Good Songs You're Sick Of

Subject: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 12:47 PM

Speaking of Kumbaya (which I'm not really sick of, exactly,) what good songs are you sick to death of. (Not stupid ones like Jingle Bell Rock.)

For starters, how about Come Together, by the Youngbloods? When I bought the album and heard it, I thought it was a great, great song.
It ended up being one of the most ubiquitous songs of the 60's, and I reached a point where I felt like screaming and running out of the room when I heard it. It's still a good song. I just don't want to hear it again in this century.

For folk songs, I could easily do without Water Boy "Huhhh!" with phony work grunts for another century, too.

What are your un-favorite good songs? Good ones, now... no cheating..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Midchuck
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 12:52 PM

Will the G** D*** F***ing Circle Be Un-F***ing-Broken!

One of these days I'm going to just start screaming a continuous stream of obscenities when somebody starts to sing it, and be hauled off, kicking and screaming.

Our trio used to to "Waltzing With Bears," a lot, and it always got a good reception. I sang lead. One day I said, "No more. Never. No way. You two sing it if you want!" They didn't.

Peter

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,Ghost of Bobby Helms
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 12:53 PM

What the hell's wrong with Jingle Bell Rock?

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 12:53 PM

Waltzing With Bears... as sticky cute as It's A Small World, After All..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 12:57 PM

Isn't Waltzing With Bears meant to be a would-be cheerful take on Alzheimer's?

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 01:00 PM

Whiskey In The Jar

Barrettes Privateers

just off the top of my head...

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: vindelis
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 01:05 PM

Abeline. I know the person concerned, hasn't sung it for at least a year, BUT....(and all I did was shout at him). Well, it was a new venue for the session, after all and we have to start afresh with something new. It has to be said that if it wasn't for the person concerned we wouldn't have a session anyway. Thanks Mr Q.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 01:05 PM

I always find in threads like this songs turning up that I've not heard in a long time, or indeed that I've never heard.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 01:24 PM

That's because you're not American, McGrath.

Most threads like this are started by Americans who assume that everyone else (who matters) is American too.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Don Firth
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 01:29 PM

Maybe this is a regional thing, but. . . .

Stephen Foster's Hard Times. It's a great song, but jeez, people, give it a rest!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,warbling will
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 01:29 PM

Crazy and TEN BLOODY GUITARS

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,pdq
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 01:54 PM

"The Little Drummer Boy", even if Bing Crosby and David Bowie did a duet with it on TV.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 02:30 PM

Im so flattered! This thread is just getting started and we've already got a mildly offensive post from a Guest! This site DOES serve a purpose.. :-)


Jerry

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 02:32 PM

Jingle Bell Rock doesn't rock. It would be akin to doing the Teletubbie Rap.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 02:45 PM

There is loads and loads of songs that people tell me are good but I can't stand. Mainly Opera, Jazz and Soul but I don't know if those count. If we are looking just for folk songs I think I would have to list the Manchester rambler. That is probably a regional thing though.

And what's wrong with the Teletubbie rap...?

Write it! I dare you;-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 02:54 PM

The syndrome usually is the result of a good song being "done to death" by all and sundry, often a difficult song with a complex accompaniment being attempted by somebody who does not have the skill as either a player or a vocalist to be able to carry the song. After a song has got the reputation, certain people will never give a chance to anyone who does it well.
Unfortunately they are good songs, so members of the public who do not attend folk events on a regular basis will request them.
Sad but true.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Cluin
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 02:54 PM

"And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" and "No Man's Land" I could stand with never hearing (much less singing) again.

And I've got to second Clinton Hammond's vote for "Barrett's Privateers". Guess I've just had to sing that one too many times for the drunks at the end of the night.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 03:10 PM

I'd like to know who this 'Guest' is... Wild Rover, (actually I like that one done to the tune of Streets of London)All around my hat, She moves thru the fair, Streets of London, I agree with No Man's Land and Hard Times too.

sal

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 03:14 PM

Any song that the person singing is fed up with singing, and just does mechanically, even when they are good singers, and good songs.

Conversely, I can't think of any good songs that I don't enjoy when they are sung by someone who knows how to sing it and what it is about, and means what they are singing.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Midchuck
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 03:20 PM

That's because you're not American, McGrath.

Most threads like this are started by Americans who assume that everyone else (who matters) is American too.

Well, of course we do! Our culture is derived from the British more than any other single culture.....(tee, hee!)

Peter.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,Nancy King at work
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 03:32 PM

"Little Drummer Boy," IMHO, doesn't fit into Jerry's criteria of a "good song." Pa-rum-pum-pum-pum...

But I AM sick of it.

Just my two cents' worth.

Nancy

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 03:34 PM

"What culture would that be?"   I thought I'd put that in before somebody who meant it did.

But I suspect that the generalisation might not be wholly true, more especially when it comes to folk music of one sort or another.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Amos
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 03:45 PM

"Il Est Ne, le Divin Enfant" and about every other mysticamagical BS cult chant that hypnotizes the shopping crowds this time of year. Drummer Boy, First Noel, and Hark the Herald Tribune. Weary to death of 'em!


