Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Guitar Amps
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Drums
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • EVH trance state
  • Antonoff on Please Please Please
  • “Mick looked peeved. The Beatles had upstaged him”
  • 95k+ free music samples

Recommended reading

Getty Compile of Artist Pics
Artists 9 fresh long reads on tracks with astounding musical moments
Kane Hibberd, the photographer behind the Scale exhibition in London, poses in front of his photographs – guitars features will include Kerry King of Slayer's BC Rich and Tom Morello's Arm The Homeless S-style.
Guitars Exhibition featuring life-sized photos of 100 legendary artists' guitars to open in London
Muse circa 2001
Artists How an explosive 2001 switch-up revealed just how ferocious Muse could get
Julian Casablancas in 2002
Artists “This song, can you loosen its tie a little?”: How The Strokes created the 21st Century's most influential rock song
Jane's Addiction in 1988
Artists “It’s a unique sound, the divinity of my vocal cords”: How Perry Farrell defined alternative rock with Jane’s Addiction
Def Leppard in 1983
Artists “Thank God we let that church choir in!” How Def Leppard created a rock anthem with a little bit of divine intervention
Eric Clapton sits on a cream sofa and plays one of his new signature Martin acoustics, with the other sitting on a stand beside him
Artists Martin recreates Eric Clapton’s MTV Unplugged acoustic for limited edition 30th anniversary run
  1. Guitars
  2. Acoustic Guitars

When rock goes acoustic

News
By Total Guitar ( Total Guitar ) published 25 November 2012

20 genre-defining moments

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

California Guitar Trio - Bohemian Rhapsody

California Guitar Trio - Bohemian Rhapsody

Like many covers, it takes you back to the original, underlining what a superbly arranged song Bo Rhap always was.

But this version has a charm all of its own – while the original benefited from studio tracking and special effects, the Trio use just three acoustics, a bit of imagination and the sort of nimble-fingered skills that make us all ache with envy.

Page 1 of 20
Page 1 of 20
José Feliciano - Light My Fire

José Feliciano - Light My Fire

If you’re going to take on a cover version, what fresh angle can you offer to your listeners?

José Feliciano, a gifted musical interpreter over the years, was one of the first Latin guitarists to cross over into the mainstream, and his take on The Doors classic is a prime example of how an acoustic cover can open an already popular song up to a whole new audience.

Page 2 of 20
Page 2 of 20
Ray LaMontagne - Crazy

Ray LaMontagne - Crazy

Some songs find a second home in a place far removed from their original setting, and Crazy is something of a case in point.

Certainly, its air of brooding melancholy and its bittersweet lyric seemed a perfect fit for the whiskery New Hampshire singer-songwriter, and in the years since its release, his cover has spread its wings and gone on to become almost as acclaimed as the original.

Page 3 of 20
Page 3 of 20
Eagles - Hotel California

Eagles - Hotel California

With Glenn Frey adding chiming 12-string fills (and with the lavish Hell Freezes Over concerts recorded on 48 tracks simultaneously), this seven-minute- plus version of Hotel California is shimmer in excelsis, even managing to outdo the jangle of the original.

As ever, the chorus lands like a right hook, but for guitar
fans, the real magic arrives in the closing minutes, as Walsh and Felder – always a fiercely competitive axe pairing – square up once more in an unplugged rematch of their famous 1977 duel. The Eagles had landed. Again.

Catch part two of our top 20 tomorrow...

Page 4 of 20
Page 4 of 20
Neil Young - My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)

Neil Young - My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)

Back in the 70s, Neil Young had a habit of including both electric and acoustic versions of the same track on his albums.

This song, from 1979’s Rust Never Sleeps, is probably the most famous example. The electric Into the Black version was deliberately couched as a defiant declaration of rock ’n’ roll’s core values, whereas the acoustic companion that opens the album is awash with mournful regret at the passing of an era.

YouTube : youtubeurl

Page 5 of 20
Page 5 of 20
Newton Faulkner - Teardrop

Newton Faulkner - Teardrop

Faulkner's version of Teardrop combines fingerstyle with percussive slaps on the body of his Benjamin JOM.

