Hardest Song you've done?

[Jones]

Boy, Howdy!! Yeah Tonefight. Go For A Soda! I always loved that song and thought we (Ask a Stranger) ought to do that. I'll just learn it and bring it to practice. What a bitch to learn. Everything is in and around the beat. I bet you still remember it to this day though. Don't you? It really went over great in the bars though!

Oh yeah man, what a mother f****r of a tune. glad this came up, time to bring that one out and dust it off. Kim......shit what was the guys last name?

[Jones]

BTW, pretty sure Ask A Stranger was the first place I'd heard this tune.

Kim Mitchell.....got it.

[Jim Price]

Jones said:

Kim......shit what was the guys last name?

Kim Mitchell.

Kim fronted a Canadian power trio called Max Webster. They did a lot of complex stuff, a la Rush - in fact, on their 1980 album Universal Juveniles, they even teamed up with Rush on a tune called "Battle Scar."

That would be a challenging tune for bands to cover...

[313]

Raven - when the Music Hut (the best record store in Altoona history) was going out of business in the 80's, they were selling off their stock of import albums, and parting with a number of albums for 50 cents each, in new shape! I bought a bunch of albums, including Raven's first album Rock Until You Drop. At the time I purchased it, I noted some magic marker on the album cover, but was so elated over the 50-cent price tag that I didn't give it a close look...until I got it home, and realized that it was an AUTOGRAPHED copy of the album! I still have it, it's one of the best bargains I purchased in my album collection!

The Raven song in question...I'd have to go through my Raven vinyl to be sure, but I know the title track from the All For One album refers to swords, maybe that was the song?

Raven now has a local angle. Joe Hasselvander replaced Wacko many years ago. Anyway, Hasselvander is a veteran of the MD metal scene from the early/mid 80s, and his old bands (Pentagram and before that The Boys) used to play locally on occasion. Pentagram was awesome.

[moxham123]

3 songs that come to mind if you are playing bass and singing the lead vocals because the bass lines are the main part of the song and do not follow the vocals at all. It requires doing the split brian thing where you can't think about what you are playing and singing together.

My Sharona - The Knack

Addicted To Love - Robert Palmer

Whip It - Devo

[DMFJ03]

In Ever Since Yesterday, the hardest song for me to learn ( I think ) was Forest by System of a Down. That and the solo part of "This Love" from Pantera - I never did get that down. I usually got three notes out, then just did a slide and freak out until it came back to what I knew. HA.

In Beyond Reason, the hardest song to learn was We Got To Get Out of this Place. Once I got the pattern down, doing it without my hand cramping up and screw me up is a trip. Plus, that is usually the last song of the night for us and by then (if you've seen what I nut I am when I am playing) you'd understand why it is a very hard song when you're ready to drop.

[moxham123]

Kim Mitchell (Might As Well Go For A Soda) is still performing frequently and recording. He is a highly regarded singer, guitar player, and songwriter in Canada and is to Toronto what Donnie Iris is to Pittsburgh. He has had numerous hits in Canada and some that made it to the U.S. He is also a DJ on radio station Q107 in Toronto. I always seem to be in Toronto when he is playing somewhere else. I always wanted to see him live. I have heard from Toronto area musicians that he puts on a great party atmosphere concert and he and his band are great.

Here is his website

http://www.kimmitchell.ca/html/home.php

[Atomic Jim]

I have to go with "Carry on my Wayward Son," and "People of the South wind (a neat riff from "Lamplight Symphony thrown in.) Kansas

"Sultans of Swing," by Dire Straits. (My friend Jim can just nail, but not me.)

And that stupid little ascending scale in Pat Benatar's "Hell is for Children."

[FatVin]

A few years ago The Wiseguys took a crack at Kid Charlemagne, that was hard and we tried the dire straits tune "In the Gallery" never quite got it there.

The hardest song to do in my solo act is: believe it or not, New York State of mind it's got some tricky changs for one guitar in the bridge.

[Brian of the Clan Plush]

for my part (vocals) the hardest stuff has been Audioslave and some cheesy 80's like "Your Love" by The Outfield...crazy vocal range

answering on the part of the REAL talent in Plush, I'm sure they'd say:

Erotomania and As I Am by Dream Theatre, and

Trademark and Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson

Luis, our guitar player, insists that we work on songs like this at every practice, even if they serve no real purpose in live shows (because they're not recognizable to the masses). It pushes the band and makes us grow as a unit, and keeps us from getting lazy playing 3-chord Green Day songs

[bassist_25]

It pushes the band and makes us grow as a unit, and keeps us from getting lazy playing 3-chord Green Day songs

I find that when you have a band of top-notch players, the simple 3-chord stuff sounds even tighter.

[RobTheDrummer]

It sounds tighter, yes, which is a good point. But Brian was talkin from a chops point of view.

[bassist_25]

It sounds tighter, yes, which is a good point. But Brian was talkin from a chops point of view.

Oh I'm digging what Brian's saying. I'm just saying that when you have guys with those types of chops, simple stuff sounds better than a band of mediocre players doing the same simple stuff. While there may not be any blistering runs in a Blink-182 song, you still need to be down on the mechanics of playing. Those monster players usually have their mechanics down square, so the three chord stuff sounds even more amazing.