A

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: jimmyt
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 04:09 PM

my group performed an entire evening of old standard "commercial" folk songs with a singalong hootenany concept, passing out words xeroxed in a very large typeset for the 40 plus eyes. The audience absolutely loved it, but my group hated playing and singing those songs as they had gotten irreversably sick of them before 1966 came to a close.

We did 500 Miles, Today, This Land is your land,Where have all the flowers gone, etc. I had a fun time as #1 I was not playing folk music during the 60s although I knew the songs, they were new for me to perform, and #2 being an entertainer, I was delighted to see all the people enjoy themselves

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: tar_heel
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 04:18 PM

a terrible song to start with,but you cant get through christmas without hearing,"grandma got run over by a reindeer"...ggggeeeeeeeeezzzzzzz! give it a rest,FOREVER...PLEASE!!!
but we have a guy in our group who can really play the autoharp and....you guessed it!please do not request "wildwood flower," to him...he will tell you where to stick it in a hurry...lol can't say as i blame him either and,he will at least tell the audience that he's not going to play it for that day's/night's performance....bless you,tim!!!

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Mudlark
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 05:35 PM

I agree with Lil D. Boy, and gave up on all xmas carols long ago...used to love to sing them, back before they were spewed out of every supermarket loudspeaker from Nov. on.

I once taught a beginning (very beginning) guitar class, back in the 60's when Ian & Sylvia were popular. Having used 4 Strong Winds as a sample learning song, I'm afraid I've never been able to sing it since, but agree with McGrath...a good song (and I still think it's a good song) sung by someone who does it well is a pleasure to hear.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Joybell
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 05:41 PM

Irish songs! The request for anything Irish! Especially because the songs they want are mostly NOT Irish. If I sing them a genuine Irish song it's never what they want anyway. Grump grump.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Joybell
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 05:47 PM

And then there's ideas that worked once and were great but get repeated - like everybody hold hands and sing, or turn around and hug the person next to you. It just doesn't go down as well in a concert venue as it does at the coal face so to speak, where you need to do such things to keep up your courage or show solidarity. I prefer to choose my hugee.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: DonMeixner
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 05:49 PM

I am personally tired of singing "When New York Was Irish", "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen", and "Fareweell to the RRhonda". But I'm not tired of hearing those songs. The are each of them a very good song.

If I never hear "The Old Man" or "The Voyage" again it will be fine with me. They are fine sentiments attached to a very poorly written sickly sweet songs.

Don Meixner

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 07:05 PM

Apart from stuff like The Wild Rover, it largely depends on the quality of the singer. There are songs, like 'Kilkelly', of which there is only one version I can stand.
Of course, if you've only ever heard one version, that can work against a song, too. It didn't take me long to get fed up with 'Waltzing With Bears', sung by Ann Mayo Muir - but then it's got such a remorselessly sweet tune I can't really imagine liking any other version!

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Blowzabella
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 07:09 PM

American Pie - I always have to leave the room, whether it's sung or heard on a juke box. Heard it a hundred times too often already.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 07:39 PM

Roddy McCorley - I'm not that sure that it's a good song, though lots of Irish pub regulars seem to think so, but I'm sick of it either way.

Any novelty song that I've heard more than five times, especially the one about the girl who can't find a husband because all the guys in town are her father's sons. I hate it so much that I've never even bothered to find out what its title is. Novelty songs are basically musical jokes. How many times can you hear a joke and still have it be funny?

Man of Constant Sorrow - A great song but dreadfully overexposed courtesy of "Oh! Brother...". I personally know three people that wouldn't have been caught dead singing a bluegrass song a few years ago that have it in their repertoires now. And their versions really stink. Before anybody is allowed to learn that song they should be required by law to sing a dozen other bluegrass songs just to prove that they're not surf musicians that think it's cool to know one bluegrass/oldtime song.

Bruce

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,Chris Murray
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 07:52 PM

The Fields of Athenry. Yuk!!!!!! Mawkish.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 07:54 PM

Any Christmas song!

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Robin2
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 09:44 PM

Bruce,

You beat me to it! Man Of Constant Sorrow also has my vote. I get tired of hearing Ralph Stanley reminding people HE has done the song for 30 years. Best version of it I've heard--- three 10 year old boys in Montecello KY, who did it dead up in long beards and coveralls!

Not technicaly vocals, but ANYTHING by Kenny G.

Robin2

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 09:59 PM

Well, some people do seem to suffer from Neophilia. They like dashing on to the next new thing - "been there, done that, got the T-shirt".

Good songs take a lot of singing before they really get inside you properly. What I like is when I hear a song I've known for years sung in a way and in a setting that makes me see something in it I never saw before.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Beer
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 10:22 PM

Green Green Grass of Home
Your Cheating Heart
Mansion on the Hill
Lay Lady Lay
Most bands are stuck in a time warp. Especially country bands. What they play this year they will play the next, and next and the next. They are good songs but God how many times do you have to hear "Lucille". If your not in a band you can always get up and go somewhere, but when someone sends you a request! Hay, your being paid or your there for the customers. You better sing it with feelings. I have always loved "The Working Man" by Rita McNeil, but unfortunately I have to list it as a song I'm just fed up with singing.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Mickey191
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 01:26 AM

Joybell, Please tell me a few "Irish" songs people request that are not really Irish. Also a few you know are Irish which are not appreciated as being
genuine.

