Members midinut Posted March 23, 2006 Members Posted March 23, 2006 My band is learning several medleys (Doobie Brothers, Eagles, Elvis, etc.) and I'm just curious how some of you that do medleys handle them. I mean how many is enough or too much, how do the audiences respond, all ballads, all rockers, mix-em-up, and so on. Your thoughts are appreciated. Thanks in advance for your input!
Members fastplant Posted March 23, 2006 Members Posted March 23, 2006 We try not to do more than 3 or 4 songs at a time. Here's a few samples to give you an idea on how we do them: Summer of 69/Don't You Forget About Me/You Give Love a Bad Name I Love Rock & Roll/Back in Black 867-5309 (Jenny)/Jessie's Girl
Members THX1138 Posted March 23, 2006 Members Posted March 23, 2006 We do a Kiss medley. Always goes over very well. It includes six songs - kinda stretches the boundaries of an acceptable length, but we try to keep it interesting by switching lead vocalists n whatnot. Most are just a verse n chorus, then on to the next. Starts with Strutter, then Dr Love, Love Gun, Cold Gin, Hard Luck Woman, and ends with Shout it Out Loud in its entirety. Lead singer does Strutter, Love Gun & Shout it Out Loud. Drummer sings Dr Love, lead guitarist sings Cold Gin, and I (bass player) do Hard Luck Woman & the Gene Simmons parts of Shout it. Seems to have enough changeroos in there to keep the crowd interest intact, but it all also flows well. Designing a medley can be tough, you just have to make it interesting, but keep the changes easily digestible. Sometimes we'll also do a "mini-medley" whereby we slip a snippit of a song into another. For Example - We do Devil Went Down to Georgia, and slip a quick taste of Tool's "Sober" in the middle.
Members rhat Posted March 23, 2006 Members Posted March 23, 2006 The mitch ryder medley is always a good one ,, sock it to me baby ,,, devil with the blue dress etc .....Its a classic. rat
Members fastplant Posted March 23, 2006 Members Posted March 23, 2006 Originally posted by THX1138 and slip a quick taste of Tool's "Sober"
Members summit111 Posted March 23, 2006 Members Posted March 23, 2006 My Brothers, We do no more than (2) in a row, with no break in between. We actually open with Jailhouse Rock/Blue Suede Shoes. Then after a while some Little Richard: Lucille/Tootie Frutti Frogman Henry: Don't know why I love you/Ain't got no home Fats Domino: Blue Monday/Josephine The girls get the crowd singing along... Summit111"Old School Rock & Roll"
Members rickkreuzer Posted March 23, 2006 Members Posted March 23, 2006 We have probably a dozen or so songs that we automatically segue (or morph) into another song. They always go over well, especially if you have a packed dance floor. The longest 'strand' we have is 4 songs. Our rule of thumb seems to be 2 max if same beat chord progression, but if textures, feel, or chord progressions are different, go for 3-4. It's fun. Especially if there's another 'band' in there checking out the competition. This usually draws them out when you immediately notice them turn to one another and start talking about how they should do that.
Members smaynor Posted March 23, 2006 Members Posted March 23, 2006 I'd only add one point here... I heard a group this past weekend. 9 piece, horns, hammond, etc. 3 girl singers and one male singer. Absolutely FANTASTIC musicians. Perfect sound, etc. But... They would string 3-4-5 songs together without stopping. EVERY song. Seriously, in a 60 min set, they were probably playing for a good 58 mins. Now, they were incredibly professional, but it was almost "sensory overload" after a while. I like a little "rest" and banter with the crowd. I realize that this is not what you a considering doing, but simply pointing out that in this situation, they had taken it to an extreme. They would have been much more enjoyabe (to me) if they did a more normal set list with some breaks occasionally. YMMV.
Members vanlatte Posted March 23, 2006 Members Posted March 23, 2006 Originally posted by THX1138 Sometimes we'll also do a "mini-medley" whereby we slip a snippit of a song into another. For Example - We do Devil Went Down to Georgia, and slip a quick taste of Tool's "Sober" in the middle. That just sounds too interesting to pass up...do you have a recording of that anywhere? Inquiring (nosey) minds want to know!
Members THX1138 Posted March 23, 2006 Members Posted March 23, 2006 Originally posted by vanlatte That just sounds too interesting to pass up...do you have a recording of that anywhere? Inquiring (nosey) minds want to know! Yeah... but it sucks the ass. If you're interested, pm me a reminder and I'll try to make a hosted mp3 of it. Don't expect greatness though, it was recorded live at our cd release party straight off the board... in all our beered up, adrenalized glory.
