The Smiley Smile Message Board

Perhaps this isn't entirely new... but I'll give it a try.
Name a terrifyingly bad song by an acknowledged great musician (or band).

I'll start with two:

Paul McCartney: 'Mull Of Kintyre'
Stevie Wonder: 'I Just Called To Say I Love You'

(is it any wonder that we're talking karaoke standards here?).

Your turn...

Jeez, figures: Mull of Kintyre is one of my favorite McCartney ditties.

I recommend Thorazine, with a dash of amphetamines when you're going to be interviewed.

"Hey Negrita" by the Rolling Stones

A full quarter of the Beach Boys output.

If you think a quarter of their output sucks, how do you consider them to be great?

Because another quarter or more is sublime.

"I Only Want to Dance with You" by the Beatles. Terrible song. Like the guitar and the drums, though. Also "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."

I think Rainy Day Women by Bob Dylan is kind of annoying. That may be sacriligious.

I agree with you. And there are several dozen other Dylan songs that fit the bill, too. Just because someone is capable of great music doesn't make him or them immune to making awful music. Nothing wrong with keeping some perspective on things and honesty with yourself. It doesn't take away from the great stuff one bit.

Fortunately I've only heard the good Dylan. There are whole decades missing from my collection.

 Actually, come to think of it, I don't like Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands either. Too long, too pretentious.

And in fact, though it has mostly great songs on it, I haven't really liked Blonde on Blonde for for a long, long time.

Reasonable minds must disagree here. I love pretty much the whole album: i just start on track 2 almost every time.

I loved it and I would not call it "terrible." I fully understand why many critics put it on their top ten list.
 But there's something that worked for me personally in the beginning that doesn't anymore. It is great sounding, the songs are great. The singing is cool, but I just don't get into it anymore.
Nowadays when I hear it, I tend to just zero in on the guitars and drums (the band is GREAT on that record)and ignore the voice. I think my favorite period for ole Bob is actually the late sixties. I think that's when he perfectly balanced craft and inspiration, and I think that country-ish stuff suits his voice well. Also, I think he'd hit an age where he could shake off his pretension--I t hink Blonde on Blonde is pretensious. I mean, that's an element that actually makes it great, I suppose--it's so arrogant, yet he does pull it off. But I just can't relate to 66 Bob Dylan. His heartache doesn't seem real, it doesn't move me--it can only impress me and I don't know if I need to be impressed.

 Bringing It All Back Home, by contrast never gets old for me. Maybe it's just a matter of not having the time to listen to double albums like I did when I was younger.

I

I like that one, try Pretty Beat Up for a bad Stones song.

I wanna hold your hand - The Beatles

Can't stand that song. It's terrible. I wonder how in the world that song could sell so much....

It selling so much would be an indicator of sh*t, as far as my observations show. Generally speaking, I'd say commercial success is not directly related, unless it is inversely proportionate to, quality.

The Beatles -- "Long, Long, Long" and their cover of "Mr. Moonlight"
The Beach Boys -- too many to pick from
The Monkees -- tie among "On The Day We Fall In Love," "The Poster," and "She's Moving In With Rico"
Wings -- "Mrs. Vanderbilt"
The Who -- anything with Kenny Jones on drums
The Doors -- "Get Up And Dance" (too happy for them, even though Jim wasn't involved)
Chuck Berry -- "My Ding-A-Ling"
James Cotton -- his performance of "Juke" at Little Walter Jacobs' induction into the RnRHoF
Led Zeppelin -- anything after the third album
Brian Wilson (solo) -- "The Waltz"
Grateful Dead -- "Touch of Gray"

You only don't like Touch of Grey because it's the Grateful Dead's Kokomo. And Mr. Moonlight is GREAT!

I really don't like Wonderful Christmastime by Paul McCartney. The backing keyboard is so annoyingly lame.

No, I actually don't like it because it's the Grateful Dead's "Walk of Life." And it's too commercial for them.


