Bad song choices at a gig

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 06:43 PM

I think we pay too much attention to our own anxieties about causing offence, and too little to the needs of our audiences.

I was booked about three years ago to do a ninety minute charity gig at a well known Hospice, to an audience of terminally ill patients.

I asked what the organiser thought might be appropriate in the circumstances.

She replied "Do what you do which persuaded me to invite you here. These people know they are dying, so what do you think they want from you?"

I went in and did the ninety minutes and they spent the whole time laughing, and the most popular two songs were Clive Lever's Country song "Hypochondria" and my version of the anonymous poem I found on a seaside postcard "I'm Awfully Well for the Shape That I'm In".

Not one person there complained, and I was asked back a year later to repeat the dose, for an entirely (for obvious reasons) different audience.

I learned a lot from those people about pitching a set to an audience.

Don T.

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 06:47 PM

Josepp, had "Seasons in the Sun" been part of my repertoire, I would have been happy to have sung it at that venue, because it would have resonated positively with that audience.

Horses for Courses.

Don T.

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 08:58 PM

Who wants to hear that depressing drivel? Follow it up with "Alone Again Naturally" and people will start asking, "Does this guy think he's funny?" I'd rather hear a humorous side like "We Just Don't Look Good Naked Anymore."

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: GUEST,Larry Saidman
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 09:51 PM

Actually, if you listen to the original French version (Jacques Brel) or the original Rod McKuen translation, you'll find that Seasons in the Sun is very "humorous"....although it may be black humour.   The song ends with the protagonist revealing how he knows about the affair his wife has been having with his friend.....and he tells her that after he dies "look for me cause I'll be there".

And those stars we could reach? they're "just starfish on the beach".

I suspect that it's a song that people in a hospice could appreciate.

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: GUEST,SirCoughsalot
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 10:51 PM

I personally think it's a mistake to ever open with a slow song.

On a more personal note and a bit more relevant to the thread, some of my friends once asked me to sing Digging My Potatoes to my teacher, because they loved it so much.

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: GUEST,Josepp
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 10:58 PM

I don't know why people in a hospice would want to hear a song that their spouses cheated on them but I guess I'll take that over the Terry Jacks version which replaced the sarcastic verse with some horrible drivel about Michelle helping him find the sun--whatever that's supposed to mean (it's the big shiny thing up there).

On top of that, I hate the melody. It's one of those that lodges itself in your mind like a parasite and doesn't leave despite (or maybe because of) your absolutely not wanting it there. The only place it belongs is on one of those "Worst Songs of All Time" lists of which it has made plenty. But, of course, it sold millions of copies. Why does the public buy this crap only to hate it later on? How could people not have the sense to hate it the first time they heard it?

Btw, Brel's version as translated by McKuen:

Good-bye, my wife, I loved you well
Good-bye, my wife, I loved you well, you know,
But I'm taking the train for the Good Lord,
I'm taking the train before yours
But you take whatever train you can;

Goodbye, my wife, I'm going to die,
It's hard to die in springtime, you know,
But I'm leaving for the flowers with my eyes closed, my wife,
Because I closed them so often,
I know you will take care of my soul.

Adieu, Francoise, my trusted wife, without you I'd have had a lonely life.
You cheated lots of times but then, I forgave you in the end though your lover was my friend.
Adieu, Francoise, it's hard to die when all the birds are singing in the sky. Now that spring is in the air
With your lovers ev'rywhere; just be careful, I'll be there.

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: GUEST,999
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 11:03 PM

"I personally think it's a mistake to ever open with a slow song."

I disagree, SC. It can be a very good thing to do if you follow an act that received a standing ovation and brought down the house or an act that bombed and disgruntled the audience. A slow song can help refocus the audience and THEN you start your set. Been there and done that.

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: Acorn4
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 04:47 AM

Both of these actually at singarounds as opposed to gigs.

I've written a song called "Jehovah's Windows" about a JW who doubles up as a double glazing salesman. When I did the song at a club, it seemed to go down OK, so I repeated it at the session a month later, whereupon the organiser politely requested that I did not repeat it again. It turned out that the organiser and his wife were JWs - the chances of that must surely have been greater than a faikrly large lottery win!

I've also done a song about people who have posh voices and go fox hunting which has the line:"I've got no chin, I've got no brain, but I'm a mighty, mighty mayern, with a four legg-ed friend and a double barrelled name." - it turned out the organiser had a double barrellled name and his dad was master of the local hunt!

I actually subsequently became good friends with all the above people.

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: alex s
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 09:24 AM

British Grenadiers at an Irish club. Not a good choice.

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: goatfell
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 09:33 AM

bloody rotten audiance

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: GUEST,Don Wise
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 02:10 PM

Back in the days of The Garden Gnome Ceilidh Band (the 'big band' including Pete & Chris Coe with Rog Watson as caller) we did a gig in Kendal. Rog had made up a pseudo german dance which required hornpipes. All went well until we played the choral part from Beethoven's 9th - as a hornpipe (Johnny Adams,our bandleader,enjoyed a certain notoriety for his spontaneous tune ideas)....ca.33% disapproved of us misusing the German National Anthem, ca.33% disapproved of us misusing classical music and the rest......loved it.

