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Ever hate a song so much you'd risk being fired?

#181
malthumb said:
For the record, four people heard our conversation, guitarist, drummer, singer, and me. We were in a huddle with the mics muted while the guitarist switched guitars. I'm not an idiot. I am a BL in another project and I know how to "say it loud with a whisper".
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That's cool -- sounds like you did it fine. I was referring more to other experiences related in this thread of not playing, or playing half-assed, or playing under protest and communicating that protest somehow. All those things are visible to the audience and diminish the band's performance.


malthumb said:
There's a clear line between don't like and HATE. And if the song that is hated doesn't add anything to an already energy filled set that does a nice job of sparking the audience, why bother?
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I guess the "why bother" thing to me goes back to why you're on stage in a cover band in the first place. Is it for you, for the band, for the club owner or promoter, or for the audience? Ideally it's a confluence of all those, and happily it usually is. But in my mind, if there's a conflict at any point, the audience should come first. (Then the band, then me, and lastly the owner/promoter!)

I don't think I could muster up true hatred for any music that is not racist/sexist/etc. like others have pointed out. That seems to be injecting too much ego/judgment into the equation. And it's still the same bottom line... even if the band starts playing something that makes you want to puke and even if you've talked about it ahead of time, just suck it up and go with the flow, play your ass off, and enjoy the appreciation from the audience. You never know who's out there who could lead you to the next great gig (maybe even the fool who was requesting the stupid song!).
 
#182
BBox Bass said:
That song has an awesome bassline, as do several of Olivia Newton-John's songs.
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Yes it does, keeps me on my toes as it is moving the whole time. As for the OP if you are on the fence about quitting a COVER band because of song choices do yourself and the band a favor and just quit now. Start an original project and you will never have this problem again, just a whole new set of issues:-)
 
#183
FuManChu said:
Yes it does, keeps me on my toes as it is moving the whole time. As for the OP if you are on the fence about quitting a COVER band because of song choices do yourself and the band a favor and just quit now. Start an original project and you will never have this problem again, just a whole new set of issues:-)
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Dude, seriously, you COULD NOT have read even the entire first post if you came to this conclusion. What I did was relate a specific incident and then pointed out how it made me ask myself the question of what song(s) people disliked or hated to the point that they would fall on their sword.

I am not and have not ever been on the fence wrt to my current band. In this case there were reasons beyond my dislike for the song that led me to put my foot down, but I wanted to focus discussion in this thread on what songs people dislike enough to take a stand.
 
#184
malthumb said:
  • I Can Never Take The Place Of Your Man (Prince)
  • Paparazzi (Gaga)
  • Fire (Pointer Sisters)
  • Kiss (Prince)
  • Moves Like Jagger (Maroon5)
  • Word Up (Cameo)
  • Forget You (Cee-Lo Green)
  • Hey Ya (Outkast)
  • Boogie Oogie Oogie (Taste of Honey)
  • Play That Funky Music (Wild Cherry)
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Pretty much all of these songs would be on my won't play list. If I brought up any of these songs to my bandmates as tunes we should do I would be laughed outta the practice room. You asked....I answered honestly...let the lectures on crowd pleasing and what it takes to be successful commence. For me, life is too short to drink cheap beer, dance with fat chicks, or play music I don't enjoy.

"The public gets what they deserve, not what they demand.
Unless we all decide to be a business not a band." Agent Orange.
 
#186
Bert Slide said:
Pretty much all of these songs would be on my won't play list. If I brought up any of these songs to my bandmates as tunes we should do I would be laughed outta the practice room. You asked....I answered honestly...let the lectures on crowd pleasing and what it takes to be successful commence. For me, life is too short to drink cheap beer, dance with fat chicks, or play music I don't enjoy.

"The public gets what they deserve, not what they demand.
Unless we all decide to be a business not a band." Agent Orange.
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And that is what should be so cool about what we do. What works great for my audiences might suck for yours. But it's up to you and I to know that and to play to our audiences accordingly. And to also realize that we can't / won't be able to play EVERY SONG that EVERY audience member wants to hear, but I'm willing to stake that if someone likes 30 of the 45 songs we play each gig, they'll be back, whether we play their special song or not.
 
#187
malthumb said:
And that is what should be so cool about what we do. What works great for my audiences might suck for yours. But it's up to you and I to know that and to play to our audiences accordingly. And to also realize that we can't / won't be able to play EVERY SONG that EVERY audience member wants to hear, but I'm willing to stake that if someone likes 30 of the 45 songs we play each gig, they'll be back, whether we play their special song or not.
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I agree and what's really cool is my current band has only been gigging for a few months and we are developing a decent following because we play what we love and it shows. As a power trio we couldn't pull off a lot of the dance music anyway and it would be foolish for us to try to compete in that arena. Lucky for us some people get really exited about hearing an old blues tune followed by some Jimi and topped off with some Stooges.

