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Hugh McDonald and Screwing Up on Stage
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
We played on Sunday night and I beat myself up over some clams. Listening back to the set, they weren't that bad. In fact, if I have a super power, it's that I just keep going and don't draw attention to them. Just keep going. Nobody will know.
Well, I misread the thread title as "Huge McDonald's and Throwing Up on Stage", so I guess it's better than that happening.
If you ride a bike you're gonna fall off that bike. If you play an instrument you're gonna hit a clam.
My biggest challenge is not beating myself up over it.
My biggest challenge is not beating myself up over it.
You remember because you’re being paid to remember! Hugh’s obviously trying to be self deprecating. Besides, this wasn’t a memory problem…it was a brain fart.
I have had a brain fart in the middle of a song that I could play in my sleep, played hundreds of times. Just all the sudden couldn't remember where I was in the song and what to play next. No reason for it at all, it just happened. No explanation other than our brains are very quirky and weird devices.
Is Buddy Rich why we still say "clams"? It goes back to the days when bands were mostly horns--you'd form your embouchure for the first note and Spat! a clam would come out. This works for brass and reeds, sometimes a reed would not vibrate or get backed up if you used too much wind and brass players never know what will happen when lips, just human flesh is the source for the vibration (horns especially the bell are acoustic amplifiers).
It certainly predates Buddy, but I believe his well known bus rant kept it in the general musician vernacular well into the era of the guitar and keyboards. It probably started as hipster speak in one city, maybe invented by Lester Young.
I suppose a "wrong" note can be said to sound like a clam, but, why? it's so less...biological. "I'm clamming all over the place" = a bad night on the road in the 50s..
was covered on talkbass 2010 Music Jargon: why are bad notes "Clams"?
NPR 2014--
Rich was recorded secretly on his tour bus in the early 1980s by his pianist Lee Musiker.
BUDDY RICH: Look, I'm trying to play. What do you play - clams? You guys know where the [bleep] next set goes. If I hear one [bleep] clam from anybody, you've had it. One clam and this whole [bleep] band is through - tonight. Try me.
Clams also used to mean dollars, but you don't hear that one except in 30/40s movies. Pitching a clam: Apparently also means a joke that doesn't work in a comedy writing team.
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I never took it to mean a wrong note : those were always referred to as "bum notes".
I just always took it to mean mistakes in general - such as completely flubbing a fill, or loosing the beat etc.
Instead of playing a passage fluidly, with dexterity; you're spasmodically latching onto the instrument like you've got clams for hands.
I don't know where I read it on TB but if the clam or bum note is not too bad, repeat it when it comes around to that part again then it'll seem like it's intentionally part of the riff. Only you and maybe the band will know. Most people don't care or know. I once play a song that started on the 4 for one bar as the intro yet I played intro on the 1. About 6 weeks and probably 18 gigs later, the guitarist mentioned the fact to me. I had no idea as it sounded fine playing the root note. I relisten to the original song and sure as hell, he was right. So, with one bar being four beats that's 4 clams x 18. Live and learn.
If you ride a bike on a beach, you may hit a clam as well!
Thank you very much folks, I'm here 'til Tuesday...wait, today is Tuesday.
Back OT, yeah how you respond in the moment is crucial!
It’s always nice to know that even the big boys screw up…they should shoot the soundman for the in ear mix.
I’m sure many of you have walked off a stage thinking about all the mistakes you just made but people come up and rave about your playing. When it’s bandmates I wonder if they are deaf
I’m sure many of you have walked off a stage thinking about all the mistakes you just made but people come up and rave about your playing. When it’s bandmates I wonder if they are deaf
I played w/ a drummer that did a world tour w/ David Bowie when he used Adrian Belew's band. I asked if he ever screwed up live and he said once when having to time an intro w/ a click & the start of a video it all went wrong. He said David looked back & just smiled. He also said David, on rare occasion, would mess up lyrics and once stopped the song and said "so much for that, let's move on", typical taking it all in stride.
