Not music, but it always makes me laugh: I think it's on Richard Pryor Live In Concert, where a woman from the audience yells: "What happened to your chest hair?" and Richard Pryor, incredulous, but without missing a beat says: "What happened to my chest hair ?? What happened to your p**sy ? " which brings the house down....
This is a favorite of mine. Though not a heckle, it's still pretty funny. From The Doors' Absolutely Live... some wacked-out chick in the audience close enough to Jim's mic to hear her wishy-washy comments back at him as he riled-up the crowd. I mean, what was she thinking? That he'd pluck her from the crowd because he thought they had so much in common and they'd live happily ever after together? lol Alright, alright. Pretty good, pretty good. Pretty neat, pretty neat.
There is one where the heckle worked. An audience member baying for the Who to play Naked Eye, only to get a furious dressing down from Townshend ("we don't do f***ing requests") and then Daltrey superbly undermining him by agreeing with the audience member that they should play it.
Not a famous one but one I always enjoy - Thin Lizzy last tour 1983. Phil is introducing “the only slow song from the new album,” which is The Sun Goes Down, and before he gets to the title some goon yells out Whiskey In The Jar! Phil frustratingly says “No not f-kin’ Whiskey In The Jar” and then apologises to his mother for cursing.
Entire boxset of Clapton playing lead in the 70s. https://www.discogs.com/master/371523-Eric-Clapton-Crossroads-2-Live-In-The-Seventies
Townshend is hilarious when he gets angry, lol I need to do a thread on this Am I hearing this weird, or was each of them trying to sing like the other guy?
Can't remember what album/compilation it was on but there is an early Joy Division concert recording in Manchester where a drunk spectator keeps on shouting "No Love Lost!" between songs with increasing slurryness. They didn't play it (or at least it wasn't included as a track)
As related to me by a semi-rabid REM fan who would probably know this... someone in the crowd yelled out to Michael Stipe to play "Superman" and he yelled back at the fan "I hate that song!"
Yes, there are many cases where the audience or spectators expressed their dissatisfaction during concerts or performances. Some of these include bootleggers who interfered with the performances of important artists such as The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. There is also a famous case where the audience threw bottles onto the stage during Iggy Pop's performance. These and other incidents often become part of the legendary stories of rock and roll.
As I said in another thread, in the next 18 month, 4 billion of us on planet Earth will be voting. Hopefully ballot casters know fact from fiction. Urban legend from reality, and how to check sources before sharing erroneous information.
I swear at the beginning of this, some guy is yelling "Hey Ian Anderson, let's go". I heard it the first time listing to the live song in 1972.
Oh, well in that case... this wasn't captured on a live album, but someone threw an empty bottle of JD at Prince on stage when he opened for The Stones at the L.A. Coliseum in 1981. I was close enough to the stage to see it. That didn't run him off the stage, though, but the constant booing did a few songs later. He deserved it. That may be why I never gave his music a chance, because he sucked when he opened for The Stones.
The sounds of a crowd booing on "Pop Life" was supposedly recorded during one of those shows opening for the Stones.
Unsure if he deserved it. The Rolling Stones' crowd is not exactly his key demographic to begin with. It certainly is an odd pairing of performers, though still not as striking as the infamous Jimi Hendrix/The Monkees.
The ridiculously comprehensive website R.E.M. Timeline has some great stories (mostly in the early years, pre-1986 or so) of the band getting heckled, and heckling right back (not to mention dodging bottles of urine during a slot opening for U2 on the Fables tour). Look up the 8/17/85 show in Ottawa for one amazing story where the band was basically fighting their audience.
I am at a George Jones show mid to late 80's. The Bellamy Brothers open the show. During the intermission the announcement is made George is in the building. Lights go down show begins, Ron Gaddis, George's bass player does his two opening songs introduces George and George comes wobbling out drunk as can be. Tries to sing a song, has the bans play the same instrumental twice and is clearly out of it. A man gets up from the audience walks to the stage, takes off his George Jones baseball cap and throws it at George. Then is a loud voice he yells at George Bring back the Bellamy Brothers. My friend who is taping the show labeled that tape Bring Back the Bellamy Brothers.
Someone on a classic rock message board a bunch of years ago stated that The Stones typically chose local acts to open their shows, but instead of Van Halen or Missing Persons (or both) and maybe the winner of a local battle of the bands contest, we got Prince, Geo. Thorogood and J. Geils. None of whom were local. And you're right... the demographic that was there to see The Stones, J. Geils and Thorogood was not Prince's crowd. No one there seemed to even know who the band was. And not only did his set suck, each member of the band was dressed up as some sort of kinky freaky-deaky character. I remember one outfit was a slutty nurse and Prince himself wore a long overcoat with only little bikini underwear underneath. No, no one wanted to see that or hear his music. If his band came out wearing the rock & roll uniform of denim and leather the crowd may have given him a chance.
