The best. request. ever.

Tips and techniques of the trade

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mousethief
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#136 Post by mousethief » Mon Jan 10, 2005 9:53 am

I got a request from one of our dancers for Artie Shaw's "Man from Mars," which fit perfectly into Saturday's set. Hearing about good requests is almost as much fun as snarking on the problem ones.

Kalman
"The cause of reform is hurt, not helped, when an activist makes an idiotic suggestion."

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GemZombie
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#137 Post by GemZombie » Mon Jan 10, 2005 10:02 am

Ok, so I got one guy who's a Neo fanatic. Keeps asking me for neo stuff, and Occasionally i'll humor him with something that fits his tastes (what can I do, i'm in a small scene). But he knows my feeling about playing the music since the venue I run is billed as a Swing/Lindy Hop venue, so he came in a couple weeks ago with tons of requests, and all of it was classic stuff. I was amazed, impressed, and happy with his requests.

Since then, week after week, he comes back with some decent requests... he's been doing research and finding what he likes that fits with our normal night of music. Very cool.

Toon Town Dave
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#138 Post by Toon Town Dave » Mon Jan 10, 2005 10:42 am

I usually try a little harder to accomodate informed requests.

Converting a neo fanatic to classic swing is very cool!

I love this line too:
This is nice, but it's something my dad would listen to. Could you play something with some punch? Something that makes you want to jump around?

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GemZombie
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#139 Post by GemZombie » Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:58 am

Toon Town Dave wrote:I usually try a little harder to accomodate informed requests.
Exactly. I definitely did all I could to encourage his newfound interest.

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Platypus
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#140 Post by Platypus » Mon Jan 10, 2005 12:39 pm

One of our newest DJs is still a bit flustered when it comes to requests. Instead of giving just the name of a song, one of our long-time members gave a few requests last night that included the CD name, track number, BPM, and song style to our newest DJ, based on the DJ's collection. Both were pleased with the results.

JSAlmonte
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#141 Post by JSAlmonte » Mon Jan 10, 2005 4:02 pm

Toon Town Dave wrote:I love this line too:
This is nice, but it's something my dad would listen to. Could you play something with some punch? Something that makes you want to jump around?
I was going to post this story, but Andy beat me to it. It was a nice challenge trying to figure out what she wanted that ended was pleasantly suprised with the answer. Morso since she had never been swing dancing before and had very little knowledge of the music.

jerry

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#142 Post by il glenn hot » Tue Jan 11, 2005 8:48 am

Best request ever? Once a very drunk redneck who refered to himself in the third person as "Limousine Dave" requested a song and asked that I dedicate it to Osama Bin Laden. Earlier in the night, he also requested a song by "You know that jazz guy...whats his name Benny Hill."

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#143 Post by Campus Five » Tue Jan 11, 2005 1:01 pm

Here's an odd request situation. I was DJing in Hawaii for the after hours at HiLx, and I get a request for "Tuxedo Junction" so they do the Shim Sham. I've hated that song for so long, and ordinarally, I would have tried to get around it. But I'd decided to give the Erskine Hawkins original a spin, and to my surprise...I really loved it. I always thought the song was way to square, but listening to the clarinet and trumpet solos, I realized I was wrong. Not often does someone's request make you reconsider a song for the better.
"I don''t dig that two beat jive the New Orleans cats play.
My boys and I have four heavy beats to the bar and no cheating!
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GemZombie
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#144 Post by GemZombie » Tue Jan 11, 2005 1:10 pm

Campus Five wrote:Here's an odd request situation. I was DJing in Hawaii for the after hours at HiLx, and I get a request for "Tuxedo Junction" so they do the Shim Sham. I've hated that song for so long, and ordinarally, I would have tried to get around it. But I'd decided to give the Erskine Hawkins original a spin, and to my surprise...I really loved it. I always thought the song was way to square, but listening to the clarinet and trumpet solos, I realized I was wrong. Not often does someone's request make you reconsider a song for the better.
Tis the only version i'll play. I have him doing the really long ass live version, not bad... have that one? It's on an album called "Holiday for swing"

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djstarr
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#145 Post by djstarr » Fri Jan 14, 2005 12:29 am

The good stories *are* nice to hear. I've had a couple of newer dancers come up and ask me for set lists, since they've liked what they heard and they want to go out and buy some music to listen to - I think that's a great compliment and I'm happy to oblige.

