Forgetting the Words

Posted on | March 24, 2010 | Comments Off on Forgetting the Words

I’m convinced that one of the attractions of live performance of music is to see the musicians fuck up. It’s sort of like how people go to car racing, but really they want to see a horrific crash with cars flipping, rolling, burning, and the driver crawling out of his car in flames.

I forget my lyrics pretty often. At least once per show. The more it happens, the more I deal with it better. But now and then, as at my show last night at Tommy Doyle’s Loft, I just totally crash and burn. In this case I was doing a cover of Amanda Palmer’s “The Point of It All” and just totally forgot a huge chunk of the second chorus, and kind of panicked. I finished eventually, but it felt like shit.

So I YouTube’d some videos of famous musicians forgetting their words, and they’re pretty interesting. They all deal with it differently. Some just sing gibberish, some sing about forgetting the words, others just stop completely, or ask the audience for help. Tegan and Sara seem to fuck up a lot, but rely on each other to fill in. My favorite is the recording of Bob Dylan forgetting an ENTIRE SONG, trying the whole way to play through it. And then there’s Elvis, freaking Elvis, almost having a meltdown on stage.

To the audience member, especially to people who are already fans, it is endearing. But to the performer, damn if it doesn’t feel awful.

Jason Mraz (0:36)
James Hetfield (Metallica) (0:13)
Joanna Newsome
Bob Dylan
Regina Spektor (1:00)
Tegan and Sara
Bruce Springstein (4:00)
Elvis (2:20 onwards)