinion what would have made this better?

Bob
Click to expand...

First, thanks for realizing it was neither a personal attack, or an indictment of all your music.

There is a palatable urgency to the original recording "Thunder Road." That urgency was real, by the way- Springsteen had basically bombed with prior releases, and was under notice from his label that that was his last chance. I'd go back and listen to the first 1:09 of the studio version (on YouTube,) which is acoustic, by the way. Maybe listen until about 1:45, too. Springsteen does an acoustic version, too- listen to that. I am afraid that by you taking inspiration from the Springsteen/Etheridge duet, which is far from acoustic, slow, quiet and thoughtful, you just had too much difference in styles and made it almost impossible to bridge the gap. Listen to the "MTV Storytellers" acoustic version of TR, too, which can almost bring tears to your eyes. I think you may have taken your inspiration from the wrong recording.

Most of Springsteen's music draws it's power from a sense of "blue collar angst." There is plenty of that to be tapped with acoustic music- it is what makes much bluegrass and CW music so lyrically powerful. Find a way to tap into that vein, and you will blow us all away.
 
stevieb,

Great points and perspective. A very interesting way of looking at the song from a holistic point of view. I completely understand what you're saying about "bridging the gap"...

Thanks again,
Bob
 
I hope my unvarnished critique was helpful to you. I look forward to your revised version. :)
 
The male vocal is off key enough to make it noticeable. The timing between the vocalists is off so it sounds like it's unrehearsed.
The 12 String is way too chimy and bright, and 6 strings with a better mic would help. There's little breathing room in the guitars and they lack bottom end. The compression sounds a bit much so there's no bounce. I like the female vocals....
 
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