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Play Wagon Wheel (or Freebird)!

#23
two fingers said:
I could be way off, but I think it was just a joke and not meant to start a moral question/battle over the finer point of deciding whether or not to play the first few pages of the bar band hymnal every show.

Sometimes a joke is just a joke.
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Yet folks will still have responses to viewpoints that weren't even posited in the OP. Go figure. OP didn't state that they wouldn't play POS song because it's a POS song, OP just had a fun joke about the type of people that like to request said POS song. But let's each get on our high horse and talk about "performance" vs "art" and why one viewpoint is superior to the other. Do it. Do it.
 
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#25
I'll play Freebird, I'll play Wagon Wheel (actually prefer the original Old Crow Medicine Show version), I'll play Mustang Sally, hell I'll play w/myself if that's what the audience wants. I'm a cover band bassist & enjoy being one so I want the crowd to have a great time. If they do I do. I mean c'mon when the crowd is into it & the band is clicking there is nothing that can top it (except sex).
 
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#26
two fingers said:
I could be way off, but I think it was just a joke and not meant to start a moral question/battle over the finer point of deciding whether or not to play the first few pages of the bar band hymnal every show.

Sometimes a joke is just a joke.
Click to expand...

Yes, it is a joke. And the joke is not about cover bands, it's about the type of person who goes to see cover bands and requests generic songs. It wasn't meant to rile the feathers of those who enjoy playing in cover bands.

I had never even heard the song Wagon Wheel until I joined Talkbass. So thanks Talkbass for that, I guess.
 
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#27
When I did a solo acoustic show in Key West, every day someone asked for Margaritaville. I always said "If you know how the song starts, I'll sing it."

Invariably, they start singing "Wasted away again...".

I say "No, that's the chorus. Here's a Buffet song I will play" and do He Went to Paris.

When people want Freebird, I always start with the first line, and walk off the stage.
 
#30
We have one venue where the owner insists on getting up on stage with us and playing Wagon Wheel. My BL goes and gets a drink and sits it out. It was a very good test for me in listening and anticipating chord changes the first time we did it as I'd not heard it previously. Third time we played there, I was singing harmonies right along with him. My BL still refuses to add it to our standard set list. I think it's fun to get people out of their seats.

Now Freebird, on the other hand, is NOT on our setlist either but it doesn't stop our BL from launching into it if someone asks...and then proceed to solo in the wrong key for large portions of the song. I've told him the next time he does it, I'm out. Not because I don't want to play it, but because I don't want to play it all poopie like.
 
#31
We play Freebird and incorporate it as a closer every so often.
We re-engineered our version to be a reggae front half, and then breaking into to the rock-jam second half. With a reggae vibe, people can get up and dance to it. It goes over very well. We've dubbed it "Ire' Bird". Ya Mon.
 

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