May 282010
 

More than a couple of Townspeople have mentioned their discomfort with the “Tiny Dancer” sing-along scene in Almost Famous based on their personal discomfort with sing-alongs. Considering there are a number of musicians among us, including – I would imagine – at least a few chorus and theater members at one time or another – have any of you EVER enjoyed an informal sing-along? Do you ever willingly participate in informal sing-alongs, that is, sing-alongs that aren’t rehearsed and structured (eg, church or school chorus)?

I usually cringe at sing-alongs – or feel completely embarrassed and duck out of them. I was that way as a kid, too, from what I recall. I can’t stand when an artist tries to get me to sing-along by holding out the microphone or whatever, but I’m pretty sure I’ve sung along without prompting to favorite lines at Elvis Costello shows. That was just me singing along with Elvis, though, not singing with the entire crowd. The one regular sing-along I join in on is “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Going to baseball games is pretty much my form of going to church and the song is set for a standard time in each game, but I’m counting it as my example of regular, informal sing-along participation.

I just remembered one other time when I’ve sung along with an audience; in fact, I did so just a few weeks ago: the chorus of Baby Flamehead‘s “Amy” is worth singing along to – with everybody else!

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  26 Responses to “Sing-along”

  1. Rare to find someone so uptight or self-conscious to avoid the most common sing-along: Happy Birthday. Fortunately it’s a short song.

  2. There’s something about Ben Folds that stirs the inner-singalong amongst his audience. Everyone just sings along with Ben, so every concert is like a Ben choir of sorts. Of course, when it’s just him and the piano, the audience participation helps. It makes for a fun show.

    The “na-na-na” chorus at the end of “Hey Jude” during a Macca show is always rousing. One time, Paul pointed directly at me and told me that I was GREAT. ME!

    I don’t know what it is about the audience wanting to sing Pete’s lines during Who concerts. No one sings along with Roger, but EVERYBODY sings, “Don’t cry, don’t raise your eye…” Folks just like to sing along with Pete.

    In general, though, I prefer to just watch and listen. I don’t participate so much. Good thing I did for Sir Paul, though. Otherwise, he wouldn;t have told me that I was GREAT.

    TB

  3. I owned that Bert and Ernie album when I was a kid.

  4. I’m anti sing along. I don’t clap along either. If others choose to sing/clap along, I can live with it although I’d prefer that they didn’t. I find both kinds of behavior to be herd-like, and a short step away from throwing your fist in the air at a Springsteen show every time the Boss sings “BORN! in the USA.”

    The one time I saw Elvis Costello, two jack asses in front of me talked through the entire show and then when Alison came on they drunkenly belted it out at the top of their lungs.

    When I saw Tom Waits, the audience started clapping along to a song and he stopped the song and asked everyone to quit it. He said “It’s not you, it’s me. Really.”

  5. misterioso

    Hate singalongs. Hate them. Suffered through too many idiots at Dylan shows who need–need–to establish that they know the words, too. Usually these are the same people who need to yell how much they love “Bobby” at various points during the concert and talk through the new songs.

  6. I would imagine that it would be hard to sing along at a Dylan show since he changes the arrangements so much. Maybe they feel the need to show their love for “Bobby” by singing along to the unrecognizable arrangement?

    I hate people that go to shows and feel the need to socialize and chit chat. You paid good money to sit there and talk? There was this idiot at the recent Big Star tribute who felt the need to wave at EVERY SINGLE PERSON at the park. I finally stood up and waved back to him. I wanted to punch that jerk in the teeth. Go to the bar or stay at home to socialize. Stop ruining the concert I paid good money to see/hear. It’s fine if you don’t like this new song as much as you like the old hits, but just shut up.

    TB

  7. misterioso

    Exactly–they’re singing along to the record, he is doing a whole other thing. I have made it through 40+ years without ever getting in a fist-fight, but the closest I have ever come to punching anyone is at Dylan shows, sitting by a-holes who yap through the whole show.

  8. Ooooh, that is bad. That’s the thing I’ve come to loathe at concerts (particularly the big ones): the stupid people. Why can’t I just get Mick and Keef to bring their guitars into my living room and sit and jam?

    TB

  9. GBV concerts are awful in this regard. Awful dorks holdin up their beers and singing every word.

    I saw my first (and last) Springsteen show a few months ago. I could not believe the intensity of the awfulness of that sing along culture.

    My in-laws will burst into some wretched sing along action in the car sometimes. some shitty folk tunes.

    even Happy Birthday gets under my skin.
    I’m a hater.

