What blues/rock tunes should everyone know?

[TT100]

After reading TB's audition thread I want to bring this up.

I'm woodshedding at home when I can and usually get in no at least eight hours a week. Not a lot I know. I'm 46 and layed off playing for about 10 years and want to hit some open mic nights, jam and maybe even an audition or two but don't want to feel utterly unprepared. Before taking a haitus I was playing early '80s stuff like Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello, The Clash, Bob Marley, Sex Pistols, The Pretenders, and originals.

In the Blues and Blues-Rock vein, please list up to 10 songs should be part of one's repertoire.

Thanks!

TT

[stratovani]

Man, that's a tough one. There has to be thousands of songs to choose from. I can't even think of ten songs off the top of my head. All I can come up with is Mountain's Mississippi Queen, don't know if I'd want to play that at an open mic though.

My esteemed colleagues, chime in please...

[Tele-Bob]

Givin' it up for your love
Whippin' Post
Statesboro Blues
You Really Got Me
The Thrill is Gone
Stormy Monday
We're an American Band
Some Kind of Wonderful
Superstitious
Sissy Strut
Two More Bottles of Wine
Back in the USSR
Crossroads
Cross Cut Saw
Dead Flowers
Do You Believe in Magic
Doctor Doctor
Further on Up the Road
Give Me Some Lovin'
Gimme Shelter
We're Having a Party
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Hey Tonight
Hold On I'm Coming
Honky Tonk Woman
I heard It Through the Grapevine
I'm Ready
I'm Tore Down
Just My Imagination
Key To The Highway
Like A Rolling Stone
Little Sister
Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress
Long Train Runnin'
Love the One You're With
Magic Carpet Ride
Mary Janes Last Dance
Me & Bobby McGee
Midnight Hour
Monie Monie
My Girl
Oh, Pretty Woman
Old Time Rock and Roll
Plat That Funky Music
Proud Mary
Passionate Kisses
Respect
Roll With It
Runaround Sue
Runaway
Signed Sealed Delivered
Somebody To Love
Spooky
Sunshine
Take Me to the River
Use Me
Vehicle
Venus
Walkin' by Myself
What I Like About You
When Will I Be Loved
I Wanna Be Sedated
Born To Be Wild
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Wild Horses
Wild Night
Wonderful Tonight
Chain of Fools
Keep on Rockin' Me Baby
Traveling Band

There's a few anyway, pulled at random from Tele-Bob's "Big 'Ol Songbook"

[Franklin]

Damn TB! What would I need to get for a copy of your "Big 'Ol Songbook".

Actually, I've been wanting to build one of these books for a while. Ever since I saw ric480's at a jam. It's great because people are always like "I dunno, what do you wanna play? I dunno, what do you know"If you have a large personal songbook it goes much smoother;
"Ah, right. After Midnight by Clapton!"

[Tele-Bob]

That's just a small sampling of The Big 'ol Songbook. I took all of those tunes and put them into conveient, one page documents that have the chord changes and arrangements in BIG, BOLD text so you can read them during a gig. It has taken 1 1/2 years to compile The Big 'ol Songbook so far and it has become an invaluable tool. Lots of the songs in there are rock and blues standards that help me get through gigs, jams and auditions. Gotta have it!

See, I really am quite busy doing other things than just tappin' to you dumbasses!

[Rickenjangle]

I do that too, T-B...then I take out what I want to play that gig and put it into the Johnny B. "Lil' ol' songbook."

Trouble is, I haven't got time to learn all the tunes in the big songbook.

[Franklin]

I am in the process of building one for my band, once that is done, I'll start "The Blues Barn's Felonious Fakebook".

[FenderBoy]

What blues/rock tunes should everyone know?
All of 'em....all of 'em that you can play and sound good at.

Man...how could anybody REALLY answer that question?

But seriously...I have a suggestion. Take that list T-B made and put some of those tunes on a CD. Then just run through the CD a couple thousand times and get your "ear" attuned to the changes that typically happen and the signals that come up before there's a change in key, tempo or chording in the same tune or in going from one tune to the next.