I do love the opening, though -- can you beat that vocal?? I always thought of taking the opening, but tacking it on to "Leave My Kitten Alone." I know, "Leave My Kitten Alone" wasn't left off BECAUSE of "Mr. Moonlight," but the thing is....why put that song on there while they have an awesome rocker sitting in the can?

This is very similar to my feelings about Blonde On Blonde.  Never come across another Dylan fan who felt that way!  For all the genius on this album, there's something about it that feels so.....disengaged.  And cold.

Macca's Wonderful Christmas Time sounded like a LOVE YOU track to me when I first heard it.

I love My Ding-a-Ling. The only 45 in my record collection is My-Ding-a-Ling, with a live version of Johnny B. Good as the B-side.


Now if you want to talk about bad songs by good bands, I would say half of every single album Radiohead has put out since OK Computer is pretty bad...or at leat pretty boring.

Everything the Stones did after Brian Jones died does nothing but "follow the formula".

And for atrocities commited by the Beach Boys, just check out most of Summer in Paradise and KTSA, most of Sweet Insanity, all of Mike Love's solo albums, all of Carl's early 80s solo material except for the song Heaven, all of Still Cruisin', half of BB85, half of MIU, half of 15BO, half of Little Deuce Coupe, Sumahama, disco version of Here Comes the Night, I Wanna Pick You Up, Brian's Back, Problem Child, Crocodile Rock, and too many other BB songs to mention.

Listening to the Rhino remaster of Yes' Tormato I'm left wondering how the hell the bonus tracks Countryside and You Can Be Saved got shelved from the original album yet Circus of Heaven and Arriving UFO made it on.

Hey, thanks for writing in you all -
great choices. 'My Ding-A-Ling' truly is dreck, as are many of the other choices. Plus: I always thought this one did harm to racial relations, because it suggests that black men are only out for one thing and that in a very limited vocabulary (just my two cents). That may ring true for mr. Berry (e.g. the infamous toilet VHS stories); but others may feel insulted by it.

My choice for the day: Bruce Springsteen's 'Drive All Night', which has his cliché about cars and girls to the max; and since it pretends to be a 'grand statement', it goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on... and in the end you still don't know if he bought her those shoes.

Is it a crime if I think "My Ding A Ling" is a funny song? I've never even thought about it in racial terms before. I always thought it was just an innocent but dirty joke song.

Bee Bop Baby by Perry Como.

You're Havin My Baby by Little Richard

The Dog Gone Girl Is Mine! by McCartney and Jackson

Gray is the Colour of My Tru Luvs Haire by the Olde Farts

Hint: Two of these are actual songs!!!!

The Girl is Mine is the song that made me realize that not everything released by the Beatles is infallibly amazing.

You gotta learn to open your mind and love it FOR being crap, just as if you had a retarded child.(apologies to any retards on this board--I'm being serious anyway.)

-Macca's Helen Wheels
-Ringo's No No song
-Dig a Pony always got old to me
-pretty much all the output (official) by the Beach Boys in the 90s is unbearable to me...still havnt listened to Bummer in Paradise all the way through...it's like a hangover and i cant drag my cd player to the toilet.
-I really only like half of Hail to the Theif album by Radiohead
-Bruce's solo stuff is really not for me. I can't stand his take on Don't Worry Baby, I don't like Rock and Roll Survivor, always liked Manalow's IWTS over Bruce's, only enjoyed the BB/Bruce take of Disney Girls (as opposed to his newer recordings), I used to like Tears in the Morning (totally can't stand it now)
-Never enjoyed Elton's Boarder Song
-I kinda feel like half of Sgt. Pepper's (whole album) lyrics are just cheap poetry from 1967. (mostly Fixing a Hole (which I do like), the verses of Getting Better, Lovely Rita, and Good Morning Good Morning)


Just to dance with you, hmmm, I kinda like this song, prolly my least fav on HDN.

