First song you ever played on stage?

[dave64o]

Started playing guitar when I was in college when some friends who could actually play said they'd teach me guitar if I'd sing for their band. They were apparently desperate for a front man because I never sang before either. The first time we ever played together we did two songs in an open mic night on campus my junior year.

The first was a song by a local Philly band that was just starting to break out nationally (they had a few hits in the US, but have apparently been much bigger in Europe and Asia over the years than in the US). That one was "Blood From a Stone" by The Hooters. Then we did U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday". This was back in 1984, if that helps explain the choice of songs.

 

[Hoover]

Very first song ever? Not including school concert band (which I absolutely have no chance of remembering, since I was 8 years old), it would have to be "Up In The Sky", an instrumental written by Jana Lawrence, which had a bassline suspiciously similar to the guitar riff in "Smoke On The Water".

 

[davidgoldman]

Louie Louie, what else would it be in 65.

 

[champbassist]

A couple of Bengali songs by local bands. The first English song I played live was Bon Jovi's It's My Life

 

[kingpin2512]

It'd be the Godfather waltz. I was pretty nervous at the time.

 

[95svtcobra]

My first live performance was a fill in for a band playing at the Channel in Boston (long gone now). I was a last minute replacement mostly because I had a Rick and knew a few of their covers.

The band did a bunch of Yes covers and some original stuff, but I think the first song we played was "I've seen all good people". It was still the best back line ever. I showed up and plugged into a pair of SVT rigs with 8x10 cabs in stereo from the Rick....Jesus it was awesome! Of course as soon as the bass players arms weren't broken any more he got his gig and rig back......

In MY first band, we did 85% originals, but threw in some covers. I think our first tune was an original tune.

 

[jumbodbassman]

Got up to play at a block party in brooklyn at the age of 15 in summer of 1972. Jammed with a older few guys i never played with and we did Stormy Monday. Ouch !!!! I thought it was a straight 145 progression....

 

[tZer]

Very hard to recall, but I know when I was about 15 we played a friend's basement party and our list included:

"Day of the Eagle" Robin Trower
"Snortin' Whiskey" Pat Travers
"Celebration Day" Led Zeppelin
"The Song Remains The Same" Zep
"Killers" Maiden
"Ides of March and Wrathchild" Maiden
"Highway Star" Deep Purple
"The Fountain of Lamneth" Rush
"Anthem" Rush

Man... I can't recall all of the tunes, but hell... I'd be hard pressed to play some of those f'ers today! We were an ambitious bunch back in the day!

I remember that the bulk of our list was made up of Rush, Zeppelin and Iron Maiden, however.

 

[bluesdogblues]

My first professionally gig song is "Is It Love?" by Mr. Mister

I was just graduate from high school. Remembef how happy I was to receive the money...

 

[scottbass]

Wipeout. 1967.

 

[iriegnome]

This is a great and funny question. 1981 - Queen "We will Rock you"
No bass part in the record version, but I sang lead in it!!!

 

[Jeff 66]

Run Runaway by Slade.

Summer of 1985

I had switched from drums to bass a year earlier. The guys in the band were all teenagers and we played a fundraiser gig for the high school cheerleaders. We opened for an older, more seasoned band, but by all accounts, we won the crowd over by virtue of sheer enthusiasm and the naive excitement characteristic of a bunch of upstarts with stars in our eyes.

The gig was in the high school gym and there were, best I can recall, about 200 people present. It wasn't a dance or a party. It was billed as a concert and we played it with everything we had.

Other songs from the set included:

Crazy Train - Ozzy
Photograph - Def Leppard
Lick It Up - KISS
Flight of Icarus - Maiden
Summer of '69 - Bryan Adams
Looks that Kill - Motley Crue
Paranoid - Sabbath

I can't remember right now what our closing number was, but I do recall that the drummer's bass pedal fell apart during the song. We soldiered on.

 

[Hoover]

My first live performance was a fill in for a band playing at the Channel in Boston (long gone now). ...[snip]... It was still the best back line ever. I showed up and plugged into a pair of SVT rigs with 8x10 cabs in stereo from the Rick....Jesus it was awesome!

Totally OT, but:

I played the Channel dozens of times back in the day, and one of my favorite memories was the night that four bands were booked, and all four of us brought our own SVTs! The back of the stage looked like an Ampeg catalog! And then some quick-thinking bass player said "how about if we all share all four amps for our sets?"

Hugeosity.

 

[whisper14072]

Cream - Sunshine of your love

 

[zachoff]

Some classical piece in 4th grade orchestra. On bass it was Ball & Chain - Social Distortion.

 

[Fassa Albrecht]

On bass it was 'Come, Now Is The Time To Worship', a worship song. My first band was my church band. I remember not knowing what to do with a slashed chord on the sheet and playing a bum bar of notes.

 

[NoiseNinja]

One of the band I played in at the times original compositions, other wise I think it was the danish band Steppeulvenes "Dunhammeraften".

 

[the yeti]

YouTube - ‪Damn These Metal Arms‬‏

1st gig. 1st song

that's awesome!


i have no idea. it was a while ago... first time i played bass on a stage was high school jazz band so pink panther theme? barney miller theme? birdland? blaspheme alert: i didn't know who jaco was at the time.
sexophone was even longer ago... most memorable was a tune called "blaze of glory", or maybe "ebb tide".

 

[s_mcsleazy]

that's awesome!


i have no idea. it was a while ago... first time i played bass on a stage was high school jazz band so pink panther theme? barney miller theme? birdland? blaspheme alert: i didn't know who jaco was at the time.
sexophone was even longer ago... most memorable was a tune called "blaze of glory", or maybe "ebb tide".

thanks yeti.

 

[chaseman]

It was Dani California by the Chilis. It's become our signature song and we still play it at almost every gig