Songs That Should Be Banned from Cover Band Set Lists…
Ok, I was on the phone the other day talking to my good friend David Lutz. We were discussing songs that both our acoustic band’s (his being “The Dave and Jon band” and mine “The Yellow Short Bus” are adding to our setlist. He shares his list with me and I share ours with him. Usually we say, “that’s a good song” or “yea, we play that one too”… But the other day was different. I told him we had added “Free Bird” to the set. Now hang on here my southern rock friends… It’s a good song, or well, maybe it was a great song at one time but it’s been overplayed by at least a billion times… The song is like an 85 year old hooker that’s still trying to get it on. It’s time to hang up the old meat curtains and call it a day. The song is long worn out. I bet Lynryd Skynyrd hates it by now. So with that in mind I ran it by David and he said jokingly “No, please don’t play that song, we bands got to stick together and not play it.” And then we started to think of other overplayed songs and before long we had about five of them. We even devised a plan for all bands to use in the event they are playing somewhere and some nice patron calls one of them out that’s on the “List”. We would merely say, “We are sorry but our local Evansville Musicians Union or EMU for short,has boycotted that song and we are no longer allowed to a play it.” And then we could apologize and play something else other than the song they requested and we wouldn’t look bad…
So what do you think my fellow musicians? Agree with me? Disagree? Have you played “Free Bird” so many times you could just puke? I just gave you an “out” for the next time some drunk son a bitch yells Free Bird for the fifth time during your show… Tell them about the EMU and the song boycott 🙂
Here is our list of songs that should be boycotted. I am sure there are more. Add the ones you think should be on the list in the comments or contact us here and we’ll add them to the list.
1. FREE BIRD
2. OLD TIME ROCK AND ROLL
3. BROWN EYED GIRL
4. ROCKY TOP
5. ROCK AND ROLL (LED ZEP)
6. ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT