Are artists bored with their songs?

[Nicode70]

One question that fascinates me is how can an artist paly the same song over and over again without being bored to tears with it?

Take Jack, with saven nation army. It's been on for more than a decade now. Between the constant and massive airtime it got since day one, the creative process, the studio sessions, the hundreds of concert, he still manage to play it at recent shows.

I went to see Noel gallagher a couple years ago. he played "wonderwall".

the stones still playing "start me up" and some older tunes...

I'm impressed by the fact that they still play it and they seems to enjoy doing so..

I'm not a musician, so this is very strange for me...

[Datch]

I think the audiences response plays a part in it too, when the audience reacts like 'meh I already heard this 1000 times, play something else' for sure it wouldn't be fun to play that song anymore.

[Thinkfirst]

Yeah, you kind of owe it to your audience. Don't forget that they're the one paying to see you and the majority of people who come to a concert
may just know you from your singles. Also the response you get from them on those well known songs is a great boost for the band.
Imagine writing a song and everyone screaming the lyrics along with you.
I'm a professional musician myself, so i can kind of relate to it. Although it's certainly different on a Rolling Stones/Jack White level of course.

[Nicode70]

Thanks for your replies. I see your point.
I guess that it all boils down to the public's respons and expectation. But damn, how frustrating can i be to play your old washed out tunes where you have a whole new album to offer

[Juanjo]

Nick Cave said once in an interview that he sings a song until he feels that he cannot get anything else out of it anymore, that in that moment he feels the song is dead, stop singing it and move on. I guess it works differently for every musician, and as said above the crowd response plays a big part too.

How long can Jack White keep playing a song like Seven Nation Army? Only he knows, but consider what he managed, to write a song which riff people will chant, not a chorus or a line, but make the riff the main thing, that ain't easy to do, plus everyone is expecting it as a closing show song now, it has to be difficult to let it drop I guess.

[Nicode70]

Just found this article about Sinead O'Connor that will no longer sing "Nothing Compares 2 U" (no judgment about the musical genre).

It goes along with the Nick Cave comment.

"I don't want audiences to be disappointed coming along to a show and then not hearing it, so am letting you know here that you won't. If I were to sing it just to please people, I wouldn't be doing my job right, because my job is to be emotionally available. I'd be lying. You'd be getting a lie."

http://defamer.gawker.com/sinead-oconno ... 1692366939

I guess you can be bored with you own songs. It took her 25 years. that is really impressive. it seems like an eternity.

[Juanjo]

There also other times where the song is loaded with so many personal circustances that it is just insane to keep singing it after you leave those circustances behind. That's the case of a spanish singer songwritter called Nacho Vegas, who recorded an amazing double record which was just literally an ode to heroin in a time of his life where he was hitting on it very hard. Now people gets surprised or even angry that he merely sings a song out of the double record in his shows. It has to be very difficult to come back to those songs for him now he's out, very difficult I guess.