What songs have you decided your band is incapable of?

[Thor]

We know certain band members can have limits as to what their
capabilities are in cover bands. What songs that you like have
you trashed from the list because your mates will never play them well?

Rotten Angel is fronted by a really excellent guitar player, who
is also an aspiring songwriter. I hesitate to use the word composer.

One of the songs on the set list is Sweet Jane, the Lou Reed feel.
The live version of this song from Rock and Roll Animal has a great
intro part that starts in C to Bb. The band then modulates through
a jazzy Dm passage, moving to a harder edged F to C change,
down one in a mimic E to B change, modulates through a quick change
and starts Sweet Jane in E.

My guitar player can’t remember all this, and wants to do the
original C-Bb intro passage and break right into Sweet Jane in D.
Sunday night he indicated that he just wanted ‘to approximate
the feel of the song’ not perform the piece. Note that I charted
the whole intro with changes for him but he is unwilling or unable
to deconstruct the song and put the components back together.

I gave up on that one.

I played with these guys 30 years ago. Back then we played a
killer interpretation of ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ in a feel that
was a hard edged take-off of the Animals version of the song,
sans keyboards. I have not been able to resurrect this song since
we reformed. It has about 5 or 6 distinct passages, a different
groove on each. This song has tremendous potential, but apparently
they are not up to the task. Trash that one.

My jazzier jump band, No Exit 7, had wanted to play the
Joe Cocker live (Mad Dogs and Englishmen) version of ‘The Letter’.
We worked on it for a month or 2 and consistently slaughtered it,
the drum timing was off, the accents were wrong, no flow. Last
Saturday this song came up after I had dropped it for 6 months.
It had a false start till the drummer got the funk right, but after
that it took off and they nailed it big time. Sax guy was ripping it
up. Surprised the heck out of me!

So what have you had to throw on the trash heap that you
think you should have been able to cover?

[Phalex]

I don't know if we are incapable or if we just don't follow through. It seems like 3 songs out of 10 that we say we are going to learn actually make it into rotation, and based on crowd reaction a lot of those get dropped too.

I do recall that we were working on "Hair Of The Dog" for about 2 weeks, but the lead singer said that he "Couldn't think that high". That pretty much put the kibosh on that one.

[Deacon_Blues]

Usually the singer determines if the song is doable or not. I've been the lead singer in most of the bands I've played in, and I know my voice and what I can and cannot do. If a song don't fit my voice, we've skipped it. It's not just a matter of singing technique or vocal sound, it's more about what fits my personality.

The vocals are however not always the "limiting factor". Sometimes a song just don't work (groove) and then we try to find new approaches to it to see if we can make it sound better, i.e. change the bass line, the drum pattern or the attitude or something else. Sometimes it works, but not always. In the latter case, we skip the song and move on. There are other songs to play as well.

[phxlbrmpf]

We once tried to play Faith No More's "Surprise You're Dead" after everybody'd been given a week to figure out their parts. Not a particularly good idea. It's probably the most difficult to play song they ever recorded, even the verse rhythm takes a while to figure out!

[Thor]

Stories have it that the legendary Otis Redding had a pretty
hard and fast approach to recording when he was working
with Duck Dunn and Steve Cropper and the Stax Revue.

Either it clicked in the first 2 or 3 tries or they went on to
something else. They didn't take any time to struggle with
any of the material. Black or White, yes or no.

I don't work that way, but those guys had to pound stuff
out to live.

[oldrocker]

I my old band we couldn't play Mustang sally. We couldn't get back together on the 1 after the stop each time around.

[The Golden Boy]

To my surprise- one of the songs my old band proved capable of was "Along Comes Mary."

[Thor]

That's a great song. You are going to have to teach me that
one.

[Thor]

Originally Posted by oldrocker

I my old band we couldn't play Mustang sally. We couldn't get back together on the 1 after the stop each time around.

Ouch. Tough when you are the only guy in the band who actually
counts. I came to the conclusion last night while
doing Soul Serenade that my guitar section cannot count One, Two
and change chords consistently.