I absolutely loathe The Old Man & Athenry. There is another abominable piece about the wedding of Joseph Plunkett in Kilmainham jail just before he was executed. I'll be damned if I can get it together, I'll try a search. The digitrad is great. The klinker is "Grace." Don't know if it is sung anymore--but it sure gets air time. Kevin Barry is another.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 04:43 AM

1. bloody dreary songs like ' Kilkelly Ireland,' 'There Were Roses '
2. done to death category, Fields Of Athenry, The Lock keeper, this used to be a good song but the last time I went to Whitby Folk Week
it was murdered at least twenty times every day.
eric

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 07:06 AM

Congratulations for having the courage to point out that There were Roses is bloody dreary. I second that.

At the recent Fred Jordan memorial day I got totally sick of To Be A Farmer's Boy. But I never like it anyway.

I cringe at Morris tunes murdered by those who've lost sight of the fact that they're for dancing. The Princess Royal in particular. (I don't, btw, include the rendition by a certain well-known duo. You could dance to that, so long as you were fit enough to keep up).

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 12:06 PM

It's humorous reading this thread. The difference between what is over-sung in America and England couldn't be more extreme. 90% of the songs Brits are sick to death of, I've never even heard, and I imagine it works the other way. Maybe what we need is a cultural exchange... Amuricans only sing Brit songs, which would sound fresh and new, and we'll give you Wabash Cannonball, Crawdad Hole, Tom Dooley, Michael Row The Boat Ashore and 500 Miles. What a deal!

Of course, you'd have to tell us who these people are you've sung yourself to death about.. :-)

Back in the 60's, I avoided singing songs that I thought were sung to death, only to realize later that nobody was singing them... like The Cuckoo, Little Sadie and (yes) Man Of Constant Sorrow, as recorded by Emry Arthur (who still does the definitive version to my ears.) Maybe if we just sang songs we were sick of, people would be amazed at the strange, new repertoire we had suddenly learned..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: ard mhacha
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 12:51 PM

When young folkies are enjoying a song you thought was good many years ago, and hearing it again makes you cringe, think about yourself being old nasty and cynical, and you are.. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 01:52 PM

As Geoff the Duck has pointed out, it depends whether it's being sung or murdered....

The Prickly Bush (although Spiers and Boden seem to have made quite a good job of it).

The witches (Isis, Astarte, Demeter) although I heard it sung pretty well by Roy Bailey last weekend.

We used to get Tom Dooley and Michael Row the Boat ashore a lot in the UK too, in the days of the Kingston Trio.

The Anchor Middle Bar session in Sidmouth has a sign saying "NFD" which means no effing dirges. But what you can sing without being fined depends on whether it has a chorus, and the attitude with which it is sung.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 02:28 PM

No dirges? Basically I tend to dislike happy songs...

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 03:36 PM

Mickey191 - Dirty old town is constantly refered to as an Irish song but was written by Ewan MacColl, a Salford man with aspirations of being Scottish!

Probably another good example of a song being done to death. Again particularly round these parts! (Salford). Mind you it's begining to sound like I think that all MacColl songs are in the same boat. I don't. Honest!

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 03:38 PM

I just saw a commercial for a restuarant over here, Red Lobster, and the music playing behind the dialogue is... yep... Get Together, by the Youngbloods. I don't think that's what they had in mind when they recorded it.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Joybell
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 05:45 PM

Mickey, I hardly know where to start but a short list of songs that aren't Irish, but are requested as such are:
Three Score and Ten
Rose of Allandale
The Grey Funnel Line
Aragon Mill
Danny Boy (most requested song of all)Of course the tune may be Irish.
How Can I Keep from Singing
Freeborn Man (and many of Ewan McColl's other songs)
Willie McBride
Will Ye go Lassie Go
The Water is Wide
Hard Times Come Again no More
The Great Silkie of Shule Skerrie
Amazing Grace
Also anything, absolutely anything, that Mary Black has recorded.

As for genuine Irish songs I actually said that if I sing one
it's not what the requester wants - because they really want one of the above. If I talk people into an unfamiliar song they don't dispute my claims of it's origins if I say it's Irish, because they believe that most songs are Irish anyway!
Some songs that I sing that are Irish or of Irish origin, as far as I can find out are:
Shule Agra/Buttermilk Hill (in America)
Blackwater Side (may be English but tune sounds Irish)
Dublin City, Tell me Ma, and several others from the Clancys that they said were Irish.
As I don't understand or speak Irish Gaelic (although I have some Irish roots) I don't sing any songs in Irish.
How are you Mickey? Nice to meet again.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 05:55 PM

Ah, yes, talking of Ewan MacColl...that reminds me of that well-known and much requested Irish song Shores of Erin which the rascal rewrote as Shoals of Herring and tried to pass off as his own.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 06:01 PM

Songs that immigrated to Ireland? Well, of course, there's The Wild Rover, all the way from Norfolk in England.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 06:03 PM

As did Arthur McBride, though Greig claims this as a NE Scottish song...

