Shoveling Against The Tide

So we had our big band meeting. Not bad, not 100% rosy but people got to voice their concerns and opinions. Everyone still agrees we should be able to be a very fun band (for ourselves and an audience). Everyone still professes to respect and like each other. Rob was good at sticking firm that we should be working toward playing out as soon as possible and that we need to put together a CD/Tape and Band Bio so he can start talking to clubs. Our plan is to record a few songs for this on Sunday the 23rd. This is good – it should get us focused and motivated. The sooner he can line up a gig or two, the more determined we will be about solidifying a set list.

In the end, different people had different ideas over what songs we should be learning. While the general type of song is fairly well agreed on, there is some debate over “is this really danceable?” or “how many slow songs per set is too many?” or simply “I always wanted to do this song! Can we try it?” These are certainly not irreconcilable differences that would break up the band.

We basically agreed that we should look at the current song list and each of us should pick two songs we would like to dump and offer two songs we would like to replace them with. Then we would all vote whether or not to indeed replace any individual song that someone proposed to dump. If we all picked different songs and with no objections, in one session this could result in 10 out of 45 being turned over. Not a horrible solution and everyone seemed to accept this suggestion. Of course we weren’t totally clear if we are doing this based on the “set list” or based on the “here are all of the songs we’ve tried so far” list.

Finally we got to actually practice some music. Bill had mentioned a Mick Jagger song (not a Rolling Stones song) that he felt was probably Mick’s best song ever and a great tune for us to try – catchy beat with a different but not difficult chord structure. Of course nobody had ever heard the song before but Bill had it on CD and had the lyrics already printed out – which included lines like "You're a apin in the butt when you're Puking out your guts" and“You blew Jelly-Faced Joe and Pedro the Pimp. I’m as hard as a brick, I hope I never go limp”. Maybe I’m a hypocrite by cringing at the thought of playing that song in public while gladly singing “Love The One You’re With”, but if choosing between the vaguely veiled moral looseness of the whole 60’s “peace, free love” attitude and the specifically crass and not even remotely poetic or romantic “shock rock” imagery of one rude/horny guy’s urges – I’ll go with the one with the lyrics that everyone knows so well and that only insinuates what might happen with the boy and girl. I’ll pass over the one that I would be embarrassed to sing in front of my kids or my mother.

I guess I’m still not clear on who is pushing the tide and who IS the tide.

You face the future with a weary past
Those dreams you banked upon are fading fast
You know you love her but it may not last you fear
It's never easy and it's never clear
Who's to navigate and who's to steer
And so you flounder drifting ever near the rocks
(Dan Fogelberg – Hard To Say)