Fair point. Every generation has stuff that means more to them because it’s a time and a place not just a song. I’m sure I like stuff that you’d find detestable. I agree with you that werewolves of London is way worse haha.
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Freebird, and other cliche covers
- Thread starter Joe Nerve
- Start date
Oh and.... if I had a nickle for every time I played Freebird at a gig during the 70's and 80's, I would surely be very wealthy (but had just as much fun playing "Green Grass and High Tides)"!
warning: this requires gonads that scrape the floor. Next time someone requests Freebird, even if you've just started a song or are in the middle, you immediately stop, start playing the opening, have the singer make sure he's serious, then play the song so shaging hard everyone's eyes, ears, and noses bleed. Instant set finisher no encore needed.
If you're lucky they're pre-drunk and shout it early in the set you get full pay for a half day.
If you're lucky they're pre-drunk and shout it early in the set you get full pay for a half day.
Yep, unfortunately a lot of crowds would rather hear a really terrible version of Gimmie Three Steps than a flawless version of In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.
My last cover band always made a medley the focus of our shows. We would work very hard on putting together a killer 20 minute medley with a specific theme, usually as a closer for the 2nd set.
Our best one was a medley of "cliche songs" that started with Free Bird and included Mustang Sally, Hey Joe, Smoke on the Water, Brown Eyed Girl, Stairway to Heaven and others. We would usually play a quick intro of the main riff and then a verse plus a chorus and then segue into the next song. This was a win-win for everyone. We got to give the audience a whole pile of the cliche songs they wanted to hear and we got to compress it down to a single 20 minute "mega-song".
The only medley we did that was more popular was a Black Sabbath medley. A brief visit to eight or ten of the most iconic Black Sabbath songs smushed together into one 15 minute spot. Crowd pleaser.
Our best one was a medley of "cliche songs" that started with Free Bird and included Mustang Sally, Hey Joe, Smoke on the Water, Brown Eyed Girl, Stairway to Heaven and others. We would usually play a quick intro of the main riff and then a verse plus a chorus and then segue into the next song. This was a win-win for everyone. We got to give the audience a whole pile of the cliche songs they wanted to hear and we got to compress it down to a single 20 minute "mega-song".
The only medley we did that was more popular was a Black Sabbath medley. A brief visit to eight or ten of the most iconic Black Sabbath songs smushed together into one 15 minute spot. Crowd pleaser.
FFIW, my wife teaches HS and Stairway to Heaven was played by a student in one of her classes. None of the other students knew or had heard of the song.
I think we have moved well beyond the period in which these songs would be considered cliche to the point where the songs are not even known or remembered.
Granted this may not be the case for Guitar Center employees.
I think we have moved well beyond the period in which these songs would be considered cliche to the point where the songs are not even known or remembered.
Granted this may not be the case for Guitar Center employees.
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In college, my band covered Starship Trooper by Yes. In the ending section (Wurm) the chord progression for the guitar solo is the same chords as the guitar jam in Freebird. We would start the Yes guitar jam, then do a double time segue into the Freebird guitar jam, then segue back into the Yes jam to finish off. Loved it!!!
I've had this discussion/argument many times over the years playing covers. I try to tell the others in the band that you're not getting paid to play what YOU want, you're getting payed to play what THEY want to hear. That's at least part of the reason why, in my current band, when someone yells for Mustang Sally or Roadhouse Blues I'm told: you sing it...which I do with no problem. Now, all that being said, I am so sick of hearing Freebird that I refuse to even try to learn it. Does this make me a hypocrite? Yeah, I guess it does. But it's just that one song...
Here's one that hasn't been mentioned. In 1993 I helped organise a pretty big gig in the city's park with unsigned local bands. One of the bands broke up and reformed a few days prior to the day and were going to play covers. I was shifting stage material out of the park onto transport when I heard their opening number's opening chords... and a crowd rumble. When the two quintessential lead guitar notes of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" rang out, I heard the sound of a few thousand simultaneous "UUuuugh!"s. I kept carrying that piece of stage and didn't look back; so glad I wasn't starting a set to that reaction.
So a friend of mine played in a band in Maine a fewbyears ago and they got annoyed at people jokingly yelling "FREEBIRD!!" randomly, so they began a policy of playing all ten minutes of it every time someone yelled it. Nobody liked or wanted to play the song, but he said it did feel really good when they nailed it.
I remember back in the '80s (at least, round here), bands would shy away from "Satisfaction" because it was overplayed. The upshot was that after some years of it not getting played for said reason, I suggested it for a new band start-up, based on the fact that no one plays it anymore. It never fails to get people on the floor. What goes around comes around, I guess.
Regarding this whole thread; I've said it before and I'll say it again. This is a conversation only being had by musicians.
Done all of the above in past bands. Not currently covering any of the above. Freebird and Believing need piano to sound right. All are huge crowd pleasers but considered gauche and played out by the cover band snobs.
Came here to say Brown Eyed Squirrel and would also like to add:
Sweet Caroline
Wagon Wheel (ffs)
Slow Ride
Boys Are Back In Town
Sweet Home Alabama (weirdly popular where I am in Canada)
Take It Easy
Here For A Good Time (by a 70s Canadian band named Trooper)
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As a musician and a listener my only objection to hearing any of the cliche covers is not hearing them done per se, it’s hearing them done poorly. I have NEVER heard any local band do a truly good rendition of Sweet Home Alabama, for example. The same applies to many other tunes on the cliche cover list.
I've never understood how doing/copying a tune just like the record is something that's great to achive. ... Is it just me? ... It's like driving across the country and watching your GPS map but, never looking out the window. ... I'd rather hear Bill Murray do a schmaltzy-lounge version of Free Bird.
Those songs also are a case of snooty musicians who won’t play the songs because they’re “tired” of them - in complete disregard of the audience members who will definitely dance and sing along to them.
To me, a show is more about what the AUDIENCE will like, as opposed to the band’s attitude towards a particular song. I know, for my part, that I’d MUCH rather hear the thousandth version of “Brown Eyed Girl” than ANY version of, say “Plush” or “Exes and Ohs”.
At band auditions, I’ve asked, point blank, “Are there any songs you guys WON’T play?” If anyone mentions “Brown Eyed Girl” or “Mustang Sally”, I politely say “thank you”, pack up my stuff and leave.
Pride and Joy is getting there imo. We use it to start the show. I like SRV, but he has a lot more better songs then this cover song, but the people love it, always received well by the crowd, so we'll keep pumping it out. Because it isn't about what I like it is what keeps the paying customers in the club
