NWB - Community Blog

Do you mean you have to sing the original lyrics to every song Whoops! didn't realise that mate lol
Johnny

I do actually mate ,but if you forget just keep singing 90% don't notice as long as a sound is coming out yer mouth.
Some years ago I was in a duo,and the club was that boring I changed the words and sang I hate these boring bastards,bingo freaks and all
At the end we got an applause ( I was amazed)
Johnny

Generally speaking we just point and laugh at each other when "jazz" moments happen, whoever it is clamming the place up. :OD

When I used to sing in a band many years ago I could never remember the words to some songs. Rather than make a tool...wait, MORE of a tool of myself I used to get someone in the audience to come and hold up the lyric sheet. Used to aim for the fittest bird I could see, being professional of course....not cos she had great tits...or arse!

I sometimes have a brain-fart, usually when I'm on auto-pilot and thinking about the next move, i.e.; what to say between songs, what song to play next, what's happening in the room, who's just walked in, who's at the bar (if they've just bought a drink they're staying for a little while so I divert my attention to someone who's in danger of leaving...it's like spinning plates) so there's a lot to concentrate on.
I love lyrics so I always want to do justice to them and never write them down. I see an increasing number of bands with lyrics on music stands, wtf? Its only rock & roll, learn it or make it up.
MN

@MN

Don't mention lyric or music stands, should all be thrown in the skip, if you don't know what you're doing go home until you do................ :-)

Lee :)

Lee you sound just like your Dad lol

I usually laugh and say oopps I forgot words and then come back in after a bar or 2!! Drums and bass players sometimes help me out. I just keep rhytham guitar going!!

Cheers donna

+1 for what Donna says. I just say "I can't remember the friggin' words!!". It usually gets a laugh and there's always somebody in the audience that will remind you, or indeed, get the audience to sing along with you which leads to great audience interaction. Simples!!

@Johnny,

My dad still uses his tom toms to stick A4 pieces of paper to them as he has never learnt the words to certain songs. Some things never change.

@Terry,

Sorry Tel, no old lyric stands or capo's to pass on as they were all binned. :-)

Lee :)

I'm not a fan of the music stand TBH and like to learn the lyrics and keep em in mi bonce, although they don't always stay there!! I have been known to wander the streets aimlessly with my dog, plugged in to my iPhone (me not the dog) until I've got them stuck in said bonce.

If I do forget I tend blag it and always try to make the "new" lyric rhyme........ this can be fun and will either have the others in stitches or shouting WTF???? :o)

It happens to me various ways.

Sometimes I sing the verses in the wrong order but somehow manage to pull it back together so its not too obvious.

Sometimes I get lines mixed up in verses of songs. Its easily done when you are playing guitar at the same time.

The worst it has ever happened was I forgot the opening line to a song, the whole band kicked in it got to the but where the vocal comes in and I just couldnt start............... they were all lookin at me thinkin "what the fuck are you playing at?!" So I had to get the lyrics (cheat sheet) out and we started again.

We have been playin "Are you gona go my way" by Lenny Kravitz for years and I still dont know the words, to be honest I just make em up half the time

Its all good fun though, you cant take it too seriously can you?

I like using the lyric "Ive forgotten the words" as a replacement for those occasions when the mind goes blank

Likewise our singist refuses to have music stands or lyrics visible.

If we are rehearsing something new he may get the words up on his phone but playing live if he doesnt know the words he makes them up. There are a couple of songs we do virtually every gig and he still doesnt know all the words - nobody ever notices.

We did a charity gig last year where we were threatened with extreme pain if we didnt do Smoke on the Water for the bloke who organised it all. The rest of us knew it from other bands but we had never played it together. We gave the singist the first line and he knew the chorus and that was it. He made the rest up on the spot and we were told later it was the best version they had ever heard.

I'm not sure whether that speaks volumes about us or the audience...

I'm not a fan of the music stand either.I'm feckin sick of trippin over mine every week!pmsl

Hey Ho

Scotty.