Members fingerpicker Posted March 23, 2006 Members Posted March 23, 2006 ... in all our beered up, adrenalized glory. Sounds Like my every Saturday night gig!!
Members Roy Brooks Posted March 23, 2006 Members Posted March 23, 2006 Originally posted by fastplant We try not to do more than 3 or 4 songs at a time. Here's a few samples to give you an idea on how we do them:Summer of 69/Don't You Forget About Me/You Give Love a Bad NameI Love Rock & Roll/Back in Black867-5309 (Jenny)/Jessie's Girl I would have liked to have heard more of "Don't You Forget About Me" in that first medley.
Members fastplant Posted March 23, 2006 Members Posted March 23, 2006 Originally posted by Roy Brooks I would have liked to have heard more of "Don't You Forget About Me" in that first medley. Yeah, at that show we were pressed for time and used it as just a segway. We usually do alot more of it.
Members Janx Posted March 24, 2006 Members Posted March 24, 2006 I hate medleys. Medleys are for composers who can't think of their own material that week, so they decide to chop up some other bastards music and show how clever they were in joining them together... Medleys are for folks who just like that one little bit from each song, no time to hear the whole damn thing. Medleys are what come out of us newbie learning to play guitarists sound like when we show our friends all the cool licks we know how to play, despite not being able to actually play an entire song yet. Medleys are what live bands do when they mix up what song from their old setlist with their new one, and they decide to cover up the mistake. One day, the perfect medley will arise. It will be a 200 song mixture, consisting of 3 minutes of C chord strums taken from every song that contained one. I hate medleys, and with HC as my witness I swear to never learn how to play one, nor will I ever attempt to compose one.
Members doubleR Posted March 24, 2006 Members Posted March 24, 2006 Originally posted by Janx I hate medleys. Medleys are for composers who can't think of their own material that week, so they decide to chop up some other bastards music and show how clever they were in joining them together... Medleys are for folks who just like that one little bit from each song, no time to hear the whole damn thing. Medleys are what come out of us newbie learning to play guitarists sound like when we show our friends all the cool licks we know how to play, despite not being able to actually play an entire song yet. Medleys are what live bands do when they mix up what song from their old setlist with their new one, and they decide to cover up the mistake. One day, the perfect medley will arise. It will be a 200 song mixture, consisting of 3 minutes of C chord strums taken from every song that contained one. I hate medleys, and with HC as my witness I swear to never learn how to play one, nor will I ever attempt to compose one. Well good for you.
Members doubleR Posted March 24, 2006 Members Posted March 24, 2006 We segue from: Pink Cadillac, to Born on the Bayou, to Suzie Q, to Gloria. The people on the dance floor love it.
Members MONGOOZ Posted March 24, 2006 Members Posted March 24, 2006 we used to do a bad co. medley.... "movin' on" => "can't get enough" => "rock steady".......everyone seemed to like it prettty well also did "what i like about you" => "r o c k in the usa" (exactly the same song....really) jenny jenny .....and "run to you" are pretty similar too.....
Members elbow Posted March 24, 2006 Members Posted March 24, 2006 Originally posted by doubleR We segue from:Pink Cadillac, to Born on the Bayou, to Suzie Q, to Gloria.The people on the dance floor love it. We do a few.. Born on the bayou -> Suzie Q -> Green River, but not each song in it's entirety... maybe a verse or two each, a short lead or 2, etc. I personally like medleys and I think you can string them together and make a "longer" jam, but would be careful not run it into the ground with like a 15 minute medley.
Members doubleR Posted March 24, 2006 Members Posted March 24, 2006 Originally posted by elbow We do a few..Born on the bayou -> Suzie Q -> Green River, but not each song in it's entirety... maybe a verse or two each, a short lead or 2, etc.I personally like medleys and I think you can string them together and make a "longer" jam, but would be careful not run it into the ground with like a 15 minute medley. We do pretty much the entire songs, and it does run about 10-15 minutes, but it's the last thing we do before we take a break. People get up and dancing, which makes them happy. Then it makes them thirsty, which makes the club owner happy. And, for a cover band, that's the name of ye olde game.
Members Tweeter225 Posted March 24, 2006 Members Posted March 24, 2006 We do 2 medleys. We play Handle with Care and put a small part of Pretty Woman in the middle. And we a dance medley of Brickhouse, Superstitious, and Play that Funky Music. works well for us, we don't have to play the whole song and people love to dance to those.
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.