Has a band experience ruined a song for you?

[area51recording]

Ahhhh.....

Sweet Home Where The Werewolves of London Live in Alabama All Summer Long......gets MY vote.....I've played in bands where they would mashup all three of these songs.....literally 10-12 minutes of D-C-G.....

[ChiefDanG]

@ 1995 played in a very good country band - pedal steel, male & female vox, great feel. Used to do 'Neon Moon'. Very cool.

2015 to 2019 played in a band that did that song - terribly. Now when I hear it, it"s:

 

Step by step....

 

Inch by inch....

 

[GRollins]

I used to like southern rock. Allman Brothers, Leonard Skynyrd, Blackfoot, etc. That changed when the format became a racial/political statement. At this point I am sorely fed up with the genre and would prefer that it crawled under a rock and stayed there.

 

And the racist people who champion it.

 

Yet I'm surrounded by them and they have no intention of tolerating anyone who isn't white and southern. I'm both, but refuse to join the club.

 

Yuk.

 

Grey

[Joe Muscara]

I used to like southern rock. Allman Brothers, Leonard Skynyrd, Blackfoot, etc. That changed when the format became a racial/political statement. At this point I am sorely fed up with the genre and would prefer that it crawled under a rock and stayed there.

My wife and I once went to a show because of the openers, but the headliner was Skynyrd. The crowd was light for the openers and we enjoyed them as expected. Then the crowd arrived for the headliner. We felt like we were at a certain kind of rally *ahem*. So we left.

 

The thing is, I know Allman Bros. were NOT like that, and I think I've heard the guys in Skynyrd aren't either. I've been to Allman Brothers shows (as well as offshoots such as Gov't Mule and TTB) and the vibe is as cool as you'd like it. They still are among my fave bands.

 

Back on topic, I was in a Crowes tribute for a minute and listening to them afterwards was a mixed bag. They were long a favorite before the tribute, and being in it helped me to get into them deeper and go through albums that I had missed. But after I was out of the band, I had trouble enjoying them the same way for a while.

[GRollins]

Sometimes it's the band, sometimes not, but it's always the audience and that's ruined the genre for me.

 

Grey

[CowboyNQ]

... the two frontmen insisted on singing Wonderwall by Oasis.

 

That song is super popular when we play it, be interesting to know if that's the case where you are KP (not sure where that is)?

 

 

Bellingham WA\, on the Pacific coast just south of Canada. I play songs that people love and I hate all the time - the one that comes up in this thread all the time is Sweet Home Alabama.

 

I honestly don't care who likes Wonderwall, I dislike it and that will never change. The band I am in now does not play it so I am happy. There is nothing more to be said.

 

 

That's cool, I wasn't criticising your lack of passion for Oasis - apologies if that's how it came across and you were offended. I was simply curious whether that song goes over as well with audiences in your neighbourhood as it does in ours. I suspect not, which is why I asked the question. If you're suffering from my 'My Sharona' style PTSD it can remain your secret, of course!

[Dr88s]

A salient point that I didn"t mention is that one of the yearly events I play is videoed by a professional crew and mixed with the FOH board mix and then uploaded to YouTube. I really look forward to them as they"re so professionally done, but they"re extremely unforgiving and every little goof is there loudly and clearly and it concretizes the missteps as part of my perception of the song. Unfortunate.

[KuruPrionz]

... the two frontmen insisted on singing Wonderwall by Oasis.

 

That song is super popular when we play it, be interesting to know if that's the case where you are KP (not sure where that is)?

 

 

Bellingham WA\, on the Pacific coast just south of Canada. I play songs that people love and I hate all the time - the one that comes up in this thread all the time is Sweet Home Alabama.

 

I honestly don't care who likes Wonderwall, I dislike it and that will never change. The band I am in now does not play it so I am happy. There is nothing more to be said.