  10. Try a Tom Petty show. It may be getting better since he does some more obscure numbers now, but at the Patriot Center(George Mason University) a few years back, every kid in the place sang every song — really loud. It was before they sold beer in the place, so I just had to eat my frozen yogurt in bitterness.

    Growing up — we used to listen to “Sing-along with Mitch Miller.”

  11. Mr. Moderator

    I remember hearing Tom Petty concerts on the radio when his first two albums came out, and he was sticking the mic into the audience for sing-alongs on “Breakdown” from the git-go. That was amazing.

    Now that I think of it, it’s kind of funny that “Breakdown” seems to have gotten lost in his catalog of huge hits. I’ve never seen him live. Is it still a featured number, like his “Roxanne” or “Watching the Detectives,” as I figured it would be for all time, or do Petty crowds anticipate some more-recent hit, like “Free Falling,” to put the icing on a set?

  12. I’ve seen Petty four times I think, but not in the last five years. I recall Free Falling as the big crowd pleaser at the GMU show, but people still get hot for American Girl and Breakdown. There were a multitude of young girls at that show — I do remember that.

    It’s easy to be a little cynical now, but the first time I heard Breakdown on the radio, it kind of blew me away.

  13. ladymisskirroyale

    I like to sing, but also realize that sometimes I’m just listening to myself and that I would be spoiling the enjoyment of others with my less-than-perfect voice. I’ve enjoyed being at shows and singing along (or mouthing the words) but usually that’s when the music is so loud that I’m guessing others can’t hear me or others are singing too. It seemed impromptu that people were participating that way. But then again, I’ve joined the mosh pits when the time has been right.

    I still recall seeing U2 on the Joshua Tree tour and being very emotionally moved when the lights dimmed, the concert came to a close and (it seemed like) the entire crowd kept repeating the final words of “40.” Everyone was quietly filing out and still singing, “How long….”

  14. Im amazed at the negativity here….for sure I understand that people talking through concerts is damn annoying, but getting pissed at people singing along?! People, Gimme a break!

    Rock music, believe it or not, is made so you can have a good time. It’s meant to make you want to get up and dance, sing, let go and feel good. The audience singing is part of the vibe and adds to the experience. Any muso will tell you that if you have an audience getting into your music it will really help them lift their performance – crowd energy feeds the band.

    If you sad bastard fun police would rather everone sit thoughtfully through a rock show, stroking their beards contemplatitively in their tweed jackets, pipe and glasses, then you’ve lost the plot. Or never got it in the first place. “Hmm, yes, Keith’s use of contrapuntally structured riffs in myxolydian mode help develop Mick’s earthy use of iambic pentameter most eloquently. I think I’ll go home now and masturbate over my John Cooper Clark collection while my wife rams an eggbeater up my butt.” Get over yourselves. And don’t around and spoil a concert I’ve paid good money to enjoy wholeheartedly in the spirit its meant to be enjoyed by complaining about my singing. Stay home with a DVD and your eggbeater.

  15. And another thing misterioso..you came close to PUNCHING someone at a DYLAN concert?

    Think about it…..

  16. Mr. Moderator

    I know there’s humor behind your rant, beenreepin, and that stuff about John Cooper Clarke was funny! We did a thread on concert violations a year or two ago, and Townspeople were really split over issues like talking at concerts. Personally, I have no beef with people singing along enthusiastically. Like someone said, they probably think no one can hear them. It’s the artist-encouraged sing-alongs that usually turn me off. I also have no problem with people simply talking during a song. I’ve been scolded for doing so many times myself. Music is meant to be social. If the artist can’t captivate its audience into complete, reverant silence, so what? And you’re right, when you’re on stage and a crowd is obviously getting into your music it should only help your performance. Unless, maybe, you’re playing some kind of boring, ultra-serious, self-absorbed shit.

  17. i would never tell anyone to shut up at a concert or try to control someone’s enjoyment of anything. i’m just sayin that i think people who sing along look like a bunch of dicks. it’s just my opinion. i acknowledge fully my own uptightness and anti-social perspective.
    i have no idea who John Cooper Clark is, nor do i own an eggbeater.

  18. BigSteve

    Uh you’re amazed at the negativity? As you call others “sad bastard fun police”? Please don’t ever spoil a concert I’ve paid good money to enjoy wholeheartedly by standing next to me. If your singing was worth hearing you’d be on the stage.

  19. Kilroy, fair call. But worrying about what other people think of you is possibly the most un-rock thing imaginable….actually I’d go so far as to say it is the opposite of rock.

