Finally, after many long years...

pklima · #1 06-12-2011, 03:43 PM

Give us your stories of covers that took you a horribly long time to play out in public, or originals that had a really difficult and complicated birth.

Last night I finally played a song in public which I've been wanting to do for years, but for one reason or another I couldn't. It was "Sangue Latino" by Secos e Molhados. Sure, it's only two minutes and three chords (and one of them shows up only three times), but it just took forever. I mostly couldn't find a singer who wanted to do it - it's in Portuguese and the melody's tough to sing, so even the Brazilian guy I sometimes play with refused to touch it - and the one band which did get it down in rehearsal fell apart before playing a single gig.

This makes me so happy. The audience dug it, too. Here's Secos e Molhados playing the song back in 1974: YouTube - ‪Secos e Molhados - Sangue latino + O Vira‬&rlm; - and yeah, they looked really, really weird.

So, that's my "took forever" song. What's yours?

DasClyde · #2 06-12-2011, 03:48 PM

I still can't get my friends to play any Grateful Dead tunes. Seems like a lot of things I listen to or suggest are automatically off limits just because we're not doing that "hippie **** that nobody likes." Unfortunate. Nobody wants to improv jam live either.

Depth_Charge · #3 06-12-2011, 08:50 PM

The first cover band I ran that played out took over 3 months to work out the bridge to "Heartbreaker" by Pat Benetar to the point we were confident enough to play it live. That was embarrassing. It was mostly the guy struggling not doing the homework week in and out, and it was only one song (which HE added to the list), so its not like a sackable offence to not learn one song

Souperman08 · #4 06-12-2011, 09:50 PM

It took a solid year (of playing every week) to get the worship band I lead to agree and play this song. They were reeeeally hesitant (Some of them because of the "Weird off-time swing thing" to it), but after one time doing it as a full band in rehearsal, they loved it.

YouTube - ‪John Mark McMillan | Death In His Grave Performance‬&rlm;

gotmule? · #5 06-13-2011, 03:53 AM

I always wanted to play some Police tunes, but I can never find anyone that could play or sing them. I also want to play "I Wish" by stevie wonder, but no one other than me seem to know how to play that one

Quote:

Originally Posted by DasClyde

I still can't get my friends to play any Grateful Dead tunes. Seems like a lot of things I listen to or suggest are automatically off limits just because we're not doing that "hippie **** that nobody likes." Unfortunate. Nobody wants to improv jam live either.

Where in Jersey are you from? Me and my friend play dead tunes all the time and at the open mic we go to, the house band knows a pretty good amount of grateful dead stuff

DanRJBrasil · #6 06-13-2011, 11:24 AM

secos e mohados are great I love them , singing it not speaking brazilian portuguese from birth is def a great feat

pklima · #7 06-13-2011, 02:13 PM

Well, she did still mispronounce a few words a bit, but nobody in the audience noticed, and it will be better next time. By the time our Brazilian guitarist comes back in August we should have it down perfect.

samurai1993 · #8 06-13-2011, 10:24 PM

After many months my band will finally play a little Rush tribute. 3 to 5 songs depending on time:

YYZ
La Villa Strangiato
Limelight
Frewill
And maybe Tom Sawyer

I'm happy as hell!!

berwick63 · #9 06-13-2011, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DasClyde

I still can't get my friends to play any Grateful Dead tunes. Seems like a lot of things I listen to or suggest are automatically off limits just because we're not doing that "hippie **** that nobody likes." Unfortunate. Nobody wants to improv jam live either.

Thats a real bummer man. Thankfully, all the musicians I play with are into just about every genre of music and we improv jam everything we play.

steveksux · #10 06-14-2011, 07:42 PM

Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas

We'd break into this at practice, and noodle our way through part of it for fun, probably for months. Then we finally thought, what the hell, lets try to do it for real.

That was with a sub guitar player, and one of the the first times we did it live, singer's voice stated giving out at the end, but otherwise pretty fair job of it.. Had some pretty tricky transitions/bridges to pull off. High potential for train wreckage.

Randy

SevenJacks · #11 06-15-2011, 06:56 AM

When we played a passable version of 'Ramble On' with just bass/guitar/congas, at the end of the night, in front of MAYBE 15 people, and I found out later that a guitard friend of my guitard said:
"dude, your bassist just started playing??? And he can do RAMBLE ON????"

That was cool

'Brian Wilson' cover by B.N.L. still confounds me and I don't know why and I can't f**ing stand it...

rtslinger · #12 06-15-2011, 07:22 AM

We have been putting off a Stones medley for the longest time it is something that our guitarist worked for hours putting it together. I learned it but, the other member have not.
Not sure why it is so hard to get it off the ground just can’t seem to make it fly? Strange for us since we learn a song in a week and play it out that weekend.

steveksux · #13 06-15-2011, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SevenJacks

'Brian Wilson' cover by B.N.L. still confounds me and I don't know why and I can't f**ing stand it...

Me too, not sure why. I've played it with a band I fill in with, and I've worked on it a lot, but it seems can't nail it on stage.

I think its just unlike how I approach a bass line, so instead of "getting" it, I'm memorizing it. If I did it enough with my regular band, would eventually get it, but a short brain fart in the middle of that odd arpeggiated line really leaves you in a bad place.

Randy

ez-rhino · #14 06-15-2011, 08:50 AM

Rant:

The group I play with (has become rather seldom at this point in time), we've been playing together for about 8 months now, have about an hour and a half worth of cover material, and have yet to play a single show. We had an audience of 1 about a month ago, only because one of the guitarists brought his girlfriend along to a defacto pool party at the house we jam at.

This is starting to piss me off. I need to get out there and find others to jam with.

viper4000 · #15 06-15-2011, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Depth_Charge

The first cover band I ran that played out took over 3 months to work out the bridge to "Heartbreaker" by Pat Benetar to the point we were confident enough to play it live. That was embarrassing. It was mostly the guy struggling not doing the homework week in and out, and it was only one song (which HE added to the list), so its not like a sackable offence to not learn one song

To do this bridge correctly is tough. There is a time change in there that most folks don't get. Once the drummer "gets it", it usually makes it smooth.