 

 

That's cool, I wasn't criticising your lack of passion for Oasis - apologies if that's how it came across and you were offended. I was simply curious whether that song goes over as well with audiences in your neighbourhood as it does in ours. I suspect not, which is why I asked the question. If you're suffering from my 'My Sharona' style PTSD it can remain your secret, of course!

 

 

No worries, I am not offended in the slightest. To be honest, whenever that song started up, my brain closed down. This possibly prevented many terrible things from happening but I don't remember the crowd repsonse. Certainly, just watching me during that song would probably bum out most people and also ruin any opinion on the crowd reaction from your standpoint.

 

If you like playing it and people like it, then it's good. I am no "purist" at all, just some things rub me the wrong way. Talking about it years later is not a bother at all.

 

I think My Sharona is brilliant but I was never in a band that played it. I was in a punk parody band decades ago that ended our original song Jonestown Survivors with a couple of rousing choruses of "Juan Corona" but we were in California at the time so everybody got it.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

My regular guitar player was, for a long stretch of time, the assumed musical director of a funk/soul cover band (as in, "hey Joe, drummer bailed and we have a sub keyboard player for the gig next week, you'll make sure the fresh blood is good to go, right?") but was not the "leader" and had little actual creative control (personnel choices or ability to chastise/replace the ones who didn't do their homework, song selection, organizing of rehearsals). That band turned a great deal of classic songs into PTSD triggers for him, but my favorite story from his time in the trenches was an offhand reaction he had at our annual holiday party when Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas" came up on the playlist:

 

"Oh man, the Jeff Love Band used to forget this song every year!"

[Threadslayer]

Spooky. I had a weekly gig that started at 7pm. Problem is the daytime drunks hadn't cleared out for the nighttime drunks yet and the daytime drunks dont like loud. So we always started with a 10 minute spooky. So on top of overexposing the song I have memories of being shushed at an already barely audible level. Song ruined now.

That one was ruined for me for a totally different reason. The singer in one band for some unfathomable reason changed the lyrics from "First you say no. You've got some plans for the night." to "First you say no. You've got some plans going on." which doesn't rhyme with the next line and pops into my head every time I hear or think of the song. Virulent ear worm. Hopefully I haven't passed it on to anyone here.

[AWkeys]

I'm a hired gun, so like many of you I have to learn a LOT of songs for a lot of different bands and repertoires, in addition to playing solo gigs and taking requests. Some stuff I gotta hold my nose to play/sing, and I usually take it in stride. That said, the one song that came to mind right away for me is "Can't You See" by Marshall Tucker Band. Can't you see, this song annoys the shit outta me!!!

[KuruPrionz]

I'm a hired gun, so like many of you I have to learn a LOT of songs for a lot of different bands and repertoires, in addition to playing solo gigs and taking requests. Some stuff I gotta hold my nose to play/sing, and I usually take it in stride. That said, the one song that came to mind right away for me is "Can't You See" by Marshall Tucker Band. Can't you see, this song annoys the shit outta me!!!

 

 

Thats funny! A cuple of years ago I was hired gun at a party to raise funds for the Food Bank on San Juan Island. The band was all good players and we knew each other well.

A woman came up to the front and wanted to hear Can't You See. None of us knew it. She started at the right side of the stage (I was on the left), before she could get across to me another band member started playing the chords and I started singing...

 

"Gonna buy a pizza, without no anchovies, then I'm gonna wreck my car." I just made up verses - terrible - and we sang the chorus. The woman went away and everybody else laughed.

I've never really done anything like that before and probably never will again but we still laugh about it once in a while. I could tell she was not going to go away until we played that song, so I did what I could.

[The Real MC]

"Gonna buy a pizza, without no anchovies, then I'm gonna wreck my car." I just made up verses - terrible - and we sang the chorus.

 

That's a "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" moment

[David R]

When I was in elementary school, I wound up being musical director for our school production of Wizard of Oz, with a Dorothy who couldn't get the high notes of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and having to transpose "If I Only Had a Brain/Heart/Nerve" into three different keys for the characters. After rehearsing it to death, I really have no interest in ever watching or hearing it again.

