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Am I The Only One?


stewblack

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BL has come back from her holidays got stoned listening to some godawful new soul track and decided it's what the punters down the Dog and Trumpet want for their knees up at the weekend. No problem, I'll learn whatever I'm told to, but don't see this one lasting. She has also asked us to learn Grapevine so lovely bit of Jamerson to get my teeth into and handy to have in my repertoire. However the third track we will be throwing out there unrehearsed is Mustang Sally.

As I sat learning the bassline I couldn't help but wonder - am I the only person on this forum never to have played Mustang Sally? Am I in fact the only bass player in the world who had to sit down and learn it?

What about you? Are you the only person alive who has never played Superstition? Not been asked to learn Play That Funky Music? Mr Brightside entirely unknown to you? Not had the pleasure of  a quick Brown Eyed Girl?

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Sounded out for a potential dep gig, and I was pleased that I knew a lot of the band's material (covers).

Then asked if I knew 'Can't feel My Face' by the Weeknd.

Had to confess I'd never heard of it. BL seemed more than a little surprised at this.

Later, a quick search on YouTube and I'm embarrassed to find it has over ONE BILLION views.

So obviously I'm becoming an old git.  😨

Still, bass line on this is fun, so should be a good one to run through.  🙂

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Grapevine, nope. 

Mustang Sally, nope. 

Superstition, nope. 

Play that funky music, nope.

Mr. Brightside, nope. 

Brown Eyed Girl, nope. 

I've always been in bands that will choose a setlist from the other few thousand big hits that are popular rather than the fifty that 90% of other bands play. 

The Slits did a good version of Grapevine. 

 

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51 minutes ago, musicbassman said:

Sounded out for a potential dep gig, and I was pleased that I knew a lot of the band's material (covers).

Then asked if I knew 'Can't feel My Face' by the Weeknd.

Had to confess I'd never heard of it. BL seemed more than a little surprised at this.

Later, a quick search on YouTube and I'm embarrassed to find it has over ONE BILLION views.

So obviously I'm becoming an old git.  😨

Still, bass line on this is fun, so should be a good one to run through.  🙂

until I joined a couple of function /pub covers bands, I had literally never heard nor heard of Mr Brightside nor Sex On Fire. 

Oh an that Weeknd one, yeah learned that a month back, fun to play but knew not of its existence until I was asked to learn it. 

I understand bands not wanting to do what everyone else does but the great unwashed know what they like and like what they know. Now I'm trying to make my corn from music it's what the majority of the audience wants not what I want, that's all that matters. 

 

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Stew, I have played all those songs. Many times. I like them all. They are well crafted pieces of music, and better still they are songs that audiences like. I played some Jessie J, Beyoncé and Bruno Mars for the very first time awhile back. Never thought I'd be asked to play anything like that. What great songs and a blast to play.

IMO you've got the right approach.

Songs are only as good as we play them. So if they are crap, we're not playing them well enough.

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4 minutes ago, chris_b said:

Stew, I have played all those songs. Many times. I like them all. They are well crafted pieces of music, and better still they are songs that audiences like. I played some Jessie J, Beyoncé and Bruno Mars for the very first time awhile back. Never thought I'd be asked to play anything like that. What great songs and a blast to play.

IMO you've got the right approach.

Songs are only as good as we play them. So if they are crap, we're not playing them well enough.

Spot on. The Bruno Mars songs are great fun to play. Losing my musical snobbery was such a gift.

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10 hours ago, stewblack said:

BL has come back from her holidays got stoned listening to some godawful new soul track and decided it's what the punters down the Dog and Trumpet want for their knees up at the weekend. No problem, I'll learn whatever I'm told to, but don't see this one lasting. She has also asked us to learn Grapevine so lovely bit of Jamerson to get my teeth into and handy to have in my repertoire. However the third track we will be throwing out there unrehearsed is Mustang Sally.

As I sat learning the bassline I couldn't help but wonder - am I the only person on this forum never to have played Mustang Sally? Am I in fact the only bass player in the world who had to sit down and learn it?

What about you? Are you the only person alive who has never played Superstition? Not been asked to learn Play That Funky Music? Mr Brightside entirely unknown to you? Not had the pleasure of  a quick Brown Eyed Girl?

I've never played or learned any of the above.

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11 hours ago, stewblack said:

She has also asked us to learn Grapevine so lovely bit of Jamerson to get my teeth into and handy to have in my repertoire. However the third track we will be throwing out there unrehearsed is Mustang Sally.

As I sat learning the bassline I couldn't help but wonder - am I the only person on this forum never to have played Mustang Sally? Am I in fact the only bass player in the world who had to sit down and learn it?

What about you? Are you the only person alive who has never played Superstition? Not been asked to learn Play That Funky Music? Mr Brightside entirely unknown to you? Not had the pleasure of  a quick Brown Eyed Girl?

My main group played mustang sally, and this is the first time that I have played it. We normally open with it. We removed it once as we were sort of fed up with it but got complaints and brought it back. I don't actually mind it.

Superstition I played in the last group and in my alternate group, along with funky music in both. We are suposed to be learning brightside but it sounds bad (not just the song, the way we do it).

However, what is wrong with brown eyed girl - we do it (like this) and everyone loves it!

 

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I've never played any of the songs mentioned, and have only ever covered a song if we can put an interesting spin on it...

Currently our only cover is "Don't Dictate" by Penetration, which we've done as a sort of mash-up with "Word Up" by Cameo. And I'm currently working on a version of "Nice and Sleazy" which (mostly) keeps the iconic riff, but it's faster and has a slap-punk-funk chromatic verse at double speed. Which might be nice!

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Always played in covers bands but have dodged all of those mentioned - I've played Grapevine and Superstition at home just because they were fun to play.

Brightside sets my teeth on edge - it's the lyrics - horrible, whiny, needy boy no wonder she dumped you!😂

Edited by redbandit599
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Don't Dictate by Penetration - christ that's a blast from the past, and a great bass line. Was brought up a couple of miles from Ferryhill, their home town,  so I always thought there was something mythical about them.

I confess to playing Moondance a few times, and Fever, though on the jazz circuit we get to call them 'standards' rather than covers 🙂

 

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10 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

 When you get the right group around you, it’s worth it’s weight in gold.

I believe that is the key to most things.  I'd rather be part of a band that plays a song I don't like well rather than one I love badly.

Of course nothing beats playing songs I love really well, which is the current situation with my blues rock trio. 

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We play Mustang Sally late on in the second set but only if we can get some ladies up on stage to sing the BV's. This usually works very well. Occasionally we get some really good singers!

Superstition is a great dance track played at the right speed (not too fast). We morph into Rappers Delight, Good Times, Another one Bites the Dust etc. before bringing it back for the 3rd verse.

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