“One, I love the track,” he explains. “The other thing I saw fairly quickly was that it’s made up of four parts, which are possible to do at the same time. Because you’ve got the [riff] and the bassline and the beat and the vocal. My version is kind of beat-based. I’m just playing the bassline and the top-line.”

Page 6 of 20
Page 6 of 20
Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Stairway To Heaven

Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Stairway To Heaven

Perhaps more than any other standard in the classic-rock repertoire, Stairway carries a huge weight of expectation and is a very easy song to get wrong – but here the Mexican duo got it supremely right.

Page 7 of 20
Page 7 of 20
Chris Cornell - Billie Jean

Chris Cornell - Billie Jean

The Soundgarden frontman's decision to rework Jackson’s most famous song for his 2007 second solo release, Carry On, was a gutsy move.

The album's darkly soulful reworking of Billie Jean broke new ground, but before the release of the album’s electrified version, Cornell debuted his brooding arrangement during an intimate 2006 acoustic session in Sweden using his Martin D-28.

His recent Songbook acoustic tours have continued this stripped-down rendition, and the intimacy has only improved an already dramatic reinterpretation – enhancing the slowed-down, smoky barroom feel of Cornell’s expressive vocal phrasing and arpeggio-to-strum guitar dynamic.

Page 8 of 20
Page 8 of 20
Motörhead - Ace Of Spades

Motörhead - Ace Of Spades

The acoustic reworking of this track – both in the audio format tacked onto the iTunes version of The Wörld Is Yours and in the advert filmed in a café of bemused Frenchmen – is a classic.

While guitarist Phil Campbellpeels off a slide solo on a Gibson acoustic, Lemmy ditches his trademark Rickenbacker bass to wheeze into a harmonica, and proves in the process that the song that kickstarted thrash metal secretly has a progression firmly rooted in the blues.

Best of all is the gallows-humour twist on the original vocal. “I don’t want to live forever,” barks Lemmy, before adding, under his breath, “but apparently I am...”

Page 9 of 20
Page 9 of 20
Counting Crows - Have You Seen Me Lately?

Counting Crows - Have You Seen Me Lately?

The original is a slice of American indie-rock complete with fuzzy guitars and jangling rhythm parts, which, in comparison, sounds slightly sluggish, almost bland.

Here, though, guitarist David Bryson swaps distortion for a gently picked acoustic guitar part. It’s layered and filled out with a piano, and vocalist Adam Duritz’s live penchant for switching melodies pays off, because what we end up with is a version that sounds more focused and vulnerable – with far greater impact than its rockier counterpart. This is unplugged done right.

Page 10 of 20
Page 10 of 20
Ryan Adams - Wasted Years

Ryan Adams - Wasted Years

Adams' of Iron Maiden’s Wasted Years takes the emotional heart and descending recurring intro melody of the original and frames it with a completely different sound, thanks to Adams’ delicate fingerstyle technique (with a deft thumb pattern keeping momentum).

His respect for the source material is clear – he doesn’t go off-piste with the original vocal melody, and the results shine. It’s simple, honest and respectful, and he makes the song his own. If you want to tackle it yourself, start off by putting your capo on the 3rd fret.

Page 11 of 20
Page 11 of 20
Slash / Myles Kennedy - Sweet Child O' Mine

Slash / Myles Kennedy - Sweet Child O' Mine

Great songs will always show a degree of their inherent quality in anyone’s hands, but this takes on a melancholic majesty with these two at the helm.

Page 12 of 20
Page 12 of 20
José González - Heartbeats

José González - Heartbeats

“I try to pick songs that aren’t that obvious,” José told The Fader in 2006 regarding his cover choice.

His signature touch of warm fingerpicked melody and lilting vocal has also reworked Kylie's achingly longing Hand On Your Heart, Bronski Beat’s Small Town Boy, Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart and Massive Attack’s moody Teardrop. Each is inventively reworked.

But there’s no doubt his first recorded cover benefits from the nylon-string González treatment the most. “It’s a matter of listening to songs and finding the harmony that defines them,” José told TinyMixTapes of his approach to doing acoustic covers, “and then hold on to that as much as possible. It takes a little effort.”