[pinkfloydcramer]

I used to like southern rock. Allman Brothers, Leonard Skynyrd, Blackfoot, etc. That changed when the format became a racial/political statement. At this point I am sorely fed up with the genre and would prefer that it crawled under a rock and stayed there.

 

And the racist people who champion it.

 

Yet I'm surrounded by them and they have no intention of tolerating anyone who isn't white and southern. I'm both, but refuse to join the club.

 

Yuk.

 

Grey

 

So you want to tar an entire great genre as racist. I've lived in the South for 40 years, done alot of Southern rock and country gigs during that time (as well as alot of blues gigs as the integrator) and let's just say my experience differs from yours.

 

Southern rock has a lot of great songs from bands integrated and not, but as cover band musicians we only think of the ones we're sick of because we've had to play them a zillion times. If it were up to me I would have a SR setlist with alot of Wet Willie (Country Side of Life, Keep On Smiling), Marshall Tucker (This Ol' Cowboy, Heard It on a Love Song) and any ABB or Skynard tunes would be ones like Whiskey Rock & Roller, I Know a Little, Southbound, Jessica- fresher, less-played material that fits in nicely with music by Delbert McClinton, Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat and the Band. The last group of which some might object to being associated with SR but featured many songs about Southern culture without portraying it as rotten and evil at it's core. As an example- The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. That one alone, it seems, would necessitate their being cancelled (incidentally, by far the best version was sung by Dobie Grey at the Tennessee Volunteer Jam. I would encourage anyone to Youtube the Tennessee Volunteer Jams, to get the best representation of Southern rock. It was anything but "whites only").

 

It seems sadly inevitable that politics and culture wars and cancel culture will poison every aspect of our lives, including music, but there seem to be policies in place at this forum to prevent that. For now.

[Baldwin Funster]

Check out the ballad of curtis leow.

[Fusker]

That"s really not what he said. Pretty sure he states that all racists like the genre and use it extensively. That"s quite different than anyone who enjoys southern rock is racist.

 

 

 

I used to like southern rock. Allman Brothers, Leonard Skynyrd, Blackfoot, etc. That changed when the format became a racial/political statement. At this point I am sorely fed up with the genre and would prefer that it crawled under a rock and stayed there.

 

And the racist people who champion it.

 

Yet I'm surrounded by them and they have no intention of tolerating anyone who isn't white and southern. I'm both, but refuse to join the club.

 

Yuk.

 

Grey

 

So you want to tar an entire great genre as racist. I've lived in the South for 40 years, done alot of Southern rock and country gigs during that time (as well as alot of blues gigs as the integrator) and let's just say my experience differs from yours.

 

Southern rock has a lot of great songs from bands integrated and not, but as cover band musicians we only think of the ones we're sick of because we've had to play them a zillion times. If it were up to me I would have a SR setlist with alot of Wet Willie (Country Side of Life, Keep On Smiling), Marshall Tucker (This Ol' Cowboy, Heard It on a Love Song) and any ABB or Skynard tunes would be ones like Whiskey Rock & Roller, I Know a Little, Southbound, Jessica- fresher, less-played material that fits in nicely with music by Delbert McClinton, Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat and the Band. The last group of which some might object to being associated with SR but featured many songs about Southern culture without portraying it as rotten and evil at it's core. As an example- The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. That one alone, it seems, would necessitate their being cancelled (incidentally, by far the best version was sung by Dobie Grey at the Tennessee Volunteer Jam. I would encourage anyone to Youtube the Tennessee Volunteer Jams, to get the best representation of Southern rock. It was anything but "whites only").

 

It seems sadly inevitable that politics and culture wars and cancel culture will poison every aspect of our lives, including music, but there seem to be policies in place at this forum to prevent that. For now.

[pinkfloydcramer]

That"s really not what he said. Pretty sure he states that all racists like the genre and use it extensively. That"s quite different than anyone who enjoys southern rock is racist.