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Celtaddict
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 06:10 PM

There is no doubt that the "done to death" category is not only highly regional but even more local. But I must say (though the obverse is certainly true) there are a number of singers from whom any song is worth a listen, and of those I never tire; they make me hear old songs anew, and can make me love a song I never liked before.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 06:13 PM

Darn! Clinton - Raptor and I are trying to arrange for you to do a house concert in the Barrie-Orillia area (seriously!), and...

Well, I hate to say it, but we were hoping you would do "Barrett's Privateers", as well as "The Unicorn", "Wild Rover", and "Streets of London".

So please reconsider. We do not need you to do "Achy Breaky Heart", but you can if you want to.

- LH

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Celtaddict
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 06:22 PM

Joybell, I agree that the predictability of the requests from those who ask for "Irish songs" when what they want seems to be "Danny Boy" or "The Wild Rover" can get a bit tiresome. I think you are onto something with your observation that they "think most songs are Irish" as the Irish have played such a large role in the origins of much American and Australian traditional music, not to mention bluegrass and cowboy and maritime. I suppose it has become used as a generic term for a particular type of song, often rooted in home/land/family/loss, all major topics in traditional music in general, often involving drink and courtship, ever popular topics, and also often involving choruses that invite (or demand) participation. No doubt a good deal of confusion arises from the highly prominent singers who sing from a variety of sources though they are known as "Irish" singers. The Clancy Brothers, the Dubliners, Mary Black, and a broad variety of pub-type singers come to mind. Why else would anyone think "The Unicorn" was Irish? On the other hand, though I love Irish and Scots songs, and a good deal of English balladry, and a number of contemporary composers, and in fact do know the provenance of the great majority of the songs I enjoy, I have to say that my enjoyment is neither increased nor lessened by knowing if a song or songwriter is "really" Irish or anything else.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Gray D
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 06:22 PM

So y'all still love to hear "Summertime (when the livin' is...)" in a cod southern accent, then?

Gray D

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 06:23 PM

Well, Celtaddict, I think you have just made the case for drawing Jim Moray into this thread too as this is exactly what he has done for many with songs like Early One Morning, Gypsies and Poverty Knock.

People (though clearly not all) are listening anew and realising for the first time just what some of these songs are really about.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Joybell
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 08:26 PM

Yes celtaddict thanks, but the truth of it is that the Clancy's and Tommy Makem never claimed that a song was Irish if it wasn't. I don't mean to critize Mary Black on her performances but her liner notes do make claims like -"Rose of Allandale - Traditional Irish". Another point is that although we, here in Australia, were always taught that most of our "traditional" songs originated in Ireland it just isn't true. There may be a case for this in New South Wales (although maybe not even there) but here in Victoria the overwhelming influence was England and America through the minstrels and the early touring performers. English music-hall and sheetmusic from America and England also had an impact. My family came here from Cornwall, as did 80% of migrants on the goldfields of Bendigo in Central Victoria, and I can tell you that Stephen Foster is still regarded by members of the Victorian Cornish Association as the greatest songwriter of "modern" times. Songs were brought out by the migrants themselves, of course, but these were often the popular songs of the day from those same music halls and from the minstrels.

There's nothing wrong and a good deal that's very beautiful about Irish songs but ALL songs are not Irish! And all songs do not originate in Ireland!
                  Joy of mixed Cornish,English,Irish roots.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Janice in NJ
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 08:38 PM

This may seem trite, but if it's a good song I'm never sick of it. Yes, some songs are over done, but if they are truly good songs they are timeless, and the day will soon come when the 25th or 30th cover will be some wonderfully fresh rendition. For example, there was a time when just about every folkie I knew was singing Jesse Fuller's San Francisco Bay Blues. It came to the point that I would roll my eyes as soon as I heard the intro. But then I heard the song a couple of years ago performed by someone on the women's music circuit. She was young and couldn't possibly have been around back then. And I thought to myself, Wow, what a great song! I put it back into my own repertoire for the first time in goddess knows how many years.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: kendall
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 05:11 AM

Amazing Grace.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 09:02 AM

You leave our Gracie out of it.
eric

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 09:39 AM

Amazing Grace; especially on the pipes,I shall be Realeased, Ise the bye, Seven Old Ladies, Brennan on The Moor, This Land is Your Land and finally....Wild Colonial Boy. And yes, there were Roses is not only dreary, it iks dreadful.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: John Hardly
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 12:11 PM

Most of these are really good songs -- and I'd hate to see them not done, even though I agree, I get sick of them.

I love to hear a new spin on an old gem -- One that comes to mind is Joel Mabus' handling of "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down". He almost makes it a new song. If more folk were reinterpreting like Mabus and Tim O'Brien (the absolute MASTER of reinterpretation), instead of regurgitatin' 'em, maybe I wouldn't tire of the good's so fast.

I love the old gems for one particular function -- they still work better than anything to bring strangers together. I have the joy of playing with strangers quite often as I bring my mando and guitar on the road with me (to art fairs). We can stumble 'round for tens of minutes trying to think of something to play together, then suddenly...

..."hey, you know "I Shall Be Released"?" or "Last Thing On My Mind"? or "Dark Hollow" or, or, or...

