OK, my dear whistling friends…it’s your turn, just what are the songs we all love to hate? Mine is Gerry Owen, and I’m not sure where it comes from, maybe living to close to Ft. Meade in Sturgis, home of the 7th Cavalry?
I have to be very unpatriotic and say that the British National Anthem really makes me cringe; that and a few other national anthems too!
Mick
Or worse yet, when the banjo player starts in on “Scotland the Brave” because it’s the only “Celtic” song he knows?
[ This Message was edited by: Anna Martinez on 2001-09-06 14:44 ]
I have to agree with you, Mick. I’m not real keen on most national anthems myself. If I had my way we would be using “America the Beautiful” instead of the “Star Spangled Banner”. Certainly as a piper I am also not real fond of Scotland the Brave either (one of the two most overplayed pipe tunes in the world). Gary Owen, AFAIK, is actually an anglicization of the Gaelic “Garraí Eoghan” (sp?) which translates as “Owen’s Garden”. Sort of puts it in a different light than that of John Wayne leading the troops.
[ This Message was edited by: Feadan on 2001-09-06 15:25 ]
Whistling Gypsy Rover
Whiskey in the Jar
High on my hit list of songs not to be tolerated in session. My opinion means little though, so I take these opportunities to have a beer.
Did you know that “The Star Spangled Banner” was based on a drinking song?
The original song even includes the lyrics
“Voice, Fiddle, and Flute,
no longer be mute”
which automatically makes it a great song.
[ This Message was edited by: LittleMy on 2001-09-06 21:33 ]
Any tune or song, even “Danny Boy”,
presented by a session musician,
tis fine.
However,
Any tune or song, even “Danny Boy”,
sought by soused singer
seeking to start
a sloshed soul sapping sing-a-long,
tis disappointing and disheartening.
Distancing drinker from
music minded musicians muddling through
being miss-represented
as pub’s paid performers instead of
the stimulated sessioneer
showering the spirit with shear
slainte.
Tis the source not song stealing sociability.
For many a player, you just want to …
I hate all pub sing-along songs (Wild Rover, Whiskey in a Jar, etc). The melodies are sound so eeky to my ear. I have to tolerate them though because my band thingy likes to play them once in a while. It does add a pubby atmosphere to the session however, but heck with it I’ll be better off without them.
When 5-string banjo was my main instrument, I would hold my breath waiting for someone to utter the inevitable, “Can you play Dueling Banjos?” (from the movie, Deliverance). I would smile politely and strum the introductory notes and watch their faces light up. Inside, I’d be going, “Oh, please. Someone shoot me.” I didn’t even have to go far into the tune. Actually, I liked the tune, but it was so predictable to be asked for it, it was annoying. The only whistle tune one of my sisters asks for is the one from Titanic. The whistle part in the recording sounds cool- because it’s a whistle. But the tune is just pop music to me. When anything becomes too popular, I cringe away from it. (I’m an elitist snob. It’s fun to be one.) 
Tony
How about the most detestable piece in the field of classical piano music, Chopin’s minute waltz? I’d rather hear someone scratch his or her fingernails across a blackboard! Again it’s a case of something being totally overplayed and often badly. On the whistle I’d gladly walk 10 miles to avoid hearing Miss McCloud’s reel or The Irish WasherWoman jig. These two overworked tunes are played in movies whenever they want to invoke a Scots or Irish stereotype. They no longer have any musical value. Other than these and of course Rock, I love music!
Tom
Anna,when I sugested" songs and tunes we `hate’ to love "over in the fav.slow air topic I had something totally diferent in mind…so at the risk of going slightly off topic,whenever I hear Puff the magic dragon I always get misty eyed and emotional even though I know trotting this out during a session would get me arrested…my emphasis was more on the love aspect.
Mike
My most-loathed tune is “I know where I’m going”. Hated it for over 40 years. How that tune ever managed to stay on top while my semi-autobiographical “Planxy Stewy Smoot” wallows in the dregs is beyond the scope of this forum.
“Leaving on a Jet Plane” gets to me! Ouch! My age is showing!
On the whistle I’d gladly walk 10 miles to avoid hearing Miss McCloud’s reel or The Irish WasherWoman jig.
Tom, there have been tunes I have felt the same about, only to hear a fresh interpretation by a master musician that changes everything. When certain people local to me start up the Boys of Bluehill or the Rights of Man, I feel like running ten miles to get out of earshot. But have you heard recordings of Séamus Ennis playing the former and Padraig O Keeffe playing the latter? Most clichéd tunes are great tunes - the problem is indifferent, unmusical and unimaginative renditions of them. I think it’s fun trying to rehabilitate them.
Stevie makes a good point, it is often the rendition of the tune, not the tune itself that is a problem, or else the memories the tune invokes. Sometimes a good performer, or fresh ears will make the tune new & enjoyable. I heard an uillean piper play the American national anthem once, as a slow air, and it was absolutely stunning - almost unrecognizable.
Sue
I personally could do without ever hearing Amazing Grace again – another perfect example of a great tune destroyed forever for me by countless horrible renditions.
–Judith Redding
In the pseudo-celtic genre, I’ll cast a vote for the Titanic love theme. Nice tune the first eight hundred times I heard it/had it requested, but enough is e-stinkin’-nough!!! 
Then there’s “Another Time” (I think all music teacher hate that tune), “The Blue Danube”, and most stuff on the top 40 station…
Thin Lizzy has a version of Whiskey in the jar thats killer, but not really trad. Regarding killing a tune by overplaying … I’ve heard of vivaldi’s four seasons referred to as the classical Macarena.
Cheers,
jb
[ This Message was edited by: brownja on 2001-09-07 14:55 ]
Tooraloorallora! Toorallora li!
Tooraloorallora! Hush now don’t you cry.
Aaargh!
I absolutly, positively hate “When Irish Eyes are smiling”. Would be glad if I never heard it again. It’s one of those songs that is supposed to represent and embrace all that is irish . . . but misses the mark in a sappy way. Other than that, most irish tunes(even the most over played, like “Sally Gardens”) have some redeeming value.