Rolling Stone Magazine - The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History

duotone

Horrible business moves, artistic blunders, deeply questionable moral judgment — with appearances by Adam Levine, Kiss, Kanye West, and many more

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/worst-decisions-in-music-history-1234626744/

50 - Elton John goes disco
49 - The Sex Pistols fire talented bassist Glen Matlock, replace him with human rubbish heap Sid Vicious
48 - A Taste of Honey wins Best New Artist Grammy over the Cars and Elvis Costello
47 - Adam Levine slides into the DMs
46 - Bob Dylan releases ‘Self-Portrait’
45 - Yes Hires the Buggles
44 - Justin Timberlake rips off Janet Jackson’s top at the Super Bowl, and she’s the one who faces a backlash
43 - Ticketmaster introduces “dynamic” pricing system
42 - The Monkees strive for a new level of artistic freedom with their experimental movie ‘Head’
41 - Prince changes his name to an unpronounceable glyph

40 - Britney Spears turns down “Umbrella”
39 - Chris Cornell goes R&B
38 - Roger Waters dares Pink Floyd to do it without him
37 - The Stone Roses take five years to finish ‘Second Coming’
36 - David Geffen sues Neil Young for not sounding like Neil Young
35 - Jane’s Addiction break up at dawn of alt-rock revolution they helped inspire
34 - Robin Thicke tries to win back his ex-wife with terrible album
33 - Kiss try to make a serious concept album
32 - The New York Dolls embrace communism
31 - Leonard Cohen makes a record with legendary producer/gun-toting psychopath Phil Spector

30 - Spin Doctors release “Cleopatra’s Cat”

29 - Guns N’ Roses begin work on ’Chinese Democracy’

28 - Van Halen hire the guy from Extreme to be their new singer
27 - Elvis Presley turns down a role in ‘A Star Is Born’
26 - Mountain don’t feel like being in the Woodstock movie
25 - Warner Bros. gives R.E.M. an $80 million contract extension right before their career starts to crater
24 - Dee Dee Ramone quits the Ramones and makes a rap album
23 - MC Hammer goes gangsta, “Hammer Time” comes to a screeching halt
22 - Mötley Crüe fire Vince Neil and make an industrial album
21 - Scooter Braun pisses off Taylor Swift

20 - Suge Knight addresses the 1995 Source Awards

19 - The Beach Boys skip the Monterey Pop fest

18 - David Bowie sort of suggests he’s cool with Nazis
17 - The Bee Gees and Peter Frampton make a film version of ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’
16 - Metallica takes on own fans over Napster
15 - Ashlee Simpson plays ‘SNL’ when she probably should’ve called in sick
14 - The Beatles: “We’re bigger than Jesus”
13 - Garth Brooks becomes Chris Gaines
12 - The guys in CCR who aren’t John Fogerty want to start writing songs
11 - Steve Van Zandt quits the E Street band just before ‘Born in the USA’ tour

10 - Billy Squier obliterates his career with one cheesy music video
9 - U2 give their new album away for free in iTunes
8 - Ja Rule invests in the Fyre Festival
7 - Blood, Sweat & Tears do a tour sponsored by the U.S. government at the height of the Vietnam War
6 - Kanye West kicks off his “total asshole” era by interrupting Taylor Swift at the VMAs
5 - Woodstock Organizers celebrate event’s 30th anniversary with a horrific riot
4 - Eric Clapton goes all-in on vaccine conspiracy nonsense
3 - Decca Records passes on signing the Beatles
2 - Jerry Lee Lewis marries his underage cousin
1 - The Rolling Stones hire the Hells Angels as security guards for their rock festival

monquixote

I'd disagree with a couple of those. 

Yes hiring the Buggles ended up in Owner of a Lonely Heart their biggest ever song.

I'd also argue that Eric Clapton going all in on quoting Enoch Powel is worse than his Covid nonsense.

ICBM

monquixote said:

I'd disagree with a couple of those. 