...suddenly half a dozen strangers are making music together like they've played together all their lives. A wonderful feeling.

Thank heaven for the standards!

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: PoppaGator
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 01:16 PM

Nominees for the Done-To-Death award obviously vary greatly from locale to local and from genre to genre.

In Preservation Hall in New Orleans, a sign something like this is prominently displayed:

Requests:    $5
"The Saints" $100

I don't recall the exact dollar amounts, and the sign is so old that the (pre-inflationary) numbers might be lower than what I wrote -- but the message is clear: Puh-leeeze don't ask us to play "When the Saints Go Marchin' In," we're sick to death of it.

Less-than-knowledgeable tourists visiting a place closely identified with a certain musical tradition, of course, are going to ask for the few titles from within that tradition that they recognize (including things *erroneously* associated with that tradition). I'm sure that the same general trend that is true for traditional jazz in N.O. is true for Irish folk music in Dublin (or, for that matter, in Irish-themed pubs anywhere in the world), and for many other locally-identified genres and sub-genres around the world. (For example, I wonder whether there are players in Liverpool sick to death of doing Beatles tunes.)

For a song to become overdone and over-requested, it pretty much *has* to have been "good" to begin with -- appealing in some way to a fairly large public.

Also, musician/singers are likely to loose their taste in such a tune much sooner than the general public, whether in the role of performers of whom requests are being made, or simply as listeners among other less-sensitized audience members.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 01:33 PM

Black gospel groups are expected to do Go Down Moses, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (maybe even Nobody knows de troubles Obscene.) I went to hear the Five Blind Boys a few years ago, and they were playing in an elegant recital hall with a 95% white audience, decked out to the nines. Just about every song they did, I'd heard eight million times before, but they were singing for their audience, and the audience loved it. I ended up leaving at intermission, bored out of my skull. It wasn't that the songs were bad, or that they did a bad job on them. I just was waiting to hear a song I hadn't heard to death already.

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I went to hear the Five Blind Boys, and I was very skeptical. But, the audience was at least 50% black, and they had "church" that night... many exclamations shouted out from the audience, and half the songs they did, I'd never heard. The ones I had heard weren't common, and they did an unusual version of the songs. It was one of the greatest concerts in any genre that I've ever heard. Same group, different environment..

By the way, Kendall, they do Amazing Grace with a blues arrangement to the tune of House Of The Rising Sun. I thought the combination of a song about a Whore house, blended with Amazing Grace was kinda interesting, and it worked fine... try it out in the safety of your own home, sometime..


Jerry

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,Mickey191
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 02:27 PM

Joy-Doing great-hope you are as well.I love most of the songs you've mentioned, especially Shule Agra & Will Ye Go Lassie Go. It puzzles me that some of those would be construed as Irish.

I didn't know the lyrics of Danny Boy were written by one Fredrick Weatherly, an English Barrister. Thanks to a lovely little book penned by Malachy McCourt, which traces the roots of the song, one can learn _everything_ about Danny Boy. I know it's corny--but I do love it.Some of the artists who have covered it: Paul Robeson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Patti La Belle,Elvis, The Flamingos,Twitty,Boxcar Willie, and Carly Simon.                  
That sure is a wide range of artists.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 02:43 PM

And the gospel song, He Looked Beyond My Faults And Saw My needs is to the tune of Danny Boy... a very powerful song.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,Martin Gibson
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 02:53 PM

Anything sung by Bob Dylan

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 03:32 PM

Interesting dichotomy posed here-- I agree that Hard Times is overdone. BUT knowing that you can get 100s of people all singing it, that's FUN!
Similarly-- Wild Rover. If you sing in an Irish pub, then that (and Danny Boy) will probably be on the "request" list constantly. . . but maybe you can get others singing!

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 04:27 PM

I second Amazing Grace, also could do without This is a song for All the Good People

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Joybell
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 04:38 PM

Yes Mickey I love all of the songs I mentioned too, and I still sing all of them. The whole Irish thing puzzles me as well. If I feel I can relate to the sentiments in a good song I'll sing it, but songs become such good friends that you feel compelled to get to know them - and their roots, and the conditions around them that gave them birth. I'm doing great too, Mickey. Glad you are too! Joy

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,Winston Wellington-Jones
Date: 16 Dec 03 - 12:15 AM

If I hear fecking "Danny Boy" one more time----!

(some heads are going to be broken)

"Amazing Grace" is also quite annoying, but I combat this by simply remembering a certain barmaid in Kent who had some quite extraordinary physical endowments, and then I rather enjoy it.

WW-J

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Dec 03 - 08:44 AM

There are "done to death" songs which are relatively new, and get sung around a lot for a time. And there are songs which are quite long in the tooth, or been traditional, and everyone assumes everyone knows them, and in fact you never hear them sung. And when someone actually sings them you get a shock of recognition. (Yes, and there are songs which have been around a long time and which get sung pretty often as well, but that's understood.)

