# Mustang Sally **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 30, 2003, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286 "2003-03-30T21:55:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/41 "2003-04-01T02:34:10Z")
I hereby propose–as I’m rejoining the bass playing ranks–forming a band that plays nothing but old covers of songs every one is sick of. We’ll either make a shitlod of money, or get killed trying! ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/42 "2003-04-01T02:59:01Z")
All of the songs mentioned in this thread are GREAT songs! All of them! Well, except for that Neil Diamond one. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/43 "2003-04-01T03:52:42Z")
I don’t really have a problem with any of the songs mentioned in this thread, probably for the reason that **CanvasShoes** stated: > [@](#): > > Just try to remember that we, the audience, don’t hear Mustang Sally, or any of the other old standards hundreds and hundreds of times over like you band members do. Where I do have a problem is somewhat related: when the band wants to play a song or songs that few (if any) outside the musicians’ community have ever heard of. I’m really starting to hate blues for this reason. So often, I’ve heard the band say something like, “This next one is from an old 78 of Little Blind Jerry Joe Jefferson that we found in Grandma’s attic,” then launches into a fifteen-minute rendition of something that features a skilful, yet not really different from any other, blues guitar solo that never seems as if it’s going to end. And then they play another one from Little Blind Jerry Joe. Then another, and another. Four unknown but extremely long songs later, an hour has passed. Those who haven’t left are buried in conversations, watching the TV, or just sitting with a glazed look. At this point, I usually pay my tab and head down the street to where somebody is playing “Mustang Sally,” “Louie Louie,” and “Wild Thing.” I don’t mind being exposed to music from artists that are new to me. But I like it diluted with music that we all find familiar. From what I’ve seen in my many years of being a pub/club patron, the band that can keep the audience there, and ordering enough drinks, may get another gig at that pub or club. But if they play music that makes the audience bored (or worse, leave), they probably won’t. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/44 "2003-04-01T03:58:40Z")
Wilson Pickett, born Prattville, Alabama, not 15 minutes from where I grew up. _Mustang Sally_ fucking rocks, and Pickett has the most divine soul voice that has ever existed. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/45 "2003-04-01T06:27:51Z")
This mini-drama brought to you by my (ex)stepdad, who used to play the bass: [drunk]“PLAY ROLLING ON THE RIVER”[/drunk] “No. And it’s called Proud Mary, asshole.” ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/46 "2003-04-01T06:55:37Z")
[playing along]PLAY FUCKIN ROLLIN ON THE FUCKIN RIV-ER![/pa] ---
**Author:** ![MrBoy1967](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@MrBoy1967](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrBoy1967)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/47 "2003-04-01T07:41:38Z")
Sartre wrote “Hell is other people.” If you are in a band that plays cover tunes, you obviously understand this. Ditto those working in music shops as someone else grabs a Gibson and mangles “Stairway.” (As an aside to the music shop workers-are the DJ’s all coming in and scratching James Brown’s “Funky Drummer?”) For me, Sartre’s words ne’er rang more truly than when J. Geils put out the songs “Freezeframe” and “Centerfold.” I don’t care what you think of the songs (passable pop-rock), they were transformed into instruments of torture. I was in the boy’s PE class, and we were doing things like archery and wrestling, etc. Meanwhile, the girl’s PE class was doing aerobics. We shared that gym for more than a month, 5 days a week, 50 minutes a day. The only two songs they played were the 45’s of “Freezeframe” and “Centerfold.” Hell, I tell you. Pure unadulterated HELL. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/48 "2003-04-01T11:43:16Z")
Oh don’t get me wrong, I love “Sweet Home Chicago”. Excellent song. But if you actually live here and go to any bars/sporting events/public events of most any kind, you get the dubious privilege of hearing someone mangle this song nearly **every** time, it seems. It gets kind of old after a while. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/49 "2003-04-01T12:55:30Z")
Bring on the rapping Granny! What? She’s hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/50 "2003-04-01T20:00:39Z")
Neither here nor there with the OP; I like _Mustang Sally_, but there are plenty of songs done to death, so I hear ya. When I was going to blues festivals as my job, if I heard _(Hey! Hey!) The Blues Is Alright!_ _one_more_time_… Gotta shout out, though, for Sir Mack Rice, who wrote _Mustang Sally_, not Wilson Pickett. “Ride, Sally, Ride” comes from the old children’s rhyme, “Little Sally Walker (sittin’ in a saucer)” Them’s the facts. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/51 "2003-04-02T02:47:32Z")
**elelle** - then who is Bonny Rice, who is listed on my old LPs as _Mustang Sally_’s author? (I presume she and Mack are/were related.) Sounds like there’s a story here. Am I right in assuming that, even though Pickett didn’t write Mustang Sally, he was the first to commercially record it? At any rate, it’s a Pickett song, in the sense that he popularized it and did what most of us think of as the definitive version. (FWIW, my old LPs list Pickett as co-author of “Midnight Hour” along with Steve Cropper.) ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/52 "2003-04-02T02:56:56Z")
Yup, that’s true, **RT**. Cropper actually co-wrote quite a few soul standards. One of my coolest experiences was seeing Booker T and the MG’s (the real deal…everybody was there except poor, dead Al Jackson) play the 9:30 Club in DC, and near the end, they did a few of the Cropper-cowritten songs. It was neat to hear Cropper say, “I remember the night Sam and I wrote this one,” then launch into “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay.” ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/53 "2003-04-02T03:35:47Z")