I have lost all patience with audience requests. Chick the other night holds up the show between songs while asking us if we can play "you know that song from Wayne's world, the one playing when that girl Garth is in love with walks by?" My guitar player and I say "you mean Dream Weaver?" She says "no that's not it" so we explain that we don't know what song she is refering to and we need to keep playing. We launch into "Voodo Chile" and "Star Spangled Banner" which is our show closer that night. Chick comes back up and says the song she wanted was "Foxy Lady" and we should play it now. We politely tell her that we are done and you can't follow "The Star Spangled Banner" unless you are a baseball game and she walks off scowling and mumbling "I can't believe you play all that other Jimi and you won't play "Foxy Lady!" We tell her we can't because we are already 15 minutes over our time and the bar needs to get ready for closing but of course she doesn't understand that and takes it as a personal insult to her. Fans like that I don't need.
 
#188
malthumb said:
I get your point. It would be a consideration if we didn't already have a number of songs on our set lists that get the crowd up. In one set we play, in this order

  • I Can Never Take The Place Of Your Man (Prince)
  • Paparazzi (Gaga)
  • Fire (Pointer Sisters)
  • Kiss (Prince)
  • Moves Like Jagger (Maroon5)
  • Word Up (Cameo)

We often have girls up dancing through that whole section, then we bring it down a little with Rollin' In The Deep and then get silly with The Way I Am (Ingrid Michaelsson) to close the set and introduce the band members.

We can get people dancing and having a good time without resorting to the newest bright shiny object.

In another set we string together
  • Forget You (Cee-Lo Green)
  • Hey Ya (Outkast)
  • Boogie Oogie Oogie (Taste of Honey)
  • Play That Funky Music (Wild Cherry)

A lot of dancing and audience "help" on those. No need to resort to the bright shiny object / hot song of the day.
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(pedro taking notes.) ;)
 
#189
I guess I don't see the big deal. There are songs that my band plays that I don't necessarily like but others I love. Its a trade-off so everyone gets their favorites in. Not sure there is any that I'd fall on the sword over...

And I only see two on the list here that we play - Mustang Sally and TCB.

Although usually I roll my eyes at TCB - it got a lot of people dancing last saturday night and with watching that - was more fun to play.
 
#190
lweastdad said:
I guess I don't see the big deal. There are songs that my band plays that I don't necessarily like but others I love. Its a trade-off so everyone gets their favorites in. Not sure there is any that I'd fall on the sword over...

And I only see two on the list here that we play - Mustang Sally and TCB.

Although usually I roll my eyes at TCB - it got a lot of people dancing last saturday night and with watching that - was more fun to play.
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What is TCB?
 
#191
With some many that have such an aversion for request I gotta mention that a couple of years ago I was in a band called 'Pulled from a Hat'. The gimmick was that in front of the band there was a small table with a hat on it. The audience was encouraged to write down a request an drop it into the hat. We would reach in every so often and 'pull something from the hat'. If we had 2+ band members who thought that they knew the song and the rest of us were at least 'somewhat' familiar with it we'd give it a try. Sure a lot of times it was a train wreck but the audience loved it. I think that they were so jazzed that 'THEIR' wishes ruled the day that they didn't mind if someone forgot or faked some chords or lyrics, etc.

It was a fun but slightly stressful gig. Glad I did it.
 
#192
pedro said:
With some many that have such an aversion for request I gotta mention that a couple of years ago I was in a band called 'Pulled from a Hat'. The gimmick was that in front of the band there was a small table with a hat on it. The audience was encouraged to write down a request an drop it into the hat. We would reach in every so often and 'pull something from the hat'. If we had 2+ band members who thought that they knew the song and the rest of us were at least 'somewhat' familiar with it we'd give it a try. Sure a lot of times it was a train wreck but the audience loved it. I think that they were so jazzed that 'THEIR' wishes ruled the day that they didn't mind if someone forgot or faked some chords or lyrics, etc.

It was a fun but slightly stressful gig. Glad I did it.
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This is the concept that keeps a good dueling pianos bar packed full of singing drinking partying patrons from the minute the doors open until closing time.

In fact, you do this a few times, the same patrons keep coming back and making the same requests, pretty soon the musicians know the songs quite well and begin to embellish and have a lot of fun with it.

Cha-ching.
 
#193
I'll have to read through the whole thread to see if someone already posted this,

but if I had to play that song AND I played slap/pop style (I don't) then I would use an ironic twist

and put a danceable slap bass feel to that "pop" song and funk it up like mad (What Would Marcus Miller Do?).

Put such a strong dance groove to it that the lyrics become somewhat noticeable (if anyone's more concerned about the words than about shaking their booty).
 
#194
electracoyote said:
This is the concept that keeps a good dueling pianos bar packed full of singing drinking partying patrons from the minute the doors open until closing time.

In fact, you do this a few times, the same patrons keep coming back and making the same requests, pretty soon the musicians know the songs quite well and begin to embellish and have a lot of fun with it.

Cha-ching.
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LOL!!
 
#196
I've got to add this, I've never been fired as a musician. I always do my best on the gig regardless of my feelings about the music or musicians.

I have quit over musical choices. There just isn't enough money to play some of the crap out there with some of the aholes representing themselves as quality musical acts.


Fired over a song - no.

Quit over a song - yes, but it was the final straw not a single incidence of suckiness.
 

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