I was listening to a 4-CD Stevie Wonder history today. All going fine – even the odd track from “The Secret Lives of Plants” – when the frigging “I just called to say i love you” popped up. This lousy track eclipses (as it were) the foregoing due to it’s ubiquity and crapness. Other utterly shit tracks that are turds in the musical swimming pol are Yes’s “Wondrous Stories”, and Genesis’s “Afterglow”. Other tracks that ruin quality runs?
When a single track compromises a faultless run
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So glad it’s not just me who loathes Afterglow!
See also Bungle in the Jungle, Keep it Greasy and Am I Going Insane.
Now there’s a funny thing; I am no fan of “Bobby Brown”, but “Keep it Greasy” I rather enjoy – or at least the brio with which it is played in the live renditions.
Ha! You and I are polar opposites. Just seeing it on the track listing spoils my day! See also Hot Plate Heaven
I was listening to I’m Your Man by Leonard Cohen the other night.
Jazz Police.
Oh yes.
Aaaagh! Don’t remind me of it. Genius album apart from one wretched track.
Spike by Elvis Costello is a great album and greatly underrated by those Costello fans who thought he stopped being vital around King of America.
However I cannot abide Deep Dark Truthful mirror with its clunky metaphors and frankly horrible singing. Thing is he still plays it live so he obviously thinks its a good un.
Roy Harper persists with playing the song Frozen Moment (though thankfully not on his recent mini-tour) in concert.
He’s proud of writing a song on a single chord, and so he too must think it’s a good ‘un, but it is dull, Dull, DULL.
God I hated Spike! I tried so hard to like it. It was I think the second CD I ever bought. So overblown, over produced, arch, unable to settle on a genre or vibe, self indulgent, trying to spin gold from straw, with few memorable tunes and the ear worms (Veronica) almost cynically pat. Play any song from it then stick Radio Radio or Tiny Steps on and tell me he hadn’t completely lost his way.
Enter the Beard and the Hat. Enter also an inflated sense of worthiness and self-importance.
Clearly I’m in the minority here as a fan of both both Spike and Deep Dark Truthful Mirror. I’ll just sit here with my drink.
Can I join you? I’m very quiet and polite, honest…
Of course! You can share my peanuts too.
But I *like* Wondrous Stories.
With you with Stevie though – awful, awful song.
Me too. And Circus of Heaven. Even Don’t Kill the Whale is tolerated on Yesshows. Owner of a Lonely Heart though…
Yellow Submarine?
There’s a lot of argument about “bad Beatles songs” and we’ve had entire threads on this topic. However, of the 275 approx. songs the Fabs recorded between 1962 and 1970 there is only one that makes me reach for the skip button.
It’s not Yellow Submarine, nor is it the much maligned Mr. Moonlight. It’s not even Revolution #9, Don’t Pass Me By or George’s two snoozefests from Let It Be – For You Blue and I Me Mine. All those I can happily listen to without too much angst.
But the one track that will drive me from the room every time is John & Yoko’s tuneless and terminally annoying What’s The New Mary Jane. John even wanted it as a Beatles’ single for god’s sake. Mercifully he was overruled.
It was the only time I ever agreed with my old mum when she said about Lennon “he’s gone too far this time!”
Yep, not the greatest, but then they didn’t release it.
I really like “For You Blue!”
Funny thing is, the more 60s dodgers dismiss certain random stuff from the Golden Age, the more I lump on. If Steve Lamacq doesn’t reckon it, it simply has to be worthwhile, and, of course, vice-versa.
Seriously considering having a DONOVAN (as opposed to the smiths or the clash) day, liberally sprinkled with choice Beatles’ cuts like ‘Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da,’ ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,’ ‘Yellow Submarine,’ ‘Revolution #9,’ ‘Rocky Raccoon, ‘When I’m 64′ etc.!
Back to the theme…..
They’d only had three 45s up to that point, but Free’s “The Stealer,’ the follow-up to All Right Now,’ was plodding ‘rock.’ (I always thought Kossoff was the weak link.) I’m not sure it even charted.
‘The Universal’ by The Small Faces was a strange choice for 45 too, after a fantastic string of releases through ’66 to ‘Lazy Sunday.’
Also, ‘The Seeker’ by The Who…..lousy compared to ‘Happy Jack,’ ‘Substitute,’ ‘PIctures of Lily’ etc.
I love The Stealer! Have done ever since I first heard it, on an Island sampler cassette from the front of, I think, Select magazine.
I love The Stealer, too. The Faces covered it for the BBC you know.
For me Free really jumped the shark with Wishing Well. It became a heavy rock cliché covered by the likes of Gary Moore, Pearl Jam and a million pub bands.