Page 13 of 20
Page 13 of 20
John Mayer - Free Fallin'

John Mayer - Free Fallin'

John Mayer’s version is a sparse-sounding affair. It’s taken from a 2007 concert at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, released as the Where The Light Is live album and DVD.

The intimate first part of the gig sees Mayer playing his signature Martin OM-28 acoustic, flanked by ace session guitarist Robbie McIntosh playing slide on a resonator, and David Ryan Harris, who provides further acoustic backing.

Page 14 of 20
Page 14 of 20
Foo Fighters - Everlong

Foo Fighters - Everlong

You might expect that removing the original’s four-to-the-floor stomp and wide-ringing powerchords would be the sonic equivalent of snipping the nadgers off a pitbull, but Grohl’s almost-whispered vocals and solo guitar playing lend the song a more vulnerable edge – particularly during the sparse pre-chorus octave parts – that’s every bit as powerful as the full-band arrangement.

Page 15 of 20
Page 15 of 20
Alice In Chains - Down In A Hole

Alice In Chains - Down In A Hole

Of all the fan faves the band played that night, their darkest song of all, Down In A Hole, is rendered the most haunting by this treatment.

Without the layers of distortion found on the original version on 1992’s Dirt, the picked verses and starkly confessional lyrics about the descent into addiction bring a new level of intensity, beauty and human fragility to their melancholy.

Page 16 of 20
Page 16 of 20
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Pride And Joy

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Pride And Joy

It’s not exactly a fussy performance, with the stripped-down format betraying the occasional slightly off bend – it is, after all, a 12-string he's putting through its paces (in a style reminiscent of Hendrix's 12-string version of Hear My Train A Comin').

Still, in the golden era of pointless widdling, Vaughan’s blues classic works superbly well as a one-man stand, with the Texan letting the timing breathe and visibly slamming his fingers down onto the neck to emphasise that chunky, rolling rhythm.

TYPE: YouTube | CAPTION: null | SRC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxVS1jE8VAQ | WIDTH: 460 | HEIGHT: 370. (Click the Edit Attributes/Cog button with cursor placed in this area to edit this tag.)

Page 17 of 20
Page 17 of 20
Eric Clapton - Layla

Eric Clapton - Layla

The acoustic version was born while Clapton rehearsed at home for his MTV Unplugged performance with rhythm guitarist, Andy Fairweather-Low.

He recalls that it “clicked straight away”, though it’s no simple retread. While most guitarists would have merely played the same arrangement, sans electricity, Clapton rebuilt his song from the ground up, singing it an octave down, soaking the iconic lick in Valium and ditching the outro “For a start, making it acoustic denied all the riffs, which I think would have really sounded a bit weak on the acoustic,” he noted. “So, it just seemed to naturally become jazzier.”

Page 18 of 20
Page 18 of 20
Nirvana - All Apologies

Nirvana - All Apologies

Cobain’s outsider lyrics were often vague and open to interpretation (and much debate), but All Apologies features some of Kurt’s more lucid moments, and seems every bit as guilt-laden on Unplugged as the original.

Originally the final song on In Utero, the song features what is perhaps Kurt’s most intricate guitar line during the Unplugged performance. The main riff is played by Kurt in the intro, then Pat Smear takes over for the verses, allowing Kurt to play a simplified rhythm part while he sings.

During the outro, however, Kurt doubles with Pat Smear while singing the line “All in all is all we are” as Lori Goldston’s cello, the two guitars, bass and drums drop out gradually until all we’re left with is Cobain and Grohl’s harmonised vocals.

Listened to in context with Cobain’s untimely death, it’s a hair-raising performance that becomes more powerful with every viewing. So powerful, it almost tops our countdown.

Page 19 of 20
Page 19 of 20
Johnny Cash - Hurt

Johnny Cash - Hurt

Am, C, D... those simple picked chords ringing out on an acoustic aren’t flashy. But they carry so much weight.

Cash didn’t automatically connect with Hurt – despite the themes of addiction and hitting rock bottom, an affliction Cash had suffered and a place he had been in his younger years. “We were looking for a song that we felt had an impact,” Cash explained to Time’s Lev Grossman in his last ever interview.

