Awful songs that somehow made it.

EricTheWeary

ICBM said:

EricTheWeary said:

But watching those Rick Beato things where he goes through the Spotify charts the current ones are painfully homogenous, like every 13 year old in the world listens to the same thing.     

"It all sounds the same..."


... said your grandad in 1970 .

Yes, I'll admit the same thought has occurred to me now that I'm of a similar age, but there's still as much of a range of good and crap as there was then I think. There was a *vast* amount of utter drivel in the 1960s too, that's been long since forgotten.

I'm aware that I risk saying everything sounds the same because I'm an old man but it still does. The charts are the tip of the iceberg and don't represent anything much other than the charts themselves but the songs do seem to be from a very narrow range. Which I think is quite a lot to do with how they get there - who works for who, who was produced by who. 

EricTheWeary

Neill said:

Mouldy old Dough by Lieutenant Pidgeon

Often remembered for their hit single but who remembers when Lieutenant Pigeon attempted a military coup?











[ thank you The Tim Vine Appreciation Society ]

ICBM

EricTheWeary said:

I'm aware that I risk saying everything sounds the same because I'm an old man but it still does. The charts are the tip of the iceberg and don't represent anything much other than the charts themselves but the songs do seem to be from a very narrow range. Which I think is quite a lot to do with how they get there - who works for who, who was produced by who. 

There's certainly quite an incestuous pool of the same writers and producers responsible for a noticeable proportion of it.

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

EricTheWeary said:

I'm aware that I risk saying everything sounds the same because I'm an old man but it still does. The charts are the tip of the iceberg and don't represent anything much other than the charts themselves but the songs do seem to be from a very narrow range. Which I think is quite a lot to do with how they get there - who works for who, who was produced by who. 

There's certainly quite an incestuous pool of the same writers and producers responsible for a noticeable proportion of it.

Plus this new phenomenon of every song having about six writers, including the artist, the producer and a handful of pro writers.  And albums - sometimes even individual tracks - being produced by multiple producers.

It's like the American approach to making comedy shows with panels of writers.  I know some people regard those shows as the height of TV comedic achievement, but to me every episode seems the same - shiny and polished, ticking every box, appealing to the widest possible audience, but ultimately completely forgettable.

Neill

EricTheWeary said:

Neill said:

Mouldy old Dough by Lieutenant Pidgeon

Often remembered for their hit single but who remembers when Lieutenant Pigeon attempted a military coup?











[ thank you The Time Vine Appreciation Society ]

Well I'm glad you got that off your chest.

EricTheWeary

Just got the current one up on the Abbey104fm website to accompany a bit of emulsioning* - a reminder in case anyone does want to hear any of these.


*not a euphemism

koneguitarist

EricTheWeary said:

Just got the current one up on the Abbey104fm website to accompany a bit of emulsioning* - a reminder in case anyone does want to hear any of these.


*not a euphemism

Thanks Eric, can’t beat Little Jimmy Osmond and Lena Zavaroni can you! 

Must be awful to peak before you’re a teenager! 

EricTheWeary

I had pretty much forgotten Lena Zavaroni, she's slightly mixed up with Bonnie Langford in my head. I did read her Wikipedia page afterwards which was a bit sobering. 
The Bicycle Song (?) I had thought was Mungo Jerry so I learned something new. 

Not an awful record, IMHO, but Nut Rocker by B Bumble and the Stingers needs an airing.

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

I had pretty much forgotten Lena Zavaroni, she's slightly mixed up with Bonnie Langford in my head. I did read her Wikipedia page afterwards which was a bit sobering. 

I had to go and look at that Wiki page.  She (and Bonnie Langford) were pretty much exactly my age, so I remember them well but I'd forgotten a lot of Lena's story.

How terribly sad, the treatments they used on her sound like something out of the 19th century but it was only 20 years ago. 

BintyTwanger77

Nothin's Gonna Stop Us Now - Starship
We Built This City (On Rock'N'Roll) - again, f***ing Starship
Heaven Is a Half-Pipe - OPM (seriously, Google it if you can't remember/dare.... abysmal)
Dreamer - Supertramp
Windmills Of Your Mind - Noel Harrison (unbelievable dull and pretentious....)
Hotel California - Eagles (I really don't like The Eagles)
Where Do You Go To, My Lovely? - Peter Sarstedt (creepy, horrific and tuneless... The Divine Comedy, one of my favourite bands ever, sadly covered this at Hammersmith Apollo... it was the perfect song for nipping to the gents)
American Pie - Don McLean (dreadful, hackneyed, vasty overrated)

EricTheWeary

Philly_Q said:

EricTheWeary said:

I had pretty much forgotten Lena Zavaroni, she's slightly mixed up with Bonnie Langford in my head. I did read her Wikipedia page afterwards which was a bit sobering. 

I had to go and look at that Wiki page.  She (and Bonnie Langford) were pretty much exactly my age, so I remember them well but I'd forgotten a lot of Lena's story.

How terribly sad, the treatments they used on her sound like something out of the 19th century but it was only 20 years ago. 