Train your ear to hear what's going on and you won't really need to know specific tunes for a mere jam situation....

[Tele-Bob]

There is some merit to that plan FB. Perhaps the best experience I've had lately has been doing the open mics for the past two years. As a player in the host band, I am regularly required to play stuff I have never played before and make it sound decent when backing up a player/singer. After a couple years of doing this, (and what FenderBoy said), my instincts have really sharpened and I can pull off a lot of stuff I never could before.

The blues stuff is easy to hack your way through presentably. It's not REALLY blues when you do it that way, but it gets you through. The other songs start come more easily the more you play them and the more songs you learn. The more songs you learn, the more familiar you become with typical changes in rock songs. It becomes pretty easy after a couple years work.

Of course, some intricate tunes you just can't do by the seat of your pants. That's what woodshedding at home, and then rehearsals are for. But there is a huge amount of "typical" material out there with predictable changes that a group of players can make sound good in a spontaneous situation.

[FrankJohnson]

See, I really am quite busy doing other things than just tappin' to you dumbasses!

Bob -

Thats why we love you so much.....

Not because your so damn good....but we're all a bunch of dumbasses.....

And you sir....You are our King!

You always got the best stuff !

[Tele-Bob]

LOL! Wow! I've never been king of anything before! Wait til I tell my mom!

[EJG]

There used to be a couple pdf's put together by the Long Island Blues Society (I think) available on the web somewhere, but I can't find it anymore. I downloaded the two volumes and printed them a couple ofyears ago. Lots of songs in there, just like Tele-Bob's list. I'll check around... maybe I still have the pdf files somewhere.

[EJG]

OK. They're still on the web. I was wrong though, they're from the Long Island Blues Jammers, not the Long Island Blues Society.

You have to join the Yahoo group LIBluesJam (its free) to get access to the files. Fakebook 1 and Fakebook 2 are listed under files.

Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LIBluesJam and join up.

:blbros

[Dr. Jimmy]

Tush
Sweet Home Alabama
Hideaway
You Really Got Me
Communication Breakdown
Key To The Highway
Crosscut Saw
Paranoid
Smoke On The Water
Brown Sugar

All are very tired and played out, yet are must know tunes.

[Guitar Ray]

LOL! Wow! I've never been king of anything before! Wait til I tell my mom!

King TB of Dumbasslovia

Not sure who is worse off, you as King of a bunch of dumbasses like us, or us with you as our dumbass leader. Yikes

[Guitar Ray]

By the way Bob, why don't ya just run off a couple hundred copies of the Big Ole song Book and send it around to all of us deserving subjects. Two hundred copies will save us three hundred years of collective effort.

[shunka]

Or put it on the site here where we can copy it at Our expense.

[MIKEH]

Tele-Bob, King of the TFF Dumbasses? A dubious distinction that is perhaps best left off your resumé.

[shoebox22]

After this weekend, TT, maybe we should add some Country and Bluegrass?

Geez, who woulda guessed it? :rofl

BTW - I've heard "Gimme Three Steps" and "Thrill Is Gone" at every jam I've been to, and not because I've requested them either.

[Tele-Bob]

King Of Dumbasscus.

I could be persuaded into sharing the Big 'ol Songbook. I recently added a bunch of new tunes bringing it up to almost 200 songs, all of which I've learned over the past 1 1/2 years! Not to mention all the tunes I'm half-assing my way through at the jams and open mics.

[Franklin]

You can find all the same tabs that TB is collecting online:

http://www.olga.net/
http://www.tabrobot.com/

Not that y'alls didn't know that!

[LeviSS]

Or put it on the site here where we can copy it at Our expense.

I agree with these guys, that could be very helpful to people like me.

[Tele-Bob]

tbb, you can find the tabs at those places but they're often horribly wrong! I spent half the day today correcting awful tabs. They will get you in the ball park though. Things like a G6 chord are almost always mistaken for an Em and it just doesn't sound the same!