[RobTheDrummer]

Absolutely, there are many times where I would rather hear clean easy stuff, than messy complex stuff...but there are definitely great bands that play the complex stuff just as clean!

Oh and one thing...the bands that suck are the ones that play easy stuff dirty for lack of detail.

[songsmith]

Man, that's the coolest thing about playing with guys like Bobby Watters and Mark Morningstar... I get used to that dead-on metronome-like timing, and can sing or play around the beat more, without them trying to follow ME. Marky's not the flashiest kit player ever, but it's tick-tock for hours at a time, airtight.--------->JMS

[Banned]

Strictly bass playing wise I would have to say "Peace Sells" from Megadeth. I could never get it as clean as it needed to be but I got all the parts.

Playing bass and singing I would say "One Week" by the Barenaked Ladies. It took me three solid days to memorize the vocals, but I got it. One mistake in that one threw the whole band off.
Also, "Rapper's Delight." That was tough to put together, but I got it after many rehearsals.

[moxham123]

I remember how hard it was to sing and play bass at the same time on Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire". There were so many words in that song. If you missed one word, the entire history story of the verse was gone.

[RobTheDrummer]

Man, that's the coolest thing about playing with guys like Bobby Watters and Mark Morningstar... I get used to that dead-on metronome-like timing, and can sing or play around the beat more, without them trying to follow ME. Marky's not the flashiest kit player ever, but it's tick-tock for hours at a time, airtight.--------->JMS

Mark is also a hell of a guy, great teacher, and great friend! I also like his bushy grey hair! haha

[homerski]

Maybe "Carry on My Wayward Son" by Kansas with the band "Fantasy Airlift". (27 years ago LOL!!!!)

Andy, I agree! Do you remember when we were putting that song together at my house in Tyrone? We ran through it a couple of times, and then wood-shedded it individually all night long. In the morning we reconvened and it went together like a dream.

There were others that could have been tricky either musically or vocally or both like "Green Eyed Lady" by Sugarloaf, "Open Invitation" by Santana, "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits, or "Rock and Roll Band" by Boston but just came out smoothly because of the excellent musicianship in the band. Fantasy Airlift was Tim Homerski - Guitar & Vocals, Andy Rhody - Bass Guitar & Vocals, Joe Diederichs - Keys & Vocals, and John Homerski Jr., - Drums & Vocals.

This thought just in...

I think that we were definitely at an advantage at that time versus the material that new musicians have at their disposal today. I mean, that period was a musician's dream, with all of the excellent musico-vocal and technical rock bands that were being played in the Top-40. (Wait a minute - I'm gonna check my 1979 - 1980 Top-100 lists): Kansas, Boston, Toto, Van Halen, Foreigner, Cheap Trick, Super Tramp, The Cars, Yes, Pink Floyd, Orleans, The Knack, Kiss, Earth Wind & Fire, Littlle River Band, The Police, Dire Straits, Styx, The Eagles, Billy Joel, The Commodores, The Doobie Brothers, Journey, Raydio, Men at Work, Stray Cats, Alan Parsons Project,.... the list goes on.

John Homerski Jr.
Formerly of "Fantasy Airlift", "Payday", "The TopKats", & "Homer's Army".

[RamRod 1]

No John, I don't remember staying up all night at you house. Maybe that was Craig your 1st bass player that you got with that "Rolling Stone" ad. Although maybe it was me. I know that we used to burn a lot of rope down there in them days.
And as tough as "Carry On My Wayward Son" was, do you remember when you had us rehearse that song in wild New Wave garb with choriogaphy steps for a battle of the bands at Minderbinders in Johnstown? I lost it and got all mixed up. I couldn't figure out what the hell I was doing but the crowd loved it. I guess that's show biz.

[RobTheDrummer]

New Hardest for me...Bohemian Rhapsody

[Banned]

Just heard this on the radio the other day and remembered what an ongoing frustration it's been: "Give It Away" by Red Hot Chili Peppers. Nothing technically difficult there, but in all the bands I've tried to play it with, we've never been able to get it to groove properly.

The longer I play, the more I've come to appreciate the difficulty of nailing just the right feel. It can be so elusive, almost unachievable. Another one that stumped me was "Sex Machine", which we did in SideStep. Despite the great talent in that band (myself excluded), it always came out sounding more like Mahavishnu Orchestra than James Brown.

New Hardest for me...Bohemian Rhapsody

Wimp.

[bassist_25]

The longer I play, the more I've come to appreciate the difficulty of nailing just the right feel. It can be so elusive, almost unachievable.

Word.

I've been known to spend 45 minutes on a two bar phrase just because I want to nail the pocket perfectly.

[Colton]

Tool - The Grudge...

Not the guitar work, the damn structure. We got it tho


As far as guitar work goes, um... Little Wing... nah... um.. I dunno...

[Bag]

New Hardest for me...Bohemian Rhapsody

I wasn't a huge fan of Hybrid Ice, but those boys could NAIL that song live. Sounded exactly like the record.