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Old Man Yells at Cloud (or "Classic" songs that suck)


Gil Bang

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Posted (edited)

I will say that a distaste for the song Born to Run is fair, because it suffered the same fate as a lot of other great songs played on terrestrial radio during the 80s and 90s, when classic rock stations were incapable of playing more than about 30 songs on their daily rotations.  It seemed like Born to Run was the only Springsteen song they had ever heard of, and it got to the point where once I heard the song play I changed the station.  I still tend to skip it when I listen to the album, which by the way, has a lot of excellent songs that I think are better than Born to Run.  Clarence Clemmons' sax solo in Jungleland will be played at my funeral procession.  

But any hate toward Springsteen's overall work and music career deserves a shank.

Edited by South Austin
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You can draw a pretty clear delineation through Elvis' catalog.  Straight out of the gate with great rock 'n roll.  Little bit of gospel and americana thrown in there.  Then the garbage years of those awful film soundtracks.  "I'm a Roustabout" has to be his worst song by far, and that's saying something from that era.  Then a third act with some great, new original material.  

But I've come in middle age to appreciate a gift most people don't recognize in Elvis later in his career.  Yes, he could dance/perform, sing beautifully, and play a great guitar while doing it all.  But he was not a gifted songwriter.  At all.  But he goes back in the very early 1970's to many of the underperforming tracks from his earlier studio/non-soundtrack albums.  And he spends 18 months rearranging them, even changing their keys for his Las Vegas residence.  And it blows people away.  They came for the hits but the man was worn down by that point, but part of his brilliant reinvention is he reimagines how some of the lesser known songs can be re-crafted and discovers he has a completely separate musical talent he never really knew about or had to use.  

To agree with some other posts above.  Aerosmith.  Talented, great live performers.  Their discography doesn't hold up for this after all these years.  RHCP, while not considered "Classic Rock" maybe are a 42-year old band.  That qualifies them nowadays, and their catalog sucks ass and has aged about as well as Mike Elko.  Boston and Journey also suck ass and should have pulled over onto the shoulder about 30 years ago.  

The Who is a headscratcher.  Still around, still a big draw when RD & PT tour.  Their top 10-12 songs are still fantastic after all this time, but man---there is a steep dropoff in the quality of their deeper cuts.  It is still one big band on my bucket list to see after all this time.  

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12 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

who in the blue fuck considers the Doobie's "Southern rock"?  They're from the Bay Area for fuck's sake.

Because they sang songs about the Mississippi River and a sleepy little town down around San Antone.

I fucking hate the Doobie Brothers, pre and post Michael McDonald.  And it's due in part to my comment above, because classic rock radio stations overplayed Black Water, Listen to the Music, and What a Fool Believes.  

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1 hour ago, YGIFS said:

You can draw a pretty clear delineation through Elvis' catalog.  Straight out of the gate with great rock 'n roll.  Little bit of gospel and americana thrown in there.  Then the garbage years of those awful film soundtracks.  "I'm a Roustabout" has to be his worst song by far, and that's saying something from that era.  Then a third act with some great, new original material.  

But I've come in middle age to appreciate a gift most people don't recognize in Elvis later in his career.  Yes, he could dance/perform, sing beautifully, and play a great guitar while doing it all.  But he was not a gifted songwriter.  At all.  But he goes back in the very early 1970's to many of the underperforming tracks from his earlier studio/non-soundtrack albums.  And he spends 18 months rearranging them, even changing their keys for his Las Vegas residence.  And it blows people away.  They came for the hits but the man was worn down by that point, but part of his brilliant reinvention is he reimagines how some of the lesser known songs can be re-crafted and discovers he has a completely separate musical talent he never really knew about or had to use.  

To agree with some other posts above.  Aerosmith.  Talented, great live performers.  Their discography doesn't hold up for this after all these years.  RHCP, while not considered "Classic Rock" maybe are a 42-year old band.  That qualifies them nowadays, and their catalog sucks ass and has aged about as well as Mike Elko.  Boston and Journey also suck ass and should have pulled over onto the shoulder about 30 years ago.  