Yes hiring the Buggles ended up in Owner of a Lonely Heart their biggest ever song.

I'd also argue that Eric Clapton going all in on quoting Enoch Powel is worse than his Covid nonsense.

Double wiz.

90125 is a great album, one of Yes’s best - OOALH isn’t even the best song on it.

On the bright side, Clapton (and Bowie, who is often forgotten in this) did inspire Rock Against Racism and a backlash against the far right.

Also, having watched both documentaries, Woodstock ‘99 wasn’t actually any more badly organised than the original, and the outcome was only marginally worse - just seen with less rose-tinted sunglasses. It’s also worth mentioning that Michael Lang was involved in Altamont… it wasn’t only the Stones and the Hells Angels.

Nitefly

IIRC 14 never happened.

JezWynd

Was sure No 1 was going to be Decca turning down the Beatles; it didn't even make the list.

monquixote

JezWynd said:

Was sure No 1 was going to be Decca turning down the Beatles; it didn't even make the list.

It's number 3

scrumhalf

I would have added "Rolling Stone magazine employing writers who believe that they are more important than the music they are writing about" to that list. 

Tannin

Does anyone mind if I sign up with a couple of false aliases so that I can wiz @scrumhalf's comment a few more times. Throw in NME's attitude during the late 70s, possibly even worse. 

lustycourtier

What a strange list. 

 Too many to argue but it’s clear metallica we’re right about Napster, and U2 didn’t give their album away, t they sold it to Apple to do what they want with. Prince did exactly the same thing, but it’s not cool to hate Prince. 

 And cleopatras cat by spin doctors is ace. 

EricTheWeary

I was looking up Head which did indeed stiff at the box office although I guess with television showings, VHS and dvd sales it’s probably done okay and is regarded as a cult classic these days. 

The Brooks/Chris Gaines thing was certainly a bit odd but as Gaines he had a US top ten album and single so I’m not sure how badly that really worked out? Brooks was basically the biggest artist in the world and wanted to semi retire so he did. 

I’m not sure on the Van Zandt one either. I don’t know the detail of the tour but he has been in and out of the E Street band, had a solo career, launched a massive charity single and is now a major TV star. Not like he consigned himself to the history books. 

monquixote

EricTheWeary said:

I was looking up Head which did indeed stiff at the box office although I guess with television showings, VHS and dvd sales it’s probably done okay and is regarded as a cult classic these days. 

The Brooks/Chris Gaines thing was certainly a bit odd but as Gaines he had a US top ten album and single so I’m not sure how badly that really worked out? Brooks was basically the biggest artist in the world and wanted to semi retire so he did. 

I’m not sure on the Van Zandt one either. I don’t know the detail of the tour but he has been in and out of the E Street band, had a solo career, launched a massive charity single and is now a major TV star. Not like he consigned himself to the history books. 

Indeed, the Brooks thing is backward I thought.

His popularity was slipping so he tried reinventing himself but it didn't work.

RocknRollDave

Nitefly said:

IIRC 14 never happened.

Huh?
Lennon said, “We’re more popular than Jesus.”

There’s footage of him explaining his comments, practically forced to apologise for them, too, which is quite uncomfortable viewing in my opinion (as someone who values free speech.)

darthed1981

monquixote said:
I'd also argue that Eric Clapton going all in on quoting Enoch Powel is worse than his Covid nonsense.

He was stone cold sober for the covid nonsense though.

Bit of a twat, either way!

EricTheWeary

ICBM said:

monquixote said:

I'd disagree with a couple of those. 

Yes hiring the Buggles ended up in Owner of a Lonely Heart their biggest ever song.

I'd also argue that Eric Clapton going all in on quoting Enoch Powel is worse than his Covid nonsense.

Double wiz.

90125 is a great album, one of Yes’s best - OOALH isn’t even the best song on it.

On the bright side, Clapton (and Bowie, who is often forgotten in this) did inspire Rock Against Racism and a backlash against the far right.

