What songs should a band never play?

[Derek Cook]

Honestly I just love playing keyboards and love playing with good musicians to the point where it almost doesn't matter what I play. Especially not if it's a crowd pleaser and I get to have a hall full of people dancing when we play it.

That's how I felt in that band for most of its life. Although I didn't enjoy some of the stuff, I didn't really hate it, and it was popular and you had the pretty young things dancing in front of you.

But the material choice was getting cheesier and cheesier, and Amarillo really was the last straw for me, because I really did hate it, but got forced to learn it when there were far better choices at the time.

I've spent playing the last 9 years (on and off) playing the music I love to people who love it, so no compromises. Five years were spent in a Pink Floyd Tribute act, which was an amazing thing to do, appealing to people of all ages. Right now, I'm looking at doing 80s electronica for something a little different.

So I don't think I could go back to doing music I don't like.

[jeremykeys]

I totally understand. I ended up quitting a band several years ago when they decided to change from a mixed bag of good solid rocks songs with lots of open space to jam, to a " note for note" Jethro Tull/pink Floyd copy band.

One thing I've always disliked is covering songs note for note. I've always preferred to be able to put my own styling a in.

[SanderXpander]

Maybe I just need a few more years of this
I can generally enjoy something about whatever we play. Modern music has lots of synth stuff.
Just examples of stuff we play that I would never ever listen to;
2Unlimited stuff
Booyah by Showtek
Summer by Calvin Harris
I Gotta Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas (unbelievable how boring this song is to listen to compared to how well it does live)
Timber by Ke$ha
Titanium by Sia/Calvin Harris
Horny by Mousse T
Talk Dirty by Jason Derulo
Born This Way by Lady Gaga
In addition to a ton of older stuff ranging from Rock Around The Clock to Proud Mary, Blame It On The Boogie, Kiss, Le Freak, Proud Mary, Fame, Raining Men and so on and so forth.

It's not just that the people are dancing (though that's a plus), it's that I just enjoy playing keyboards, especially with other quality musicians. I think it's just a different experience for me to play music vs sitting and listening to it.

[Derek Cook]

Maybe I just need a few more years of this

In addition to a ton of older stuff ranging from Rock Around The Clock to Proud Mary, Blame It On The Boogie, Kiss, Le Freak, Proud Mary, Fame, Raining Men and so on and so forth.

Think that's the generic "pub rock set list" You probably have "Hard To handle", "Mustang Sally", "Everybody", "Ho Ho Silver lining" and "Midnight hour" in there somewhere as well! All good crowd pleasers of course that I didn't mind playing. I just mention that point, as it never fails to amaze me how much common ground there can be in set lists. It is of course a testament to the enduring popularity of the songs in question and why they are staples.

Some of your other material is interesting as well, and makes a good mix of old and new. That's also one of the reasons why I quit that band in questionl, because there was no willingness to do anything contemporary at the time to have something for the younger people. Myself and the guitar player wanted to inject some more modern material ( I recollect the Scissor Sisters and the Killers at the time had some good songs we both wanted to do), but the vote was for Amarillo (arrrrggghhhh!) and it was the only song we learnt in 2005. So the writing was on the wall for the band, but that infernal song really was the last straw for me.

And that's why I offered the song "Amarillo" in answer to Jeremy's question "What songs should a band never play?" as an example of a song that is my example of the most dreadful ever song Well there's quite a few others as well.

It's funny though. I haven't gigged for a year or so (been very busy in work, often being overseas) and some of my music projects were taking longer than expected to get ready to gig, when out of the blue an old drummer mate rang up and asked if I wanted to join a "rock band" he was starting up. I was keen for the opportunity to play live again - and in a rock band, but of course the definition of rock is a little loose. I asked him for the set list, took one look at it, and said "thanks, but no thanks...", as it had some truly dreadful cheese in it.

The important thing of course is to enjoy what you are doing, otherwise you will not put your heart and soul into it. That's why I said no to my mate, because it would have been going through the motions playing a lot of stuff that I stopped enjoying in 2005! When I spoke to him, he did say it was not his choice of music either.

So if you love playing your set and getting out there, that's great. It's what it's about.

I'm currently working on a little project with the Kronos only to do a 70s/80s electronica duo set for a bit of fun, so doing things like Gary Numan, Ultravox, Visage. The golden rule with the singer and myself is that the song decisions must be unanimous. So both of us accept there will be songs that one of us wants to do that the other doesn't, so they are out, but there is plenty of great common ground material out there that we will still get a good set of interesting music.

[SanderXpander]

We actually don't play any of the songs you mentioned, haha. I have played Midnight Hour and Hard To Handle though. Not sure all the other ones are hits over here. Mustang Sally is, I think.

But yeah, it sucks to feel things aren't ever moving forward. We generally just agree to do a new song and try it out on the gig. If it works or has enough potential, we keep it. Honestly sometimes you have to carefully read the gig setlist a day in advance to make sure there isn't any new stuff in there!

[Derek Cook]

That's an interesting way of introducing new songs, which will keep you on your toes!

[jeremykeys]

I know I'm way out of the loop when I know for a fact that I almost think I may have heard one of those songs, maybe!

I've heard all the songs on your older song list. Radio here in toronto is very segregated. We have the rock station that doesn't play anything older than Soundgarden, the modern rock station that doesn't play anything newer than Nirvana, some pop stations, some hip hop station, 3 jazz stations, well, you get the idea. There is no cross over between the radio stations at all.

