Hardest Song you've done?

RobTheDrummer · Post by **RobTheDrummer** » Tuesday May 16, 2006

What's the hardest song you ever played or the song that gave you the hardest time to learn and why? (oh and you had to pull it off as well)

moxham123 · Post by **moxham123** » Tuesday May 16, 2006

Over the last few years, I would say the hardest song we learned is Don't Fear The Reaper. We do it 3 piece with 3 part harmonies all through the song. We do pull it off and when other musicians come up and compliment us doing it, that makes it all worth while. Plus, it is so much fun to play it.

The only thing it needs is MORE COWBELL!

Hawk · Post by **Hawk** » Tuesday May 16, 2006

I think maybe " Yours Is No Disgrace " by Yes.

No ......... It was "Heart of The Sunrise" by Yes.

Another-Drummer · Post by **Another-Drummer** » Tuesday May 16, 2006

Pull Me Under - DT

RobTheDrummer · Post by **RobTheDrummer** » Tuesday May 16, 2006

You know, the toughest thing I had to learn as of late was "Doncha" by the Pussycat Dolls and Busta Rhymes. I've always been a naysayer of Rap, but lemme tell ya, I have a new found respect. That shit isn't easy to do, especially playin it over off time rhythm. I gotta rap both his parts, and do it good in front of a bunch of people. (which adds the pressure, and I actually pull it off!) If you think it takes no talent to rap, think again. There's definitely a form of talent there. Musically, maybe not so much, lyrically- yea. And the voice is just as much an instrument as guitar and...well, maybe not drums, but you get my point.

Go ahead, you can make fun of me now...

ToonaRockGuy · Post by **ToonaRockGuy** » Tuesday May 16, 2006

Hmmm...I'll do this by bands that I have played with/jammed with:

"Green Grass and High Tides" with Felix And The Hurricanes. That's a workout trying to keep up with Felix, especially if he's in the mood to stretch that bad boy to about 20 minutes!

"Blue Collar Man" during my Banditos days. Another workout.

"Sweet Home Alabama" with Gin-N-Juice. We did that one as a tricky reggae/straight/gospel feel, and it was really funky to play. If you got lost, there was no getting back. Honorable mention was our cover of Phish's "Moma Dance".

"Radar Love" with Scream. That drum break in the middle does get tricky.

RobTheDrummer · Post by **RobTheDrummer** » Tuesday May 16, 2006

ToonaRockGuy wrote:
"Sweet Home Alabama" with Gin-N-Juice. We did that one as a tricky reggae/straight/gospel feel, and it was really funky to play. If you got lost, there was no getting back. Honorable mention was our cover of Phish's "Moma Dance".

Yea man, I really dug that!

One I forgot is run to the hills...keeping the 16s goin the whole song at like 220 bpm is a workout!

songsmith · Post by **songsmith** » Tuesday May 16, 2006

Temples Of Syrinx -- Rush. The offtime stuff at the intro was hard to remember.
What Might Have Been -- Little Texas. We wanted to really nail that one airtight because it was current and very popular. We played it out twice, I think, then let it go.
"The AC-DC Medley"-- um, AC-DC. Okay, AC-DC isn't exactly rocket science, but tying together 12 songs in 26 minutes was tricky, especially changing tempo on the fly. And it evolved as time went by, songs added and removed. Worth the effort, though, it paid the bills.
Wasted Years -- Iron Maiden. Worked on it for maybe 3 rehearsals, then I think we did it once out live.
That Raven song where it stops and the vocals go, "solid as a rock, with swords in the AAAIIIRRRRR!!!!..." Man, that one was a bitch. What was that called?---------->JMS

HurricaneBob · Post by **HurricaneBob** » Tuesday May 16, 2006

Battery- Alchohollica- With Giornesto way back in the day when i was green. Lars didn't track it in one take. Cant punch in when your live!

Fatal Maim originals - Scarfone would write and record the tunes with a drum machine and then hand them to us to learn. He was so good with drums beats i told him " i need 3 arms and 3 feet to play this"

Tin pan alley- SRV The laying back in this tune can make you nuts, dynamics also are the key. You cant be thinking of tits while grooving this one.

Some of the hardest tunes will make you grow as a player, and help get over those brick walls.

witchhunt · Post by **witchhunt** » Tuesday May 16, 2006

Songsmith, was it Hell Patrol or Crash, Bang, Wallop? If not, I'll have to hook up the turntable cause that'll drive me over the edge.

RamRod 1 · Post by **RamRod 1** » Tuesday May 16, 2006

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

lonewolf · Post by **lonewolf** » Tuesday May 16, 2006

Rush 2112 (the whole thing)

It wasn't that hard really, but it sure tightens up a band.

tonefight · Post by **tonefight** » Tuesday May 16, 2006

Mine was a stupid one but I just had trouble getting it, the intro to "might as well go for a soda" it was a clean funky sound that was unfamiliar to me and my ear just wasn't hearing it. Technically not hard but my ear just wasn't hearing it. I had to learn that when I tried out for Ask a Stranger. Then after learning 30+ songs in 2 weeks the band members got in a big fight over money and called it quits, Oh well it was good practice.