[Annie D.]

Geeze, kinda a "Geezer's List", TB, but, being a geezer myself, I know (or used to know) 17 of those tunes. I could ad another 50.

Like: "Take It Easy", "Drift Away" (for old & newbies), "Angel From Montgomery", "Let The Good Times Roll", "Sultan's of Swing", "Ain't Living Long", "You're No Good", "Backstreet Loving", "Summertime", "Housa Risin'", "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight", "Johnny B Goode", "Little By Little" & "Cee Cee Rider" but I won't.

[Annie D.]

Throw in a Buffet or Newman to calm the crowd.

[Tele-Bob]

Yeah, bunch of old stuff isn't it? That's not by choice. It's what I was asked to learn.

[sabby]

I'll bite on the book. I have lots corrected a few tabs and it's thankless work. I'd be only too happy to profit from your labor. A near revolutionary act, it would be, with this simple peasant enriching himself off King TB's toil. :yay

Eh, a fine kingdom while it lasted. Maybe we can elect you Head Dunce Dumbass In-Chief, or some equally ignoble title.

BTW: what kind of dumb arrogance does it take to put up incorrect TAB? :rolleyes:

[Annie D.]

I like the OLD STUFF the best! Many wonderful tunes to select from. Falling asleep last night I thought of another 100. This is fun.

[teletubbie]

Well, TB, how did you become King, then?

The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Tele Bob, was to carry Excalibur.
That is why I am your king!

Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

©Monty Python

http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/monty.html

Graham :rl :rl :rl :rl

[Tele-Bob]

huh? what? uh, I err, ah started fantisizing when I got to the word "bosom". Sorry.

Sabby, tap me an e-mail to remind me. Make sure to put TFF or something familiar in the subject. I won't open it if I don't recognize the sender.

[Wilko]

I've been compiling a "big Ol' Book" of my own for a while now. Most is available as a PDF in progress. Has just over a hundred songs in the pop/rock/coutry-ish vein. Mostly lyrics in stanzas with the chords above them. You gotta fill in the blanks by ear. OR just strum along at the campfire.
Email me if y'all wopuld like a copy.

[Power_13]

The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Tele Bob, was to carry Excalibur.

Excalibarre ;)

[Wilko]

Just because some moistened bitch lobbed a simitar at you, that's no reason to go around calling yourself king!

[TT100]

teletubbie?

Great. A moniker squatter. ;) Welcome to TFF Graham!

Hey TB, are you distributing your songbook? If so I'd like a copy. You can email it to

eroman@wkno.org

Thanks,

TT

[Tele-Bob]

I have to figure out how to e-mail it. So far, the only way I can do it is to take all the WORD documents and turn them into one giant Word document. Otherwise I'd have to e-mail them three at a time. Homey don'y play that.

[shoebox22]

Uh, er, pahdon me, suh. If'n yoh gonna be givin' away yoh magical book, then ah suggest that yoh better be handin' it ovah to tha ladies foh proof readin' first, eh, Annie D.?

We'll be glad to take a look and put our seal of approval (hug it to our bossoms if that's what it takes to get a free copy :hee) on its hallowed pages.

(How'd I do, Sis?)

[Wilko]

I'll let you have mine for free. Heck I've already sent out a bunch today.

200k of PDF with 140 songs. Good singalong stuff.

TB,
You can send me huge emails and I can make word docs into PDF's or whatever.

[Tele-Bob]

LOL! That "bosom" thing works every time shoe.
I tried creating a blank document and then copied the contents of the "Big "ol Songbook" folder. But When I try to paste it into the new document, the some of the songs get repeated and some don't fot the page. And once they're all copied over WORD doesn't allow me to edit them any further. Itried to do this right up to the point where WORD shut itself down and threatened to lose my documents! It was scarey! Suggestions?

[shoebox22]

You didn't say "please". :rofl

[Tele-Bob]

OK, please make some suggestions and include plenty of bosom references in your suggestions. Thank you.