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

#641
I can relate to that too. I've wanted to drop songs that I've felt the band wasn't any good at. I remember a few years back I was in a band that absolutely could not get the groove to the Buck Cherry songs. I was playing guitar in that one. And the drummer and bassist were each playing different, clashing grooves. Total embarrassing wreck.

But what really angers me is when simple pop songs wreck because band members feel above doing the homework for those songs.
 
#642
bwardmusic said:
I'm with the guys who think its wrong for a single band member to jettison songs because they don't like them. If the audience reacts poorly to the song, by all means, scratch it. But if the audience likes it, why hold the band back by dictating you won't do certain songs?
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Can't help but think that I'm sounding like a broken record on this one. Not doing any one particular song has almost zero impact if your repertoire is loaded with songs that your audience enjoys. We haven't noticed any drop off in fan support by not doing "Call Me Maybe". It is NOT holding the band back by any stretch of the imagination.

Likewise with "Locked Out Of Heaven". Three of us really like the song and can jam the heck out of it. But our singer doesn't like singing it, so we've stopped doing it. When we did do it it ALWAYS went over well. Still we took it out of rotation and added something else just as lively (Hot Summer Nights - Grace Potter & the Nocturnals) and we haven't lost any of the audience support and enthusiasm.

Moral of the story.....there's no need to rely on any one song....don't like it? Don't do it, but make certain you have other strong material.
 
#644
Dunno why yous guys would hate on a song just because the bass line is "too simple". Here's one for yah LOL :
Sunny and 75 - Joe Nichols (A)
Intro: |x| (One measure of no bass)
Rest of the song: ||Am|G|Em|F|| (all whole notes, played even though the stops)

Personally I love playing it, the interplay between them whole notes and the other instruments is brilliant IMO. Do yous guys not listen to the whole song while playing it?
 
#646
jtroska said:
I'm the opposite. I would LOVE to have a band that played cheesy top 40 crowd pleasers. I'm always amazed and disheartened by how many bands don't get it. If any of you folks in working bands can't stomach playing the cheesy crowd pleasers, call me and I'll do it. I'm not all all above Carly Rae Jepsen or Katy Perry or Lady GaGa or whatever. Let's fill the dance floor and my pockets.
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My man! 50 grand!! :hyper: Somebody gets it!
 
#650
malthumb said:
She. And it's a range / tone issue. She doesn't like her tone in the recorded key. She also would prefer it if we had keyboards to help fill in the sound. She likes the song and is actually the one who put it on the list
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I agree that keyboards are a must or at least a guitarist who knows how to fill up a song with the use of effects. The regular section is ok with minimal instrumentation. Our band does this with a female lead in the recorded key.
 
#651
DWBass said:
I agree that keyboards are a must or at least a guitarist who knows how to fill up a song with the use of effects. The regular section is ok with minimal instrumentation. Our band does this with a female lead in the recorded key.
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We've started talking about adding keys to the group. Would REALLY expand our options. In the interim we may drag my oldest son in to cover on keys and/or a 2nd guitar. Thing is, he's 16 and might not be able to play some of the places we play. I intend to talk to management at a couple of our regular places this weekend to see what their policies are, given that a parent (me) will always be on hand.
 
#652
malthumb said:
Can't help but think that I'm sounding like a broken record on this one. Not doing any one particular song has almost zero impact if your repertoire is loaded with songs that your audience enjoys. We haven't noticed any drop off in fan support by not doing "Call Me Maybe". It is NOT holding the band back by any stretch of the imagination.

Likewise with "Locked Out Of Heaven". Three of us really like the song and can jam the heck out of it. But our singer doesn't like singing it, so we've stopped doing it. When we did do it it ALWAYS went over well. Still we took it out of rotation and added something else just as lively (Hot Summer Nights - Grace Potter & the Nocturnals) and we haven't lost any of the audience support and enthusiasm.

Moral of the story.....there's no need to rely on any one song....don't like it? Don't do it, but make certain you have other strong material.
Click to expand...

I also think it depends on your position in the band. If you're a hired gun, you play what you're asked to play whether you like it or not.

One thing I'm getting tired of is musicians who control the whole repertoire without having a cent of their own skin (time, money) in the business end of things.

Time is coming when I may just form a pickup band and do it all as a given and stop caring. Have a network of guys who can do the job, standard repertoire I know inside and out, and simply call from my list of musicians who play from the list -- with some choice in which on the list they play.

It's all instrumental jazz. Then I don't have to put up with the loss of 20% of a repertoire every time a new member joins or leaves. Its my time too, learning the songs etcetera.
 
#655
I don't personally get too excited one way or the other about playing tunes I may not care for.

I had never heard this tune before; but, I can see why the non-musician public would like it. To quote Tom Hanks, "it's snappy." I can also see why talented bass players would not care for it.

What I do when faced with some tune that I don't care for is I find ways to make the bass lines something special while maintaining the required line; so that no one notices but me. The Invisible Bassist, so to speak. The people who like this kind of thing won't notice the difference anyhow. But, that's just me. This comes up somewhat frequently when getting out in the clubs with cover material. So, it is important to have a strategy.

That said, the one dynamic that should NEVER happen is disagreements about playing content ON STAGE. Big no-no for me. Rehearsal is the time to get straight on this. A band leader should know better than to bring up a known controversy in a live situation. Poor leadership. Work it out off line not at show time. My <2c.
 
#656
No, but a friend of mine quit because he didn't want to play "My Love is Alive."

I'd quit a band if they had those quarter notes on the bass drum going all the time. But I guess those are robots playing that stuff, so the matter will never arise.
 
#659
How about, you've got a place rocking, finish up strong second set, take a break and come back to have the band leader call ****ing "Helpless" Neil Young. That and Born on the Bayou. ***... Don't know if I can commit to another season. But jobs are hard to come by so we'll see. Back in the day I would look in Musicians Grapevine in Trading Times and have a solid gig in 2-3 weeks. Try that now! Rant over....
 
#660
I refused to join a band for sending me a setlist with the following gems:

Johny Cash - Wings of fire
The Cansas - Dust in the wind
Chris Izaack - Wicked games

I mean, I don't insist on doing covers exactly like the original, but there are some things that you really should try to get right.
 

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