The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

You are here: Home / Forum / Worst “entry-level” song for newcomers

Worst “entry-level” song for newcomers

by 47 Comments

The ‘best’ entry level thread is interesting. What about the reverse: those tracks that scare people off who might otherwise like the artist in question? I could have introduced them by “Can We Still be Friends?” or “I Saw the Light, but my Todd Rundgren enthusiasm led me to scare off potential converts by introducing them via “Dogfight Giggle” (2 minutes of annoying pissing abut that was probably fun when they were stoned in the studio), and the attached “A Treatise on Cosmic Fire” (as above, but 35 minutes). I don’t suppose “Singring and the Glass Guitar” impressed many outside of here, either.

0

Comments

    • I genuinely like Rev No.9 and I won’t skip it when listening to the White Album – clearly it’s the worst possible intro to the HJHs and a complete anomaly in the discography for sure – so I 100% agree with JackTheBiscuit on that score –
      but there’s nothing wrong with it as far as a sound collage goes – and it’s got the Beatles mucking around in the background and little Beatley meme’s running through it which I like.
      It does it’s job- which is to completely wrongfoot the listener before ‘Good Night’ (which sounds strangely sinister following after it) . It’s the sound of a band seeing how far they can push it – and they probably pushed the envelope off a cliff- but somebody had to do it (and only the HJHs could have got away with it). Shame they kind of swerved back into ‘Get Back’ after this.

  2. Introduce “civilians” to the Velvet Underground with this, and you may scare the bejesus out of them if they decide to delve a little deeper

    At the other end of the spectrum, try introducing them via “Sister Ray” – they may not look any deeper

  3. Good one. I think this follows for a lot of self-conscious “weird” experiments. Not big, not clever. Up there with surrealism and socialism as childish ideas rarely done as well as the idea requires.

      • Yup only a complete dunderhead goes for the Frog Chorus card. Or The Laughing Gnome card. Two excellent records for children – in fact a perfect introduction for many a budding Beatles obsessive in 1984 I’d wager

        • Kaisfatdad’s choices may be debatable (though they seem to me a fair attempt to address the OP’s question). But they surely don’t warrant him being called a dunderhead, do they?

          • I have been called far worse! But thanks a lot for the moral support @Hawkfall.

            I should have given a little more thought in my attempt to find songs that were popular but very unrepresentative of the artist. The Macca song was a very bad choice. Now I have to live with the shame of being The Rock Snob who Dissed the Frogs.

            Quite interesting though to look on Spotify and see which song by a particular artists is most played. It’s often not what one expects.

        • Dunce hat for me! What I was trying to find was a track that was not a lot of experimental noise but was nevertheless totally unrepresentative of the artist in question.

          What about the most played Costello track on Spotify? She!
          Not a very good introduction to the great mans work.

          The very popular Walk the dinosaur and Papa was a rolling stone are not a very good way in to Was (not was) either.

    • I think a few big hits by 70s rock bands are like this.

      Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 is a good song, but as a 3 minute Disco track, it hardly prepares you for Wish You Were Here or Meddle. Mind you, neither does See Emily Play, I suppose.

      Beth was a big hit for Kiss, and doesn’t sound like anything else they did.

      Whisky in the Jar for Thin Lizzy

      Drive for The Cars

    • That’s a good call, songs that spawned disappointed faces when their proud owner played the rest of the album…….
      Uncertain which side of that coin Part of the Union by Strawbs fits, beyond it being unlistenable tosh to my silken ears.
      Then again you have the beautiful Beefheart song, This is the Day, certainly played a fair bit on the trendier end of R1, Johnny Walker and Peel, that may have upset listeners seeking more, realising it was one of only two decent songs he ever got around to.

  20. I was trying to think of one for Elvis Costello. I personally like the track Episode of Blonde a good bit, but I imagine it encapsulates all the things that the casual haters of Elvis dislike: he’s using *that* voice in extremis, it’s overlong and wordswordswordswordswords. It’s what you might think all Elvis songs are like.

  22. I wonder how many peoples only exposure to Slade is ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’? It’s a great song but not a great indicator of the greatness of which they are capable.

  23. Worst possible introduction to New Order.
    It’s basically a Killers song with him out of the Killers singing on it – it’s pleasant enough but it’s the kind of supercharged pop-by-numbers that they always hinted at, but could never quite reach – and in trying to get there they created something unique and special as opposed to something a bit….ordinary:

Leave a Reply