Jimi's Fire is a great dance song. Not a Top 40 song, but the drums will get people dancing.
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Is anyone playing current Top 40?
- Thread starter 51PRI
- Start date
Jimi's Fire is a great dance song. Not a Top 40 song, but the drums will get people dancing.
No, but I keep trying. I have resigned to the realization that it’s a hopeless endeavor. As I am the youngest at 51 in the band aside from an occasional appearance by a 28 year old vocalist when she feels like it, these guys are not open to working on newer material.
Kinda sux, really.
I'm not sure if you mean that what I posted as part 2 isn't accurately part 2, or what? This is what bands around here are commonly calling part 2 and that's what the guitarist learned and plays under the name part 2. That's about all I know, but if you ask the blues guys around here to play part 2 all of that stuff in the video I posted is what they will play
Yeah. They’re wrong. Look at the 45 in that video. Part 1 is the first few verses. Part 2 is the last verse. It’s not really argue-able.
Hendrix track you posted is, as others have pointed out, listed as Part 1 on the album Hendrix covered it on. Electric Ladyland - The Official Jimi Hendrix Site
https://www.jimihendrix.com/electric-ladyland-50/
Which is technically incorrect as he plays the entire song, which would technically be parts 1 and 2.
It’s not two separate songs. It’s a single song that was split across two sides of a 45 when it was released. But based on that 45, part 2 starts at about 2:10 in the Hendrix cover.
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Not us
We play 1930? thru some current stuff ,but not 2021 top 40. Most of the new stuff is country tunes
We play 1930? thru some current stuff ,but not 2021 top 40. Most of the new stuff is country tunes
I wish !! I was invited to play with a few local bands and they sent me the set lists ; NOTHING has changed. It's STILL ZZ Top, Mustang Sally, etc. SOOOooo boring !!! I told both of them NO I'm not interested.
I have a pad of paper that I add songs to when I hear them or think of them for future set lists of songs I like, but none are contemporary 2021. I have no idea what's on the radio these days. Well, you know what I mean. There is no radio anymore for new stuff, as far as I know. My brother works on the morning show in Los Angeles and it's still 90's classics.
We decided to have a s dedicated set of “Top 40s” tracks. We disperse them across our three sets, if we’re covering a whole night. If we’re on a bill and have a single set, we stick to these newer songs in one set. Here’s what we’ve put together:
The Business- Tiesto
New Light- John Mayer
Beggin- Maneskin
Forget All About You- Foster The People
Leave the Door Open- Silk Sonic
American Boy- Estelle and Kanye
Astronaut in the Ocean- Masked Wolf
Montero- Lil Nas X
Peaches- Bieber
Dance Monkey- tones and I
Shame- Foo Fighters
Levitating- Dua Lipa
The Business- Tiesto
New Light- John Mayer
Beggin- Maneskin
Forget All About You- Foster The People
Leave the Door Open- Silk Sonic
American Boy- Estelle and Kanye
Astronaut in the Ocean- Masked Wolf
Montero- Lil Nas X
Peaches- Bieber
Dance Monkey- tones and I
Shame- Foo Fighters
Levitating- Dua Lipa
Not to derail the thread, but since the debacle brought by the Internet, I truly felt that the “top 40” (as in what the mainstream media decided should be what people should consume) was gone….
I am amazed to the idea that there still could be such an idea as “top anything” around…
I am amazed to the idea that there still could be such an idea as “top anything” around…
The songwriting is just so dreadful these days and I'm 35 I'm not being a boomer whining that not every band is Led Zepplin. I just mean by the most general definition. Vaguely interesting chord changes. A crafted melody that isn't just step-wise random notes that fall out of the singer's head over a loop of chords. There is brilliant stuff still being made. Jacob Collier, Thundercat, Louis Cole, Kero Kero Bonito, Haitus Koyote, Punch Brothers, etc. But none of it is top 40. To think I was COMPLAINING when "Still the one" by shania twain was on the radio. In terms of sheer craft, that song is brilliant, and it was like...common to have professionally written songs on the radio all the time. Beautiful Stranger, This Kiss, even Oops I did it again, Take a Bow, GREAT songs. At the time I was like "if it's not Nirvana it's not REAL music." I did not know how frikin GOOD I had it!
When I say there is nothing like that anymore, I don't mean stylistically. I mean literally young kids coming up as singer songwriters simply don't know how to WRITE A TUNE. it's a SKILL. Our current cultural values dictate that whatever music just FALLS out of you with zero knowledge of the craft of musical composition is just as good as it can possibly be. To even SUGGEST you can get better at writing songs and understanding melody is like a weird cultural taboo.