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: fantum
Date: 17 Dec 03 - 07:10 PM

And the band played waltzing Matillda
Again and again and again.....
A really great song but every performer who wants to be on for hours gives it another whirl. I see from some of the above posts others share my views. And then the ever popular Summertime done as jazz done slow done with trills but most of all done to death. The wild rover and the Manchester rambler will send me on tour anyday. When they start this musical wallpaper my heart sinks my boredom chip activates and like a reptile in the cold I drift into torpor. It must be obvious to performers that these songs need a rest. Give us all a break learn something less well known. Please

Fantum

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 17 Dec 03 - 08:23 PM

Poppa Gator: I heard the Preservation Hall Jazz Band play in Westport, Connecticut a few years ago to a very well-healed, BMW audience. They finished their concert with When The Saints Go Marching In and invited the audience to march up onto the stage and around, and then march down the other side. The audience thought it was terminally cute, and there were more giggles than at an eleven year old's pajama party. I was one of the Saints who went marching outta there as fast as my feet could carry me.

Puhleeeeeeze!

Jerry

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Blackcatter
Date: 17 Dec 03 - 08:54 PM

I see two interesting things in the above posts.

1 Many posters are complaining that performers are singing the same old tired songs over and over.

2 Posters who are performers are complaining that audiences are constantly asking for the same old tired songs over and over.

Hmm . . .

What I see is that a lot of the general audience members only occasionally attend live performances of folk musicians and they are looking forward to the songs they know to be mixed in with ones they have never heard before. Plus, it's common knowledge that most musicians take requests, and some people almost feel duty bound to put in a request along with a few bucks to thank the performer.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 17 Dec 03 - 10:32 PM

Good points, blackcatter: From a performer's perspective, there are certain songs that you feel you almost HAVE to include in a concert. If you don't, people will ask why you didn't. Rick Nelson pretty much summed up that whole experience in Garden Party. I don't think that most performers mind singing their few songs that they've become identified with, as long as they can mix in new songs, and songs they do infrequently. The only catch is if you really get SICK of a song that people are often requesting. It can sometimes be hard to keep a song fresh and interesting to yourself, that you sing a lot.    Musicians who are on the road and do as many as 200 concerts a year (and I've known some) sometimes can sound like they're on auto-pilot singing the same songs night after night with the same introductions and the same rehearsed impromptu comments and asides. I don't blame singers for that. Being on the road is about as draining a way of life as there is, and people have to find some way to survive. Fortunately, most of us bask in relative obscurity, so we're not as likely to get sick of songs we perform.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Amos
Date: 17 Dec 03 - 11:25 PM

Oh, Jerry -- stay outta Westport Connecticut, man. It's has been invaded and overrun some thirty years since by aliens from another lifestyle, I yam here to tell ya!!

A

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Callie
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 12:50 AM

Maybe we could announce a ten year moratorium on these songs. With a decent break it will be nice to hear them again!

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: open mike
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 01:45 AM

i ws looking for the favorite christmas songs thread...
was going to post this when the cat went down..
now can't find the thread...part was pro/con little drummer boy
I am in the pro drummer camp!

funny, i would think musicians would appreciate
the sentiment in "Drummer", that the gift of music
is the best gift of all...

and i would have to vote for John McCutcheon's
song Christmas in the Trenches as the best all-
around song for the season. It tells the story
(true) of how music helped to bring an end to
war, if just briefly, and was a unifying factor
between soldiers on "both sides of the rifle"

the song that bothers me the most when sung in public
is "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" because they
usually enunciate the "sh" part and slur it til
it gets all mushy like figgy pudding...

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,Johnny in OKC
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 01:56 AM

Every Twelve-bar blues.

I groan in agony with each predictable chord change.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 08:25 AM

Flower of Scotland, sung drunkenly or requested drunkenly! Oh...sorry, I forgot the thread was about GOOD songs...

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 08:35 AM

Westport, Connecticut, by the way, is like the Rodeo Drive of the East in a pretentiously unpretentious sort of way. Paul Newman and Joan Woodward live there, among others. A few years ago, my Gospel Quartet sang at a Sunday brunch at a very exclusive Inn in downtown Westport. From what I remember, the Inn only has eight suites. We were given a tour of some of the suites by a friend of mine who was working there at the time, and they were luxuriant beyond belief. The cost per night was in the thousands off dollars. Movie stars and the jet set come up from New York City to stay there. Luther Vandross had brunch there one time when we were singing. I tried to get him to come up and do a gospel song, and we'd back him, but I guess we WERE kind of intimidating, and he declined the offer.. :-)

How do you know about Westport, Amos?

Jerry

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: KateG
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 11:31 AM

Actually, I grew up in Westport, Ct. But that was 35 odd (very odd) years ago, before it became a yuppie paradise. Yes there was money, but conspicuous consumption was definately frowned upon. Very few Cadillacs, lots of VW's. Can't recognize the place now...it looks like an upscale NJ mall, all sense of restraint long gone. To the best of my knowledge only one of my high school classmates still lives in the town.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 02:15 PM

"I hate to say it, but we were hoping you would do "Barrett's Privateers", as well as "The Unicorn", "Wild Rover", and "Streets of London""

Ya might get 2 outa 4... The Unicorn I refuse to even learn, and I've never done Streets Of London...

