Famous songs never performed live by the band

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Someone posed this question to me...all I could think of were many famous later Beatles songs. And maybe "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay". Help, ILM!

― musically (musically), Friday, 27 January 2006 18:59 (twenty years ago)

I've been told that Pavement never played "Rattled by the Rush" (first single from their third LP, Wowee Zowee) live. Can anyone else confirm or deny this?

― James, Friday, 27 January 2006 19:04 (twenty years ago)

Badly Drawn Boy "It came from the ground"
The Clash "Groovy Times / Gates of the West"

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:04 (twenty years ago)

Denied, James. They played Rattled by the Rush, just not alot.

― douglas eklund (skolle), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:25 (twenty years ago)

Pavement played "Rattled By The Rush" frequently on the Wowee Zowee tour and almost every single night of the final leg of the Terror Twilight tour.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:27 (twenty years ago)

The thing is, there really aren't many Pavement/Malkmus songs that haven't been played at least a couple times live.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:28 (twenty years ago)

Did Tindersticks ever perform their single "Travelling Light"? They said they wouldn't perform it without Carla Torgeson on vocals, so it was never performed on tour.

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:31 (twenty years ago)

I'm 99% certain that Led Zeppelin never played "D'yer Ma'ker."

Clinic have never played "Distortions" to my knowledge.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:35 (twenty years ago)

"Rattled by the Rush" by Pavement is a famous song is it?

― Dittoismus (Dada), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:37 (twenty years ago)

For James:

"Rattled By The Rush" (live in Tokyo, 1996)

"Rattle By The Rush" (live in St Louis, 1999)

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:47 (twenty years ago)

Sean Bonniwell thinks that the original Music Machine never did "The Eagle Never Hunts the Fly" live, but we did it on the 2004 tour (duck call and all).

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:58 (twenty years ago)

Bob Dylan has never played "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" or "John Wesley Harding" or "Million Dollar Bash" live, and he's only played "Buckets of Rain" once and "When the Ship Comes In" twice in public. Jesus. If I'd ever written a song as good as "When the Ship Comes In," I'd play it twice a SHOW.

Relatedly: the Traveling Wilburys never played a live show--although Dylan played "Congratulations" three times in '89 and '90.

Not quite "never," but James Brown dropped "Say It Loud--I'm Black and I'm Proud" from his set shortly after it came out, and I don't think he's played it since.

I don't think Queen ever played "Bohemian Rhapsody" live--IIRC, they just played the record on stage!

― Douglas (Douglas), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:58 (twenty years ago)

Dylan played "Million Dollar Bash", for the first time, last fall in London.

― ~asl, Friday, 27 January 2006 20:01 (twenty years ago)

There's a few things on "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" that were never played live. Early Floyd didn't have a long set, and about half of it was taken up with arsing about (a.k.a. Interstellar Overdrive, Pow R Toc H, Reaction in G)

― Dittoismus (Dada), Friday, 27 January 2006 20:02 (twenty years ago)

I heard a rumor that Metallica never played "Escape," the self-proclaimed "radio sell-out" cut off of Ride The Lightning.

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Friday, 27 January 2006 20:26 (twenty years ago)

gotta be a lot of Zep, yeah...? "When the Levee Breaks"?

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 27 January 2006 20:31 (twenty years ago)

if i remember correctly, when i saw ray davies play "this is where i belong" with yo la tengo, he said the kinks themselves had never played it.

and i recall reading, in the 33 1/3 book on village green preservation society, about at least one song on that album they'd never played live. don't have the book handy at the moment, though.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 27 January 2006 21:41 (twenty years ago)

bad form to cite U2? they've never played "acrobat", one of the best off achtung baby, at any concert.

― naturemorte, Friday, 27 January 2006 22:24 (twenty years ago)

Ashlee Simpson, "Pieces of Me"

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Saturday, 28 January 2006 04:09 (twenty years ago)

bad form to cite U2? they've never played "acrobat", one of the best off achtung baby, at any concert.

Refresh my memory... that's the one with the line "don't let the bastards get you down," right? I'm calling shenanigans, because I'm sure they played that when I saw them in 1993.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Saturday, 28 January 2006 04:18 (twenty years ago)

"Redmen and Their Wives" probably isn't one of the "famous" Guided By Voices songs, and I don't think they've ever played it live.

