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Thread: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

  1. #1
    Forum Member BlueFrogs's Avatar
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    Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    You know, like when the crowd wants to get romantic..........

    :)

  2. #2
    TFF Stage Crew
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    Well, in the two party/R&B/Classic Rock bands I'm in, these four are in regular rotation.

    Little Wing
    Me & Mrs. Jones
    Let's Get It On (trite but a huge crowd pleaser)
    Wonderful Tonight (ditto)
    My Funny Valentine (our version as a bit of an urban beat but still a ballad).

  3. #3
    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    I Won't Stand In Your Way
    Wonderful (yawn) Tonight
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

  4. #4
    Forum Member Rickenjangle's Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    Quote Originally Posted by Offshore Angler
    I Won't Stand In Your Way
    Wonderful (yawn) Tonight
    I know that WT is boring for you guys. It's got some history for me, though.

    I would love to do more ballads, but unfortunately nobody wants to hear them.

    "I'm gonna find myself a girl
    that can show me what laughter means
    And we'll fill in the missing colors
    In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."

  5. #5
    Forum Member Kap'n's Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    Wild Horses is pretty much the only one we do. A cross between the Stones and the Sundays.
    Several guitars in different colors
    Things to make them fuzzy
    Things to make them louder
    orange picks

  6. #6
    Forum Member Tele-Bob's Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    We just worked out a wonderful slow version of Stand By Me that is sure to have the couples grinding away in a nice, slow dance to a great song that personally, I think was done too fast in the first place.
    If you're bored, you're not groovin'.

  7. #7
    Forum Member Wilko's Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    WT
    Don't Dream It's Over
    Lay Down Sally
    Sleepwalk
    Without You
    Brandy
    First Cut is the Deepest
    Maggie May
    Ain't no Sushine when she's gone
    It's Different For Girls
    Feel Like Makin Love
    Ready For Love
    Waitin on a friend

  8. #8
    Forum Member Tele-Bob's Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    Quote Originally Posted by Wilko
    WT
    Don't Dream It's Over
    Lay Down Sally
    Sleepwalk
    Without You
    Brandy
    First Cut is the Deepest
    Maggie May
    Ain't no Sushine when she's gone
    It's Different For Girls
    Feel Like Makin Love
    Ready For Love
    Waitin on a friend
    hmmmmmm, I would consider "Ain't no Sushine when she's gone" and "Ready For Love" ballads, but the rest I would call "slow to moderate pop".

    Am I wrong in assuming that "tempo" determines what a ballad is? Or are there other elements?
    If you're bored, you're not groovin'.

  9. #9
    Gravity Jim
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    The technical difinition of "ballad" is a song that tells a story with a recurring refrain. By that definition, some ballads are pretty uptempo. ("Ghost Riders In The Sky" is a good example of a modern ballad that chugs.) But pop and jazz musicians have used the term to mean "a slow song."

    So everything on Wilko's list fits the relaxed defintion, with the possible exception of "Lay Down Sally" and "Maggie May." The song that comes closest to the classic defintion is "Brandy!"

    So... what, among bar band players, a ballad is anything that doesn't "rawk?" :)

  10. #10
    Forum Member Mikey's Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    Melissa
    Tin Pan Alley
    If, at first you don't succeed, don't try skydiving.
    Two leaps per chasm is fatal!

  11. #11
    Forum Member Tele-Bob's Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    Thanks Jim. I love a good ejumacation!
    If you're bored, you're not groovin'.

  12. #12
    Forum Member NeoFauve's Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    Brandy, you're a fine girl, but, tempo-wise, you don't quite strike me as a ballad.
    Lyrically, yes, and an almost sure fire sing-along, but my life, my love and my lady is the sea.

    "Well, I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused..."
    Elvis Costello

  13. #13
    Forum Member Annie D.'s Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    "Take me! *whump* AALLLLLL the way home, and rock me, ohhhhhhhh rock me, in your cradle..."

    Betcha don't know it. Gets 'em ev'r' time.

    "I'll be your baby tonight" for the country/hippie/geezers.


    let me think on this whilst I sip my java.
    Shine your light.

  14. #14
    Forum Member PG13's Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    You Send Me
    Bring It On Home To Me
    Sleepwalk

    and want to add In My Room
    No neck, no problem

  15. #15
    Forum Member MMP's Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    And I Love Her
    If I Fell


    _____________________
    "Can you hear me now?"

  16. #16
    Forum Member Annie D.'s Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    Let's just clear this up: Slow songs vs. Ballads.

    "Love letters straight from your heart..." is a sexy slow song.

    "Being born in blocks of buildings to a slow, soft lullabye..." is a ballad.

    "When A Man Loves A Woman" is a slow sexy song that can be updated and rhythmically enhanced and is guaranteed to get the ladies' in the mood.


    They Complained In The East
    Shine your light.

  17. #17
    Forum Member Annie D.'s Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    I close every gig with Lucinda Williams' "World Without Tears".

    (am I beating the dead hoss again?)
    :dead
    Shine your light.

  18. #18
    fezz parka
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    "Brandy" is most definitely a ballad. I know Elliot Lurie, and he wrote it at a slower tempo. They went more R&B for the recording, and it paid off. Number 1 baby!:yay

  19. #19
    Forum Member 68tele243's Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    Wonderful tonite
    Can't you see
    Lay Lady Lay
    Down on Main Street
    The River
    Fast doesn't always mean good

  20. #20
    Forum Member Tele-Bob's Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    One of my bands has taken "Stand By Me" and slowed it down to about half the tempo of the original recording. It's a slow dance success every time.
    If you're bored, you're not groovin'.

  21. #21
    Forum Member NeoFauve's Avatar
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    Quote Originally Posted by Tele-Bob
    One of my bands has taken "Stand By Me" and slowed it down to about half the tempo of the original recording. It's a slow dance success every time.
    Good idea.:yay
    By the end of the night, when a a guy says, "Ya' wanna dance?," what he's really saying is "Ya' wanna stand by me? We'll shift our weight from right foot to left in time and sorta fondle eachother in an I'd like to get to know you better sort of way."
    "Well, I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused..."
    Elvis Costello

  22. #22
    Gravity Jim
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    Re: Which ballads are you guys playing live?

    Ha!

    A perfect description of the "slow dance" as practiced by millions and millions of American primates.

    But hey, what else are they gonna do? Walk up to your average bar band and ask, "I say, old beans... do you fellows suppose you could find your way through a tango?"
    Last edited by Gravity Jim; 11-17-2005 at 09:55 AM.

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