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Songs you refuse to learn...

#181
"Down on Main Street" by Bob Seger.

I'm okay with playing certain Seger songs but that particular tune grates on my nerves for some reason. I absolutely hate it and I won't play it. It's the only song that I've ever vetoed from my band's setlist.
 
#182
lfmn16 said:
4 minutes of mind-numbing, generic, paint-by-the-numbers, soul-sucking monotony.

I don't know how this got to be a crowd favorite. Fortunately someone else in every band I've been in has refused to play it. I'd play it, but boy it would be tough.
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I hear this - I really do - but we played it for the first time ( no, seriously) last Saturday. We added it, last minute, on a whim. We did a pretty good version. It killed. People danced, people sang along. Like, closed eyes, head tilted back, belting it out, sang along. They love that song. It brings them a feeling - what exactly that feeling is, I don’t know - not my job to know. But I helped them feel it. That’s my job. Plus, I got paid. Pretty well by cover band standards - 5 piece band, we each made $140 for a four hour set, after paying pro sound/light production. I got free pizza and Summer Hummers. ( gross, switched to Jack/coke). Who am I to judge? And if you play with it a bit - and just enjoy the moment, it’s not bad. It’s not about you. That’s the bottom line.

But there it is - isn’t it? If you are playing in a successful cover band, you - almost without fail - don’t love or even really like a good portion of the songs you are playing. So... why then are you playing? Money? Pffft - ok, on an hourly basis, you’d make more slinging burgers at McDonalds. Nope. If you enjoy what you do - it’s because you have fun bringing joy to others. For me, that’s kind of the bottom line. I get a huge charge out of helping create a fun evening for nameless strangers and dedicated regulars. I play songs they know and love. We try to take them on a journey. We all take something different away from it. We played Folsom Prison and had a couple come up from the back - they HAD to be in their 70’s - dance like crazy to that song. I mean, they were in their ELEMENT. It was beautiful. Others stayed off the floor, in order to let them have their moment. It was awesome - and I 1-5’ed my way into helping them with that moment. That’s priceless. So MANY musicians feel they are better than ‘the masses’ because they appreciate a more complicated chord progression, or a solo in the Lydian mode. Not me. I enjoy seeing people having fun. So in coming back around to the OP ( again lol) - the only song I will refuse to play is the one that I know is only for me, and not for the other people in whatever venue I happen to be in.

Sorry for the rant....
 
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#183
richntiff said:
I hear this - I really do - but we played it for the first time ( no, seriously) last Saturday. We added it, last minute, on a whim. We did a pretty good version. It killed. People danced, people sang along. Like, closed eyes, head tilted back, belting it out, sang along. They love that song. It brings them a feeling - what exactly that feeling is, I don’t know - not my job to know. But I helped them feel it. That’s my job. Plus, I got paid. Pretty well by cover band standards - 5 piece band, we each made $140 for a four hour set, after paying pro sound/light production. I got free pizza and Summer Hummers. ( gross, switched to Jack/coke). Who am I to judge? And if you play with it a bit - and just enjoy the moment, it’s not bad. It’s not about you. That’s the bottom line.

But there it is - isn’t it? If you are playing in a successful cover band, you - almost without fail - don’t love or even really like a good portion of the songs you are playing. So... why then are you playing? Money? Pffft - ok, on an hourly basis, you’d make more slinging burgers at McDonalds. Nope. If you enjoy what you do - it’s because you have fun bringing joy to others. For me, that’s kind of the bottom line. I get a huge charge out of helping create a fun evening for nameless strangers and dedicated regulars. I play songs they know and love. We try to take them on a journey. We all take something different away from it. We played Folsom Prison and had a couple come up from the back - they HAD to be in their 70’s - dance like crazy to that song. I mean, they were in their ELEMENT. It was beautiful. Others stayed off the floor, in order to let them have their moment. It was awesome - and I 1-5’ed my way into helping them with that moment. That’s priceless. So MANY musicians feel they are better than ‘the masses’ because they appreciate a more complicated chord progression, or a solo in the Lydian mode. Not me. I enjoy seeing people having fun. So in coming back around to the OP ( again lol) - the only song I will refuse to play is the one that I know is only for me, and not for the other people in whatever venue I happen to be in.

Sorry for the rant....
Click to expand...
The only time I would refuse to do a song is if we play it poorly, it's inappropriate to our genre, or it's outside what I agreed to play when I joined the band. I once joined a band and before I joined we had the "what are we going to play" talk. I said I was only interested in playing popular tunes that the audience knew and loved. The drummer kept wanting to play all these obscure tunes that nobody every heard of because they were "cool." Every time I refused and just said, "That's not what I agreed to when I joined the band."

That's why I keep harping on having these discussions BEFORE you accept a position with a band. If we hadn't had that discussion I wouldn't have had a leg to stand on for refusing to play those awful choices.

As for Wagon Wheel, we'll have to disagree on that. I can't even listen to more than 30 seconds of that tune. If it's ever called I'll just play it with a smile on my face.
 
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#184
hbarcat said:
"Down on Main Street" by Bob Seger.

I'm okay with playing certain Seger songs but that particular tune grates on my nerves for some reason. I absolutely hate it and I won't play it. It's the only song that I've ever vetoed from my band's setlist.
Click to expand...
The thing I don't like about Seger is that his songs are so monotonous. Seems like the same three chords all the way through and little difference between verse and chorus. Fortunately I've rarely played with anyone that could sing them well enough to play out. We did play Old Time Rock and Roll once. One of the most boring songs in the world but somehow I liked it.
 
#188
No one has mentioned "Don't Stop Believing" or any Journey song yet? "Lights" and "Lovin Touchin Squeezin" are OK (LTS is easy for a new bassist), I guess, but Journey in general? Ugh... I've had to learn DSB at least 5 times and always forget it because I hate it, then I have to relearn it, then we never do it! All that said, If it's on the list and I'm subbing I will play it regardless of my feelings towards a song. These days, though, I'm more inclined to say no to a gig than play poopy (IMO) songs. I have moved to the "life is too short to play poopy music" camp. But who knows what will happen in the future? I don't.
 
#193
I learned a long time ago that the music I can enjoy playing and the music I can enjoy listening to are not overlapping groups on the Venn diagram. I can play most anything and have fun with it, if the other musicians are playing well. So the stuff I refuse to play would be the stuff the band chokes on, or otherwise consistently screws up. And the interesting thing about that is that once I say I'm not doing a song for that reason, whoever is having trouble with it usually takes it up as a challenge to work hard and get it back on our list.

But, there are a multitude of bands I wouldn't join because they're rehashing the same low hanging fruit as everyone else. At this stage in my life, I at least want song choices that are somewhat interesting to me as a player.
 
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#196
richntiff said:
I hear this - I really do - but we played it for the first time ( no, seriously) last Saturday. We added it, last minute, on a whim. We did a pretty good version. It killed. People danced, people sang along. Like, closed eyes, head tilted back, belting it out, sang along. They love that song. It brings them a feeling - what exactly that feeling is, I don’t know - not my job to know. But I helped them feel it. That’s my job. Plus, I got paid. Pretty well by cover band standards - 5 piece band, we each made $140 for a four hour set, after paying pro sound/light production. I got free pizza and Summer Hummers. ( gross, switched to Jack/coke). Who am I to judge? And if you play with it a bit - and just enjoy the moment, it’s not bad. It’s not about you. That’s the bottom line.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's the job, have fun with it or don't do it is definitely the bottom line. :thumbsup:
 
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