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Requests that make you go "uh...."


Blackbird 13

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gosh, I can't imagine actual musicians calling either Gin Blossoms or Toad mediocre. Both bands had top-notch song writing and performing skills.

 

 

its all a matter of taste... like all "art"

 

Some people think dream theater is mindless wanking or thrash metal is just noise.

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I guess that kinda makes sense. What's the typical nostalgia cycle--20/25 years? That stuff should be hitting it's stride again pretty soon.

 

 

when There & Back Again started in 2002 we had a lot more 90s rock in the set and it didn't work as well so we dropped almost all of it.

 

We never got requests for it until the 9 months or so. we may add some back in

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:confused:
This is either a joke or your area is far different than mine. The only song I have ever heard from them is the aforementioned "All I Want," and it is NOT that popular around here. I doubt people would even remember that tune that well...

 

My thoughts exactly. I listened to the other songs and don't even remotely recognize a single one. They're not bad, they definitely just weren't marketed strongly or anything. At least in the northeast. Or they're just incredibly not-memorable.

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I just realized that Toad The Wet Sprocket is one of those bands who's songs you've heard but you thought other artists recorded them. I've heard "Walk On The ocean', All I Want, Come Down, Fall Down... and I they were songs recorded by Live, Soul Ayslum, The Goo Goo Dolls, Gin Blossoms... which is to say they were great songs. I just never made the connection that TTWP actually recorded them.

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I just realized that Toad The Wet Sprocket is one of those bands who's songs you've heard but you thought other artists recorded them. I've heard "Walk On The ocean', All I Want, Come Down, Fall Down... and I they were songs recorded by Live, Soul Ayslum, The Goo Goo Dolls, Gin Blossoms... which is to say they were great songs. I just never made the connection that TTWP actually recorded them.



:lol: I have to agree. The only one I knew was TTWS was Fall down cuz I covered that song when it was new.

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gosh, I can't imagine actual musicians calling either Gin Blossoms or Toad mediocre. Both bands had top-notch song writing and performing skills.



I dunno--to me it's the 90s version of stuff like the Little River Band and England Dan and John Ford Coley of the '70s. Expertly crafted songs, a couple of which you may recognize, good live performers, but overall really neither here nor there. :idk:

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^ Is his first name England? Or is he from England? Always pissed me off about that guy. One guy's got 2 last names and the other has none. Nights are forever when you have no last name.

 

 

I think it's funny, too...but the power of nerd compels me to post that his last name was Seals. Dan Seals (RIP) was nicknamed 'England Dan' in high school because he was such a fan of the Beatles that he affected an English accent. When he and Coley formed their group, they wanted something other than 'Seals & Coley'. They were afraid it would be confused with Seals & Crofts, which featured Dan's older brother Jim Seals. And now you know the rest of the story...

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1. I remember playing a particularly out in the sticks venue with my band at the time when one of the bouncers comes up, 6'3, and probably 300 pounds, with a bald head and a goatee and goes "Hey... do you guys know Mister Mister's "Take These Broken Wings"... it took me a second to process before I could even answer his question... wish I'd known it!


2. Played a room with a reputation as having the more "senior" crowd. I don't remember the order, but we played some combination of "Cupid Shuffle", "Play That Funky Music", "Save a Horse", "Billie Jean", "This Is How We Do It", "Brown Eyed Girl", and finished up with "Let's Get It On" when one of the more elderly bar patrons comes over and asks me, in all seriousness, if we know "any dance music". Again.. relatively speechless before saying "Other than stuff like we've just done, I don't think so..."


3. At a show in a resort town, I vivdly remember this really preppy looking white kid coming up to me.. had to be no more than 23.. short hair, button up shirt, khakis, very stereotypically "white".. and asking if we knew Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise". We did, and played it, and I thought very little of it, until not fifteen minutes later a guy from the other side of the bar, this time a black guy in his late 20s/early 30s who's blinged out, baggy clothes, and looking as "thug" as possible, comes up to me and asks if we know Green Day's "Holiday". Again, we did, and played it.. but it was certainly a lesson in never judging a book by it's cover.. and a reminder that music is a universal language.



Any funny or interesting requests stories?

 

 

The request that always makes me laugh is "Do y'all play any 'booty shakin' music?" - We get country requests on a regular basis, but they are easily deflected.

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My thoughts exactly. I listened to the other songs and don't even remotely recognize a single one. They're not bad, they definitely just weren't marketed strongly or anything. At least in the northeast. Or they're just incredibly not-memorable.

 

 

Toad came out when I was in college at the University of Delaware from 90-94, and they were definitely pretty popular. Certainly not huge by any measure, but definitely pretty popular, especially among the college crowd. They had a couple tunes make it into the Billboard top 20...

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I just realized that Toad The Wet Sprocket is one of those bands who's songs you've heard but you thought other artists recorded them.

 

 

Wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that their name is so {censored}ing stupid.

 

The 90s were definately the decade of "the more obscure the band name the better". And sometimes that helped result in having an even MORE memorable name. I like the band a lot. And I know it's a Monty Python reference. But that name is a bridge-too-far, IMO.

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Wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that their name is so {censored}ing stupid.

 

At the 1999 performance Eric Idle Sings Monty Python, Idle reflected on the name's usage:

I once wrote a sketch about rock musicians and I was trying to think of a name that would be so silly nobody would ever use it, or dream it could ever be used. So I wrote the words "Toad the Wet Sprocket". And a few years later, I was driving along the freeway in L.A., and a song came on the radio, and the DJ said, "that was by Toad the Wet Sprocket", and I nearly drove off the freeway.

 

:lol:

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We often will pretend we know songs when people request them just to have some fun. Sing and/or play as much as we can of the song, shamefully admit we don't know it, apologize for ruining it, and then kick off into the next tune.

 

A few years back we were playing in a club and a couple of young pretty girls come up and ask "can you guys play Jet?" The drummer and I look over at each other and get ready to kick into a bit of "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" which we were talking about working up at the time but hadn't brought up to the band yet.

 

But just before we can kick into it I look over and our bass player is singing into his mike "Jet!...ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo...Jet!"

 

....I walk over and tap him on the shoulder and say...."hmmm...I don't think that's quite the "Jet" THESE girls had in mind...."

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