Originally Posted By: Guitarhacker
Kudos to you Eddie for playing that style of music and standing by your convictions.

I was in a starving band back in the day. We took the time to learn lots of songs that we liked and weren't playing on the FM radio. Album cut songs. One example is a Charlie Daniels song called Saddle Tramp. It's a progressive country jazz style jam song once you get past the first 3:30 minutes. The cool part starts at 4 minutes.
SADDLE TRAMP
We covered Green Grass and High Tides in it's entirety, and quite a few other undanceable songs. With very few exceptions, we'd play a club one time and they'd give us the old... don't call us...we'll call you ... routine. When asked... "No one can dance to your music boys, sorry, we're a dance club." It was heartbreaking to us because it was good music and we had spent hours on end working out the parts.

Eventually, that band ended because we weren't making any money. From that point forward, I was in working bands that didn't mind playing the songs everyone loved to hate. I can say I've never played Mustang Sally.... not even one time. But rest assured, Freebird, Wipeout, and other similar songs were on the menu every night. We had fun, entertained the crowds, made good money, and played full time.

Another guy I knew, "Kelly"... used to come over to my place to jam.... this fellow was a bass player... really, really good. Loved Tower of Power, Herbie Hancock, and others in that style. He ended up in a funk/disco band to pay the rent. But he really wanted to play fusion jazz funk. There was no market for that in a town with a military base with 30k Marines.... you either rocked hard, played country, or played disco/dance... or you didn't work.


My story is very similar to your Herb. I was in a jazz/blues trio with a B3 and drums. Same story as yours; don't call us we'll call you and they can't dance to your music. The B3 then (then later he bought a digital keyboard thank God) player and myself went into the wedding band business. We really enjoyed bringing smiles to peoples faces, to us that was the ultimate high.

PS - If I had a dollar for every time I played Mustang Sally, Johnny B Goode and that ultra-stupid chicken dance I would be a millionaire!

Whenever I get something stuck in the back of my throat, I dislodge it by drinking a beer.
It's called the Heineken Maneuver.

64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware