The Brown Eye'd Freebird Mustang Sweet Home Sally Girl thread.....

baimun

baimun

Funkasaurus Rex
In other words... How do you put a twist on those tired old songs that you try to omit from your set list, but people (namely the loud girl with a drink her hand) keep requesting anyways?


I know some have done speed metal mashups.... this is the thread to share your ideas.


For me (acoustic solo or trio) I do a lot of island/beach/reggae songs, so I tried to make "Brown Eye'd Girl" sound more in the Jimmy Buffett end of the spectrum.

I capo at the third fret and strum these riffs and chords like a uke or mandolin:

e|3---5---7---5--3-----3--10--12--10---3----3---5---7---5--3--------x---------------|
B|3---3---3---3--3-----3---3---3---3---3----3---3---3---3--3----7---x---7--8--7---- |
G|4---4---4---4--4-----9---9---9---9---9----4---4---4---4--4----7---x---7-—7-—7-----|x2
D|5---5---5---5--5----10--10--10--10--10----5---5---5---5--5----7---x---7--7--7-----|
A|--------------------------------------------------------------5---x---5--5--5-----|
E|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Chords used:
......(G).....(C).......(D).....(Em)......(D7)
e|-----3-------x-------x-------7-------5--------|
B|-----3-------5-------7-------8-------7--------|
G|-----4-------5-------7-------9-------5--------|
D|-----5-------5-------7-------9-------7--------|
A|-----5-------3-------5-------7-------5--------|
E|-----3-------x-------x-------x-------x--------|

The chords are strummed/muted in that "una-chaka-una-chaka" for that extra island-y feel.

G C G D
Hey, where did we go days when the rain came
G C G D
Down in the hollow playing a new game
G C G D
Laughing, and a running, hey, hey Skipping and a jumping
G C G D7 C
in the misty morning fog, with our hearts a thumpin' and you,
D7 G Em
my brown eyed girl
C D7 G D
You, my brown eyed girl
etc...
 
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You forgot Margaritaville. Other than reggaeing it up or changing the style in some other way, I don't know what you do other than just play the dang song for the nice drunk lady with the umbrella in her drink.

I suppose a guy could do a quiet, reflective finger style that brings out the melancholy that is in some of the lyrics to some of those songs, (maybe not Mustang Sally), but that is probably not what the drunk lady is looking for.
 
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Next time someone yells out for one of those mention that the tip jar is a wonderful way to get pretty much anything performed....
 
If folks are requesting it, just play the damn song for them. They want to hear what they remember, not what makes you less bored with it.

In terms of playing funner versions of those songs (before they are requested) we do a lot of Me FIrst and The Gimmie Gimmies versions of songs:







the punky stuff goes over well here though.
 
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Our drummer suggests that they "write their requests on the green request form conveniently located in their wallets with a two and a zero in all four corners"


:grin:
 
That's the advantage of the type of gigs I do. :grin:

Back in the day when my brother and I played the bars in Fells Point, we did our best with requests. There was always some guy at the bar who would yell out, "Play some Neil Young, maaaaaaaaaaaaan."
 
know what, I lied.

we do take requests, but only from our ouwn catalog.
and even then, it's a 50/50 we'll play it.
 
Once we had a bidding war...someone tipped us to play freebird and another person tipped us not to play it. By the end of the "auction" we made $100 not to play the song :embarrassed:

My sister-in-law has tipped us to not play Brown eyed girl.
 
I gotta admit, the idea of tipping a band is pretty alien to me.
we just don't do that in my neck of the woods.

at least, not in the circles we play.

buy 'em drinks and such?
sure!
shit, we'd never have any money if folks didn't pay for our drunk. (read:Peeker)

but cash tips?

never seen that happen.

gonna try it next time though, have some gal wander thru the crowd with a hat...
 
Mark Wein said:
Once we had a bidding war...someone tipped us to play freebird and another person tipped us not to play it. By the end of the "auction" we made $100 not to play the song :embarrassed:

My sister-in-law has tipped us to not play Brown eyed girl.
Click to expand...

That is OSSUM :thu:

Still makes me wonder why those songs are heavily requested. Call me clueless but I am.
 
Mark Wein said:
If folks are requesting it, just play the damn song for them. They want to hear what they remember, not what makes you less bored with it.

In terms of playing funner versions of those songs (before they are requested) we do a lot of Me FIrst and The Gimmie Gimmies versions of songs:







the punky stuff goes over well here though.
Click to expand...


Never heard this stuff before but it freakin great
 
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I have a love/hate with that band.

they end up doing ideas I've had for ages, before I can get around to doing them.

wouldn't be such an issue if I lived in the same town as the rest of my stupid band...who I keep telling to move here.
 
Modern Saint said:
That is OSSUM :thu:

Still makes me wonder why those songs are heavily requested. Call me clueless but I am.
Click to expand...

Because most people, unlike musicians, haven't decided that they are too good for these songs. If you are doing bar cover gigs, requests go with the territory, and they will request songs that we mucicians are too cool to like. Bastards. :grin:
 
I'm sure I mentioned this before, but the only time I've done a cover band was a one-off Misfits tribute for a Hallowe'en gig.
we did take requests on that, but they were songs that were already in our set, just not when we planned to play them

fwiw, that was a hell of a lot of fun.

and we made an ass-load of money
 
the same band also played the closing set that night (3 bands, us as the Misfits, some other group[, and then our real band), so we got paid twice.
double the free beer, too :grin:
 
Modern Saint said:
Never heard this stuff before but it freakin great
Click to expand...

Me First is awesome. IIRC, its Fat Mike from NOFX and some guys from Lagwagon. Seriously awesome stuff. There's been talk of me, our singer and our bass player putting together a similar project with a couple of friends.
 
Gary Blanchard said:
Because most people, unlike musicians, haven't decided that they are too good for these songs. If you are doing bar cover gigs, requests go with the territory, and they will request songs that we mucicians are too cool to like. Bastards. :grin:
Click to expand...

I understand the cover bar gig routine, did them alot in the younger days. My beef is more of what makes that earwig song so requested. I can understand if a new song is hot as product placement will play that song in the rotation and to death. In my mind simplicity is what most are after as well as sing-a-longs but what makes those specific songs - mentioned in title - I guess alcohol can change ones perception of what is good as those earwigs dig further into minds of the unknown.

Oh yeah - and to add to this, the less chords and notes there are, the easier for the average listener to enjoy.

Jeremy said:
Me First is awesome. IIRC, its Fat Mike from NOFX and some guys from Lagwagon. Seriously awesome stuff. There's been talk of me, our singer and our bass player putting together a similar project with a couple of friends.
Click to expand...

Cool :thu:
 
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