 

Fair point and I see the distinction. I find the idea that Southern rock has been co-opted by racists (ALL racists like the genre??), and is now identified with racism, is ridiculous, though. The kind of crowds who like SWA and Simple Man also like Zac Brown (Chicken Fried) and Jamie Johnson (In Color). It's only a racist scene IMO if you consider traditional values and anything patriotic to be racist. Those kind of songs are on the menu for many of us cover band musicians. If anyone wants to rethink them and make what they consider to be a principled stand in refusing to play them, that's their business.

[Outkaster]

I know some people have said to me there are threads of suppression in the music.

[eric]

I used to like The Killers' song "Somebody Told Me" but then it was overplayed by my band and became one of those songs that people in the audience would nag the band to play even when we were trying to retire it. It's a pretty good song, but it's a minor key wall of sound that makes my ears tired playing it.

[CEB]

Yes. Used to play some songs in Mojo Filter and Highway Jones that were favorites of Dave the guitarist. Dave died at 44 from cancer. I can"t play them anymore.

[Dr88s]

Yes. Used to play some songs in Mojo Filter and Highway Jones that were favorites of Dave the guitarist. Dave died at 44 from cancer. I can"t play them anymore.

 

That"s rough. I can understand.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

Yes. Used to play some songs in Mojo Filter and Highway Jones that were favorites of Dave the guitarist. Dave died at 44 from cancer. I can"t play them anymore.

 

That"s rough. I can understand.

I totally understand that too, though I have the opposite experience with songs written or loved by my buddy Dan who passed away last year (he was 45, also a guitarist, also cancer). He was a big Phish fan, and while nobody else in my musical circle is particularly fond of that band, there are certain tunes he loved that will always have a special place in my heart (and set list) because of him.

 

On the other hand, a drummer I played with in middle school ruined Dave Matthews Band for me for YEARS, and he's still alive and kicking.

[pinkfloydcramer]

That"s rough. I can understand.

I totally understand that too, though I have the opposite experience with songs written or loved by my buddy Dan who passed away last year (he was 45, also a guitarist, also cancer). He was a big Phish fan, and while nobody else in my musical circle is particularly fond of that band, there are certain tunes he loved that will always have a special place in my heart (and set list) because of him.

 

On the other hand, a drummer I played with in middle school ruined Dave Matthews Band for me for YEARS, and he's still alive and kicking.

 

Sorry about your friend (and your friend too, CEB). I have been spared that so far, regarding band mates anyway.

 

Was one of the Phish songs "Get Back On the Train"? An oldies/classic country band that I play with do that one. Love it, for the lyrics and the music too (I'm a sucker for a train beat). .

 

Unlikely song for older people to be playing, but the bass player's son turned him on to it. What's funny is that he sings like a cross between Elmer Fudd and Lester Flatt, but it works for that song. I had to learn it on the gig, didn't know any better so played piano on it.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

That"s rough. I can understand.

I totally understand that too, though I have the opposite experience with songs written or loved by my buddy Dan who passed away last year (he was 45, also a guitarist, also cancer). He was a big Phish fan, and while nobody else in my musical circle is particularly fond of that band, there are certain tunes he loved that will always have a special place in my heart (and set list) because of him.

 

Was one of the Phish songs "Get Back On the Train"? An oldies/classic country band that I play with do that one. Love it, for the lyrics and the music too (I'm a sucker for a train beat).

The ones we've done the most are "Stash" (a really complicated tune, one might even call it unnecessarily complicated, that Dan always wanted to cover in a band and never got to) and an unreleased track they've played live called "Everything's Right," which was sort of his facing-death-with-serenity anthem.

 

Unlikely song for older people to be playing, but the bass player's son turned him on to it. What's funny is that he sings like a cross between Elmer Fudd and Lester Flatt, but it works for that song.

Yeah, both of the bands I've covered Phish in have powerful female singers, and that tends to be an improvement on Trey Anastasio's throwaway delivery (though sometimes it's a double-edge sword because it puts more emphasis on how goofy some of the lyrics are).