The Bowie stuff is pretty awful, I don’t think he was completely off his tits either so arguably worse. Clapton probably did more to make reparations than Bowie did but, hey, Bowie was always cooler so we’ve forgiven his Nazi and child sex offending periods. 

monquixote said:

EricTheWeary said:

I was looking up Head which did indeed stiff at the box office although I guess with television showings, VHS and dvd sales it’s probably done okay and is regarded as a cult classic these days. 

The Brooks/Chris Gaines thing was certainly a bit odd but as Gaines he had a US top ten album and single so I’m not sure how badly that really worked out? Brooks was basically the biggest artist in the world and wanted to semi retire so he did. 

I’m not sure on the Van Zandt one either. I don’t know the detail of the tour but he has been in and out of the E Street band, had a solo career, launched a massive charity single and is now a major TV star. Not like he consigned himself to the history books. 

Indeed, the Brooks thing is backward I thought.

His popularity was slipping so he tried reinventing himself but it didn't work.

From what I remember of Brooks (MrsTheWeary came from Arkansas with all his CDs) he was always more of a rocker than a country fan so I guess he was trying to find a way to express that without alienating his core fan base. It didn’t work out as intended (a whole movie that never got made) but 2 million album sales at the time was only a relative failure. Brooks has an estimated net worth of $400m so I don’t think we can feel too bad for him. 

axisus

monquixote said:

I'd disagree with a couple of those. 

Yes hiring the Buggles ended up in Owner of a Lonely Heart their biggest ever song.

Clearly not a Yes fan! The 'Buggles' album was Drama, 1980. 

Owner of a Lonely Heart was from 90125 (1983), with Jon Anderson singing and Trevor Rabin on guitar.

axisus

That's the kind of drivel I expect from Rolling Stone, the magazine most far up its own arse. 

At best there is a list of about 10 things there max.

sev112

I would have added allowing Brian Robertson to go out drinking the night before Thin Lizzy’s “big” US Tour, but possibly a bit niche 

Philly_Q

axisus said:

monquixote said:

I'd disagree with a couple of those. 

Yes hiring the Buggles ended up in Owner of a Lonely Heart their biggest ever song.

Clearly not a Yes fan! The 'Buggles' album was Drama, 1980. 

Owner of a Lonely Heart was from 90125 (1983), with Jon Anderson singing and Trevor Rabin on guitar.

I suppose what @monquixote meant was that the association with Trevor Horn led to him producing 90125, which revitalised their career and gave them their biggest success.

EricTheWeary

sev112 said:

I would have added allowing Brian Robertson to go out drinking the night before Thin Lizzy’s “big” US Tour, but possibly a bit niche 

That’s a good one but RS are, perhaps understandably, US centric. I might have suggested getting Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood to present The Brits but I don’t think they would know that one. 

In a fairer world Queen agreeing to play Sun City 12 times ought to be there and we’d all go oh yes that killed their career, the racist bastards. But rock’n’roll success has little to do with fairness. 

Blueingreen

Always had sympathy for Lennon over the more popular (not bigger) than Jesus quote. The reaction deliberately stirred up by people with their own agenda, taking it out of context some time after it had originally been published without controversy, was neither foreseeable nor sane. 

Lennon could be a dick on occasion, but this wasn’t one of those occasions. The original interview was thoughtful and balanced. 

Also there was arguably a silver lining. The furore massively contributed to the band stopping playing live a focusing on the studio. Without it we might never have had Sgt Pepper and the rest of the later albums.

JezWynd

axisus said:

That's the kind of drivel I expect from Rolling Stone, the magazine most far up its own arse. 

At best there is a list of about 10 things there max.

It's the publication that declared What's Going On the best LP of all time. They're all about burnishing their credibility; music comes a distant second these days.. What's Going On is a very good LP but outside of its political message, it hardly merits the label 'best', (if the word has any place in music)