Should you play Mustang Sally?

I only play Mustang for two reasons:

1. Big tips.

2.Something very close to #1.

 

Haha that's great. I HAVE to play it at a wedding Friday...

 

It should have been called Mustang Mama which was the original title.

 

I've been in bands where Mustang Sally is a better song than every single one of the 12 "original" songs written by some hack song writer with delusions of grandeur...

 

HA! I'm going to have to copy and print this for my band!

 

Funny graphic.
but the short answer for our band is

No.

In fact, our B3 player has this sticker on the side of his Leslie ...

 

From "The Do's & Don'ts for Band Performance, songs to avoid"

Playing these songs in these type bands will get you fired, banned or beat up:

*Rock n Rock: Tush
*Southern Rock: Free Bird
*Progressive Rock: Stairway to Heaven
*Jam Rock: Layla
*Metal: Enter Sandman
*Jazz: Moondance
*R&B/Soul: Mustang Sally

And, never, ever play "Jumping Jack Flash". Nobody has ever once played this song decently and many highly skilled musicians have tried. Everybody from Tina Turner to Peter Frampton have attempted it with less than stellar results. Even the Stones themselves fumble with it live. It's just one of those studio songs that doesn't translate to live. Do yourself and the audience a favor, leave it off the set list.

 

Hmmm. I thought that there's fine print somewhere that states you have to play that song, as well as several others, if you actually buy a B3.

 

This thread is a real coincidence. I just turned down an offer to play bass in a “blues” band because they play the same old, worn-out, beat-to-death songs that I played as a teenager in the late 70’s, early 80’s:

Mustang Sally
Play That Funky Music
Tush
Long Train Running
.
.
.

I know -- a gig’s a gig. But I promised myself that I’d never play these songs again as a part of a regular set list.

 

Very good. The more of us stopping this nonsense, the sooner we get rid of those tiring songs.

 

Mmmmm, my band has to play Jumping Jack Flash at my next gig this coming Saturday. The person who is throwing the event (and paying us) requested it. We rehearsed it for the first time yesterday and it sounded ok but not nearly as good as our best songs.

 

Exactly. If you have to ask this question, you are in a cover band. You are NOT making art; you are entertainment. Get over it and play the song. I've done it in a few bands, I have fun with it. Better to play a song that people dance to than a song everyone ignores. I played it as a cross between the original and "Born Under A Bad Sign", and that worked pretty well.

 

We only play it when it is requested. Which is every time we play. Ugh...

 

This man gets it.

We don't put it in set lists, but we play it when requested. And guess what........it's requested almost every gig. You guys can stand on your principles; I'll play what the audience wants to hear.

 

One of the busier wedding bands I work with does Mustang Sally pretty much every wedding and without fail the crowd loves it. So, couple that with the $300-$500 I get for those gigs and I wouldn't care if we did an entire set of Mustang Sally.

We could do a calypso version, then a metal version, then a smooth jazz version, then house, then a bluegrass version with an "I am a man of constant sorrow" break, move into disco and then finish with the original Pickett vibe. That would kill basically an entire set.

And food for thought... if you hate a song and play it like you hate it, it'll probably suck. Guess who's to blame?


I try to have fun with whatever I'm playing (I figured out a loooong time ago the gig isn't about me and what I like) and crowds usually pick up on that.

YMMV

 

Most of the joints I play in have a "No Mustang Sally" rule. But I will not play "Stairway to Freebird" under any condition. I'll leave that to the experts.

 

We play it at every gig. Always packs the dance floor. But we are off the hook since the flowchart says to play it

 

Why do you play? Are you into it for Art, or are you into giving people what they want? I can and do go either way. If the money is right, I'll play Mustang Sally and convince the crowd I really mean it. I figured out a long time ago what kind of girl I was.

On the other hand, I play with a band that doesn't make enough to keep a gerbil alive, but we get up in front of audiences in the Carolinas and tell them we ain't gonna play music by any bands whose names start with "L" which means no Led Zeppelin and no Lynyrd Skynyrd. Later in the evening we tell them we lied and play some Little Feat. You have to take your amusements where you find them, you know?