“[Rick Rubin] asked me what I thought of it. I said, ‘I think it’s probably the best anti-drug song I ever heard, but I don’t think it’s for me.’ And he said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘Because it’s not my style, it’s not the way I do it.’ And he said, ‘What if it were?’ And I said, ‘Well, I could give it a try.’ So, I went out and recorded it. When I listened to it, I felt it came out all right.”

It’s quite an understatement from The Man In Black, but the magic you hear on the recording didn’t just come out of thin air: Cash worked hard for it. And he had to inhabit Hurt before he could track it. “I would just get down and do it until I felt like I was doing it with feeling,” Cash told Time. “I probably sang the song 100 times before I went in and recorded it, because I had to make it mine.”

Page 20 of 20
Page 20 of 20
Total Guitar
Total Guitar
Social Links Navigation

Total Guitar is Europe's best-selling guitar magazine.

Every month we feature interviews with the biggest names and hottest new acts in guitar land, plus Guest Lessons from the stars.

Finally, our Rocked & Rated section is the place to go for reviews, round-ups and help setting up your guitars and gear.

Subscribe: http://bit.ly/totalguitar

Stay up to date with the latest gear and tuition. image
Stay up to date with the latest gear and tuition.
Subscribe and save today!
More Info
Read more
Getty Compile of Artist Pics
9 fresh long reads on tracks with astounding musical moments
Kane Hibberd, the photographer behind the Scale exhibition in London, poses in front of his photographs – guitars features will include Kerry King of Slayer's BC Rich and Tom Morello's Arm The Homeless S-style.
Exhibition featuring life-sized photos of 100 legendary artists' guitars to open in London
Muse circa 2001
How an explosive 2001 switch-up revealed just how ferocious Muse could get
Julian Casablancas in 2002
“This song, can you loosen its tie a little?”: How The Strokes created the 21st Century's most influential rock song
Jane's Addiction in 1988
“It’s a unique sound, the divinity of my vocal cords”: How Perry Farrell defined alternative rock with Jane’s Addiction
Def Leppard in 1983
“Thank God we let that church choir in!” How Def Leppard created a rock anthem with a little bit of divine intervention
Latest in Acoustic Guitars
On the left, a Gibson Les Paul Standard Double Cut, solid-bodied, in Vintage Cherry Sunburst, it looks like the archetypical singlecut. On the right, the new Les Paul Parlor, a guitar that applies the LP aesthetic to a small-bodied acoustic.
Gibson has just unveiled a new Les Paul like no other
From Parlour to Jumbo: The beginner's guide to acoustic guitar body shapes (and which one is right for you)
Gretsch Limited Edition Jim Dandy Parlor Solid Top
Gretsch drops two limited edition Jim Dandy acoustics with solid spruce tops and off-the-charts mojo
Harley Benton HBJ-45E SBK
Harley Benton unveils dreadnought inspired by a classic workhorse – and it is crazy affordable
The Pickaso Guitar Bow is a mini-bow for acoustic guitar. It is double-sided with synthetic hairs and measures just over 6" and has an integrated guitar pick.
“It’s a real bow with synthetic hair on two sides and it’s capable of doing some amazing things”: Turn your acoustic guitar into a violin or cello? The Pickaso Guitar Bow might be this year’s must-have accessory for Jimmy Page superfans
Fender Acoustasonic Standard Jazzmaster
Fender Standard Acoustasonic Jazzmaster Review
Latest in News
Home studio
You don't need to be a music theory expert to make electronic music, but it helps - here's our guide to the basics
Ed Sheeran, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix
How Ed Sheeran generated royalties for Bob Dylan by borrowing from Jimi Hendrix
Deals of the week
MusicRadar deals of the week: My pick of Father's Day deals for musicians include $400 off the Polyend Play+, $200 off a Martin acoustic and so much more
pmt
"It’s been a tough few years": UK gear retailer PMT closes its doors, makes 96 staff redundant and sells £2.4m of stock to Gear4Music
Gretsch Broadkaster Jr LX Center Block with Bigsby
Gretsch’s unveils new MIJ high-end semi-hollows with redesigned bodies and Pro Twin Six humbuckers
Sabrina Carpenter
Sabrina Carpenter on her musical heroes, why she decided to release a new album so soon... and Rush

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...