I think it says she had ECT. When I was a social work student I had a placement in a psychiatrist hospital and spent an afternoon watching people have ECT. It's weird to watch rather than horrific as I recall it ( you have a lot of drugs to stop your muscles going so badly into spasm you could break your own bones so everyone having it was basically doped out) but even then ( 1989ish) there didn't seem to be an explanation for it other than let's give it a go. 

Sorry, bit of a diversion. Was just nice in some way to listen to the radio; I was used to switching between 2,4 and 5 in the car but have heard relatively little radio in the last 12 months ( is it a year today since we first went into lockdown). There is something to be said for curated* listen some of the time to challenge your ear holes. 

* I know some people hate that word! 

guitars4you

BintyTwanger77 said:

Nothin's Gonna Stop Us Now - Starship
We Built This City (On Rock'N'Roll) - again, f***ing Starship
Heaven Is a Half-Pipe - OPM (seriously, Google it if you can't remember/dare.... abysmal)
Dreamer - Supertramp
Windmills Of Your Mind - Noel Harrison (unbelievable dull and pretentious....)
Hotel California - Eagles (I really don't like The Eagles)
Where Do You Go To, My Lovely? - Peter Sarstedt (creepy, horrific and tuneless... The Divine Comedy, one of my favourite bands ever, sadly covered this at Hammersmith Apollo... it was the perfect song for nipping to the gents)
American Pie - Don McLean (dreadful, hackneyed, vasty overrated)

Sorry but I can't allow Dreamer or Windmills of your mind - Agree Noel Harrison version is poor - But the chords that follow the simple melody are awesome - The melody is not meant to move as such, but the chords are the key to this - Played on piano or a proper classical guitar and finger picked and they add the tension etc 

BintyTwanger77

guitars4you said:

BintyTwanger77 said:

Nothin's Gonna Stop Us Now - Starship
We Built This City (On Rock'N'Roll) - again, f***ing Starship
Heaven Is a Half-Pipe - OPM (seriously, Google it if you can't remember/dare.... abysmal)
Dreamer - Supertramp
Windmills Of Your Mind - Noel Harrison (unbelievable dull and pretentious....)
Hotel California - Eagles (I really don't like The Eagles)
Where Do You Go To, My Lovely? - Peter Sarstedt (creepy, horrific and tuneless... The Divine Comedy, one of my favourite bands ever, sadly covered this at Hammersmith Apollo... it was the perfect song for nipping to the gents)
American Pie - Don McLean (dreadful, hackneyed, vasty overrated)

Sorry but I can't allow Dreamer or Windmills of your mind - Agree Noel Harrison version is poor - But the chords that follow the simple melody are awesome - The melody is not meant to move as such, but the chords are the key to this - Played on piano or a proper classical guitar and finger picked and they add the tension etc 

I'm disappointed in this verdict... I will be taking my appeal to the High Court.

ICBM

Can't allow Hotel California or American Pie either.

American Pie is a work of poetic genius. But... although that song and the album it's on are brilliant, Don McLean never came close to doing anything else as good.

BintyTwanger77

ICBM said:

Can't allow Hotel California or American Pie either.

American Pie is a work of poetic genius. But... although that song and the album it's on are brilliant, Don McLean never came close to doing anything else as good.

@ICBM @guitars4you ;What’s all this “allowing” about??? 

Honestly....

Neill

I'd like to get us back on track - can you believe "Mr Blobby" was a platinum selling single..?

scrumhalf

Neill said:

I'd like to get us back on track - can you believe "Mr Blobby" was a platinum selling single..?

Never underestimate how many stupid people there are.

koneguitarist

Neill said:

I'd like to get us back on track - can you believe "Mr Blobby" was a platinum selling single..?

I had forgotten about that one, took the kids to Crinkly Bottom as it’s fairly local. Will remind and embarrass them about that in a future episode both in 30s now. ;-)

boogieman

Neill said:

I'd like to get us back on track - can you believe "Mr Blobby" was a platinum selling single..?

Oh god yes. My daughter loved Mr Blobby, her grandad insisted on buying her the video as well as the record just to add to the agony. She was about three at the time and probably the target audience. (Although I remember the sketch with Garth Crooks trying to explain football to Mr Blobby is actually really funny). 

BintyTwanger77

BintyTwanger77 said:

Nothin's Gonna Stop Us Now - Starship
We Built This City (On Rock'N'Roll) - again, f***ing Starship
Heaven Is a Half-Pipe - OPM (seriously, Google it if you can't remember/dare.... abysmal)
Dreamer - Supertramp
Windmills Of Your Mind - Noel Harrison (unbelievable dull and pretentious....)
Hotel California - Eagles (I really don't like The Eagles)
Where Do You Go To, My Lovely? - Peter Sarstedt (creepy, horrific and tuneless... The Divine Comedy, one of my favourite bands ever, sadly covered this at Hammersmith Apollo... it was the perfect song for nipping to the gents)
American Pie - Don McLean (dreadful, hackneyed, vasty overrated)

As far as I'm concerned, any talk of these not being "allowed" is a load of arse gravy. If you like them, great! I'm not judging you (far from it), if you happen to put songs I love on here, that's fine as well, it's your tastes, I'm not one to judge. However, I personally can't stand these songs, I think they're awful, therefore my list stands and are all "allowed". So suck it.