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

#101
malthumb said:
We have a private party gig coming up later in the month. The hiring party has specifically asked that we play "Call Me Maybe". There are not words to define how much I hate that song. But since the hiring party specifically asked for it, we'll play it.

Our BL mentioned this request and suggested we learn it (ok) and maybe play it at our next gig (hell to the naw). My other band members felt the same way. So we left the rehearsal AGREEING that we would do this song at the private party and then bury it.

So, as we're setting up for last night's gig, BL says..."word has gotten out that we're working on "Call Me Maybe" so don't be surprised if we get a request for it". I said " They can request but I'm not doing it"

So, sure enough, one table starts asking for it. BL says "think we oughta give it a shot?" I say "hell no". I don't usually curse, so when I do, be sure that I mean it. So he starts polling the other band members so I cut in..."Maybe you misunderstood me....hell f^%}ing no. I'm not playing it."

So then we announce and then play our last song. We had skipped several songs because the venue wanted to close a little early. The small crowd that's left shouts for one more. In between the shouts for one more are the three words I'm coming to dread. "Call Me Maybe". I gave the BL a "don't even think about it" look and suggested doing a song we had skipped. We did it and it went well and we finished and packed up.

My disdain for this song could very well be irrational, but it's real and growing. We will do it at this party and I will try like mad to get it stricken from our set lists.

Anybody else have a similar situation?
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So thats the song, I have been hearing this song blasting out of my daughters room for that past week and it was driving me nuts. I finally had to have the "This is fast food music" talk with her. Didi it work?.......NOPE.....I want to gouge my own ears out every time she plays this song.
 
#104
Playing in a Beatles tribute band that prides itself on playing a LOT of the more obscure material along with the "hits."

Personally, I wanna vomit whenever I hear the opening to "Yesterday," but since it's done acoustically & I don't have to play it, I can let that one slide.

On the lesser-know list, "Mr. Moonlight" gets a BIG "HELL NO" from me, but thankfully everyone else agrees so it wasn't an issue.

Truthfully, I enjoy playing in this band (and the skill of the guys in it) so much, I don't know if I could bring myself to issue an ultimatum, but of course I think we ALL know a few songs we'd rather have nothing to do with.
 
#106
MrLenny1 said:
That's ShowBiz.
Get use to it.
It's not about you, it's about the crowd & what they like.
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+1

40+ years and I've never refused to play a song, and I played during the disco era when there was some real crap that hit the charts. Besides the crowd, as mentioned by MrLenny1, it's disrespectful to your BL and other band members to make ultimatums. I'm quite surprised how many TBers think it's OK to dictate to a band what you will and will not do.
 
#107
Matthew_84 said:
I only read the first page so I apologize if this has been said before, but if your BL is willing to perform this crap anywhere but the private party, then watch out for what other crap songs will be next.

You need to either learn to deal with it and just play (my least favourite option of the three), play it your own way so that it is enjoyable to you (and do this for the next song), or just deal with it for now while you look for another band that's more to your liking.
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For the most part, BL has a good sense for the songs selected for our set lists. And for the most part, selection is a democratic process. All four of us bring songs in for consideration. Some get shot down, some get a group hug. Nobody takes anything personally. This is only the 4th time we've had specific requests for a song. The first three were from regulars at our shows and we have added two of those (Into The Mystic and Addicted To Love) to our set. We bounced the third one, which I don't remember the name of or reason for bouncing.

The issue with Call Me Maybe is that this is a paid private gig, so we are definitely going to do it for that gig.

BL's judgement is 98% of the time pretty good. The other 2% of the time is an eagerness to take a song public before we are really ready to do it. As a BL myself (gospel praise team) I have a hard rule that NO SONG goes public without at least two rehearsals. With CMM, we listened to it once, cleaned up the puke, and got on with rehearsing for the immediate gig (this past Saturday). We really didn't work on CMM, but recognized it's a piece o' cake musically. Funny thing is, after my H-F'ing No declaration Saturday, I found out our singer hadn't even looked at the lyrics yet, so there was no way we were gonna do it anyway :p .

But again, I can appreciate everyone's wanting to weigh in on whether or not it is ever appropriate to NOT play a song you don't like. But that's not the point. As I stated in post #55, I could easily name @ 15 songs on our regular rotation set lists that I don't particularly like, but play and play well every single gig. The point of the thread is to ask YOU which, if any, songs YOU would fall on YOUR sword for. I am very comfortable with my BL, my band, and my choices of what I will and will not play, so as much as possible, let's not make those things the issue.

QUESTION: Are there songs that YOU dislike so much that YOU would fall on your sword to not play? Mine is "Call Me Maybe". And yours is????
 
