General Music Chat

With all do respect guy's, you have heard me say over and over, the only way you are going to be successful is to play what people want to hear regardless to whether you are playing originals or covers.

I work for the crowd I am playing for period!

As bad as Wonderful Tonight and Knocking On Heaven's Door are somehow a lot of people like those tunes. In the past we've had similarly crappy songs in our repertoire that people loved. Unfortuneately sometimes you have to play what people like even if you can't stand them. Even some of our originals I get tired of but people like them so we keep playing them.

I have to diss on that one Bob.
I believe you can find "other" song's that they will like just as much (and maybe more) and not do what has been DONE TO DEATH!
Give the audience the benefit of the dought that they have some musical taste, and would maybe enjoy something they dont often get to hear, even more than the same ole same ole.


Hayden, I think this depends on the venue. In my case I play in a cover band. People pay us to hear the familiar. Im lucky cause in my area our band is probably the hardest edgeist cover band out there. I know cause a lot of the other bands in the area are jealous of the way we play. But even thru all that we still have to pull out songs like Wonderful Tonite. Its just a requirement of the job.

When I played with AYM before we worked up Say Hello To Heaven by Temple of the Dog, I thought it would be the ultimate slow song. It stretched our singer and to me is just a great song. When we played it people would just look at us.

So I beg to differ on fans musical taste, after the drinks have flown people regress to their simplest forms and want tohear the same o same o.

On the other hand, there are some origianl venues around that people get to stretch in any direction they want. Unfortunately we wont play these venues cause they dont pay anything. Ive been contacted by 2 places that I would like to play, they supply pa, lights, but they dont pay anything, even thou I know we could bring them a crowd.

If you are in a business and want to be successful you have to provide what people want. For me Im a weekend warrior but it does put money in my pocket, so I play what people ask for, even when its not something I want to do. Ive said it before at this point in my musical career I consider myself an entertainer more than a musician.

When we just couldn't seem to get people on the dance floor "Help Me Make It Through The Night" never failed.

I'm also of the mind that there are no "must play" songs. There are so many songs people will recognize and enjoy that haven't been played to death. I've never had trouble coming up with song selections that are fun to do and still push peoples buttons. You can completely avoid the common bar tunes without playing a bunch of obscure stuff nobody's heard of. We'll bust out with an old Kinks song that nobody ever seems to play. People may not of thought of the song in years but everyone recognizes it immediately. The Kinks have a ton of great tunes and that's just one example. It's important that it's played well and is easily recognizable but it's also important how you handle the crowd. I've seen bands turn down requests and come off as snotty and disrespectful or get flustered by loud pushy audience members. Then I've seen charismatic front people who handle it really well. You can tell people the song your about to do is a request and goes out to -insert random female name-. There are many ways to go about it.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with giving your audience what they want. If you feel that playing music you don't enjoy is something you need to do to support yourself and get gigs in your area I certainly understand. There is a market for it and it's not easy getting by as an entertainer. I'm just of the mind that I'd rather play stuff I enjoy for a hundred people than music I don't enjoy for three hundred. I'm lucky to be in a position to make that choice and I do but I don't go around bitter about people who go the other way. We are all musicians and I for one would like to see more bands in my area supportive of one another instead of constantly deriding others for making diffent musical choices. Not that anyone here is doing that. I've just had too much coffee and I'm rambling a bit and wasn't this thread about good slow dance songs?.

Dobey Gray's "Drift Away" always works for me. Dunno why I left it out.

Good luck on your up-coming gig.

To get more "back on topic",

If ya need a slow song in a hurry, just start playing C , A minor, F, & G, and start ab-libbing a medley of words, like " I had a Girl. Donna was her name" etc, etc'

Ones that I have played for years are the slow 50's versions of older 30's classic pop songs like

Stardust (the melody, haunts my memory...)
She belongs to me ( See the pyramids along the Nile...)
Try a little Tenderness (Young hearts do get weary...)

or if a little Country seems more appropriate for the crowd,

Your Cheating heart ....Hank
Country roads..... Denver
Lazy Water... The Byrds

The problem with these songs , however, is the time you want to devote to "learnin' the words" ( they may seem simple, but it ain't always easy, especially it you're not crazy about the tune to start with.)

In that case, consider slow instrumentals..... like

Sleepwalk ....

..or any of the above mentioned songs, assuming you have a guitarist , keyboardest, or other instrumentalist in the group that can remember the melody lines from the past, or can pick them up in a hurry .

later,
HJ

personally when I hear those wore out songs coming through the PA, I start thinking of somewhere else to go.
But then I'm not of the crowd that goes to the bar every weekend, and they are the one's who spend the dollars the club owner is after!
So I have to go with "depends on the venue"

oh yeah, I still recommend I put a spell on you... If you introduce a song as "anybody wanna slow dance" ................ here's one for ya............

www.myspace.com/blunderingeye
www.myspace.com/445175001
http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/6039/
http://bandmix.com/hayden-king/
hayden_king2000 on yahoo messenger

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'Wonderful Tonight' is a great song. Most of us have just played it way too many times for it to be enjoyable any more. Good responses here though. My fave is the Otis Redding tune. HowlinJ seems to know where we are coming from.

If you can pull off a Santana song, you can definitely get the chicks moving and the guy's ears listening. Almost a win/win situation.

The Flame by Cheap Trick gets them out there on the dance floor!