‘Making Memories’ – Rush

By the time Rush drafted in Neil Peart, they didn’t really need to become the same old boogie-woogie band they started out as. That time had long since faded, and any hope that the band would pump out the same Bad Company-style riffs was about to become a thing of the past. Then again, that transition was a lot smoother than expected when they began working on an album like Fly By Night.

While ‘Anthem’ kicks the door down with one of the strongest riffs in the band’s catalogue, there is a lot of fat from those early years they had yet to shake off. As much as people love this era of the group, there’s probably a good reason why ‘Making Memories’ only got played live once, since half of the song is an acoustic ditty about the pleasures of the road that feels extremely out of place next to their new songs that have to deal with battles with snow dogs and cerebral looks at modern living.

That doesn’t mean that the song isn’t great in its own right, but compared to the other acoustic ditties they would play later, there was no reason for it to stick around that long in the setlist. There had already been a million songs about how touring was fun, but tunes like ‘Resist’ offer a much better comedown after the band played nothing but rock and roll for two hours straight.

‘Over Now’ – Alice in Chains

The ending of Alice in Chains’ first iteration with Layne Staley feels like watching the world’s slowest car crash looking back on it. Staley was losing his battle with addiction and becoming more and more undependable, and it took everything they could to get him upright to go into the studio for their self-titled record. While that album did give us some great tunes to close out this chapter, ‘Over Now’ feels like the sad aftermath of where all of those dark days had finally taken them.

Since the group never properly toured their new record, the only time the song was played was on their performance on MTV Unplugged, with Jerry Cantrell covering most of the vocal duties. As much as Staley gives it his all and even hits a few impressive high notes during this performance, it does feel a little invasive, even watching the tune as if we’re walking in on something that was never supposed to be made public.

Although the band has reformed with William DuVall and has continued to make fantastic music, ‘Over Now’ only brings up bad memories whenever they think about it. Whether they knew it or not during their performance on MTV Unplugged, the band inadvertently wrote the end credits song for their career, and even if Staley had a few more years left in him after this performance, he was already long gone in many ways.

‘My World’ – Guns N’ Roses

When Guns N’ Roses got off the road for Appetite for Destruction, they knew they needed to take things to the next level. Everyone had been expecting something new after ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and ‘Paradise City’ crashlanded on rock radio, and everyone had ideas about where the band’s new direction was supposed to go. More specifically, Axl Rose had about 12 different ideas for the band’s future, and Use Your Illusion had virtually every single one of them.

Although most people would have been happy to get another helping of hard rock from them, bringing in the massive piano ballads was already treading on thin ice with some fans. As if everyone wasn’t already completely blitzed from the marathon they had to sit through, there was no way they were going to have any tolerance for ‘My World’, which drags on for a minute or so with Rose threatening the listener with the worst beats that money can buy.

It’s at least a little funny to see them make a Nine Inch Nails song as The Downward Spiral was right around the corner, but there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that they were ever going to replicate this live. After all, every concert should be a celebration, and it feels like this tune simply exists to either piss everyone off or get everyone towards the exits as quickly as possible.

‘Junk’ – Paul McCartney

Everything about Paul McCartney’s McCartney projects was never supposed to be live mainstays. There was always ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ to satiate the fans, but the minute that Macca left the studio, there weren’t any plans for him to tear through some of the wild experiments on McCartney II or the glorified demos that turned up on his proper solo debut. But that doesn’t mean that some didn’t find their way onto the setlist every now and again.

Although ‘Junk’ is more of an idea than a proper song, it remains one of the purest McCartney melodies ever written. Since the whole record was centred around patches of things that he had been working on while in The Beatles, this was him trying out some faux-jazz chords on guitar and making the most of his gift for melody, even including a Muzak version of the tune on the same album.

It’s far from the most live-friendly song that McCartney would ever play onstage, but there’s a certain magic to listening to ‘Junk’ that doesn’t translate onstage. The former Beatle hasn’t known many venues outside of the world’s stadiums for a while, but this is a song best represented when it’s being played gently on an acoustic guitar rather than thrown to the back of the room.

‘Little James’ – Oasis

Oasis coming back after Be Here Now was always going to be a bit of a gamble. As much as Noel and Liam Gallagher were more than willing to prove themselves as the greatest band in the world all over again, starting from scratch with two members and approaching everything like democracy was a far cry from the leadership role that Noel had during their prime. It was now every man for himself, and while Liam never backed down from a challenge, there’s a damn good reason ‘Little James’ never met the stage that often.

Despite being talked up as the song that introduced Liam to songwriting, this tender ode to his son is one of the more forgettable tunes to be associated with one of the band members. ‘I Can See A Liar’ may have been a dud out of the gate, but Liam’s desperate attempt to channel John Lennon with only half of a chord progression makes him sound like he’s coaxing by on the psychedelic effects in the tune rather than making a complete song.

Despite Liam eventually blossoming into a great songwriter, no one is as rapturous about him playing this tune the same way that he plays something like ‘I’m Outta Time’. The latter was Liam as a seasoned veteran, whereas this one sounds like a musician fumbling their way into writing a convincing song.