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: Bainbo
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 02:39 PM

I wouldn't have any problem with Seasons In The Sun.

If it was this version.

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: GUEST,Ebor_Fiddler
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 06:53 PM

Don: Served you right. It is, of course, a reel.

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 07:05 PM

One time I was working to a script - an old peoples show, I was doing this version of Knees Up Mother Brown that goes 'If I catch you (something), I'll saw your legs right orf.....'

Noticed half the audience were leg amputees.

Another time I was in this country and western band - our opening number was Ruby Don't take Your Love to Town.

This old guy with 'legs all bent and paralysed' limped very noisily across the almost empty dance floor.

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: foggers
Date: 30 Dec 11 - 06:26 PM

Hmmm, interesting topic. My dad was cremated, as per his request, to the tune "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes". We did ensure that the minister conducting the ceremony told everyone it was a deliberate choice, and a fine tribute to his lifetime perverse sense of humour.

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: GUEST,Don Wise
Date: 31 Dec 11 - 07:00 AM

@ foggers: That's a bit like Peter Sellers who was cremated to the strains of "In the Mood".......

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: foggers
Date: 31 Dec 11 - 09:13 AM

@Don Wise- LOL!

My mum also told a great story from her time working as a hostel receptionist in Coventry during WW2. The organist at the crematorium was ill so my mum's friend who was the cinema organist was asked to step in and play at the funeral of an important local dignitary. He confessed afterwards to Mum that, knowing NO solemn classical or religious music at all, the grieving family and townsfolk had just unwittingly watched the coffin go through the curtains to the tune "Yes We Have No Bananas" played at a moderate pace in a minor key.

When you know how to improvise, you can get away with anything!

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: GUEST,John Foxen
Date: 31 Dec 11 - 09:58 AM

A few years ago my singing partner Margaret and I were persuaded to do a gig for the Colchester Salvation Army Over-Sixties' Club (prestigious or what?). We carefully chose a lot of gospel material which was received politely but unenthusiastically. In a moment of desperation I decided to end the set with a song that's been mentioned in this thread, I Just Don't Look Good Naked Any More.
This totally inappropriate ditty went down a storm with the elderly audience but not with the organiser. She complained later that her club members had loved the song and talked of nothing else for weeks but she was sick of it. Audience happy and we didn't get invited back. Result!

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 19 Sep 12 - 11:31 AM

The bridal couple at a reception we played at years ago requested "Red, red wine" for their first dance. It was apparently their favorite. When we reviewed the words with them and how it is about a guy who gets drunk to forget the girl who left him, they spoke to each other briefly and decided to stay with the song anyway! Don't know how long they stayed together.

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: GUEST,PatrickH
Date: 19 Sep 12 - 11:54 AM

Speaking of 9/11
At the Concert for 9/11 James Taylor went and sang Fire and Rain, which I thought was an unfortunate choice ("Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground").
To cap it off, he sang "Up On the Roof."
What was he thinking?

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: Mr Happy
Date: 19 Sep 12 - 11:58 AM

Years back sang a comic song about a shipwreck - it went down like a lead balloon [the song, not the ship]

i was told later that organiser's son had recently drowned in a boating accident - arrrrrrrgh, mortified!

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: GUEST,Eddie1 (Still sans cookie)
Date: 19 Sep 12 - 12:55 PM

I notice a lot of contributors have had problems with the first song in the programme!
At no cost whatsoever, I'm prepared to give you the benefit of my some 6o years in music.
Never start with your first song - always begin with your second song!

Simple innit?

Eddie

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: GUEST,Rob Currie
Date: 19 Sep 12 - 01:27 PM

Around Christmas, I always used to browbeat the band into letting me sing "Please Daddy, Don't Get Drunk This Christmas," because I thought it was such a wonderfully terrible song (God bless John Denver), and that people would join in with me on the joke, or irony, or whatever I was after.

Advice: do NOT play "Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk This Christmas" in a bar around Christmas time. Turns out there are lots of sad people in bars at Christmas, who look back on holidays which are all too similar to that described in said song.

Subject: RE: Bad song choices at a gig
From: Vic Smith
Date: 19 Sep 12 - 03:01 PM

Many years ago, one of the regulars at the folk club that I run rather surprisingly brought his landlady along from the house where he was lodging.
"She needs cheering up." He explained. "Her cat died yesterday and she is feeling very low. I brought her along to help her forget it."
It seemed to be working until the guest singer launched into the song that starts:-

Our old cat died last night
Me wife says to bury it out of sight
But we didn't have a garden;
We was livin' in a flat
So what was I to do with the body of a cat,
Then a big brown paper bag I spied
I put our old dead kittycat inside.
And now I'm off down the street with the body in the bag,
The body in the bag, ta ra ra.

Not his fault, I know, but for that night a Bad song choice at a gig.