^ Does that imply that you believe Bruce Johnston is a "great artist"? Wow, I couldn't agree with that at all. I'd put him more in the category of "talented guy in a sometimes-great band."

"Happy Endings" by Little Richard and The Beach Boys is pretty unbearable overly-sentimental Disney-esque crap!

yeah, i guess i forgot what section i was typing in, I do like his stuff with the BB though.   ;)

I'm reluctant  to overly criticize hits that I may not like because they clearly have their place.  There are others who have enjoyed them and who would I be to say they are "bad"?  However (imo) there are some songs that do not belong on the album they appeared on.  They might be ok b sides or rarities but detract from the record they came out on.  An example is Noel Redding's  "She's So Fine" on  Hendrix's 'Axis - Bold As Love'.  So is Redding's  "Little Miss Strange" on "Electric Ladyland".  Noel was a good musician, but to me it is a given if you were playing in Jimi's band or on one of his records that you were there as a sideman and you were there to support him.  I remain astounded with the audacity  suggested by the existance of those tracks on those albums.  Another example would be 'Mother' on the Police's 'Syncronicity'.  Andy Summers song is interesting in it's way, but it does not fit on this album.  It would have been an excellent B side.           

But clearly Jimi was willing to let Noel have his tracks. I mean, they're there. It's not like Noel could use some power and influence over weak little nobody Hendrix! (Btw, I LOVE those songs. No kidding. Not just being difficult. I think they add a great pop touch to albums that can otherwise meander a bit too much for my taste.)

My understanding is that is exactly what happened.  Hendrix was a soft  touch and easily taken advantage of  - despite the power he theoretically wielded when he made it commercially.  No way should the JHE have been any kind of a democracy. 



I don't hate the songs at all.  I even like "Mother" for what it is.  I just  feel that it  interupts the 'Syncronicity' album like 'Trancedental Meditation' would have if it had been stuck in the middle of 'Friends'.  (Even as it is 'TM' stands out like a sore thumb at the end of the record - and I like the song a lot.) 
In the case of the Hendrix L.P.s, I feel that  Noels stuff would have been better suited on his own album.  He should have been helping Hendrix instead of pestering him and  pressuring him, in order to put his lead vocals and lead guitar on Jimi's records.             

How about these Beatles songs - "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)", "Revolution 9" (should we even count that as a song?), "Wild Honey Pie", "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?" All horrible songs (if you want to call them that) in my opinion

Each individual Beatle went on to a long, distinguished career of putting out mostly mediocre-or-worse songs, in my opinion.

Yeah I agree Luther... of course there were still shining moments, but on the whole I agree... and of course there are other Beatles songs that aren't all that good but those are the ones that came to mind immediately.

I know it's your opinion, but, don't know about that one.... ???

Yeah that's cool if you like it but I just think it's awful... I would rather listen to Summer of Love on reverse... okay, maybe I wouldn't go that far, but whenever I'm listening to The White Album, that's one I always skip.

I like all those songs. I like every officially released Beatles song, though (Love doesn't count).

I like those songs in their contexts, You Know My Name as a b-side, the others as filler on a double album, I don't think they're great songs, but I enjoy 'em. Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Hold Me Tight, Ask Me Why, I Only Want To Dance With You, When I Get Home, You Like Me Too Much...Those songs are awful. (to me)

I recall you said something like this about the Beach Boys, too, that you like everything they did. I don't mean to criticize or question that, but do you feel that way about other bands you love? Do you like everything by every band you love, and nothing by others? I ask because it is interesting to me. For me, it's a grab bag across most bands: I can't think of a single band from whom I love everything. I could find something I like in most songs by a band I love, but I wouldn't say I love the songs.

Just bands I'm obsessed with or was obsessed with. I used to be obsessed with the Beatles before I was obsessed with the Beach Boys.

