General Music Chat

I realized, recently, that I have a few of these. They come in two varieties:

1) Songs I've never really liked, but I learned to play them in some band I was in and discovered that they're actually fun to play. I still can't listen to them, but I seem to be in a minority because other people apparently love 'em. Best example of this would be Mustang Sally.

2) Songs I liked before I learned to play them, but got really sick of as a result of learning them. I still love playing them, but listening to them is painful. Examples of this would be Play That Funky Music and One Way or Another.

So, am I alone in this? Okay, yes, my listening habits are all over the place, so there's bound to be some disconnect between what I listen to and what I play. But these songs are more than a disconnect.

FWIW: I listen to mostly obscure stuff. Nikka Costa, Lili Haydn, Kevin Gilbert. Along with other off the beaten track stuff like the Robert Plant and Alyson Kraus album, the Playing for Change album and stuff like that. Mostly when I listen to mainstream stuff it's research.

ANY Grateful Dead tune. I really can't take that band, but I like to play some of thier stuff (MY WAY, of course!).

Aiki, once I internalize a song, I try to inject my own personality into even cover songs. I mean I hate playing Sweet Home Alabama or 3 Steps, Tush or Lagrange, Hard To Handle or Crazy Train, Man In The Box or Spoonman, but these songs are the stuff that people who come to see us want to hear, and oh yeah Roadhouse BLues, blah blah but once again people want to hear this stuff, so I just try to put in different licks or whatever to make it interesting for me and our bassist to play. It jsut goes with the territory.

I've found that once I've recorded a cover I can't stand to listen to the original. Luckily I don't play any covers that I wouldn't listen to.

Absolutely EVERY song I have recorded that I have had to sing on. But I can handle most of my instrumentals.
I still like to hear the originals even after I have recorded my version. It gives me a fresh perspective to listen to their version as opposed to mine.

There are quite a few songs I love to play that I'm not crazy about listening to. Bush's "Machinehead" would be at the top of that list. Love to play that song... But really don't care to listen to it.

I love to play.. get this..

A lot of PINK, Jewel, other pop and commercial rock / classic rock, but I cant stand to listen to any of it lol.

I listen to Metallica, Iron Maiden, Rush, STP, AIC, RATM ...

bizarre eh?

I've noticed my writing style is a freakish hash between the two, although quite interesting IMO.

So, Kramerguy, here I thought the difference in the songs I like to play and the songs I like to listen to was weird.

The question occurred to me also in part because I know other musicians who feel the same way locally. I've been in bands with some of them.

Maybe this is a common consequence of playing for an audience?

In any case, I have to say it's led to me expanding my musical horizons in unexpected ways on occasion.