But they should have. It would've brought the house down every night.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Saturday, 28 January 2006 04:20 (twenty years ago)

"I don't think Queen ever played "Bohemian Rhapsody" live--IIRC, they just played the record on stage!"

I've heard the version from Live Magic, and it is indeed live. However, the Opera section was ommitted.

Did The Who ever do "I Can See For Miles" live? (In concert, not on TV) I head somewhere that they were working up a version to play on the last tour.

― Chairman Doinel (Charles McCain), Saturday, 28 January 2006 18:56 (twenty years ago)

I recall reading some interview with Bryan Ferry during Roxy Music's last tour where he said he didn't sing "More Than This" live because of the high notes.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 28 January 2006 21:29 (twenty years ago)

Damn! If they hadn't reunited, "Badge" by Cream would have worked.

― musically (musically), Sunday, 29 January 2006 00:14 (twenty years ago)

I am certain (I mean, apart from the fact that half of the band are dead) that if they Beatles had reunited now, they would have absolutely no problems performing live the "Revolver" songs that were part of the reason why they quit playing live.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 29 January 2006 02:14 (twenty years ago)

fact checking cuz: i recall reading, in the 33 1/3 book on village green preservation society, about at least one song on that album they'd never played live

"Starstruck." Ray Davies sang it live for the first time a few years ago at SXSW, backed by the New Pornographers.

― ~asl, Sunday, 29 January 2006 05:47 (twenty years ago)

gotta be a lot of Zep, yeah...? "When the Levee Breaks"?

They played this a few times around the time Physical Graffiti came out and fairly often in the late 70s. They played everything except for "Four Sticks" from that album - Plant has since included "Four Sticks" in his solo shows. "Battle Of Evermore" wasn't played for a long time, but they brought it out as a regular song on the 1977 tour.

"Redmen and Their Wives" probably isn't one of the "famous" Guided By Voices songs, and I don't think they've ever played it live.

Wrong. I saw them play the song twice. It was played back when it was new but also on the final GBV tour. There's not a lot of GBV songs that weren't played live - just check the old gbv site, they've got tons of setlists from all of the tours.

U2 has never performed "Acrobat" except for in soundcheck. Other U2 album tracks that have never been performed - "The Playboy Mansion," "One Step Closer," "Man and a Woman," "Heartland," "Some Days Are Better Than Others," "Electrical Storm," "Elvis Presley and America," "Red Hill Mining Town."

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Sunday, 29 January 2006 07:17 (twenty years ago)

apparently they played 'acrobat' at that free show they did in hershey, pa. warming up for the second leg of the zoo tv tour, not sure if that counts as a soundcheck or not but they played to a non-crew audience (i have a friend who was a HUGE fan).

― j blount (papa la bas), Sunday, 29 January 2006 07:22 (twenty years ago)

As for Led Zeppelin, there's a lot of songs from the later period that were never performed - "Down By The Seaside," "Houses of the Holy," "In The Light," "Custard Pie," "Night Flight," "Royal Orleans," "Candy Store Rock," "Tea For One," "I'm Gonna Crawl," "Carouselambra," some others.

Blount, I know what you're talking about, but that was a soundcheck and not part of the actual show. That's a widely circulated recording if just for the fact that it's the only known recording of that song performed live.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Sunday, 29 January 2006 07:26 (twenty years ago)

Also, Led Zep never did "The Crunge" in full, but it was included in medleys.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Sunday, 29 January 2006 07:28 (twenty years ago)

I know all of this because I'm on this kinda obsessive Led Zep kick lately if anyone was wondering.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Sunday, 29 January 2006 07:28 (twenty years ago)

Did Sam Cooke ever do "Shake" live?

― Chairman Doinel (Charles McCain), Monday, 30 January 2006 18:23 (twenty years ago)

Plenty of Hendrix and Stones, I would think.

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Monday, 30 January 2006 19:53 (twenty years ago)

I believe Blink-182 never could figure out how to play "I Miss You" with their three members.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Monday, 30 January 2006 19:57 (twenty years ago)

(haha Matthew - actually I WAS wondering!)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 30 January 2006 21:27 (twenty years ago)

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