But you like every song by bands you are or were obsessed with? I have been obsessed with Zappa, and there are probably hundreds of songs from him that I'm either ambivalent about or don't like. I find your 100% dedication ... well, unnatural. Kind of creepy, even. (And again, sorry, I don't mean to sound like a jerk. Just trying to understand it.)

I guess there are bands considered great I just don't care for. Yet for maybe the two dozen careers I follow closely I can't say I like all of anyone's stuff. Still I am more likely to listen to a bad album by an artist I like then a "good" one by someone who holds no interest for me.

Another Bruce Springsteen one: 'When You're Alone' from Tunnel Of Love. It could have been a decent country tune, but the sheer repetition of the title makes me laugh all of the time...

Genesis with the song "Invisible Touch". yuck!
When I first heard it back in 1986 I thought,"What happened to the band that wrote "Supper's Ready","Dance On A Volcano" and all those albums from 1970 to 1980?" 
And 5 years after Invisible Touch they would do "I Can't Dance".......double YUCK!!

Genesis were never the same after both Gabriel and Hackett left.

Brian

The first one they did without both Gabriel and Hackett is actually my favorite Genesis album: And There Were Three.

That said, I even like Invisible Touch quite a bit, but that's probably just me being slightly obsessed with American Psycho when I bought that record. Still some of their eighties songs strike me as great in their very own right, most notably Mama, Home By The Sea, and parts of Duke.

Invisible Touch was actually the second album I ever bought....insert gay ashamed smiley here...

Phirnis,
  Funny you should mention "...And Then There Were Three".That's also my Favorite Genesis album.
It's also one of the most cohesive albums as far as the track listing.Not ONE song on that album is bad!! From the first song "Down and Out" to "Follow You,Follow Me",no album has meant more and taken me back to being a teenager in the late 1970's then ATTWT.Awesome album!

Big Bri

"Go West young man,earn a dollar a day,just like you're family said..."

Phirnis,
   Just found these Two "gems" on YouTube.And apparently they're re-mixes from the newer "...And Then There Were Three" CD.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0g-j4K9_D4&feature=related    "Deep In The Motherlode"

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pxvSxv7O8M                             "Snowbound"    amazing song around the Holiday Season!

 Cheers,

 Big Bri

Big Bri, I feel the absolute same way about the album being such a cohesive listening experience. Just like so many favorites of mine, this one didn't blow me away immediately. People have criticized its sound, but I think it's just perfect and really adds to the overall feel of sadness so prominently featured on this record. When I rediscovered ATTWT this summer (after years of it collecting dust at my parents' house) I was quite surprised when I realized I still knew almost every note and lyric on this album by heart.

Phirnis,
  And yet,in it's Melancholy there's a very prominent "Grandeour" in the feeling tone of ATTWT.I was blown away immediatley back in 1978 when I heard "Deep In The Motherlode" and "Down and Out" on the local radio station.
  This quote below is what really sums up ATTWT for me.It's from the comments section of YouTube for "...Motherlode"

 "This song makes my spirit soar. It takes me back to the days when'anything seemed possible' and I could almost feel a magic in the air on a cold crisp day with sun shining/
Anyone know that feeling? .
this song is so inspirational, amazing,one of their very best and my faves!"

  And that just about sums it up! MAGIC!

 Cheers,
 
 Brian

You guys amaze me. See: I never 'got' Genesis, nor Queen. I didn't even 'get' the Beatles either. I had Sgt. Pepper for a couple of years on vinyl and then sold it. People sent me CDRs of 'Revolver' and 'Rubber Soul'. I didn't even get to the end of those records. I don't care for the White Album at all. I must miss a few genes here, I'm afraid, since many people like artists in 'clusters'. The Beach Boys affiliations I really love are Phil Spector (of course) and Van Dyke Parks.
As for the rest: John Fahey (adore him); Augustus Pablo; Lee Perry; King Tubby; Ry Cooder; Toumani Diabaté; Orchestre Baobab; Lambchop; Massive Attack; Lucinda Williams; Flaming Lips; Mercury Rev, and many others who I can't name for lack of time.
Now: flame away... :smokin

