No matter how old I get – and I am old – I still remember I am a veteran of the Punk Wars. Yet despite the fact that i have made my peace with the likes of Yes, and love Peter Gabriel as a solo artiste, I struggle to accept Genesis as an acceptable music choice. Yet I fucking LOVE this track – even though I don’t know what the hell it’s about. what tracks are you surprised to like?
A song you love from an act you always hated
by 47 Comments
I suppose this goes here. I don’t hate The Coldplays particularly, but this is the only song of theirs I’d turn up on the radio.
Cant abide Emerson, Lake and Palmer but love Lucky Man.
Re Coldplay – a bit meh but I do like Fix you until the bit where they make a racket at the end which just ruins the song.
I’d prefer not to like this so much
I can’t stand Queen, but do quite like (but do not love) You’re My Best Friend, which is the only song of theirs that doesn’t have me reaching for the off button.
Otherwise I can’t think of a song that comes close to your criteria.
39 is a good Queen song. There ain’t many more that are.
Curious choice for a favourite Queen tune but hey. I think they’re much maligned (like most hugely famous and popular bands often are- especially by me) but Queen were pretty deft pop songwriters and excellent pastiche artists. I love their first three albums unreservedly. After that I liked their singles but didn’t buy into the bigger vision.
Met Brian May once and he was lovely. We talked about Mott the Hoople.
Abba – The Day Before You Came
Does she commit a murder?
Bob Stanley’s theory (in his wonderful Yeah,Yeah,Yeah history of Pop book) is that she’s the murder victim, narrating this after her death, like William Holden in Sunset Boulevard.
And I’m quite prepared to go along with that.
Come on Tigger, Abba have dozens of masterpieces!
Really?
Lay All Your Love On Me isn’t too bad, I suppose.
If one Abba song per person is the allowable limit, I’ll take SOS
I’ll take The Name Of The Game…
and the bass guitar on Mamma Mia.
Abba wrote some brilliant pop songs. But they never touched me. Their songs were like tiny, tuneful machines.
Take a Chance on Me
The Name of the Game
SOS
Waterloo
The Winner Takes it All
Supertrouper
Knowing Me Knowing You
Dancing Queen
etc etc
Sorry. Not feeling it. Even SOS.
Does nothing for me either but I don’t hate them, I just ignore them. Irrelevant.
Oh I think at their best they are just fantastic pop songs and productions. Knowing Me Knowing You is a masterpiece.I’m with Dai, and would add Fernando to his list
@Tiggerlion my favourite ABBA song.
Great minds.
Ee-eevil Woman, dup dup duppa dup…..
Marvellous.
Otherwise it’s 10358 and Roll Over Beethoven. OK, and Rock Aria in a weak moment.
All else? Codswallop.
C’mon retro, Livin’ Thing!
Yes. If I had to have a Jeff Lynne ELO track, that’s the one.
Nah, the vocal sweeps up into that weedy falsetto.
Edit: I say! That video features a nude chap. With a dog. On a trampoline. Is that legal?
Yes – Owner of a Lonely Heart
I agree. But then I’m probably more of a Yes fan than yer good self. I loved them from their debut through to ‘Relayer’. After that they lost me. Especially when they- shock- got hits! Hated that. Hated it. Yes were from a tiny threatened planet equipped with bi-planes made from dragonfly skin. They were never meant to be on Top of the Bloody Pops.
I live without ABBA and have none of their records but I always TURN UP SOS when it’s on the radio.
I can happily live without a Carpenters CD on my shelf. But that fuzzy guitar solo in Goodbye To Love is a bit good
I bloody hate anything prog but quite like Peter Gabriel’ Solesbury Hill,
and the intro….just the intro mind…to Greg Lakes xmas thingy.
Do you mean the bits composed by Prokofiev?
Never got into Gabriel but his debut solo is something of a mini masterpiece. And such a great sleeve.
Probably because it’s not prog!
I’m not a fan of the Police but Walking on the moon is all right.
Can’t abide Spandau Ballet, but “Chant No 1” was a cracker:
Agreed on both counts, funnily enough….
“Hate” may be a strong term – can’t be bothered with, or never floated my boat my be nearer. If I don’t particularly like something, I just ignore it
(oh, hark at me an my holier than thou turn the other cheek grown up attitude)
Black Eyed Peas – Really, really not my “thing”.
But Where Is The Love will always be given houseroom
Isn’t that another variant on Pachobel’s Canon in D?
isn’t everything?
Black Eyed Peas are really not my cuppa either, but I heard this at a wedding reception disco and it certainly filled the dancefloor. I have no desire to hear anything else by them.
Somehow this strangely alerts me to to KC and the Sunshine Band, whom, along with George MacRae, I loathed with a vengeance for being pappy disco and the only records in the collection of my teenage crush, destined to only be a friend, damnit to this day. But then this came along, funnily enough as she moved to Sheffield,
Never much cared for The Darkness. Couldn’t stand the geezer’s voice and his stupid jumpsuits. They just came across as mostly a novelty act that soon lost it’s appeal. But there’s this… an instrumental that gloriously kicks bottom big time.
Fake Plastic Trees by the otherwise insufferable Radiohead. Don’t ask me to explain it, I just like it.
I like ‘Creep’.
And that’s it.
I’ve tried. I really have.
I’m with you two on Radiohead. I’ve always felt I should like them, they SHOULD be for me but nope, nothing. Apart from Street Spirit which is just great.
I generally can’t stand the Smiths. Multiple reasons. But this is superb.
I agree with everything you say.
I don’t “hate” The Smiths, I’m merely indifferent to them. Apart from “How Soon Is Now”, which is completely unlike anything else of theirs that I’ve heard.
Interesting that you are indifferent to The Smiths. They tended to split people pretty definitely into ‘love’ and ‘hate’ categories. Personally I absolutely adored them. Particularly Morrissey. There had been nobody like him in ‘rock’ before and probably never will be again. His new album of covers sounds intriguing.