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 07:52 PM

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" - people always seem to miss out the last verse about "Or we'll break all your Bloody Winders", which I think is a pity, because it drives away the slush.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: MickyMan
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 05:54 AM

How about "Old Blue Suit", by Jerry Rasmussen. Kind of just kidding to get somebody's goat there, but the people I sing with did totally wore that one out in the 80's. We don't seem to sing it as much any more...but come to think of it , it qualifies as a great song that meant a lot to us for quite a while. Keep 'em comin', JR.
This thread has been very useful to me. I'm putting together some sets for gigging in an Irish/Celtic venue here in CT, USA. I'm getting some great ideas of what will go over well with audiences because the way I figure it... if everybody's sick of these wonderful songs then I should start doing them until I get sick of them too. I'll bet the listeners will love them, and I haven't done that much Irish/Celtic, so I will too.   Oh well, if they're good songs I won't mind, will I.
Now if you will please excuse me, I need to go work out "Puff, The Magic Dragon". Come on... you all know you loved it the first time you heard it.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 08:21 AM

No offense taken, Mickey. Just tell me where you live :-)

There are songs I've written that I still think are good, but I'm sick of singing them, myself. Robert's Rooster is one. I never sing it, unless I run into Naomi Solo. She loves that song, and I know I'll never get away with NOT singing it, when I see her.

Even good songs have to lie fallow. Sometimes for a lonnnnnh time.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,guest tom
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 08:41 AM

If performers can't bring something new to a song ,something that expresses the spirit that went into the songs composition ,they should leave it alone . I used to think The Holy Ground had been nearly murdered by countless drunken renditions until I heard a young woman singing it in a bar, slowly and gracefully ,without the shouted Fine girl ye Are chorus.
Television adverts are the worst killers of songs . The First Time Ever I saw Your Face could survive Top of the Pops but not the British Gas ad. May it rest in peace

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 09:08 AM

Hey! Are you the legendary Crazy Man Mickey of Black Rock Turnpike fame, arisen from the Ashes? If so, I've missed you, buddy! I figure nobody else did Old Blue Suit once, let alone got sick of doing it unless it was the original ACSB.

PM me, will ya? Even if you aren't the legendary Crazy Man. You're still a fellow Nuttymega.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Peter Woodruff
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 02:24 PM

Whatever happened to the Dave Clark Five?

Peter

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 03:23 PM

Dave Clark Five is a song you're sick of... never heard it :-)

Jerry

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Big Mick
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 03:43 PM

It is important to acknowledge that the reason many of these songs are done to death is because they are wonderful songs. I delight in taking them and interpreting them my own way, and letting them wring the emotion out of a crowd that they were intended to do. I did this during my mini concert at the Getaway with "This Land". I was nervous as a cat about it, as I knew I would be in front of a very savvy group of folkies, but I wanted to see if I could take it back to the protest song it was originally intended to be. I think, and it is just my perception, that it worked.

I do The Streets of London as a "wake up, willya?" type of song, oft times substituting the name of a local town for effect. I make sure the arrangement is done in a way that makes one think.

Another song that I try and do a bit different is The Dutchman. It is done to death, but I try and almost act it out as a thespian would. And I only do it in the right venues. Truth be told, though, I am ready to let it lie fallow (to use Jerry's term) for a while now.

Just a little counterpoint.

Mick

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Rich from Milwaukee
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 07:16 PM

City of New Orleans
The Dutchman (sorry, Michael, I love the song but enough is enough)
Anything by John Denver or Gordon Lightfoot
Any song that received significant airplay (unless done in a creative fashion, e.g. Sons of the Never Wrong doing "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" as one part of three in a blend)

RfM

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Big Mick
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 07:28 PM

Yeah, Rich, I know. I guess I just enjoy trying to put a spin on it that makes even tired old folkies take notice.

But as I said, I have put it on the shelf for a while because I am tired of it.

Mick

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 07:32 PM

"When all men sing"... I wish they would bl***y wel shut the f**k up!
Danny Boy... I leave the room
I like Waltzing with Bears tho

No accounting for taste is there?

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 07:38 PM

Maybe the thing to do if a song seemns too overdone to sing it is take a trip to somewhere where they've never heard of.

Probably most of the songs mentioned in this thread are ones I've either never heard at all, or only heard live on a handful of occasions.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Snuffy
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 08:12 PM

Mick

Yes, Streets of London is an ANGRY song, not a sweet, melancholy thing. Do it right and the power is amazing.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Leadfingers
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 10:05 PM

The whole point is the WAY songs are done.If a really good song is done too slowly(or too fast) by the wrong singer, it can effectively
kill the song. And the Irish Song thing can be laid firmly at the door of those publishers of books that state 'The Irish Song Book' and then include songs written by Australians Scots and Americans.
AND of course where the song is performed.A Folk Club or Concert
Audience might not be impressed by your Wild Rover, but do it as part of an 'Entertainment' evening and the audience will be stomping along in time.
Innaccuracies and factual errors are what stops me doing some songs The Witches being an example, when the number of women killed by the Inquisition is usually greater than the population of Europe at the time of the Inquisition. And The Alamo -- Young Davy Crockett was about sixty wasnt he ?? Gawd I could rant on for ever but I must go and rehearse American Pie for my next Medieval Banquet.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,Working Men from Rita McNeil
Date: 10 Jun 04 - 06:26 PM

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 Jun 04 - 08:01 PM

wouldn't any one of us be proud to have written any one of these songs?