Don,
  Being a musican has alot to do with it.But I always thought the Beachs Boys were heads above the Beatles.I too never "got" the Beatles! I appreciate their musical genius,but Brian Wilson single handedly did what took 4 of the Beatles to do.
  Somehow,in my childhood since I started at age 10 with "The Beach Boys In Concert '73",I grouped the BB's in with the progressive rock bands that I've always loved:Genesis,RUSH,ELP,YES,Jethro Tull.Beacause Brian Wilson IS Progressive in his use of chord structures and VDP's Lyrics!
  Just a 35 year Lead Guitarist talking here.Funny how "musical affiliations" group together likes "families of Consciousness" as Seth,Kris & Elias have stated.

Cheers Amigo!

Big Bri

What's to flame? I don't see why liking the Beach Boys has anything to do with Genesis, for f***'s sake. Jesus, I hate Genesis. I love Queen, but it has nothing to do with the Beach Boys. (Yes, both have vocal harmonies. Yes, they both covered "I Can Hear Music." But generally their music, including vocal harmony styles, have nothing to do with one another.) Beatles are obviously linked due to the mid-60s "competition" stuff being public. But it's all irrelevant. Like what you like and never apologize.

Don, I'm totally with you in terms of Queen and The Beatles (like the latter quite a bit, though it pretty much ends for me after Rubber Soul). Genesis I used to love when I was heavily into prog rock - that was some ten years ago, before I had even heard of a record named Pet Sounds. That pretty much changed it all in 2000, yet I still retain a soft spot for that particular Genesis album. It's funny how you can go from most pretentious and complicated to listening to Little Deuce Coupe ten times in a row.

I love your comments, guys. Phirnis hit it on the head here for me... I once had a double LP, called, wait for it: 'Tales From Topographic Oceans'. At the time (I was 14) I thought that the title meant something. And that the 4 songs meant something too. How could one go wrong with 'The Gates Of Delirium'? Or with 'Nous Sommes Du Soleil'?
Well, I for one went wrong with this stuff. I sold the album and used the money to purchase 'Spirit Of America'. And yes... I managed to play the title track, or 'Why Do Fools' in many 'repeat situations', and they gave me so much more pleasure than that Yes material... it can be done. Becoming a BBs maniac, I mean.

I too would rather put Why Do Fools Fall In Love on repeat than sit through a half-hour Rick Wakeman keyboard solo. I realize the guys in Yes are good musicians, but a lot of times a 3 minute pop song will fill me with more satisfaction than endless instrumental noodling.

Pink Floyd's "See Saw".  Absolute sh*t... I was a fan of the late Rick Wright, but this is one of the worst songs I've heard by anybody anywhere. It sounds like someone was trying to write a terrible song on purpose and succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

Did I mention 'Mind Gardens' by the Byrds?

I just can't stand "American Pie" by Don McLean, especially ever since Madonna felt the need to record a cover version a couple of years ago.

I'd rather play some Buddy Holly tunes myself.

You have a point. Also his: 'Vincent'. Bit of a tearjerker about the artist as a tortured genius. Makes me think of a certain Bri... no wait, that is too sensitive a subject.

Baby What A Big Surprise - Chicago
Mary Queen of Arkansas - Bruce Springsteen
Yellow Submarine - The Beatles
Silly Love Songs - Paul McCartney

It always amazed me to find that "Killing Me Softly With His Song" was written about Don McClean and the songwriter's  reaction to hearing Don sing in a nightclub.  I've always wondered what song Don was singing that inspired her to write that. 

Did you know, by the way, that 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' was written about yours truly?

...although the second line originally read: 'It Was Such A Big Shock For Me'...

I beg your pardon, sir, but there is one more thing, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is about Columbo???  :-D

I'm thinking of soe truly weak, if not downright bad songs by Jefferson Airplane;

Son of Jesus
Milk Train
and probably most of the rest of Long John Silver
Nice trick cover that converted to a stash box though........

