A friend posted this chart on Facebook the other day and my response was: Let me correct that chart for you: Should You Play “Mustang Sally” at Your Gig? -> No!
Why? The same reason a rock band should never play “Stairway to Heaven” or “Free Bird,” the same reason your blues band should never play “The Thrill is Gone” or “Sweet Home Chicago”; it’s a terrible cliche. Seriously, I’m sick of hearing the original artists play those songs, now I’ve gotta listen to someone else hack it to death?
These are songs you learn when you’re learning to play together in the garage; nobody really wants to hear them, not from you at least.
In addition to the songs mentioned above, I would also submit:
Stormy Monday
Smoke on the Water
Born to Be Wild
Hoochie Coochie Man
Satisfaction
Hotel California
Texas Flood
All Along the Watchtower
I Heard it Through the Grapevine
anything by the Beatles
I was in an Irish/Americana band that basically just plays gigs around St. Patrick’s Day now. The songs that we should not play are basically the 2 songs that get the most requests from drunken Americans: “The Wild Rover” (if the requestee is under 60) and “Danny Boy” (otherwise).
Unfortunately, for most bar/tavern bands, the option to not include many of these songs can be a non-starter when you get tons of requests for them. “Whaddya mean ya’ don’t know ‘Proud Mary’? Jus’ play it, man!” From personal experience, what most owners (or the persons who hire you) want is a band that pleases the patrons and keeps them buying drinks. They may be a dancing crowd, a listening crowd or a mix, but if they’re drinkin’ the cash register’s clinkin’.
I’ve probably had to play ‘Proud Mary’ and ‘Mustang Sally’ and ‘Love Shack’ more times than I wanted to but tried to remember that very few people out on that beer-soaked dance floor were going to worry that the song doesn’t sound exactly like the record.
Oh yeah… I’ve never had to do ‘Stairway to Heaven’. There is a God, after all.
I neither sing nor play, but long ago, I had the thought that if I were a solo musician type (e.g. your standard Guy With Guitar) playing the bar scene, I absolutely, seriously would bill myself as (my name), The Guy Who Won’t Play “Brown-Eyed Girl.”
What I’d really want to do is bill myself as (my name), The Guy Who Won’t Play “Brown-Eyed Girl,” the Artist Formerly Known As (my name), The Guy Who Won’t Play “Margaritaville,” but that would probably be pushing it. Not that I would have changed my mind- I still wouldn’t play “Margaritaville,” I just wouldn’t include it in my billing.
Texas Flood, Sweet Home Chicago, and Crossroads are all Blues songs that have great opportunities in them for some decent jams. There’s so much room for versatility that I don’t mind when anybody plays them as long as they add their own moves to them.
The same can be said for any Bob Dylan tune including All Along the Watchtower. I’ve played an acoustic version of that and other Dylan songs that are barely recognizable from rock versions or his folk versions.
Funny. The first thing I thought of when I read the OP was the sign posted at a dear recently-departed friend’s regular gig. It’s not that he wouldn’t play Brown Eyed Girl or Margaritaville, he just charged a premium for those and several other songs. (I don’t recall his price list, but I know that when I first met him, BEG was $20, and I think it had risen to $50 by the end of his career. Despite that, it was a rare night when he didn’t play it.)
Personally, when I worked in bars, the songs I got sick of included Friends in Low Places, Wonderful Tonight, You Don’t Have to Call Me Darlin’, Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw, etc. But they made the crowds happy, and happy drunks = good sales and tips, so there you go.
In general, I agree with the OP. On the other hand, I really like it when a band covers a song but changes the original style.
So, even though I don’t have any desire to hear the original version of Mustang Sally (or something close to it) ever again, a bluegrass or metal or jazz cover of it would probably tickle me pink.
