Difficult Songs for singers to Sing and Bad Nights

[Infinity Vocalist 2010]

Just posing a queation to any fellow Journey singers out there, either casual or from a tribute band, what, in your opinion and hopefully from experience, is the most difficult song for you to sing. Either if it's hard getting the Perry-isms down or if it's just a challenge overall, I'd like to hear some thoughts and stories And please, enlighten me on some of your "bad nights", I've had a few!

I'll start. The hardest one for me to do is Any Way You Want It. The Perry-isms, and keeping my breath in control while keeping in time are a little challenging. Not the timing in general, it's just such a pace where I may forget to take a breath in between a line and then boom, I have to go to the next one.
I also tend to get squeaky, like, squeakier than Perry.

Bad nights for me... hmm... Last Christmas was hell. So my high school's band always does shows for the families and the grade 7-8 kids. Well, this time it was 3 shows in one day. My song was DSB. The morning went marginally best, but our director thought different and decided to dick around with the key. So we rehearsed in a lower key, then played the second show back in original... Now, for some reason all the confusion made it less impressive and I had trouble keeping it up. So after that we had a few more hours before we did the night time, and IIRC we rehearsed DSB 3 more times, with more dicking with the key. One of them must have been back in the original key because I nailed the fucker and my guitarist was like "Holy fuck, where did Steve Perry come from?!"

But again, it must not have been enough for director man, because he's a self-proclaimed musical genius. So he dropped it low. And I'm the kinda guy who if I sing it in the right key all the time, that'ds how I hear it and I can't have it any othe way. Anyway, to wrap this up, I sounded like JSS fucking a bear.

Hope to hear from some of you tribute singers especially!

[TRAGChick]

Hey there....

Just want to say that I give all of you guys major Props for singing Journey / SP.
IT AIN'T EASY

Have a great day!

[Seven Wishes2]

Eh. Whenever I fuck up, or if I blow out my upper range singing too much Hagar and Zeppelin (out of my tessitura), I just blame our sound guy. He knows the deal.

[Infinity Vocalist 2010]

Hey there....

Just want to say that I give all of you guys major Props for singing Journey / SP.
IT AIN'T EASY

Have a great day!

Damn right it ain't easy! Thanks TRAGChick. It's tough but rewarding knowing I'm doing something that was written meaningfully and fom someone's heart. The JRNY/SP stuff is contagious in the way you can feel what they were feeling when they made the music.

[Infinity Vocalist 2010]

Eh. Whenever I fuck up, or if I blow out my upper range singing too much Hagar and Zeppelin (out of my tessitura), I just blame our sound guy. He knows the deal.

I'd hate to be a sound guy

When our director fucked around the DSB key, that's what happened to me, blew my upper range to shit. At that time I'd only been singing seriously for about a year and a half and that semester I had vocal class. I think I was still getting used to the Perry-comparative-vocals I had been developing. I took nothing from vocal class except the proper techniques, and I had to re-learn how to get the Perry-isms down while keeping proper techniques.

After that debacle, I got taken off DSB, and then director-man decided to Glee-ify it. Ended up doing Cold as Ice and Closer to the Heart.

Now apparently I'm the go-to guy to sing Journey in the school band and they've got me doing BGTY. Funny how things happen.

[G.I.Jim]

Eh. Whenever I fuck up, or if I blow out my upper range singing too much Hagar and Zeppelin (out of my tessitura), I just blame our sound guy. He knows the deal.

[swataz]

Just posing a queation to any fellow Journey singers out there, either casual or from a tribute band, what, in your opinion and hopefully from experience, is the most difficult song for you to sing. Either if it's hard getting the Perry-isms down or if it's just a challenge overall, I'd like to hear some thoughts and stories And please, enlighten me on some of your "bad nights", I've had a few!

I'll start. The hardest one for me to do is Any Way You Want It. The Perry-isms, and keeping my breath in control while keeping in time are a little challenging. Not the timing in general, it's just such a pace where I may forget to take a breath in between a line and then boom, I have to go to the next one.
I also tend to get squeaky, like, squeakier than Perry.

Bad nights for me... hmm... Last Christmas was hell. So my high school's band always does shows for the families and the grade 7-8 kids. Well, this time it was 3 shows in one day. My song was DSB. The morning went marginally best, but our director thought different and decided to dick around with the key. So we rehearsed in a lower key, then played the second show back in original... Now, for some reason all the confusion made it less impressive and I had trouble keeping it up. So after that we had a few more hours before we did the night time, and IIRC we rehearsed DSB 3 more times, with more dicking with the key. One of them must have been back in the original key because I nailed the fucker and my guitarist was like "Holy fuck, where did Steve Perry come from?!"

But again, it must not have been enough for director man, because he's a self-proclaimed musical genius. So he dropped it low. And I'm the kinda guy who if I sing it in the right key all the time, that'ds how I hear it and I can't have it any othe way. Anyway, to wrap this up, I sounded like JSS fucking a bear.

Hope to hear from some of you tribute singers especially!

Brutal. I hope that director gets a fungal infection somewhere terrible.

[DrFU]

I sounded like JSS fucking a bear.

Nice imagery!

[Seven Wishes2]

I'd like to hear from other singers what the most difficult songs they've had to cover are.

My college band was (predictably) into hair metal. "Take Hold of the Flame" was a fucking nightmare to pull off. After four or five live performance bombs, my guitarist finally relented and realized Geoff Tate and Geoff Tate alone should sing this song.

Incidentally, how many lead singers does it take to change a light bulb?

