Friday, October 30, 2015

Bad Songs by Otherwise Fairly Acceptable Musicians

It was just the one-year anniversary of the death of Jack Bruce, one of rock's great bassists and here is a song he wrote, released by Cream:


And here is what Ginger Baker, Cream's drummer, thinks of the song:


Here is an example from Pink Floyd: Bike


I love Bob Dylan, but I always thought this song was, well, pretty crappy:


You say you want an example by the Rolling Stones? Of course you do. And it is obviously going to be from their worst album, Their Satanic Majesties Request, Cosmic Christmas:


Well, I'm tapped out, temporarily at least. Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you're going to have the Stones' "Cosmic Xmas" then you ought to include the Beatles "Revolution 9" (pretentious noise). And since the Beatles have produced their share of duds, one can add to the list "Obladioblada," "Yellow Submarine," "Why Don't We Do it In the Road?" "Mr Moonlight", "Birthday," etc.

At least no one serious about music will defend the artistic quality of the songs I just mentioned. They're all crappy. But in my view so are some of the "sacred cows." Hey Jude is baby music that goes on way too long. "Yesterday" and "Let It Be" are not much better.

Of course they have great tunes, too, like "Imagine," "A Day inthe Life," "Norwegian Wood," "Penny Lane," "Something" are all miniature masterpieces of songwriting.

Bryan Townsend said...

Despite my belonging to the Beatles' fan club, I have to admit you have a point! About Revolution 9, yeah, Obladi Oblada, for sure, Yellow Submarine is a great children's song, but the other two you mention from the White Album, yep, you're right. Yesterday is one of the great standards of all time, though, which is why there are over 2500 cover versions out there.