If I Had $1000000 - Live Changes

Live Changes

Several live changes have been common in performances. The post-chorus banters mentioned earlier are ad libbed at every performance and far more lengthy than the album versions. Due to these banters, the song is typically the longest song in a concert (it typically falls at the end of the main set or as an encore).

The reference to buying Joseph Merrick's remains has varied for periods of time to include John Tesh or John Davidson. The latter can be heard on the Rock Spectacle album version, while the former is available on Live from the River Music Hall Vol. One (1998), an album featuring multiple artists recording songs live at WXRV radio in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Since the early 1990s, the third verse of the song has featured a different groove than the rest of the song, and since the mid-1990s has become a sing-along, with the audience calling back the title line instead of Page. This has continued by Hearn since Page's departure. Both changes can be heard on Rock Spectacle.

The introduction to the song has also occasionally also been used for banter or to sing covers or parodies of songs. In the early 1990s, Page and Robertson would often talk about the intro's "hot guitar lick". An example of the intro being used to sing another song is found on the Rock Spectacle version, in which they sing an excerpt of their own song "Grade 9." The aforementioned River Music Hall version begins with a parody of Kenny Rogers's "The Gambler".

At the end of the song, the band would often extend the musical outro to allow Page to demonstrate his vocal ability by belting out a short excerpt of another song (typically a cover song). In the past, this tended to lead into a medley of cover songs and rapping known as the "Barenaked Rap". This medley was retired in 2002, but was revived after Page's 2009 departure. On the band's tour to support the album Maybe You Should Drive, the song frequently ended on the lyric "If I Had $1000000, some son-of-a-bitch would die", a parody of the Bruce Cockburn song "If I Had a Rocket Launcher".