At work we have on Q107. Also called Toronto's Rock. They seem to generally only play a couple of songs from any given bands song list and that usually means from their first albums. Except if they happen to be Led Zeppelin. Then it's usually one song every 2 hours.

It sucks!

[Derek Cook]

I know I'm way out of the loop when I know for a fact that I almost think I may have heard one of those songs, maybe!

I've heard all the songs on your older song list. Radio here in toronto is very segregated. We have the rock station that doesn't play anything older than Soundgarden, the modern rock station that doesn't play anything newer than Nirvana, some pop stations, some hip hop station, 3 jazz stations, well, you get the idea. There is no cross over between the radio stations at all.

At work we have on Q107. Also called Toronto's Rock. They seem to generally only play a couple of songs from any given bands song list and that usually means from their first albums. Except if they happen to be Led Zeppelin. Then it's usually one song every 2 hours.

It sucks!

Try living in the UK for lack of good radio station choice

[jeremykeys]

That's something that perplexed me too. On one hand you have all of these incredible bands coming out but then you have such a poor choice of radio. I guess the lack of radio choices meant you had no choice but to come up with your own amazing music.
Just an idea but I think it does have some merit. Most of my favourite bands came form the U.K.
So did me mum! So maybe it's a genetic attachment!

[Derek Cook]

I never understood it either. There's no radio station I really like, and certainly none that cover my tastes in music. Which is frustrating as there are so many great bands out there, which few people have heard of, like

• Magenta
• Mostly Autumn
• Porcupine Tree
• Spock's Beard
• The Reasoning
• Arena
• Darwin's Radio
• IQ
• It Bites (yes, they are still going!)
• Karnataka
• Mystery
• Opeth
• Riverside
• Sound of Contact

And many more. The saviour of my UK radio problem is of course internet radio, where there is far more choice.

[jeremykeys]

I know exactly what you mean . I'm a prog guy as well. I don't know if it's still around but several years ago I used to regularly listen to an internet radio station called Progrock Radio. They had a list of bands that was much larger than most stations play lists. You might like to check out a band called Transatlantic.

[Derek Cook]

You might like to check out a band called Transatlantic.

One I missed in the list above I'm a huge fan of Transatlantic, and Neil Morse in general in most of what he does.

[jeremykeys]

There are so many fantastic Prog bands that I just don't understand why they never get any airplay. The media says that the general population don't want it but if you ask me, that's just because the general public never actaully gets to hear it.
Back when I used to smoke, I was standing outside a bar after work and the converstation going on near me was basically a huge complaint about the fact that most radio stations only play the so called hits. And these songs are only hits because the radio decides that they are simply by over playing the songs.

[Derek Cook]

I agree fully. At least Prog is no longer a dirty word. It also helps when people ask themselves the question what is prog? Some people don't like the connotations of overblown 70s pretentiousness (the way a lot of good bands went in the middle of the decade). It's not a style of music stuck in the 70s (and I'm not denigrating the great albums from that era - 1973 was probably the best year ever for adventurous music), it's a frame of mind to go out and produce new music without worrying about boundaries.

Prog Magazine in the UK do a great series called "The outer limits", which picks bands you wouldn't have thought of being progressive and then make the argument that they are.

Here's one I'll throw into the melting pot. Gary Numan. I've always loved Are Friends Electric (curently learning it for a 70s/80s act), but I never considered it prog at the time. Looking back at it now, Numan was so completely different to anything else at the time, I now think of him as progressive.

I think people who are prog rock fans tend to have eclectic taste, which is why I love progressive music and the mix of styles you can get, along with the dynamics; the light and shade in a good song.

Why mainstream radio stations cannot look beyond a limited playlist is beyond me, especially as my musical awakening came courtesy of BBC Radio 1. A Friday Rock show in 1979 (I was 15 then) had an all time listener top ten, where I heard bands like Yes and Rush for the first time. I was completely blown away, and had to explore further.

Around the same time, Pink Floyd hit the number 1 in the singles charts with Another Brick In the Wall; a mate of mine leant me the album; another leant me Zeppelin's "In Though the Out Door", and when I sniggered at him also having Kate Bush's "The Kick Inside", he also loaned it to me and said go and listen to it as well; i was soon hooked. I have never looked back after that. Just after that Genesis had mainstream success with singles from Duke, and of course it made me check them out and their earlier releases.

It was a little while later, when I realised I had already gravitated to progressive type music (with some pop sensibilities) prior to that without realising it: Jeff Wayne's "War of The Words", Supertramp, ELO, Renaissance (had a hit in 1978 with "The Northern Lights").

I love all sorts of music, from Hebridean folk upwards through pop, punk, new wave, classical. I hate blatant commercialism, but accept that it can occasionally produce good songs, but it is prog rock that I have a soft spot for

[SanderXpander]

Honestly I don't think prog rock is "progressive" anymore in the way it used to be. Sure it still evolves a little with the time but so does any style. The true "new movement" that it once represented is now a "regular" musical discipline.
I think you may be overestimating the market for it based on your preferences. Many people who love bands and who are into music do like prog rock, but for the real mainstream crowd it is just way too complicated, there's very little dancing and singing along involved. It deserves perhaps somewhat more airtime based purely on the amount of people who like it but there is still more money to be made catering to the general public.