Me too.  :'(

In keeping with the Beatles....

John Lennon Bless You or Surprise Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)

That's funny Walls and Bridges is my favorite Lennon solo LP. Almost everything on Sometime In New York City reeks.

 ;D ;D ;D made my day, that one. Cheers!

Ironically its my fave as well. But those two tracks just really grate on my nerves. They strike me as being very unLennon.

Some of Mind Games would be on my compilation of 68-80 John Lennon songs.

I love 'See saw'!

To join in the Genesis discussion, I am a massive fan of early 70s Genesis (Well 'Wind and wuthering' is my cutoff point really) and do like some of their 80s stuff though I think ATTW3 is one of their worst albums, I just find it very drab, there are some ones I like on there like 'Many too many' and 'Burning Rope' and also the B-side 'The Day the lights went out' which is ace but too much of it is pedestrian for me. I absolutely loathe 'Follow you follow me', I know it was a big hit but to me its a real lowpoint!
I'm a big Queen fan too mostly of their 70s stuff but have a high tolerance for their 80s stuff, the worst offender to my ears is 1989's 'The Miracle' which contains some of my most detested Queen songs of all - 'Party', 'The Invisible man', 'My baby does me', there are some far better B-sides and outtakes from this period which could have really turned this album around.
Also, though I'm a big Paul McCartney fan I find nearly all of his 'Flaming Pie' album (despite the wealth of critical acclaim that greeted it) to be hideous, bland and underwritten. I know those are criticisms that could be levelled at other McCartney albums too but this one for me really sums it up.

I love Flaming Pie myself. Just some good basic stuff. I really hate Driving Rain.

OK, it's not a good song, but when I saw Chuck in concert a few months ago it certainly was one of the highlights of the show!

Is it just me or do you get to a certain age and begin to hear songs that you used wish that your favourtie artists had never recorded and in fact try to pretend that they hadn't, and think..."Hey....Not bad".

Examples:

Mull of Kintyre
Xanadu by ELO (in fact that doesn't really count as I never used to like ELO at all until a couple of years ago. this was just the last of their hits to beat me into submission)

uh that's all I can think of right now.

The lyrics to this album are dire. They should definitely have left them off the album sleeve and let the murky mix create some ambiguity in people's minds. I love all JA albums except this one, i never listen to it but their others are on fairly regular rotation in my ears.

Apparently most of the songs had their lyrics written to already-taped instrumental tracks, which could be why it sounds so disjointed.

I actually like four tracks on that album; Airee, Easter?, Alexander the Medium and especially the album closer, Eat Starch Mom. It's like Grace Slick fronting the Stooges.

There is some weak stuff on that album, defenitley. Twilight Double Leader is the worst of the lot, imo.

The songs from Long John Silver do sound better performed live. And I do like Aerie, i'll give you that.

The Airplane/Etc... released so much music in a short space of time that I think it finally caught up with them and they spread themselves too thin. They were probably also saving their best stuff for their own projects.

Even forgetting just their 60s stuff, from 70-74 they released Mexico/Saucers single, Blows Against the Empire, Sunfighter, Bark, LJS, Manhole, Baron Von Tollbooth, Dragonfly, 30 secs over Winterland, Early Flight, plus whatever Hot Tuna were up to.

They were probably also saving their best stuff for their own projects.

That's confirmed in Grace Slick's autobiography. She basically says Long John Silver was a contractual obligation situation. Right before Long John Silver, Paul and Grace had made the excellent Sunfighter release and the same year as Long John Silver, Hot Tuna released what is probably their best album, Burgers.

I love My-Ding-A-Ling!

It was funny when I was a kid, but to me it's still not offesnsive. I think it's only bad compared to his stuff from 55-65.

These Days by Nico. Yeah yeah, she didn't write it, but still. Jackson Browne is a wanker.