One. All he has to do is stand there because the world revolves around him.

What do you call a bald guy hanging out with four musicians?

The drummer.

How many drummers does it take to change a light bulb?

Five. Four to turn the ladder in circles and one to hold the bulb in place.

[brywool]

Eh. Whenever I fuck up, or if I blow out my upper range singing too much Hagar and Zeppelin (out of my tessitura), I just blame our sound guy. He knows the deal.

Hey, that's what Robert Plant did at Live Aid.

[Seven Wishes2]

I don't know that story. Elaborate?

[Infinity Vocalist 2010]

Brutal. I hope that director gets a fungal infection somewhere terrible.

Unfortunately not, but after THIS Christmas' shows, he caught a bad dose of Strep throat that was going around, which I had the pleasure of performing with. That's a whole story in itself! Anyway, he caught the worse dose, he's still pretty hoarse.

When I call him "director" I mean he's the director of the music department at my high school. In essence he's just a teacher... a teacher with a large ego and a genius complex. He's the kind who sucks at the job but is too likeable and valuable to lose.

I'd like to hear from other singers what the most difficult songs they've had to cover are.

My college band was (predictably) into hair metal. "Take Hold of the Flame" was a fucking nightmare to pull off. After four or five live performance bombs, my guitarist finally relented and realized Geoff Tate and Geoff Tate alone should sing this song.

Incidentally, how many lead singers does it take to change a light bulb?

One. All he has to do is stand there because the world revolves around him.

What do you call a bald guy hanging out with four musicians?

The drummer.

How many drummers does it take to change a light bulb?

Five. Four to turn the ladder in circles and one to hold the bulb in place.

[Rip Rokken]

And please, enlighten me on some of your "bad nights", I've had a few!

Casual singer these days, and the "bad night" is easy... I'd gotten a very nice compliment from a stranger, who then asked me please, please, please to sing her all-time favorite song, "Open Arms". But I'd never done it before and I've learned not to try to wing anything. I went home and practiced that song for a week until I was 100% comfortable with it, then went back the next weekend ready to go. The crowd was much different that night, and there were a majority of rockers doing 90's era stuff like Alice and Chains, etc. But I wasn't going to disappoint the girl, I got on the stage and broke the ice with a joke about somebody forgetting to tell me it was rock night. I was having a hard time hearing the music, but I could tell pretty quickly something didn't sound right and it looked like some of the rockers were laughing at me. Two verses in I realized the freakin' song was in the wrong damn key, and was a tuned-down country version. I was about to pull the plug when the DJ turned a knob to adjust the pitch, and I finished the last chorus of the song on key. I was absolutely mortified, and luckily it turned out that girl wasn't there that night.

[Rip Rokken]

I'd like to hear from other singers what the most difficult songs they've had to cover are.

My college band was (predictably) into hair metal. "Take Hold of the Flame" was a fucking nightmare to pull off. After four or five live performance bombs, my guitarist finally relented and realized Geoff Tate and Geoff Tate alone should sing this song.

I used to go out and sing a lot of Queensryche, and "Take Hold of the Flame" was probably the most difficult. I absolutely love that song for the range, but my voice had to be in 100% condition to pull it off.

Hardest song I ever tried to sing was Jukebox Hero -- turned out to be a little out of my comfortable range, and I was 3 sheets to the wind when I finally got the courage to try it. Not good, lol.

Another bad night was trying to sing too soon after a bout of laryngitis. I picked Led Zep's "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" because I knew it like the back of my hand and had gotten lots of great feedback on it, but that was not the night. Voice went straight back out after the first howl, and that's a 7+ minute long song...

[Seven Wishes2]

The obligatory "Back in Black" crowd-primers were always ass-kickers because it's impossible to mimic Johnson without destroying your upper register in a matter of minutes. Transitionally, Skid Row is almost impossible (Bach's aggiustamento is flawless).

[Rip Rokken]

The obligatory "Back in Black" crowd-primers were always ass-kickers because it's impossible to mimic Johnson without destroying your upper register in a matter of minutes. Transitionally, Skid Row is almost impossible (Bach's aggiustamento is flawless).

One of my friends used to do that song, and he was the only one I knew who could pull it off and sound really good. If I ever tried to sing like that, my voice would be shot after 1 song. I've done "Youth Gone Wild", "18 & Life" and "I Remember You" by Skid Row before, but could never touch Sebastian Bach's screams. Wouldn't try, either.

[Seven Wishes2]

Somewhere, I have some audio of me covering "Monkey Business" for Loose Change (my old band) in '99 that I won't be sharing anytime soon.

[Rip Rokken]

Somewhere, I have some audio of me covering "Monkey Business" for Loose Change (my old band) in '99 that I won't be sharing anytime soon.

Put it up!!!!

[Seven Wishes2]

Maybe when someone starts a "worst covers ever" thread and I've had about 10 Schlitzes and a six of Meister Brau, followed by a couple of Wild Turkey chasers.

[Rick]

Maybe when someone starts a "worst covers ever" thread and I've had about 10 Schlitzes and a six of Meister Brau, followed by a couple of Wild Turkey chasers.

Make those Schlitzes hot and eat a couple of boiled eggs and you'll be lethal.

[Rip Rokken]

Maybe when someone starts a "worst covers ever" thread and I've had about 10 Schlitzes and a six of Meister Brau, followed by a couple of Wild Turkey chasers.

Make those Schlitzes hot and eat a couple of boiled eggs and you'll be lethal.

Rick, I dig that classic av, man! I think that's what you were using when I joined. Good stuff!