Songs you hate playing - but audience wants

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 2 Jan 2009 8:11 pm

I intrinsically like some of songs on my list, but I've played them soooooo many times that I'm sick of them. Yup, I'll play them if required, but prefer to do something more interesting.

Wang Dang Doodle (1-chord blues that goes on interminably. There are no doubt others like this.)
Runaway
Wipe Out (Thankfully, I don't know a drummer who will tolerate playing it)
Brown Eyed Girl (I've played a modal minor Transylvanian version if pushed hard)
Ring of Fire (my rockabilly band had to play this several times a night or face retribution)
Folsom Prison Blues
Secret Agent Man
Me & Bobby McGee (unless we can heavily rearrange it so we don't sound like we're trying to be Janis)
Freebird
Sweet Home Alabama
Stormy Monday (unless they're willing to do it a la T-Bone)
Red House
Roadhouse Blues
Proud Mary

I'm sure there are others, and I don't think it would require hypnosis to bring them to the fore.

I never complain about an honest-to-God stone-cold classic country tune, primarily because I don't get to play them in a large university town anywhere near often enough. Especially any Hank Williams song. I love to play "Your Cheatin' Heart".

Skeeter Stultz · Post by **Skeeter Stultz** » 2 Jan 2009 8:56 pm

SNOWBIRD

Glen Derksen · Post by **Glen Derksen** » 2 Jan 2009 9:10 pm

Dave Mudgett wrote:I intrinsically like some of songs on my list, but I've played them soooooo many times that I'm sick of them. Yup, I'll play them if required, but prefer to do something more interesting.

Wang Dang Doodle (1-chord blues that goes on interminably. There are no doubt others like this.)
Runaway
Wipe Out (Thankfully, I don't know a drummer who will tolerate playing it)
Brown Eyed Girl (I've played a modal minor Transylvanian version if pushed hard)
Ring of Fire (my rockabilly band had to play this several times a night or face retribution)

Folsom Prison Blues
Secret Agent Man
Me & Bobby McGee (unless we can heavily rearrange it so we don't sound like we're trying to be Janis)
Freebird
Sweet Home Alabama
Stormy Monday (unless they're willing to do it a la T-Bone)
Red House
Roadhouse Blues
Proud Mary

I'm sure there are others, and I don't think it would require hypnosis to bring them to the fore.

I never complain about an honest-to-God stone-cold classic country tune, primarily because I don't get to play them in a large university town anywhere near often enough. Especially any Hank Williams song. I love to play "Your Cheatin' Heart".

Huh?? Dave, you don't like Secret Agent Man? We do that one in my band, and there's something about twanging that one on my Jazzmaster, complete with the vibrato dips that sounds most cool!

Glen Derksen · Post by **Glen Derksen** » 2 Jan 2009 9:15 pm

This here is my Jazzmaster...a restored '65

[/img]

Charles Dempsey · Post by **Charles Dempsey** » 2 Jan 2009 10:01 pm

John Billings wrote:... some drunken girl kept screamin, "Freebird."

I saw Stony LaRue do "Free Bird" at the Red Dirt Roundup in Nacogdoches last summer. He whistled like a bird! It was pretty cool

.

Songs I can't stand to play: Proud Mary (the 32 bar D chord gets to me!), and anything by Bob Schneider or Wilco.

Charlie

Tracy Sheehan · Post by **Tracy Sheehan** » 2 Jan 2009 10:56 pm

I don't recall if i ever told this or not but it is true.I was playing in a club over 30 years ago and the band i was with played about any style.This was one of the few bands i would double on fiddle with.I also used a fuzz tone on the steel for some of the rock we did.

.
Any how some people kept requesting Green Onoins and i would do it on steel with the fuzz.We kept getting request after request for it and any one who has ever heard it knows it sucks.
We were all sick of it so i took out my fiddle,pluged it in to the fuzz and turned the voulme way up for those days and adjusted the fuzz to its highest distortion.Now ya'll a'int gonna believe this but it was worse than any thing you hear today.Lordy it sounded horrible which was my intent.I thought they would never request it again.
When i finished it the crowd burst out applauding ,yelling and asked me to play it again.We coulden't believe it.The only mistake i made was not quitting music back then.

