Sometimes you realize you’ve been playing a small part of a song wrong forever; you stumble across the right way and you think, ‘That’s cool!’
On a related note, I've been doing a deep dive into some early New York Dolls, and man, Johnny Thunders was so sloppy and weird that it's hard to tell if you're playing something "wrong" or if Johnny was.
I just ran across this comment from Tom Araya of Slayer, which touches on this topic a bit. Imagine that you were playing "Raining Blood" or "Angel of Death" and trying to sing at the same time. Well...
“When we play Raining Blood live, there are parts where I just play an open E instead of the riff you hear on the record. Another part that's not easy is the main Angel Of Death riff while singing. I can't do that shit! I could do it in the studio, but live... let's just say no-one asks for their money back."
So again, "right or wrong" depends on exactly which version you're listening to!
There is also this situation, when covering a song with my acoustic, I have to play bits that are played by two guitars on the record. For example, Handle Me With Care. In the verse, Harrison is just playing the D, then C9, then G and back to D. Jeff Lynn is doing the walk down and up riffs. I have to play both parts to capture the essence of the song and sing it too. It takes a while to get the coordination down in those circumstances and on occasion it just does not happen so the song is not doable. With the band the other guitar carries the difference.
"Will follow through with a transaction when the terms are agreed upon" almightybunghole