As a songwriter I know I would

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: emjay
Date: 10 Jun 04 - 08:38 PM

WEll, as an audience member rather than a performer, I will be a lot more sensitive to the feelings of the performers. I'm afraid I have seldom given much thought to how many times they have done the song when I go to a concert wanting to hear it.
I've gone to one Peter, Paul and Mary concert, and they did sing Puff. One Pete Seeger concert and he did Abiyoyo. And so on. I am more grateful than ever after reading your posts, but it won't stop my wanting to hear them. Some are so familiar from having played them over and over but I've never heard them live and that is what I really want when I go to the concerts.
And how awful that I LIKE the maudlin ones. Fields of Athenry; Kilkelly, Ireland; The Band Played Waltzing Matilda; It doesn't say much for my depth of character, I guess, but I do go to a concert hoping to hear them, and most times there is someone there who has never heard the songs before. Just as I have never heard so many mentioned here.
Just think how fortunate you are that you can sing something people want to hear so much. Not just the song, but you the performer must be pretty good.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,Learaí na Láibe
Date: 21 Feb 15 - 09:35 PM

I just came across this almost 11 year old thread by accident while researching a song. Some of the songs mentioned remain as overdone as ever.

However, I only ever remember hearing one singer singing "Dancing with Bears". I don't think it's overdone in Rebel Cork.

I also haven't heard "Roddy McCorley" for years, it's been replaced by the much inferior "Seán South". I'd say many younger people wouldn't even recognise "Roddy McCorley".

"Caledonia" seems to be sung every night by some singer in every bar in every county in Ireland in the last few years. Sometimes you'll hear it twice in the same night. It appears to be the default song for many females. That song can also be included in the list of "Irish songs that are not Irish at all".

Lovely song nevertheless, but.........

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Acorn4
Date: 22 Feb 15 - 06:16 PM

Athough I do like Bob Dylan I nominate "Knocking on Heaven's Door"

"Someone take this guitar off of me..."

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST, DTM
Date: 22 Feb 15 - 07:47 PM

As soon as I hear the first two or three words of 'No Man's Land' or 'The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' I cringe. Great songs but their misery has been done to death. (Sorry no pun intended).

Also, any song with more than five verses & I'm ready for bed.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,Richard -Musket - Thompson
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 02:55 AM

Meet me at the folk club, don't be late
I need to sing some Richard and it just won't wait
Blow out the candles and turn on the light
I don't want to hear "The Bright Lights" tonight

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST, DTM
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 05:45 AM

Alas, "Wagon Wheel" is swiftly falling into the 'done to death' category. Pity because it's a super song. Oddly enough, a Canadian friend of mine told me recently he has just discovered this song.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 09:23 AM

Around here, everyone's been singing "Seven Spanish Angels" lately. It's a very nice melody, but after a certain number of repetitions you figure out the story in the lyrics, and then it becomes unbearable.

The same thing happened with Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" a few years back. But in that case people came up with lots of alternative lyrics and transformed it into a humorous song. Maybe that's what we need for the Spanish Angels.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: olddude
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 06:32 PM

Anything by ppm. I love them but enough already

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 23 Feb 15 - 07:10 PM

Pretty much everything from mid century folk boom. I have to be in a pretty nostalgic way to get through any of my 400+ LPs these days. They just have old sentiments.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Bugsy
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 02:32 AM

Hallelujah!

Wild Rover

Fields of Athenry

Cheers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,Desi C
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 06:02 AM

At the risk of upsetting many open mic singers, mine is Hotel Califormia. At best I find it an ok song, at worse the beginning of rubbish modern cross ovr Country. but my big objection is you can't seem to go a month round the Folk and open mic scene without hearing it done yet again in the same old monotonous way, pleae someone put it in musical Room 101 and never let it be heard again. I'm rather tired of Jolene too!

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 06:14 AM

i get a bit pissed off with my own songs. you get the most popular ones requested time and time again. you end up wondering how to push the programme forward.

obviously its nice when you see a new audience laughing their asses off - but it sort of sets the mood. and usually - cos i never get many gigs - not being a serious artist singing about the first world war or some shit that happened the 12th century, something acceptable to the middle class remit. usually you haven't got a full a full evening to push the envelope to expand into.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 06:36 AM

But it's good to hear all of these songs once in a while. Especially for newbees.

Do any clubs actually keep a list/diary of what is banned or frowned upon? Then maybe they could auction or raffle the opportunity to sing one of these songs again after, maybe, six/twelve months? ;)

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Elmore
Date: 24 Feb 15 - 08:58 PM

At this point, I'm not sick of most of the songs that were listed at the top if this thread. I never liked Danny Boy 'til I heard the sublime Carol Noonan song ot.

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: Acorn4
Date: 25 Feb 15 - 03:53 AM

The anchor at Sidmouth impose a £10 fine for singing "The Wild Rover".

Subject: RE: Good Songs You're Sick Of
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 25 Feb 15 - 01:33 PM