Brint Hannay · Post by **Brint Hannay** » 2 Jan 2009 11:06 pm

I've been lucky--almost every band I've been in has had the same philosophy and tastes that I have. The philosophy is: play what they want unless we really, really hate it, and would feel defiled by playing it. If we just really dislike it, but can stand it if we absolutely have to, just try to substitute something tolerable and similar in some way to distract them, and hope they forget about the request. If not, grin and bear it.

The band I was in at the time Achy Breaky Heart was a hit was working the "country dance" circuit, and tried to leave it to the DJ to play the record while we were on break, but if we couldn't get out of playing it (which rarely happened) we substituted lyrics that rhymed with the original words, but made reference to flatulence (just try it with the line "Don't tell my heart" and you'll get the picture). Sometimes no one noticed; one club's management got majorly offended, but here's where having the same philosophy came in handy: none of us cared that we lost that gig from the schedule--it was worth it!

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 2 Jan 2009 11:59 pm

Huh?? Dave, you don't like Secret Agent Man?

I liked it the first several hundred times I played it. But it turned into one of the "nightly drunks' request" type tunes, and I got pretty bloody sick of having to do it all the time. That's the story on a lot of those tunes. These were either blues, rockabilly/early-rock-n-roll, or surf-punk-instrumental types of bands, and there are, to my tastes, more interesting and less beat-to-death twang-rock tunes than anything on that list, to my tastes. Stuff by Dick Dale, The Ventures, Lively Ones, Shadows, Link Wray, Bel Airs or other Paul Johnson tunes, or more modern stuff like Los Straitjackets, Man or Astro-Man, The Mermen, Teisco Del Rey (Dan Forte), Webb Wilder, or stuff we'd write ourselves.

Truthfully, I don't get asked to play that stuff hardly at all with the people I'm playing with for the last several years. One is a mostly original Americana unit, the other is a band that mixes pre-bluegrass old-time music with pure country honkytonk from the 50s and early 60s. And it's been long enough since I had to play Ring of Fire 12 times a week that I might even be able to get back into more Johnny Cash tunes again. One of the singers even doubles on trumpet so the "da da da, da da, dah dah dah" intro figures sounds right. But it gets so beaten to death on the punka-rockabilly and alt-rock scene that I was totally sick of it.

Pat Comeau · Post by **Pat Comeau** » 3 Jan 2009 12:11 am

Don't get me wrong!...I'd rather play somes Jones, Strait or Alan Jackson stuff...but like some said in this post it's all about pleasing the audiance in bars, when i do big gigs like 1 hour shows i only do my own original stuff but in the winter time when it's back to the bars and dance halls i do alot of different style from Hank Sr to Led Zepline cause i have to make a living, i to do alot of songs i don't really care for but i do it anyway and that helps me to keep in shape by doing all kinda of style.

Take the old fella advice= Ernest Cawby

0When I was a teen ager a man told me if you play what you like you will have a small crowd, if you play what the people like you will be successful as a player. I think that was good advice, you mite like to try it out.

Glen Derksen · Post by **Glen Derksen** » 3 Jan 2009 12:19 am

I can endure most tired out old stuff as long as it isn't 'Achy Breaky Heart' or 'Old Time Rock And Roll'.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 3 Jan 2009 1:47 am

Larry Bell wrote: I'll happily play whatever they ask me to play. I see it as my job.

Thats how I see it as well. I get hired to play a gig, I arrive, I play, I get paid and then go home.

I guess if you go to qig and they ask for songs you don't like and don't want to play, stay home , you're in the wrong band and at the wrong gig. I play in cover bands, thats what we do, play cover songs . All the ones mentioned above and more. The gigs I play folks request a tune while stuffing a $5, $10 or even a $20 dollar bill into the tip jar. If we don't know the one they ask for (ex: Freebird) we will play another Skynard tune . One of these times I will actually surprise even the band, when someone asks for Freebird I'm gonna sing it !