The Who is a headscratcher.  Still around, still a big draw when RD & PT tour.  Their top 10-12 songs are still fantastic after all this time, but man---there is a steep dropoff in the quality of their deeper cuts.  It is still one big band on my bucket list to see after all this time.  

Steven Tyler is one of the greatest frontmen ever.  

The remarkable thing about RHCP is that the lineup has held together for so long.  Yeah, John comes and goes.  Whatever.  I still love 'em, and they still put on a fucking solid show. 

As to the who, what exactly is fantastic about their top 10-12?  "My Generation" is horrible. "Magic Bus" sucks.  "Baba O'Reilly" is unlistenable trash. "Love Reign O'er Me" is OK I suppose, but "O'er"?  WTF is that?

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2 hours ago, South Austin said:

But any hate toward Springsteen's overall work and music career deserves a shank.

I can't stand it, any of it. It's fine that other people like it but it's not for me. 

Same with RHCP.

Funny thing about these bands I hate is that they some great musicians. The guitarist from Third Eye Blind is really good. Same for John from RHCP. It's just the music their bands make is awful.

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20 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

If you think born to run is word salad, let me introduce you to blinded by the light. 

A lot of early Springsteen songs were heavily influenced by Bob Dylan, in that they were -- for lack of a better term -- word-salady.  He crammed a lot of words and phrases into his lyrics, similar to Dylan songs Like a Rollin' Stone and The Hurricane.  Springsteen's Blinded by the Light and Hard to Be a Saint in the City are like that.  By the time he made Born to Run, Bruce had largely abandoned that lyrical style.  

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I'm not a fan of John Frusciante, but I can deal with him.  What I can't deal with is Anthony Keidis "singing".  He's worse than I am.  He's really awful.  His spoken word - slash - rap stuff?  Often fantastic.  ("Give It Away" being the most obvious example.)

Flea and Chad Smith f'n rock.  What a rhythm section.

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On 6/16/2024 at 8:51 AM, jimmyjazz said:

My top (bottom) three are The Doors, The Grateful Dead and Jethro Tull.  I will turn the music off rather than listen to one of those bands.

I don't like The Who very much, but I enjoy a few songs ("My Generation", and ironically "Eminence Front").

Yes, yes, all of this exactly.

Also really hate the Mamas and the Papas and anything similar from the era.

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Knights in White Satin by the Moody Blues makes me want to kick a puppy.  I fucking loathe that god damn song.

I also can't stand The Beatles.  Their entire catalog is shit for me, but especially the bubble gum pop they started out with.  I Want to Hold Your Hand gives me an instant headache.

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11 minutes ago, mooseoutfront said:

I also can't stand The Beatles.  Their entire catalog is shit for me, but especially the bubble gum pop they started out with.  I Want to Hold Your Hand gives me an instant headache.

Probably  best that you stay up in Alaska with that kind of attitude, mister.

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On 6/16/2024 at 10:27 PM, TwiceHorn said:

I don't really get the Doors hate other than I guess Morrison being a pretentious prick. 

I like Manzareks keyboard work and I don't really even like symths much. 

"Jim Morrison?  He's a drunken buffoon.  Posing as a poet.  Give me The Guess Who.  They have the courage to be drunken buffoons, which makes them poetic!"  

 

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Most classic rock got so overplayed by radio stations -- and by me -- that I have a hard time listening to any of it anymore. Every so often I'll get a nostalgic interest in listening to Zeppelin or whatever, but after a half hour I'm like "Well I'm good for another five years." 

OTOH, it's interesting to me that music I hated as a teenager I actually often like now, probably for that same nostalgic reason but also that I haven't listened to them 10,000 times already. 

