Learning a Song You Hate

With any luck, your bass player will feel the same as you about the song so you will be able to delegate the rationalisation of the set list to him/her.

Ultimately it will come down to whether or not your band can make the song work, I would imagine. We play a couple of songs I wouldn't normally go near, but I like what we do with them. I've had to say No on one occasion but that wasn't because I didn't like the song: on the contrary, it was one of my favourites (Africa) - I was certain that giving it our unique style of makeover was a massive error of judgement.
 
This topic has been a source of major contention in our band as well. Most of my choices get shot down by 2 specific members. The 3rd member is very easy going in this regard, but a lot of his choices get shot down as well. I'm game for about anything, so it is really frustrating.

I myself would recommend you keep your mind open, push out of your comfort zone, if the song works great, if not, your not out anything.
 
This topic has been a source of major contention in our band as well. Most of my choices get shot down by 2 specific members. The 3rd member is very easy going in this regard, but a lot of his choices get shot down as well. I'm game for about anything, so it is really frustrating.

I realized that I was pretty selfish in that regard with the band I was in. I just looked at our last setlist and realized that 5 out of the 9 songs we did were ones that I suggested, and our poor guitarist/singer didn't get even a single pick of his own.

Maybe that's one of the many reasons that I haven't played with another human being since last September...

Don't be like me. Be a team player.

Put your heart and soul into all that you play, even the songs you hate.

(Oh, that Jane's Addiction song came out in 1988, by many people's standards it's now "classic rock")
 
(Oh, that Jane's Addiction song came out in 1988, by many people's standards it's now "classic rock")

No way!?! I have obviously been living under a rock for some time now! Damn
 
Wait, you like 8 out of 9 songs that your band will play? Jackpot!

IThis will be the first time I've ever gotten together with other musicians.

Then you should be thinking about what you can learn from the songs, not whether or not you like them, and be grateful that other musicians want to jam with your inexperienced self.

Like many musicians, you have very, very specific tastes regarding music. But now is not the time to specialize; you'll lose out on too much. You have in front of you an opportunity to learn and grow. Don't get bogged down by what you think is "cool".

(Btw, Mountain Song is 50% super-fun tom fills. As a drummer, you should enjoy it on that level.)
 
If I only played tunes with bands that I like, I wouldn't play with many bands :)
Suck it up and play it! Who do you think that you are, a guitar player or a singer?
You're a drummer! You're better than that! You can play anything that they dish out!

LOL - or fudge it :)

I'm not good enough to get my druthers so I have to learn to like music that other musicians want to play. It broadens your tastes and you come to appreciate drummers you wouldn't otherwise notice.
 
You forgot 'Mustang Sally'.

I was actually asked if I could play it (on another instrument) the other week. I was proud to have been able to say 'no'.

If I was in a covers band though, the answer would have had had to have been 'yes'.

I've never knowingly listened to this song until now, but something about it just makes me feel ill.
 
but something about it just makes me feel ill.

That was often treated as one of our "crowd involvement" numbers. The guys would get a few birds up on stage to sing it with us. Vocals may not have been their strong point, but sitting behind watching hot chicks in short skirts ride, Sally, ride.......somehow made it all worthwhile. :)
 
When I first got in contact with these guys, I stipulated that I was looking for Classic Rock and Blues.

That's a bit of a different issue then, I thought you were just being selective about which songs you wanted to play! "I'll play blues, but not this or that blues song!" :)

If these guys can't reasonably stay within the genres you expected, then the band may not be a good fit for you. Assuming you have the choice, you are entitled to enjoy what you do!

Bermuda
 
One of the challenges of playing music written by others is to find joy and inspiration. It's just as important as getting the technical bits correct.

Stephen Perkins work on Mountain Song is not that far removed from most other floor-tom driven classic rock parts. He repeats the "Ee-And-Ah-One" crash pattern a fair bit, and the BD pattern is pretty straightforward.

The challenge for you is going to be finding an interpretation you're happy with, otherwise you might as well change the name of the band to "Songs our drummer likes enough to play".

On a related note.... The current generation of upcoming musicians has it really really good. I remember slowing down album tracks to half speed trying to painstakingly figure out parts. Now we can just type 3 words into google and get a vid of the artist performing the album part solo and sheet-music interpretations by a dozen different individuals. I'm extremely jealous that I did not have this during my formative years.
 
Since you are just starting out I would recommend more flexibility on your part. I once played in a top 40 lounge band when I was very much into harder album rock and progressive rock of the late seventies early eighties. I still found playing those songs enjoyable and to this day I will listen to some of them, even enthusiastically though had I not played them would change the channel immediately. Baby Come Back by Player is a perfect example, along with Brick House. A few songs out of your area of interest is really almost expected with the wide range of music a cover band needs to play these days.

Find what you like about it and own it!
 
On the subject of playing songs you like:

Many years ago when I was 17 years old I was in my first band. We were very good musicians and other musicians would always come to see us play. As an example Frank Zappa discovered us and we spent some time in his recording studio. He enjoyed some of our original songs.

We would play songs that we liked. Our song list included obscure blues, R&B and unknown album cuts. If a song was popular with the public, we were not playing it. We felt that if we played popular songs, we were “selling out”.

Needless to say we had very few gigs and after a few years we broke up and as musicians disappeared into obscurity.

You can play the music that you love and you can be very good at it. But in many cases it can end up being music the audience will not pay to hear.

.
 
If it's a song that I don't like, chances are that it belongs to a genre that I don't listen to on a regular basis. I loathe what I call "Bro Country" (modern country music), but I have had to learn several Bro Country songs recently due to its popularity. Anyhow, these songs forced me to modernize my style. Instead of dwelling on how much I hate a song, I try to learn something from performing it.
 
This is why I play in a (mostly) originals music band, and would hate to play in a cover band. I mean, sure, I probably won't make much money from it, but if you don't feel anything for the music you're playing, then it's a bit pointless doing it, music is art after all, a form of self expression, and to me, playing other people's stuff exactly is like painting copies of famous paintings. I'd much rather make my own stuff than play other people's.
 
Mustang Sally actually has an okay groove but I'll see how I feel after a few more plays (I'm new to covers). I hate guns n roses and To her door. And lady gaga, all 4 on the floor - how boring. What's even more boring is being in a band with stubborn people.
 
On a side note, Jane's Addiction IS Classic Rock! I hate to admit because it was new music when I was in high school...
 
On a side note, Jane's Addiction IS Classic Rock! I hate to admit because it was new music when I was in high school...

But that doesn't mean that they should get thrown in with Tom Petty and Creedence!

Anyway, JA is more alt-rock. Boston and Kansas are Classic Rock. :)
 
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