I have a guitarand a three-ring binder that I take camping with me and I occasionally update. Unfortunately, the binder got destroyed last year in the rain so I have to start the process of assembling another from scratch with good songs to play around the campfire. The previous one had not just standard acoustic guitar songs that should be staples, but random songs that translated in unique and interesting ways to the guitar (and were fun to sing and sing along too).
Here’s a bit of the list that I had before:
The Beatles-“For No One”
Tracy Chapman-“Fast Car”
Pink Floyd-“Comfortably Numb”
Doris Day-“Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps”
The Mountain Goats-“Cotton”
Alison Krauss-“When You Say Nothing At All”
Depeche Mode-“Shake the Disease”
Janis Joplin-“Me and Bobby McGee”
Barenaked Ladies-“If I Had $1000000”
Violent Femmes-“Blister in the Sun”
Jane’s Addiction-“Jane Says”
Crowded House-“Don’t Dream It’s Over”
The Dream Academy-“Life in a Northern Town”
Lady Gaga-“Just Dance”
The Waterboys-“The Whole of the Moon”
Level 42-“Something About You”
Outkast-“Hey Ya” (like Obadiah Parker’s version)
Paul Simon-“Slip Slidin’ Away”
Radiohead-“Fake Plastic Trees”
Tom Waits-“Grapefruit Moon”
Stone Temple Pilots-“Plush”
Billie Holiday-“Lover, Come Back to Me”
Oasis-“Wonderwall”
Dean Martin-“Ain’t That a Kick in the Head?”
Cat Stevens-“Trouble”
Guns N Roses-“Mr Brownstone”
Harvey Danger-“Flagpole Sitta”
Tim Minchin-“Not Perfect”
INXS-“Don’t Change”
James-“Laid”
Neil Diamond-“Forever in Blue Jeans”
Prince-“I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man”
Nina Simone-“Love Me or Leave Me”
Van Morrison-“Into the Mystic”
So if there was an acoustic jukebox at your campfire, what songs would you want added/what do you play?
Interesting. The only one of those in common with my ~200 song repertoire is “For No One,” though I could probably do Kris Kristopherson’s (:)) “Me and Bobby McGee.” Nice range of material there, about a generation later than mine.
So, I’m thinking you might like:
The Vogues - “Five O’Clock World”
Rob Thomas w/ Santana - “Smooth”
The Beatles - “And I Love Her”
Jimmy Buffet - “Come Monday”
Damn near everybody - “Summertime”
How’d the binder get destroyed in the rain? Maybe think about investing in a high quality plastic covered binder (which’ll still be cheap) and some of those plastic page protector things. Both available at your local Office Max/Staples/Target. Better yet, laminate the pages (if you can). You’ll laugh at the rain!
Good idea! Some sheet protectors would be perfect. As for what happened, I left it out on the hammock thinking I put it in the tent with it still open to a song. The pages pretty much soaked into each other.
A couple more songs I thought of:
Vince Guaraldi-Cast Your Fate to the Wind
James Taylor-Fire & Rain
Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi
Jim Croce - Time in a Bottle
The Band - The Weight, Up On Cripple Creek
Bob Dylan - I Shall Be Released, Knocking on Heaven’s Door
Paul Simon - Me and Julio Down By The School Yard
I’m not a big fan of people who noodle around on an acoustic guitar at parties and other gatherings. Having said that, I don’t mind a campfire sing-along with songs like “Quartermaster’s Store” or “There’s A Hole In The Bottom Of The Sea”.