Ric Epperle · Post by **Ric Epperle** » 3 Jan 2009 3:17 am

My answer from another thread:
"We were playin' at the Shell Bar one night, and some drunken girl kept screamin, "Freebird." I went in my pack seat, and pulled out all my slides. None of us knew the tune, but were vaguely familiar with the melody. So we played it! Three slide guitars, slide bass, and slide fiddle! All hackin' away at the melody. I almost peed my pants, I was laughin' so hard! We didn't get invited back to that bar!"
Also, if I get a request I really don't wanna play, I play it backwards. "Achey Breaky" was a lot of fun. I would get the band to add one measure of 5/4 to it. It was hilarious to watch the line dancers crash into each other tryin' to figure out what had just happened.

That's the funniest damn thing I've heard in a long time. It rings too close to home.

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 3 Jan 2009 4:24 am

The next time somebody requests "Fulsom Prison" Play the tune, but sing the words to Pinball Wizard.

It's great therapy.

Ric Epperle · Post by **Ric Epperle** » 3 Jan 2009 4:45 am

Mike, you're a NUT.. but I like it... That's crazier yet

Turn me on to your therapist... I need help.

Adair Torres · Post by **Adair Torres** » 3 Jan 2009 6:57 am

I love to play any kind of music, but Garth Brooks.
If someone asks, I play.

Jerry H. Moore · Post by **Jerry H. Moore** » 3 Jan 2009 7:31 am

Only One! SWEET HOME ALA @#*#@ BAMA!!!! The rest get old but after you kick them off and the crowd screams its like the first time you played them all over again.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 3 Jan 2009 7:33 am

No matter where I am, no matter what band is playing, I always request "Feelings." I just like to see the look on other musician's faces.

Ric Epperle · Post by **Ric Epperle** » 3 Jan 2009 7:33 am

I am going to bed... See ya later...

The Pooh...

Jerry H. Moore · Post by **Jerry H. Moore** » 3 Jan 2009 7:38 am

No matter where I am, no matter what band is playing, I always request "Feelings." I just like to see the look on other musician's faces.

I like to ask for Barbara Streisand Show Tunes or something by the Dixie Chicks. Only when its a bunch of Rednecks of course.....

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 3 Jan 2009 7:51 am

ALL the usual suspects ....

Ric Epperle · Post by **Ric Epperle** » 3 Jan 2009 8:02 am

Cute.............

Michael Dulin · Post by **Michael Dulin** » 3 Jan 2009 8:36 am

What about 'The Rodeo Song', ever have to play that stinkin' thing? MD

Chris Reesor · Post by **Chris Reesor** » 3 Jan 2009 10:07 am

Not being a pro ( I haven't even played out in years), I don't have to deal with this issue. But I love the idea of giving some of these old chestnuts a good twist. For example a friend's dance band used to do Secret Agent Man reggae style. The crowd loved it! I'd love to hear your Brown Eyed Transylvanian Girl, Dave!

CR.

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 3 Jan 2009 10:22 am

The economy being what it is, you won't hear a peep out of me - whatever they ask for!

Having said that, I do think that dreadful song about 'If You're Gonna Play in Texas, You Gotta etc, etc' is as nauseating as anything out there.

I still wanna be a professional musician even after this recession/slump/downturn (or whatever it is) has passed.

"What key would you like that in, sir?"

Steve Spitz · Post by **Steve Spitz** » 3 Jan 2009 10:23 am

One of my mentors once told me on a gig "Play what they want, and no matter how bad it is, they will love it. Play what you want, and no matter how great it is, they won`t like it."
Maybe some truth in that.

The Steel Guitar Forum

Songs you hate playing - but audience wants

Playing songs you don't like.

Lost it!!

What???

Hmmm?

What I was told