#109
MarTONEbass said:
Whenever I audition for a cover band I tell them this: I charge extra if you ask me to play Kiss or Jimmy Buffett. I have not yet had a problem avoiding those artists.
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Interesting. We don't have any Kiss on our playlists, but we do have "Margaritaville". BL spices it up a bit by picking on friends, relatives, and regular audience members during the "it's so-and-so's fault" parts of the song.

Gotta say this.....MarTONEbass, when I saw your avatar, the first thought that crossed my mind was "when did Sinbad start playing bass?" :D :D
 
#110
I don't make the call on whether or not a song is worth playing.

That is the privilege of the audience. If a song I don't care for packs the dance floor every time we play it, I'll pretty much play it every time I gig.

If a song I really enjoy playing clears a packed dance floor 3 gigs in a row. I'll drop it like it's hot.
 
#112
I would never be in a band where I did not have some kind of veto, and I would want to make sure that everyone else had it too. There have only been a few times that I broke it out - Nickleback's Animal was one - but lots of songs I would love to play have been vetoed as well, so it's fair play. Their are lots of great songs out there, not being able to get around a veto shows a lack of willingness to dig deep.

Nothing kills a fun cover gig than a stretch of songs that you don't enjoy, or worse, actively dislike. Veto power is a must.
 
#113
Even though I refused at first to add songs I absolutely did not like to play in my last band, I went along with it and it changed my mind on the subject. As I said in my previous post, we were a classic rock cover band and the female singer started adding songs that didnt fit with what we originally were. But, Ill tell you, we got more people up and dancing to those songs than we did with any of the "classic rock" stuff.

In my current band, I have been pushing to do more contemporary stuff that are very popular. Even if its something bad like what the OP's BL wants to do, and change it around to rock it out. Ive seen this type of thing done very successfully by other bands. To the OP, why not change the arrangement a bit and enhance the bassline until it IS fun to play?
 
#114
Yes, there is a song, but for a different reason. I only turn down songs if I know they're not going to go over well, not because I don't like them. For example, I'm playing in a side cover band that's ramping up, that has Paradise by the Dashboard Light on the set list. It's 8 f'n minutes long, and they want to play at the college bars - 21-30 year old girls aren't going to want to hear that song, nevermind for 8 minutes.

And Call Me Maybe has easily been the best song as far as crowd response the last two gigs my band has played. I think we all in the band hate the song, but a main reason we get booked at good places is we keep current & play the right songs for the crowd, not for us....and girls LOVE that song right now. So I'll rock it the f**k out!
 
#115
mooreon131 said:
Yeah, it sucks that you had to play a song you hate that much, but the showman/money grubber in me says that it doesn't matter if I hate every song we play, as long as the fans are happy. Plus, I can usually have at least a little fun with a crappy song if I wank, and dance around like a fool.
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+1

If the money/client/guests/good rep don't matter, you don't have to play anything you don't feel like playing.
 
#118
jgroh said:
Even though I refused at first to add songs I absolutely did not like to play in my last band, I went along with it and it changed my mind on the subject. As I said in my previous post, we were a classic rock cover band and the female singer started adding songs that didnt fit with what we originally were. But, Ill tell you, we got more people up and dancing to those songs than we did with any of the "classic rock" stuff.

In my current band, I have been pushing to do more contemporary stuff that are very popular. Even if its something bad like what the OP's BL wants to do, and change it around to rock it out. Ive seen this type of thing done very successfully by other bands. To the OP, why not change the arrangement a bit and enhance the bassline until it IS fun to play?
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Thanks for the input. Because the four of us in this group have such diverse musical backgrounds, our set lists have a very wide sweep, so other than over-processed pop, country, and hardcore gangsta rap, we have a little bit of everything. Dropping a song because of genre doesn't happen much. If one of us really likes it and it excites the crowd, we play it. We have pop (Paparazzi), funk (Word Up), soul (Fire - Pointer Sisters), Motown (Let's Get It On, I Want You Back), reggae (Could You Be Loved), and classic rock (Listen To The Music, Your Love, Knockin' On Heaven's Door - GnR) and I don't know how to categorize some of the more modern things like Rolling In The Deep, Paris (Grace Potter) and The Way I Am (Ingrid Michaelson), but those are staples at our gigs.

As for the part in BOLD, that's the plan. :D
 
#119
Yes. For me it's the song Rainy Night in Georgia. It's too damn slow and sad. I hated playing the song but it's just me having an issue with that song.Needless to say, I'm no longer in the band that played it. If it is in a set list of a prosepctive band I might not be interesetd in playing in that band :-)
 

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