I use the Vic Reeves lounge singer method when I forget the lyrics until I get to a bit I remember.
"saaaaayhooooooooverypooooooooongaaaaheeeeeey middeeeeeepeeeeeeee saaaarahooooooooow"

Thankfully I know most of the Metallica stuff so I don't need a music stand. But the 2 times I depped as a singer for Final Hour, both last minute jobs, I had a music stand with all the lyrics, and both times, I ended up thumping it and knocking all the lyrics to fek.

I had to sing the whole of Bark at the Moon in Vic Reeves stylee....funny as fook.

on solo gigs i use a music stand when doing new stuff [but im sat down drumming] even then i cant see the bloody words so just make um up. played a 50th the other week and got asked for dont you forget about me by simple minds, no words although i did gig it not so long ago, had a blank and made the whole song up. it went down a bomb. i just laughed my tits off. lol. i got the la la lars right though.ha

@4most wanted

There was this one time when I forgot opening line and a young attractive man in audience started singing it to me!!

It was swell lol!!!

Donna

@Donna - There ya go see!! Winner!

I remember one band I was in used to do Bryan Adams, Everything I do. During one gig and the piano intro, for the life of me, I couldn't remember the first line. Looked round at the band for a cue or some inspiration and all I got was the thousand yard stare. So I went into the rude version that we'd done in rehearsals 'cos again I couldn't get the line in my head.

"Lick between my thighs, from my knees, and i'll take you from behind..............

No one batted an eyelid. And no attractive young women there either!!

I just mumble my way through it if I forget my words and come out with some right bullshite. lol

im wi graham on this , i like to learn a song beforehand , and if i forget the words i will just sing the verse i can remember 3 times lol...sometimes i will print the words off and throw them down on the floor so no one can see em and just use the sheet as a prompt.
Although i know acts are using ipads now with bouncing words karaoke style , i completeley dissagree with that though lol

Its definitely dangerous ground being on auto-pilot.....however, if you think of the next verse the lyrics will disappear in a heartbeat........i've sung about cheese sandwiches and washing the car....as long as you stay within the melody line of the original you're fine.........until someone comes up after the show and says "you sang the wrong words of the first line in the second verse"

lyric anoraks!!

I've developed a bizarre one over the years. You know how normally, as you say, when you're in goldfish mode you KNOW you've got it wrong and you have no idea where you're up to? Well, mine is worse. My name is Ann Richardson and I have singing alzheimers. This is a condition where, when I forget the words, I don't even KNOW I've forgotten the words - I think it's all going swimmingly! In the past, I have added lines, removed verses and even changed entire song structures, and not even realised I was doing it. It's like my brain just deletes bits of songs from the immediate universe, then carries on regardless.

The latest victim from last weekend was Sanctuary, by the Cult, where I sang completely the wrong structure throughout two nights in a row - AND WAS CONVINCED THAT IT WAS NEIL WHO'D GOT IT WRONG! Lol!

Singing alzheimers can have devastating effects, mainly for the carers who support the sufferers (ie. the rest of my boys!), so thank you to Neil, Richard, Rocker and Ian, for being so understanding!

I'm ready for my medication, now.

Ann x

PS: For general 'forgetting the words'-ness, I find the best plan is to repeat previous verses/choruses and do it with confidence! Few people will notice, and those who do will think you've done it on purpose! :-) All the advice on this blog is useful, so I'm sure you'll be set now :-)

@ Ann, I have your medication ready lol!!

Innuendo

I ghost or fluff stuff all the time ..... Make the same mistakes as some of you peeps also... I have learnt that fluffing works ... Make it sound like you have got the words right ... or somtimes in the same tune I have before now sang in some form "And I haveeee nooow forrrgotttteeennn the worrrdddds" even thats gone unheard by the punters depending on who's in the audience of course, as there is always one that knows you have messed up.

The best foot forward after and making a joke of it... i.e after the song has finished I have actually said 10 pts goes to whoever noticed my Fluff up in that song ...

Its going to happen somtimes and it cant always be helped its live and anything can go whoops and thats the beauty of it

Syrup pork stick stink Wayne into grow anti-Slug .... Oh Gino (which may be the actual words - no one really knows)