[Synthaholic]

'Only Time Will Tell" by Asia. I sang it, badly. Now I can"t listen to it without the unpleasant memories.

[The Real MC]

At college the cafeteria had a "radio" where DJs (students) could spin records over the speakers in the cafeteria. This was not eclectic format. I was put right on the lunch hour and played stuff the students wanted to hear, classic rock. I later found out the reason I landed the prime time was to bump off a DJ who was a Lennon freak and he played nothing but John Lennon songs - the students hated him.

[cphollis]

Yes, a bad band experience can ruin a song for you.

 

The lead guitarist in my band is fond of singing Dylan tunes in a whiny, nasal voice while playing acoustic guitar. We'd get this great energy going, and he'd strap on his acoustic and his harmonica and start wheezing away with gusto. I used to be a Dylan fan (in moderation) but he's ruined about a half-dozen songs for me.

 

That being said, we've now got a female vocalist who's making me appreciate songs I wasn't a fan of before, e.g. Because The Night, Jolene, White Rabbit, You're No Good, Tumblin' Dice, etc. So it balances things out at the end of the night.

 

Train wrecks? I have a nice collection. Some include me misusing the transpose button back when I was a lazy sort. No longer. And before I got my patches under control, there were a few times I went for angelic chorus and ended up with quacking ducks. Accidentally triggering a sequence in the middle of a tender ballad.

 

And that's just me screwing up, let alone the band.

 

A vocalist hitting pitch-shift on his pedal and transforming into a singing chipmunk. Guitarist grabs guitar he hasn't used in a long while: out of tune, rusty strings, no intonation. Drummer getting entirely wrong tempo, and not willing to change. Playing a 4/4 song in 3/4, you end up with a lot of extra notes. A runaway delay pedal with positive feedback, thundering over everything. Playing on IEMs and forgetting to turn on the front FOH.

 

All part of the fun for me

[cphollis]

Re: Southern Rock -- I don't consider it racist in the least. People can be racist, however music is music -- take what you want from it. I was briefly in a southern rock band in Mass a while back and had a blast learning some seriously spanking keys parts. Skynrd, Allman Bros, TTB, etc. The crowd loved it. Not my main thing, but it was fun at the time. And if I was amongst closet racists, they certainly hid it quite well.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

I later found out the reason I landed the prime time was to bump off a DJ who was a Lennon freak and he played nothing but John Lennon songs - the students hated him.

That didn't strike me as such a divisive artist to have playing steadily, but I suppose chicken tender day starts to feel like a bit of a downer after a few rounds of "Mother," "Cold Turkey," and "Woman is the N****r of the World."

 

*Ahem* and there's the segue to...

 

Re: Southern Rock -- I don't consider it racist in the least. People can be racist, however music is music -- take what you want from it.

I do agree that there is a separation between music, lyrics, and cultural trappings, but I also feel that sometimes those things become inextricable depending on context. There's nothing inherently racist about "Gimme Three Steps," but if you play it with a Confederate flag draped behind you, it does send a different message, and speak to a different audience, than the racially-integrated Allmans playing a jazz-influenced 11-minute instrumental. You know, a lot of us now associate Ride of the Valkyries with the Vietnam war because of Apocalypse Now, rather than it suggesting Nazi sypathies -- but for some people, they might not be able to listen to Wagner without thinking about his support of the Nazis.

 

And then there's the purely musical version, without cultural context: some people just can't bear to listen to Wagner.

 

I wouldn't really categorize Tom Petty's music as Southern Rock, but the band's Gainesville roots and some of the iconography and subject matter surrounding the Southern Accents album led to Tom having to denounce Confederate symbols and ideology onstage. I always thought Tom Petty was one of the good ones; he stuck up for the underdog, famously didn't back down (no pun intended) to intimidation, but was willing to admit his mistakes, too. That strength and that vulnerability were present in his music. I miss him.