‘Drowning Man’ – U2

Not every band goes into the studio with the intent of making a musical masterpiece. The whole point behind every great rock and roll song is to take the crux of what you have and turn it into magic, and that doesn’t always equate to having the most pleasurable experience translating something from the studio to the stage. And while The Edge normally had no problem recreating every strange effect in U2’s catalogue, ‘Drowning Man’ is the epitome of a studio masterpiece that would have never worked in a live setting.

Which is a shame considering this is one of Bono’s finest vocal performances. Since most of the backing track is made out of a slightly hazy rhythmic structure and The Edge’s different guitar harmonics, Bono approaches the melody the same way that a jazz trumpeter might, taking various leaps during the song and adding genuine pathos behind wanting to rescue someone from themselves.

Although there are many scenarios when the band had the opportunity to play War in its entirety, ‘Drowning Man’ deserves to live on as a museum piece. Because for all of the sunglasses and the charity speeches and albums that have been forced upon the general public, there’s no reason to get too angry at U2 when they were the people behind this masterpiece.

‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ – The Beatles

By the time The Beatles reached the mid-1960s, playing live was merely a suggestion. They could still deliver whenever they got onstage, but it was anyone’s guess whether anyone was going to actually hear them over the massive screams of everyone in the audience. If they couldn’t hear themselves whenever they played, it was time for them to stop worrying about playing everything on the record.

Rubber Soul already had a few moments that would have been tricky to pull off in a live setting, but ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ was their first attempt at a song that no one else could have played. The whole point behind the track was making a retelling of Timothy Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience, but even if you’ve never taken acid, this is a good substitute, especially when the different tape loops end up coming.

Whereas the Fab Four had done an antiquated version of their other tunes like ‘Paperback Writer’, there was no real point trying to ever make this kind of thing work in a live setting. Because no matter how many times they may have tried, this was a stroke of mad genius that even George Martin thought was unrepeatable.

‘Misery’ – Green Day

The entire story of Green Day’s middle period feels like watching the musical version of puberty. After all, the pop-punk icons had introduced themselves as stubborn kids when making Dookie, and now that they had one of the highest-selling punk albums to their name, they were determined to take that next step by working on different genres. Every one of them seemed like a new creative direction, but if fans had a problem with ‘Good Riddance’, they would spontaneously combust the minute they heard ‘Misery’.

Although Green Day toyed with acoustic guitars on nearly every track on Warning, this piece of jazzy cabaret rock and roll was still a major step for them. Billie Joe Armstrong certainly took a lot from this song when working on some of the band’s later material like ‘Peacemaker’ and ‘Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl)’, but hearing a dark tale about punks running away from the law was one of the most punk things they could have done to upset their original fanbase.

Even though the song was retired after only being played once, it’s easy to see the influence that it’s had on every other strange rock and roll song that came after it. Because think about it for a second: minor key ballad? Strange big-band accompaniment? Overall theatrical vibe to the entire song? Yeah, this is basically My Chemical Romance with the same macabre spirit as a Tim Burton movie soundtrack.

‘Fixxxer’ – Metallica

There are hardly any tunes that Metallica have in their back catalogue that haven’t been played live. Their entire mentality is that of the ultimate road dogs, so why not try to cover every single song in the book and even throw in a few covers for good measure? It might have worked like a charm back then, but looking at the way that their live repertoire has shaped up, there are a few pieces of the band’s set that shouldn’t be trifled with again.

Compared to their thrash glory days, ‘Fixxxer’ was always the mammoth epic on ReLoad. Even if fans didn’t care for the record all that much, this felt like the natural successor to a tune like ‘The Outlaw Torn’, featuring some of James Hetfield’s best lyrics from that time and a handful of sonic surprises that no one expected from them. So, how did it take them over 20 years to actually play the tune live?

Well, as much as the song deserved its own section during the live show, the band was clearly shaky when they finally performed it, featuring Hetfield being noticeably nervous to hit the high notes on the chorus, which falls right in the sweet spot where it’s not that clean for his voice. While Hetfield joked after his performance that there was a reason why they kept it in the vault, ‘Fixxxer’ definitely deserves a second chance to meet the stage properly.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ – Queen

So, first of all, there’s some explaining to do here. “But wait,” I hear some of you shouting. “There are countless pieces of footage of Queen performing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ live. Why the hell does it qualify for this list?” Ah, but we’re talking about the full song in this scenario, and really, what the hell else could they have done if they were asked to perform the entire operatic section in a live setting?

The fact that the band could even make the final product in the first place was practically unheard of, with the master tape being virtually transparent by the time all of the overdubbing was finished. When it came time to play it live, though, even a handful of the most dynamic performers of all time weren’t afraid to cheat a little bit, taking the basis of their song and having a light show go on as they walked offstage.

Although many so-called purists would call this kind of move sacrilege, it actually works surprisingly well with the rest of the show, making it even more of a surprise when they come back in and perform the massive rock section at the end. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ might not be everyone’s first call to cover with a full band, but it looks like garage bands should be off the hook when Queen themselves can’t bear to make everything work.