Also, IDGAF but I am taking my wife to see Journey, Def Leppard and Cheap Trick this summer, and we are going to get drunk and enjoy the hell out of it, and then we'll go home and fuck each other like animals, so kudos to those bands for that. 

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9 minutes ago, honolulu horn said:

Most classic rock got so overplayed by radio stations -- and by me -- that I have a hard time listening to any of it anymore. Every so often I'll get a nostalgic interest in listening to Zeppelin or whatever, but after a half hour I'm like "Well I'm good for another five years." 

OTOH, it's interesting to me that music I hated as a teenager I actually often like now, probably for that same nostalgic reason but also that I haven't listened to them 10,000 times already. 

Also, IDGAF but I am taking my wife to see Journey, Def Leppard and Cheap Trick this summer, and we are going to get drunk and enjoy the hell out of it, and then we'll go home and fuck each other like animals, so kudos to those bands for that. 

You're going to feel her from the inside...  

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Not saying it sucks and I love Seger but Old Time R&R is an automatic channel changer for me.  I wonder sometimes why I have Huey Lewis on my playlist because as soon as any of his songs come on... skip. 

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Bob Seger has the most intense case of nostalgia I can imagine in a songwriter.  EVERYTHING is about the good old days.  It's revolting, and honestly, I like some of his stuff (particularly "Against The Wind", that's a damn well written song).

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10 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

If you think born to run is word salad, let me introduce you to blinded by the light. 

It's bizarre how Manfred Mann's Earth Band made several covers famously their own.

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Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

It's bizarre how Manfred Mann's Earth Band made several covers famously their own.

My friend Quinn says it's mighty bizarre, actually.  

And Joe Cocker says "hold my beer"  

Edited by YGIFS
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My two aborted posts above brought to you by business dinner cocktails and fat thumbs.

Highway Star sucks, as does Deep Purple. My older brother dragged me to a Blackmore’s Rainbow concert when I was around 13. Even then I knew Since You’ve Been Gone was baby puke. The only redeeming part was when he destroyed a Fender on top of a tower of amps.

Manfred Mann is awesome. As is Alan Parsons.

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10 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

It's bizarre how Manfred Mann's Earth Band made several covers famously their own.

Here's a clip from Bruce Springsteen on VH1 Storytellers, and if you start at the 2:15 mark, he has funny commentary about Manfred Mann's cover and one of the greatest misunderstood lyrics in rock history.  

 

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13 hours ago, Underdog said:

Not saying it sucks and I love Seger but Old Time R&R is an automatic channel changer for me.  I wonder sometimes why I have Huey Lewis on my playlist because as soon as any of his songs come on... skip. 

 

12 hours ago, South Austin said:

I love Seger, and that song is awful even without Tom Cruise dancing to it in his underwear.

Completely agree. Love Seger. Hate that song. Night Moves, otoh.

Another in this category - I love Fogerty and CCR, but I despise "Put Me in Coach". Especially after three years of little league baseball walk-up songs.

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3 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I find that one completely cringeworthy.

Normally I agree with you, but you;re wrong. 

Still the Same is probaby my favorite Seger song. Again, very nostalgia-y. Don't care.

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8 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I mean . . . wtf?

Quote

And points all her own sitting way up high
Way up firm and high

You see, the "points" are a girl's breasts, which teenage boys like to look at, and do other things to as part of said "night moves."  And teenage girls' breast are typically "way up firm and high" before the baby-making years.

Next week, we'll discuss what "Afternoon Delight" is all about.

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9 minutes ago, South Austin said:

You see, the "points" are a girl's breasts, which teenage boys like to look at, and do other things to as part of said "night moves."  And teenage girls' breast are typically "way up firm and high" before the baby-making years.

Next week, we'll discuss what "Afternoon Delight" is all about.

