Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 11:04 am Post subject: Talk To Your Daughter
Last night at the Coach House this girl kept yelling out "Talk To Your Daughter!" and after a few songs of her shouting Robben said something like "Nope, we can't do that, it was too long ago we've all moved on." Why was that? I know he put out that CD 16 years ago, before I was born!, but he played a lot of stuff from Handful of Blues and that was 11 years ago! Whats another 5! _________________ -Danny
Joined: 19 Feb 2004 Posts: 103 Location: Upper left coast
Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 7:02 pm Post subject: Requests
Well, I can think of at least five reasons why a request during a show might not be played: 1) wasn't on the set list, 2) hasn't rehearsed it with this band, 3) needs a keyboard player, 4) didn't feel like playing it, 5) doesn't like people yelling out requests during the show. But of course he may have had other reasons ...
Joined: 19 Sep 2003 Posts: 646 Location: City of Trees, USA
Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 11:38 am Post subject:
JavaDiva: If Ricky Nelson were still alive, would people be yelling "Garden Party" at him at his concerts?
I've always figured that there's a difference between a "show," and someone just making music for the background. When it's a "show," the performers put just as much effort into figuring out which numbers work, how to transition them into each other, etc., as they do with every other aspect of their preformance. It's hard to imagine a symphony concert-goer holding a printed program that's all Beethoven and Brahms yelling out at the conductor during a break, "Mozart's 40th! Mozart's 40th!" Heck, nearly all of the players in any large-city symphony orchestra probably know the scores of all of Mozart's symphonies by heart (they were, after all, a lot shorter and more formulaic than the stuff later folks wrote -- I doubt that there are more than four musicians in the entire world who have memorized the score to Berlioz's "Symphony Fantastique"), but unless it's on the program for that night, they'd probably rather not try it and rough it up. For guys like Bobby Rush, it isn't just the set list -- every movement on the stage is practiced down to the split-second. Sometimes even the "request" is carefully planned. When we went to hear James Taylor at The Greek some years ago, someone in the crowd kept calling out a song title. When Taylor bent over and picked up off of the stage floor a huge blackboard with a list of songs chalked on it, and pointed to that song title and said "It's OK -- it's right HERE, during our second set," I figured the shouter must have been a plant!
A show is a ton different from folks that show up at a local bar or coffeehouse, and love to have you ask for your favorite song. At least in those situations, there's a tip jar. And anyone who gets a request played and doesn't tip should be ashamed of himself or herself. This spring I was fortunate to be at the Ahwahnee Hotel dining room in Yosemite for a family event. The pianist was taking requests, so I went over to him , dropped $10 in his jar, told him I hoped he was ready for Gershwin, and asked for "Our Love Is Here To Stay." He had to rummage around for a score, but found it. And I stood up at our table and sang it to my wife, as she embarrassedly looked around at all of the other diners staring at us. Fortunately, I'd been woodshedding the song, and the pianist's score was in a key that was relatively close to my comfort zone, so I even got a little applause from the pianist and some other diners when I was done. (I wasn't offered a contract, though. There's a difference between being a professional singer, and just someone like me who can hit the right notes and get the words right.)
It's fortunate that Robben is so friendly and even tempered. I wouldn't have blamed him if he'd shouted back to Ms. "Talk To Your Daughter,", "Hey, why don't YOU go talk to your iPod?" _________________ - BlueRunner
Haha I'm a relatively new fan of Robben's so it didn't make any difference to me whether he played it or not, it was a great show!
What really cracked me up was after like 4 or 5 songs he was going to introduce and a song and he stopped and he looked down at someone in the crowd and he was like, "Hey whats that? Does that little red light mean your recording? Because if it does you ned to turn that off, sorry. The police are right outside right now.........or atleast they will be."