This was from the final Free album Heartbreaker. Andy Fraser had left and Japanese bassist Tetsu was in the band. They were already sounding like Bad Company
Still, Easy on My Soul, Come Together in the Morning, Common Mortal Man…
Agree on The Seeker. See also Squeeze Box.
I thought Bad Co’s debut was pretty good, particularly the title track and “Movin On”.
Interesting take on “Wishing Well”. Never heard the Pearl Jam version. I’d have given the all time cliche award to “All Right Now” which will be fine if I never hear again.
All Right Now has become over-exposed it’s true, but no one did it as good as the original. And I never get tired of the long version from the album
And yes, the first Bad Company album was pretty good. But Mick Ralphs didn’t sound like Kossoff.
The Bad Company album was good and half the second was too. The half of Straight Shooter that was good had been written at the same time as the material from the first.
Bad Company sold out Liverpool Stadium before they had released a record – solely on the basis of the members’ pedigree. I can remember songs such as Deal With The Preacher and Good Lovin’ Gone Bad being played at that gig.
Paul Rodgers – arguably the finest UK vocalist of all time (Rod and Cocker notwithstanding).
But Bad Co were taken under Led Zep’s wing, pitched for the burgeoning arena rock market and lost everything that was good about Free along the way.
I agree with you and think your point about the arena market explains a lot about how they developed. I never heard anything good that they did after the 2nd album.
BadCo. had a very fine singer in Paul Rogers, but their lyrics were pretty poor I thought, even for a style of music not especially requiring good wordage. Their overall sound could not disguise that fact. Consequently I never rated them.
Tetsu joins Free – one album later, they’re done.
Tetsu joins the Faces – one single and a shitty live album later, they’re done.
Anyone else seeing a pattern developing here?
Tetsu helps form Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu and Rabbit.
They only made the one LP.
It seems Tetsu had very little English and was a serious drinker (even by the Faces’ standards).
I think Rod mentioned Tetsu’s drinking in his autobiography. Still alive as well, amazingly…
The Stealer was/is a great song from a hugely underrated album – Highway (which may well be my favourite Free album).
Yes, I love Highway. Coming after their big seller Fire and Water it seemed almost pastoral
Heartbreaker is my favourite Free album. More tuneful and a bit more vim.
I’d like to take Vim to Travellin’ In Style and rub it out of the Free oeuvre.
Thought you meant Mr Fuego for a moment……..
Paul Rodgers will always manage to remain a God because of this song below. I forgive the shoe polish hair and beard, can forgive Queen (cos I had fingers in my ears, blah blah blah, can’t hear), and later post Boz Bad Co. Hell, he was a mere wee boy, as were the rest of the band, Fraser about 16, fer chrissake….
He looks like Oddbod from Carry On Screaming there.
That’s a magnificent album. I played my knackered vinly of it at the weekend and thought that a young band would have to have a hell of a lot of confidence to play everything that slow and with so much space in the mix. It’s as minimalist in its way as Unknown Pleasures.
Beach Boys – Surf’s Up. “Student Demonstration Time” feels like something from an abandoned project that they stuck on the album for the sake of it.
See also: Twisted on Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark
Ah yes, our dear old mate Mike ‘don’t fuck with the formula’ Love’s attempt to be ‘relevant’ and ‘down wiv da kidz’ (or whatever the phrase was in 1971). Embarrassing to say the least. Did Lieber & Stoller ever sue? Even worse, it completely shattered the mood after Bruce Johnston’s sublime ‘Disney Girls (1957)’ which precedes it on the album.
Didn’t they credit L&S? Was sure it was credited to Leiber, Stoller and Love.
Maybe it was (checks CD…).
Credits say ‘based on Riot In Cell Block #9 by Lieber & Stoller, new lyrics by Mike Love’.
They should have sued anyway, for murder.
Ha! They were probably busy producing Stealer’s Wheel, randomly enough.
I actually don’t mind that song, but it sticks out like a sore thumb on Surf’s Up
On the subject of the Beach Boys, how about ‘Got To Know The Woman’ on Sunflower? Up until then it’s a sublime run…Slip On Through, This Whole World, Add Some Music To Your Day…then ‘clunk’….picks up again with Dierdre (although, as an aside, and no offence intended to Deirdres everywhere, I do find that a bit of an odd choice).
Counting Crows cover of Big Yellow Taxi.
I love the band and pretty much every thing they’ve done. Even quite liked BYT when played live and acoustic, but omg the single release with Vanessa Carlton gets me hitting the “skip” button quicker than you can say “that’s shit”
Load o’ futball shite, tainting their illustrious reputation.
I’ve heard the Jam bagged for “The Planner’s Dream Goes Wrong” but fear I cannot join the mob.