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Darling be home soon
- Thread starter Reckless666
- Start date
You really never know until you try it. And I'll let you in on a little secret: Not every song you play has to go over like gangbusters. You can have a few songs in there that break up the set a bit, give people a chance to go to the bar (the bar actually likes when that happens, you know) or the bathroom, etc.
Also, some songs work sometimes and not other times, so maybe learn it, stick it in between a couple of raucous mini-sets, and see what happens with it. It's the band's energy more than anything else, in my experience, that makes a song work.
Also, some songs work sometimes and not other times, so maybe learn it, stick it in between a couple of raucous mini-sets, and see what happens with it. It's the band's energy more than anything else, in my experience, that makes a song work.
I feel your pain! I play with 3 different bands and have been trying to get 1 of them to cover "karma chameleon", "Come on Eileen, "YMCA" and/or "Macho man" for many years...none of them will do it. 
This 1 million percent. Try stuff out at sensible junctures in a set that you know works well overall. But don't be precious about dropping things from a set if they don't work either.
The time spent working up a new number is never wasted, IMO, even if you can it after one gig.
Two. Steve Boone on bass and Joe Butler, who used to play drums but now is lead singer/acoustic guitarist/autoharpist. At one time, Jerry Yester, who wasn’t original but had worked with them since the beginning in some capacity, was playing guitar and singing some leads, but a kiddie porn bust ended that.
There are a couple tunes that were big hits for them but they rarely do anymore. I’ve seen them probably 50 times and they may have done Darling twice, and only because they had to do longer than an hour.
Aw thx…nice to see you too! But since taking up the drums a few months ago, I spend less time on here than I used to.Nice to see JimmyM
I just listened to this for the first time and I don’t understand the reluctance. It’s nice slow song with great movement in the bass line. The fact that it’s obscure is a good thing, IMO. Don’t people get sick of hearing only familiar, predictable music for the 10000th time?
They were huge for a while and had a number of radio hits in the Midwest, at least. I don't think the orchestration helped Darling much; it didn't climb the charts the way some others did. I think Steve's brother Skip actually panned it pretty bad. Glad to hear they're still kickin' around!
No, actually, they don't. I've been doing this for 35 years. I've been playing in bars since I was a teenager. I have yet to be in a band that starts a smash hit only to have an audience react with "Not THIS crap again!" and go to the bar. Ever.
It doesn't matter if it's a timeless hit like "At Last" or rock anthems like "Don't Stop Believing", they work every single time.
That doesn't really mean we should never do anything that isn't a smash hit. I was just answering your question. No, people don't get tired of hearing smash hits all night. Ever. We could play only the first 40 pages of the Bar Band Hymnal every single show and do just fine.
I think that's something that only a musician would say. For people who don't play music, live music itself is a novelty and a treat. If they don't feel like hearing Mustang Sally, they don't go looking for a band that plays something else; they go to the movies. They aren't out at venues twice every weekend hearing live bands all the time and getting sick of hearing them play familiar stuff. Going to hear a band at all is a periodic treat even for most regulars, and when they go they want to hear music they know and like.
Mugshot Monday has been able to get gigging as much as it does because the singer is a local-bar-scene regular with a whole circle of friends who will show up to see her. And they do come to see her - if I quit and formed another band with folks they didn't know, they wouldn't come to see it. My job is to make Nikki sound as good as I can. Even so, there isn't anyone in that circle of our regular followers who show up to every gig, every weekend. Any given person in the group might show up every third or fourth gig. And they go nuts every time when we kick into You Really Got Me, Any Way You Want It and Highway to Hell.
Nope, these are the same people who have had their car radio tuned to the same classic rock station playing the same songs for the last thirty years.
Love this song and Slade's version of it too... I'd have thought if Slade can fit a song like this into their playlist then anyone else should be able to do so too? That said, it rather depends on what you're trying to get as a result... it's a good gig song I'd think, but not necessarily one that works where you're trying to maintain a certain level of energy in a dance club?
Give it a try, the audience will let you know, I guess?
Give it a try, the audience will let you know, I guess?
Slade is a world known band that has their own sound, and people have an idea what to expect from them. A local cover band is in no way a comparable situation. Darling Be Home Soon is death for a cover band gig. I love the Lovin Spoonful, seen them many times, they wrote it and had a hit with it, and even they can’t get much more than a mild reaction. I defy anyone to show me a cover band playing it to a packed dance floor and an audience who loves it.
Stick to danceable hits.