I thought it was hilarious! I'm not sure if this analogy will work for you guys but he pulled an Axl rose, he called the guy out! He didn't necesarily jump off of the stage and start beating the guy up but he definitely called the guy out! _________________ -Danny
Joined: 19 Feb 2004 Posts: 103 Location: Upper left coast
Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 5:40 pm Post subject: Requests
Hey Blue, great answer. I saw Jorma Kaukonen play a couple years ago, all acoustic, and lots of requests shouted out from the audience. At one point someone yelled loudly "play Free Bird" and Jorma, holding up the appropriate finger, said "here's a free bird for you".
Most likely the guy was also a plant to help put a stop to the endless annoying requests (in a somewhat humorous way). Gave me a laugh, anyway.
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:14 am Post subject: Talk to your daughter
My 2 cents,
Talk to your daughter is in my opinion Robben BEST recording and
song that I have heard. The way that he blends the blues and jazz in
that song is incredible. Sorry he didn't play it for you.
I saw him in Santa Cruz a couple months ago and he did a long version
of Help the Poor, which is off the same album. So, he is playing material
from that era. Maybe he is burnt out on Talk, who knows.
Calling out for a favorite song is acceptable but more than a couple times
is just going to piss someone off. I was at a concert of Elvin Bishop where
some guy up front kept calling for a particular song. Finally Elvin looks down
on him and says, "I got 3 old ladies telling me what to do. I don't need you
telling me also." Bottom line Robben is the artist and probably one of the
top ten Guitarists in the world. Count your blessings he still tours and puts
up with the general public. He could easily make a living just playing in
the studio.
Robben keep on pickin baby, you're the best, and we love you man!
Joined: 29 Jan 2004 Posts: 1504 Location: Methuen, MA
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:47 am Post subject:
Re: Free Bird
Haha! I just had a good laugh. I'm listening to 1.FM, a blues internet station, and I hear a bunch of people yelling Free Bird followed by a chuckle and a comment by the performer saying something like he'll play it later. This was Chris Duarte playing Big Legged Woman in what sounded like a club setting.
BTW, I really like this 1.FM internet radio station (I access it through iTunes Radio). I've heard so much new/old stuff that I've never heard before that I'm actually writing down the artists' names and song titles. Check it out!
Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 886 Location: SF Bay Area
Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 4:50 pm Post subject:
Help the Poor has evolved and Robben has worked it out a bunch of different ways. I'm sure everyone he plays with could do Talk To Your Daughter, but it's just a basic blues and probably holds little interest for him. He is really trying to promote his songwriting these last several years and I think would rather do that.
He has also always been very clear about bootlegging and I could see him getting on someone's case who obviously had a recorder going. Usually he's very down to earth and friend to friend about requesting someone put a recorder or camera away. I'd bet the comment about the police was his wry humor.
But I have seen him pushed too far. At one SRO show, some yahoo in the crowd kept yelling stupid stuff all night. During Help The Poor, which is often used as a vehicle for giving other folks solos, Jimmy Earl started in on his solo and this clown started yelling about "who's this bass player?" and comments about how he should play. Robben walked across the stage in the direction of the lout (who was burried in the middle of the crowd, unfortunately close to us), leaned foward and yelled "shut the f*%k up!". The crowd cheered, but Robben immediately looked contrite and said "it's his first night, give him a break". (it was the first time I saw Jimmy playing with Robben, Tom and Jeff Babco in a BlueLine like lineup).
Jimmy regained his composure, played great, and got a big round of cheers. And I don't remember that buffoon making much more noise the rest of the night. _________________ There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com
I HATE...HATE..HATE people who feel the need to make comments during a show. Esp. to where the artist can hear them. The last Holdsworth show I went to had a couple of guys doing that. Of course Allan didn't get ticked. But it got old.
I've never even had the priviledge of seeing Robben live yet. I hope I do before too long. Some people take too much for granted I guess. lol
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JavaDiva: If Ricky Nelson were still alive, would people be yelling "Garden Party" at him at his concerts?