Bloodsong · Post by **Bloodsong** » Tuesday May 16, 2006

an old band of my played "holy wars... the punishment due." the guitar in the verses is really bizzarre, and the marty friendman solos are a real bitch, too. (trust me, i never nailed 'em note for note.) we also played "hanger 18", which seemed like a cakewalk compared to the latter.

daveb · Post by **daveb** » Wednesday May 17, 2006

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!

songsmith · Post by **songsmith** » Wednesday May 17, 2006

Witchhunt, it was "All For One." We also did "Stay Hard," and "Seek and Destroy," and no, not the Metallica song, the Raven song.---->JMS

Gallowglass · Post by **Gallowglass** » Wednesday May 17, 2006

Probably "Birds of Fire" or "Meeting of the Spirits", both by the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

It took a little while to get the arrangement to "Call of Ktulu" right w/ the whole band.

"Phantom of the Opera" (Maiden) is tricky when you're drunk.

I'm currently working on an arrangement of Thin Lizzy's "Roisin Dubh" that has some fairly complex harmonies in it.

Some songs aren't as technically difficult, but you have to summon the right emotional state to convey the right feel. Our version of "Incident at Neshabur/Song of the Wind" (Santana) is like that for me. If I'm not in the right headspace, it's just not right.

I guess having mentioned some of the covers, I should also say that a lot of our originals have been real pains in the ass. "The Creature" was (pardon the pun) a monster to get everyone together on.

bassist4life2004 · Post by **bassist4life2004** » Wednesday May 17, 2006

I think the hardest song ive ever done by myself in an acoustic show was "Hunger Strike" by Temple of the Dog. That song is a bitch to do while fingerpicking the rythm

The hardest one to do with Echo Chamber would have to be Sweet Child O' Mine because the timing in the "where do we go, where do we go now" part is hard to do, for some reason, i have a hard time getting that part. Another hard song for me is We're Not Gonna Take It, the range is fucked up.

HurricaneBob · Post by **HurricaneBob** » Wednesday May 17, 2006

Wow, Johnny when you mentioned Raven, i just remembered them. Wacko was a badass drummer and a nut!

Senility is kicking in....damn

Gallowglass · Post by **Gallowglass** » Wednesday May 17, 2006

Remember how waco used to hit the cymbals w/ his head? I loved it!

Post by **Jim Price** » Wednesday May 17, 2006

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?

HurricaneBob · Post by **HurricaneBob** » Wednesday May 17, 2006

http://www.ravenlunatics.com

Listening to some old tracks now....
I loved covering Mind over Metal!

J Michaels · Post by **J Michaels** » Wednesday May 17, 2006

in Mirage (my college band), it was Boston's "Long Time" (including the intro) and Rush's Tom Sawyer (keeping everything tight was always a challenge in that)

lately, Pantera's "Cowboys From Hell" and "Highway Star" by Deep Purple

others: Foghat's live version of "I Just Wanna Make Love to You", and Metallica's "Creeping Death"

but, ya know - I miss playing all those tunes..... great songs

And Go For a Soda is indeed a tough one to nail - we had a ball with it, tho..... I thought it might be too obscure (we played it in a band about 3 yrs ago), but alot of people remember it....

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Wednesday May 17, 2006

I've found that many songs pose different obstacles that make them difficult. If a song doesn't have a bunch of blistering 16th note runs, then it may have some crazy pocket I have to nail (Down by 311 is one such song); or I may have to sight read something (which I admit I'm not the best at); or I have to play simple passages as cleanly as possible; or a song my be physically exhuasting (we have a number of songs on our set list I refer to as "carpral tunnel" songs).

I'm not sure what the most difficult song is I know. I know some Bach cello suites that are like straight 8th notes for 70 bars, and I'm jumping all over the fretboard. The most difficult song for me to learn in this band so far has definitely been Walk by Pantera. There were a few times while learning it when I had to say, "What the fuck?!" Parts of the bass line are just off the wall, like the glisses underneath the guitar solo that just kind of go off into no where. I've actually learned Pastorious tunes that didn't make me scratch my head as much as this song. Learning it gave me a lot of new found respect for Rex Brown. Now I understand why Dime never bothered over dubbing rythmn tracks under his solos. He didn't have to with Rex.

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Wednesday May 17, 2006

Oh, and while we're on the subject of Raven - I have this CD of some of their live tracks and studio out takes. At the beginning of Fire Power, you can actually hear the sound man turn up the lead vocals.