10 Songs Rock Bands Refuse To Play Live
1. Paramore – ‘Misery Business’
Paramore announced in 2018 they will no longer play their breakthrough and most well-known song 'Misery Business' at live shows. Singer Hayley Williams declared the song’s retirement at a headline show in Nashville to mark the end of touring their 2017 album 'After Laughter'. Before launching into the song, Williams said;
“This is a choice that we’ve made because we feel that we should, we feel like it’s time to move away from it for a little while. This is to every bad decision that led us here, this is to all the embarrassing things we might have said, but we owned up to it and we grew.”
The band then called on the crowd to toast their final rendition of Misery Business with energy and love. As you can imagine, fans did not take the news lightly online. The track has been the focus of a fierce debate over the years whether the lyrics are ‘anti-feminist’. Williams and co retiring it is mostly in reference to one particular lyric directed at another woman: “Once a whore, you’re nothing more, I’m sorry that’ll never change.”
Expanding on her own misgivings before Misery was axed altogether from live shows, Williams addressed the matterin a blog post.
‘I haven’t related to it in a very long time. Those words were written when I was 17... admittedly, from a very narrow-minded perspective. It wasn’t really meant to be this big philosophical statement about anything. It was quite literally a page in my diary about a singular moment I experienced as a high schooler. And that’s the funny part about growing up in a band with any degree of success. People still have my diary. The past and the present. All the good and bad and embarrassing of it.’
The song came up again this year ahead of the release of Hayley’s debut solo album 'Petals For Armor'. Hayley took to her Instagram Stories to thank Spotify for putting lead single 'Simmer' in their Women Of Rock playlist, but noted that 'Misery Business' was also included but it shouldn’t be.
‘SIMMER is on this playlist. thx Spotify. But so is Misery Business. I know it’s one of the band’s biggest songs but it shouldn’t be used to promote anything having to do with female empowerment or solidarity. I’m so proud of Paramore’s career, it’s not about shame. it’s about growth and progression... and though it’ll always be a fan favourite, we don’t need to include it on playlists in 2020.’
Spotify took note, removing it from the playlist shortly after.