First Learning To Play Bowie's "Let's Dance"
First Learning To Play Bowie's "Let's Dance"
Umphrey's McGee
Talking with Umphrey’s McGee about their cover of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” with Huey Lewis.
Cris Cohen: As you said, you grew up listening to the original song. It's kind of baked into your memories. But it's another thing when you have to actually play a song. When you first went to play it, were there things you heard when you were attempting to play it that you didn't hear as a casual listener?
Joel Cummins: I think the voicing of the main instrumental riff is really important. So getting those little nuances right, about which chords were sus chords and which chords were these minor sixth chords. That's something that we do try to pay as much attention to as possible when going back and recreating it. I think having the right voicing is so important for when you want to convey the spirit of the cover.
Brendan Bayliss: When we were figuring out our parts, I play the delayed (sings guitar part). And I remember just thinking that I knew it because I listened to it a thousand times as a kid. And then when it came to actually sitting and playing, I realized that it's way more intricate. And the delay tap tempo has to be correct, or it sounds super sloppy.
So when we actually sat down to do the homework, it was a lot more complicated than we thought. For a guitar player, everything is typically E, G, A. And this is in B Flat. I believe the first chord is an E Flat. So immediately it was like, “Oh, this is a lot more challenging than we thought.”
Listen to the song on YouTube.