Sorry a bit of a tangent. I might as well file envelopes for a living than play bass for top 40 songs. SOOOOO boring my GOD.
When I say there is nothing like that anymore, I don't mean stylistically. I mean literally young kids coming up as singer songwriters simply don't know how to WRITE A TUNE. it's a SKILL. Our current cultural values dictate that whatever music just FALLS out of you with zero knowledge of the craft of musical composition is just as good as it can possibly be. To even SUGGEST you can get better at writing songs and understanding melody is like a weird cultural taboo.
Sorry a bit of a tangent. I might as well file envelopes for a living than play bass for top 40 songs. SOOOOO boring my GOD.
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Kind of a self fulfilling prophecy. Why would people who like current hits ever come to a club that hires bands that play 50 year old crap? So the people that like your oldies show up so of course they're gonna like the old stuff you're playing.
"all these people at the car show sure are into cars"
"all these people at the car show sure are into cars"
My band (which hasn't played for over a year now...) does play a few current hits, but we do it in a guitar hard rock style (female singer). We haven't had much gig time since we reformed just before the pandemic, but I like the direction. Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo, Adele, Lady Gaga, and a few others.
We played a Machine Gun Kelly song last gig and the guys in my band were convinced it would go over great but I didn't see any big reaction.
I think it's really odd that so many people wear their ignorance of popular music as a badge of honor. You're not cool for not knowing current music. There's good music everywhere if you're not so close minded. Dua Lipa has come up a bunch in this thread, and rightly so, she's incredible. Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak have had awesome hits of their own and then they collaborated on Silk Sonic and both their releases so far have been nothing short of masterful. Olivia Rodrigo had a big hit recently that recalled Paramore's pop punk roots and it's a fun song. Billie Eilish is about as close to grunge as you're going to get on the Top 40 and she's turning out new music this year. The Weeknd has been dialing in the 80's synthpop thing and I really dig it too. Honestly, the "Top 40" right now is pretty varied right now. Yes, there's always going to be music there that you don't like, but there's also plenty to love as well.
But dude, musician to musician, there is a difference between how something *sounds,* how it's *performed* and how it's *written.* My contention is the WRITING is generally much much weaker these days. Modern music SOUNDS better than it ever has from an audio production standpoint. Modern music is often PERFORMED like dynamite. A lot goes into what makes a modern musical act enjoyable and entertaining. Singing, mojo, dancing, amazing production. But when it comes down to it, Billy Eilish could never and WILL never write Lithium, All Apologies. The excellence of the writing in those songs has nothing to do with the fact that it's old. The brass tacks, notes on the page CRAFT of those two songs are like, great american songbook level in terms of sheer melodic durability, inventiveness, and novelty. I LIKE Billie Eilish, but if you strip away all the amazing mood, the way she sells it, her brother's awesome production, you're left with mediocrity when it comes to the SONGS at their core.
Bruno mars writes like poopie. "Uptown Funk" is a decent song but he didn't write it. "Dancing with another man" is pathetically amateur songwriting and you KNOW it. I don't know what's worse. Scolding other older musicians for not liking modern stuff or PRETENDING there isn't something true to what guys like me are saying.
I'm trying to give a fair and balanced assessment of the modern musical landscape. Modern chart pop is undeniably "well-made" as a product. Easy to listen to, easy to dance to, but I hate when people say "it's a guilty pleasure but it's catchy!" Most modern chart songs are NOT catchy. I WISH they were catchy. Catchy songs are songs you can remember after one or two listens. Almost all singer songwriters today play a loop of four chords and just "sing stuff" over the top. The "melodies" all sound the same and sort of borrow chunks of other songs or restate other songs the artist already wrote because nobody is passing around the actual knowledge about what it takes to develop a strong tune. While some people have the magic and "understand melody" innately, learning to write fine melodies in and of itself is not mysterious. it's a skill. Young modern writers don't have the skill because they don't have the USE for it. Culture is getting along just fine without "good songs" as we've known them for most of recorded history. For most of the world, nobody cares. For SONG lovers, there is VERY little to really fall in love with these days.
But I am NOT being snobbish or obtuse about new music. Listen to 2016's "Life" by KNOWER. A masterpiece from start to finish. It's out there, but it's not what the modern average listener consumes. I used to be mad about it, now I'm just kind of wistful and sad but I am sick of the modern pop apologism. Bruno Mars will never write on the level of Rod Temperton, a professional writer who wrote Pretty Young Thing. Pretty Young Thing doesn't fall out of a talented young person's head. It's the work of a master craftsman. There is a BIG difference and I'm sick of people denying it.
