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What's the first song you learned to play with a band?


thatsbunk

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I was in the car on my way back from an appointment a little while ago & heard a song on the radio that I haven't heard in ages- "Hot Legs" by Rod Stewart. It brought back memories of my first band I was in during high school in the late 70's. It was the first song we as a band learned from start to finish (& one of the few that band ever learned for that matter). It was our own "Joe's Garage" with the neighborhood girls watching from the driveway...

 

What was the first song you ever performed with a band?

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Man I cant even remember back that far. I switched from Violin to guitar in 68 and played in a rock band in 1970. I had already been playing in an orchestra on stage for a couple of years. I know I had been playing some classical versions of popular music. The only one I can remember was the Theme from Love story. In my first rock band I was playing stuff like Jumpin Jack Flash and Johnny B Good, Born to be Wild, all those common hits you'd hear on the radio back then. Cant tell you what the first might have been. Its all a blur at this point. I had been doing solo acoustic stuff allot too.

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Aside from banging out pieces of stuff like "Wild Thing" "Rock you like a Hurricane" and multiple ACDC riffs.....

 

We learned (me on drums) a couple "complete" songs right off the bat doing them both at the same time.

 

[YOUTUBE]ZaeEopDW0V4[/YOUTUBE]

 

and

 

[YOUTUBE]qnXRwmcKnes[/YOUTUBE]

 

Not sure which one we "finished" first, so I'd say both of them.

 

 

 

 

 

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"A Taste of Honey" Tijuana Brass version in the late 60s. I wrote out all the parts for everyone and played trumpet - switched to piano once I realized the other trumpet players were much better than me.

 

I saw the Beatles' movie "Let It Be" in 1970 and switched to guitar with "Don't Bother Me" being the first song I learned to play with a band. It had a nice little Em - A7 vamp at the end that I could improvise over.

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Not a band per say but my first live performance with a sizable audience at university in the early 90's. My singing, as always, trumped my guitar playing. For example, I really struggled with the intro and remember getting really frustrated not being able to sound like him, but hey, he's Stevie Ray and I'm not.

 

[video=youtube;H7ZPMScX9-k]

 

The second one was this, though I doubt many of you have heard it. Cheese factor high in the video.

 

[video=youtube;ugA5bLqivkY]

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Since you shifted gears between learned and performed (for an audience) ... first song learned "Pipeline" by the Chantays and first song performed for an audience was "I Got a Line On You" by Spirit. Our lead player choked on the break and I forgot the lyrics to the third verse and sang the first verse over again ...

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This is incredibly embarrassing, but as a bassist the first song I learned with a band was Zombie by The Cranberries. As a guitarist, technically the first song was an original called The Last Stand, but the first cover was I think Symphony Of Destruction by Megadeth. The first cover we performed was Running Free by Iron Maiden, but that doesn't count as I already knew it.

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Something by the Rolling Stones - Jumping Jack Flash' date=' Honky Tonk Woman, or one of their other classics. Don't remember which.[/quote']

 

 

They were on our original setlist too. I remember in particular trying to get the lyrics to honky tonk woman off the record (pre internet & lyrics on the liner notes) & getting them horribly wrong...

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They were on our original setlist too. I remember in particular trying to get the lyrics to honky tonk woman off the record (pre internet & lyrics on the liner notes) & getting them horribly wrong...

 

I know what you mean...

 

[video=youtube;iyHNryKojDY]

"Mick Mick Mick… speak English"

 

 

I did find that writing out lyrics while listening to the song also helped with the phrasing and timing (and the arrangement) compared to simply reading from a downloaded lyric sheet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I started out just going to jams where a line of guitar players would take their turn jammin their songs with the drummer - a gang bang I guess you could call it. My songs at the time were easy classic rock tunes like Born to be wild, Wild Thing, Born on the Bayou etc., etc. All I remember was how cool it felt to lock in with the drummer and bass player (didn't always have a volunteer for bass). To this day one of my greatest joys is playing with a rock steady drummer.

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Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum for the talent show at St. Anne's Catholic school in fifth grade! I remember our rhythm guitarist at the time emailed Mr. Greenbaum to ask him how he got that fuzz sound, and he got an email back. Great memories.

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Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum for the talent show at St. Anne's Catholic school in fifth grade! I remember our rhythm guitarist at the time emailed Mr. Greenbaum to ask him how he got that fuzz sound' date=' and he got an email back. Great memories. [/quote']

 

 

So... what did he tell you?

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