 

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On 6/18/2024 at 7:39 AM, South Austin said:

I will say that a distaste for the song Born to Run is fair, because it suffered the same fate as a lot of other great songs played on terrestrial radio during the 80s and 90s, when classic rock stations were incapable of playing more than about 30 songs on their daily rotations.  It seemed like Born to Run was the only Springsteen song they had ever heard of, and it got to the point where once I heard the song play I changed the station.  I still tend to skip it when I listen to the album, which by the way, has a lot of excellent songs that I think are better than Born to Run.  Clarence Clemmons' sax solo in Jungleland will be played at my funeral procession.  

But any hate toward Springsteen's overall work and music career deserves a shank.

Born to Run is about my 5th-favorite song on that album.   

I have decided that most of the people who don't like Bruce really haven't heard much of his music other than BtR, Hungry Heart, and Born in the USA.  

Also, this is one of the greatest pictures ever taken:

ebf17daba53d5212a3914c4f9eec2b3f_xl.jpg


Finally, ZZ Top sucks ass, especially Eliminator and after.

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I find that I can't listen to older music even if I still think it's good. It's not that I hate it, it's just not relevant to me anymore. I can't remember the last time I chose to listen to my favorite bands growing up (Replacements and the Pixies). I think I listened to some of remastered stuff last year.

And Bring Me the Horizon has supplanted the Mats as my all-time favorite band.

 

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Posted (edited)
14 minutes ago, ajax said:

And Bring Me the Horizon has supplanted the Mats as my all-time favorite band.

 

As a devoted 'Mats fan, this intrigued me, so I spent a few minutes listening to portions of several songs by Bring Me The Horizon.  I could not get through them.  I now have to ask:

 image.png.ca43c78dac95321a882ad837e027dd25.png

Edited by Carl Spackler
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To some above posts, Seger is holding up pretty well 40+ years later.  I listen to "You'll Accompany Me" and several deeper cuts regularly.  I didn't really appreciate him when I was younger.  

I'm sure I've rambled about this before, but in 1981, my dad got a new car with some "upgraded sound system" (he was a motown/blues/oldies junkie).  Basically it was a cassette player instead of 8-track with 4 speakers instead of 2.  But I used to love riding around with him on the weekends to run errands and listen to "his" music.  Kids my age were listening to their parents disco or their older sibling's pop music bands of the early 1980s.  And I got to listen to Sam Cooke, Tommy James, Etta James, Bobby Darin, Chuck Berry, and Martha & the Vandellas.  He said they were called "Golden Oldies", though I later found out they were made just 20-25 years prior when my dad was older than I was then.  "Oldies" were basically anything made between 1950-1965(ish).  

Ten years later, I hosted a Classic Rock show on 88.1FM.  We considered the format to include anything from about 1965-1980.  No disco, no pop, no rap, little bit of punk but not much.  Just ten years removed from the end of our format, less time than "Oldies" format was removed from its unofficial ending.  

tl;dr........at what point do we change classifications?  "Oldies" are now 60-75 year old songs.  "Classic Rock" is now 45-60 years old.  "80s Rock/Pop" is now 35-45 years old.  Every genre we on this thread listening to has been completely reshuffled by the passage of time.  What was once a 15 year old Led Zeppelin album to me is now 50 years old to me.  Besides my grey hair, Baseball & Music is how I've marked the velocity of time.  

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38 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Yeah, same here.  i'd never heard of them.  I'm not sure how a 'mats / Pixies fanatic could gravitate toward that emo-y whatever it is, but to each his own.

I don't think I've ever seen BMTH called emo anywhere. I think they're considered somewhere between metal and pop.

 

 

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Posted (edited)
16 minutes ago, utee94 said:

I really like "Hollywood Nights."  Great bass and rhythm  line.

Yeah, it's a good one.  That rumbling drum part is iconic.  Oh, did I mention hopelessly nostalgic?  Having a relationship with Bob Seger must have been like Lindsey Buckingham standing on stage every night and listening to Stevie Nicks lyrically tear him a new one over and over.

Edited by jimmyjazz
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