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The Peanut Vendor
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#146 Post by The Peanut Vendor » Fri Feb 11, 2005 3:02 pm

Yeah, that describes an experience I had to the tee. Never had anyone come up to me with a CD, though.

Excuses I use:
"Let me see if I can find it"... later "I've been busy, let me look" ... later " I can't find it".

"No, sorry, but how 'bout this song?" (Put on a song that doesn't annoy me too much but makes them go away."
"I'll see"

If it's jump, jive, and wail, I put on the Louis Prima version. heheheh.
If it's sing, sing, sing, I'll still play it, but not the swing kids version.


lindyholic wrote: I have had a lot of requests for latin music. There's been a few times when I'm DJing any good swing song and they'll say "Hey, can you play some swing music?" I say "This is swing music". They say "No, I want real swing music, you know, like Zoot Suit Riot". I just say "I'm sorry, I don't have that". Though there is the odd time I get them bringing up CDs as well. What do people do in those cases? One thing I say is "I already have a set list for tonight (which I don't) and I really don't like ruining the flow".

Harrison

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yedancer
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#147 Post by yedancer » Fri Feb 11, 2005 8:37 pm

I seem to remember some discussion about this perhaps in this thread or perhaps in another. Regarding the people who linger around the booth and talk to you nonstop while you are DJing, I think it would be funny to make a CD that has a track #1 that would fit almost anywhere into any set (like Splanky or something) and then make a label for the CD that says in large bold letters: "CD TO USE WHEN PEOPLE WON'T LEAVE THE DJ ALONE." When those people come up you can hand it to them and say, "Since you're talking to me, would you mind putting this in the CD player and queuing it up?"
-Jeremy

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wheresmygravy
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#148 Post by wheresmygravy » Mon Feb 14, 2005 7:41 am

I had a cute little girl about 8 years old come up and request "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy". How could I resist? I'm a sucker for the cute girls....

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Platypus
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#149 Post by Platypus » Mon Feb 14, 2005 9:41 am

I had someone come up to me last night to ask me how to become a DJ. When I gave him the lowdown, he squirmed a bit, then asked how to get "known" music played for the beginners, like what is played at weddings. AH, the REAL motivation: music change. So, after doing the DJ coordinator soothing thing, I asked the guy to become my "beginner spy" and report to me regularly about the reactions to different DJs in the booth. He gave me an odd look and didn't give me a clear response. I don't think he expected to have me ask him to "work" when he came up to me.

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#150 Post by Roy » Mon Feb 21, 2005 5:44 pm

So I'm DJing Saturday night in Chicago at a brand new gig. Right at opening at 9 PM about 15 Lindy Hoppers show up. About 1/3 are notorious slow dancers, 2 of them like great jazz music but from my experience dance at all tempos and the others I don't know what they like to dance too. So I do my normal gig play a couple slow songs hike up the energy and tempos, change music styles somewhere in here hike down the energy and tempos and repeat. Everyone would only dance to songs under 150 BPM no matter what I played. Everything over 150 no one danced. So I decided to keep it slow for a bit. 5 straight slow songs, everyone was dancing all the songs. I crept it up to around 160 BPM. 5 couples still on the dance floor and the first new couple enter the venue. I creep up the tempo again to around 170 BPM's, there were only 2 couples left on the dance floor.

Then the new couple who only heard 2 of my songs walks up to me and asks if I can play something slow. Geeze don't you think they would wait for a few songs before making that type of request? I then explained that I had jsut played 5 straight slow songs and while most people here want slow stuff there may be a few people who want faster stuff so I want to be sure to mix in a few, but I will play a slow song next. Which i did and everyone was back on the dance floor. I thought to myself "come on 160 and 170 is hardly fast."

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