    You’re not missing out on anything with Cooper Clark either. Think Alan Ginsberg and Patti Smith’s love child, with Malcom McLaren as his nanny. Try the eggbeater though. Go on, I know you want to.

    Big Steve, if I spot you from the balcony with my opera glasses at the next Motorhead soiree then I promise I’ll reduce it to a discreet hum. Out of interest, what concerts do you go to where singing along is frowned upon by the majority of the audience and by the band? By your comment here and in the Motorhead thread, I’d be surprised if we found ourselves bunking down in sleeping bags next to each other for front row tickets for the same acts.

    One brief clarification: if it’s a Jazz concert, then naturally you let the vocalist do their thing…but keep in mind this is a Rock board. Hell, most singers use tapes and backup singers half the time to save their voices on tour anyway.

  20. BigSteve

    No I don’t think been and I are going to the same concerts. I saw ambient musician Robert Rich play at a planetarium last night. Distractions were frowned on, though no one told the yuppie couple in the middle to stop pointing at and discussing and taking photos of the random light refractions projected onto the ceiling. Actually I found the whole thing kind of corny. Faux tribal drum loops and a ton of reverb on a Japanese flute is cosmic I guess, but anybody can do that.

    Supposedly one of the reasons Dylan’s phrasing is so radically different from the original recording is to discourage singalongs.

  21. Mod says: “Personally, I have no beef with people singing along enthusiastically. Like someone said, they probably think no one can hear them.”

    I say: people who don’t pick up their dog shit probably don’t think anyone sees them but it doesn’t make it any less inconsiderate.

  22. ladymisskirroyale

    Ok folks, we could take this to the next level: What do our court jesters think about DANCING at shows?

    I went to see Flight of the Conchords last night (and yes, they led a sing-along, and it was pretty funny), but I was annoyed and distracted by 2 people right in front of the stage who were hearing their own groove but showing it to the rest of the 7k of us. But then the entire Greek Theater got up and grooved to “No More Dicks on the Dancefloor,” and that was a good thing.

    Maybe the solo grooving dance thing is reflecting the level of inebriation so the purist in me is getting irritated that they aren’t paying enough attention to the band.

  23. i like dancing at shows. I love when people dance at shows. if you want to dance aggressively, get up front in the action. If you want to chill to the grooves, hang back a bit. If you are all fucked up and dancing like a hippie jerkoff with your sweaty arms touching me on the 1 and 3, i will try to escape you but it will never work, you will always find me and quasi pass out on me/my date.

  24. Mr. Moderator

    If a band’s playing rhythmic music and the audience is too lame to move around, if not dance, the audience blows. I like seeing people dance, be it from the audience or from the stage.

  25. Mr Mod, gotta agree. However, Id suggest the problem with the dancing is not so much with the dancers, but with the venues.

    Rock was born in the dance halls back in the 50s – which was a progression from the swing dance halls, which were a progression etc etc. Dance halls went out of vogue as promoters realised they could fit 5,000 screaming Elvis or Beatles fans into a medium sized theatre (designed for anything but dancing) as opposed to maybe 1000 into a large dancehall.

    However, It doesn’t change the fact the entire genre is based on a rhythm designed to make you get on up like the proverbial sex machine. Holding a rock concert in a large theatre is just plain dumb, but unfortunatley a fact of life foisted on us by the biz.

    I suppose you just need to pick your events carefully….if you don’t like dancing, stick to theatre gigs and buy seated tickets at stadiums. Then there’s the act as well…..I couldn’t imagine one of Ladymisskir’s namesake’s gigs where people don’t dance…..but if someone tried it at one of BigSteves ambient concerts I’d suggest they overdid it on their Californian glaucoma medication. (By the way Steve, one of Motorhead’s former guitarists, Wurzel, is now a big name in ambient music in the UK.)

    Irrespective of the venue though, If I’m at a Quo, Eagles, Doobies, AC/DC, Motorhead, U2, Van Halen, B52’s or ZZTop concert, Im gonna sing my ass off, becasue that’s what the gig is for.

    OK new question: who sings at the top of their lungs when they’re alone in the car? Ever get caught?

  26. My wife’s family has sing-alongs after dinner. Real, old-fashioned sing-alongs: The parents brought “Waltzing Matilda,” “The Man From Snowy River,” “Blue Moon” and such; my wife and I led some Beatles songs; the kids did a few top-40 things (“Survivor” was the one I remember now). And everyone joined in on the bits they could remember or follow along with. It was real old-school intergenerational fun.

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