The Song Fight Bulletin Board

yet another topic for discussion, since we don't have enough of those...

looking for suggestions for songfight "standards," which I will define as "songs that a reasonably competent bar band could pull together and a reasonably drunk audience could dance to." More specifically:

- songs that could be performed live by a guitar - guitar - bass - drums - maybe keyboard combo where two or three of the people can sing; nothing that depends on sound effects, loops, weird instrumentation, etc.

- fairly straightforward rock (including blues, country-rock, pop) songs without a lot of oddball chord changes or rhythm variations. Stuff that a "reasonably competent bar band" could learn pretty quickly.

- lyrics which are fairly straightforward stuff that the audience would "get" on a first listen and/or a lyrical hook that the audience would remember. Stuff where people would come up after the show and go, "I loved that song about the fifty-inch schlong, is that on a CD I could buy?"

Feel free to nominate songs of your own, songs by others, original songs from side projects (that are available online). Phase 2 of this project may be a poll to come up with a list of a dozen or so favorites that might then turn into an albumfight, who knows...

I'll nominate my own Thunderstorm as an example of the sort of thing I'm looking for.

Charles (KA)

My entry for Convalescence is basically straightforward rock that I think would be pretty good at a concert. I nominate it, even though the fight hasn't happened yet. I'll think of some more.

Well, most of anything I've ever written wouldn't fit this bill. Maybe some of my Cow Punk would work, but I think red necks tend to not enjoy songs about recovering from heroin addiction or mental instability. The Damaged
I really like Brad Sucks Bad Attraction

Bad Attraction totally rocks the crowd, gets 'em moving and singing for sure. One of my favourites to play live with Brad.

king_arthur wrote:songs without a lot of oddball chord changes or rhythm variations...nothing that depends on sound effects, loops, weird instrumentation

I was in the mood for writing a song until this came along and deflated me

If a shifting time signature is not a problem for the band, I'd say Glenn Case's "Glutton" is a good candidate. I've covered a couple of his non-SF tunes before: "Space Man" and "Get In The Car" are on his first AAD, "Keeping The Doctor Away".

Abominominous has some great ones, too: "That's Not What I Need" and "Red Zero" come to mind. I haven't done either of these myself, but I'd love to hear 'em live.

As for my own stuff, "I Know My Rights" is pretty straight forward.

EDIT: Thought of another one -- I covered "Crossroads" by The Nutwalls. That's a good one, and pretty easy.

I can't possibly be the only person who saw this topic and said, "songfight! has no standards, duh." But I guess if you go by KA's definition, I would look at the folks who do a lot of gxx-and-guitar stuff, for starters. Bjam's "Frannie" is the first thing that comes to mind, but I'm sure there's plenty of others.

An alternate definition might require songs that can be fully described in one sentence of the form "The verses are Am-Em-B-D and the chorus is G-D." That way, your reasonably competent bard band could pull it together without much practice, if any. That might be asking too much, but you can put half a dozen decent jazz musicians on a stage together and they'll put on a good concert even if they've never met one another before.

I might be a bit bias with this suggestion as am always been a big fan, but I think allot of <b>CHACK’s</b> songs would great to listen live in a bar performed by a full rock/blues band.
His songs are usually pretty straight forward, yet written with great penmanship.

The hardest thing would be to find someone that can sing in his low vocal range. ( or you can fly to Boston, kidnap the guy, take him to the bar where the rest of the band is waiting and make him perform his own songs at gun point.)

No am not in love with the guy, I just envy his style allot.

Some of his songs…

http://songfight.org/playlists/c_hack.m3u
Rabies
A Promise is a Promise
Can't Take Our Love Away
Five minutes
Hey Ruth
Three-day waiting period

List of JBB Song Fight Songs Easily Approachable By a Bar Band:

All Tan
Alright Alright
Bad Dreams
Criminal Charges
Fire Bomb
Man Of The Year
On A Line
Straw Man
Stronger Than
Sunny Again
Systematic Panic
Tracks For Future Practice
Two Bucks and I'm Yours
What We Need More Of Is Science
Wrath Of God
You Get The Wiser

I think people would get pretty shitty if they heard any of my songs in a bar.

Some of mine that would probably fit the bill

Toronto Star
Red Zero
Angry All Over

i would also consider some of j$ stuff as appropriate (in that if fits the 'standards' thing, not that j$ songs are generally appropriate)

A few by me:

It Belongs to Me
Pink Skirt (country ballad)
Brand New Car (my recording is solo, but a bar band could rock and solo the heck out of it)

Jute Gyte's "Violet Wants it Her Way" and "Bullseye Girl". Probably.

Put Cindy Back On The Bus

Most of my guitar-based songs have really easy chords (because I suck at guitar) but very few of them are generally relatable. Except maybe Gin Or Ginseng, if you want to include video game nerds as the general population, but the last time I performed that live was at an open mic and basically everyone in the audience was all "buh?" except Spud.

sausage boy wrote:i would also consider some of j$ stuff as appropriate (in that if fits the 'standards' thing, not that j$ songs are generally appropriate)

really? I was just thinking none of mine fit the bill whatsoever - even the singable/easy to play ones tend to be overlaid with 'big' words, which make them hard to remember live. In my experience, anyway!

I can only vouch for one of j$ songfight songs, and I can say that Wednesday was a bit tough for singing and playing live... whoa that was a wreck
-bill

j$ wrote:

sausage boy wrote:i would also consider some of j$ stuff as appropriate (in that if fits the 'standards' thing, not that j$ songs are generally appropriate)

really? I was just thinking none of mine fit the bill whatsoever - even the singable/easy to play ones tend to be overlaid with 'big' words, which make them hard to remember live. In my experience, anyway!

J$'s Elvis In Space may fit the bill, if first passed through a Caravan Ray/Marcus Kellis filter