My husband is a blues guitarist. He’s actually okay with “Mustang Sally.” He can’t stand “Midnight Hour,” though. I, on the other hand…well, “hate” is a strong word, when it comes to how I feel about “Mustang Sally.” Not strong enough, though. Dear Goddess, I fucking _loathe_ that song. The pure, undiluted, undirected rage that swells within me when I hear it makes musicians pack their gear and get day gigs. Oh. I really, _really_ hate that song. The only song that causes that kind of reaction in my husband, though, is “Freebird” (the one time I jokingly flicked a lighter and hollered “FREEEEEEEBIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRD!” at him was also the one and only time in our marriage that he’s ever said “fuck you” to me). I’ve actually heard him play it, once. Once. He tore it up. Rocked it out. It was stunning. Had the crowd on their freaking knees. His _band_ was looking at him in amazement, shaking their heads, swearing he was channelling. When I told him how surprised I was that he’d actually played it, and just how outstanding it was, he just looked at me and said “glad you liked it. Remember it, because you probably won’t hear it from me again for at least another ten years.” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/54 "2003-04-02T04:11:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RTFirefly \* > \*\ ***elelle** - then who is Bonny Rice, who is listed on my old LPs as _Mustang Sally_’s author? (I presume she and Mack are/were related.) \*\* Well, **elelle** I’m not, but: According to [this](http://uwu.8m.com/bf/07mackrice.htm) site Sir Mack Rice was born Bonnie Rice. I suspect he changed his name for stage purposes. He wrote “Mustang Sally” in 1965 and Wilson Pickett recorded the first popular version of it. This [site](http://www.lyrics.ly/lyrics.php/Pickett+Wilson/Miscellaneous/Mustang+Sally) attributes the lyrics to “Bonny Rice”. If ellelle comes back, you’ll probably get the “rest of the story” as that worthy individual knows much about music. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/55 "2003-04-02T04:21:53Z")
Well, down here in Houston, Texas we got a little dance we do called the “Tighten Up.” ---
**Author:** ![Diane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2acd7d/32.png) [@Diane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diane)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/56 "2003-04-02T15:22:18Z")
\*Nu nu nuuu nu, nu nu nuuu nu, ba, dododododoooo, turn it up. Big wheels keep on turn ‘n. Carry me home to see my kin. . .\* Oh, and should I be embarrassed that I can sing the entire lyrics to The Rodeo Song? ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/57 "2003-04-02T16:24:05Z")
As a party player, I have several grades of songs that I get requested to play: 1. Ten Guitars: I HATE this song. when ever I get asked to play this, I play a song I learned off a Billy Connolly album called “I’m really getting sick of 10 guitars” 2. the Fields of Athenry: Always asked to play this by a drunk teenager or mid twenties idiot with a gang of mates. I really detest that song. 3. Anything by Joe Dolan: Usually by the same drunk woman who asked me to play 10 guitars. As an aside: I love Johnny Cash for 2 things. 1) singing _Sunday morning, coming down_, and 2) His latest album, for giving me some great versions of recent songs that I can sing. ( my vocal range is about the same as JC, although my voice is nowhere near as good as his. Infact, it suits drunken party playing down to the ground. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/58 "2003-04-02T18:59:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Spoons \* > \*\*I don’t really have a problem with any of the songs mentioned in this thread, probably for the reason that **CanvasShoes** stated: > > Where I do have a problem is somewhat related: when the band wants to play a song or songs that few (if any) outside the musicians’ community have ever heard of. > \*\* Or even worse, they “treat” us to a crappy orignal that the lead guitarist’s cousin wrote that also features a 5 minute drum solo that no one (not even baryshnikov [sp?]) could dance to. Now, I realize that many bands have some great originals, so please don’t think I’m dissing bar bands!! I’m just saying, if you have a song that no one gets up and dances to (or seems to enjoy) you may want to drop it from your repertoire even if you (the band) thinks it’s the greatest song since RnR’s birth. ---
**Author:** ![PhiloVance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e19adc/32.png) [@PhiloVance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhiloVance)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/59 "2003-04-02T19:06:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jinwicked \* > \*\*I’m happy to say I haven’t got a damned clue what this thread is about! \*\* Me, either. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Demise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@Demise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demise)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286/60 "2003-04-02T20:03:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elucidator \* > **Oh, screw Johnny Cash. When Willie Nelson was playing in my uncle’s honky-tonk in Waco, JC was considered a punk, a wannabe who took on “prison blues” airs after spending a couple nights in the slam for drug possession.** Them’s fightin’ words. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mustang-sally/165286.md?page=4)