Lyle Lovett "Here I Am"

I like songs that have a good joke in them. But they're not very fun to hear live.

Have you ever heard a live Adam Sandler song? The audience is always singing the punch line. Totally annoying.

I went to see Lyle Lovett at the Cape Cod Melody Tent a bunch of years ago, and when he started to play "Here I Am" I was kind of excited, because I like the song.

But every time he'd get to the end of a verse, ready to drop his perfectly placed pregnant pause and zinger, the audience, in unison, would yell it out.

Totally ruined the song for me.

How do you get around this, if you're the artist?

Lyle is a smart man. He did save the song, by adding a whole new verse at the end, so no one knew the joke, set up or punch line, and he was able to get the audience to listen, rather than mimic.

The other way? Sing it in a foreign country . . .


See the video on Youtube.

The origial

See the video on Youtube.