[ghosthost]

The first video I would like to share with you is a real irritant. It is called "Black Betty," by a group named "Ram Jam." From what I understand, it is a song about Ray Charles' mother? Or possibly a musket, as Wikipedia has no clue.

Here is a link to Ram Jam's- Black Betty

And lastly, this is a song by the band, "War," with guest singer Eric Burdon. You may know Eric as the singer from "House of the Rising Sun," which is an extraordinary song. This one, however, is not.

Here is a link to War's Spill the Wine

I don't know what it is about these two songs that drive me insane, but to each his own. Please post your own clunkers and I look forward to playing them.

[ncdrumr]

This is either the worst or the absolute best!

Tommy Seebach Band - Apache

[dfwgator]

Earache My Eye - Cheech and Chong (Featuring Alice Bowie)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqyegIAGlmk

Actually I love this, I just wanted an excuse to post it.

[Bob434]

shanana na shannana na na na na shanana

Stayin alive, stayin alive,

Anythign by ABBA

[ReaganGeneration2]

A song about San Fran...

Starship - We Built This City
“Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don’t you remember
We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll”

[dfwgator]

Surprised there’s been no mention of “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham!

[Servant]

Bette Davis Eyes and anything by Abba.

[ex91B10]

Katrina & the Waves: Walking on Sunshine

[John S Mosby]

Think this is probably the worst... ever. It was banned in many markets. Pop song about.... cannibalism.

“Timothy”- by The Buoys :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIMZHDvmIIM

[dfwgator]

How could this not get a mention

Paralyzed - The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EEZAivzl1Q

[Organic Panic]

Hand down by far the worst all time song is

“Jingle Bells” the Babs Streisand edition.

When I was going to college I worked as a night stocker at a department store and they played that song every 20 minutes on a looped audio that we could not shut off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nq0CuUKTjc

[Churchillspirit]

Last Christmas I Gave You My Heart

Totally inane.

[Huntress]

Almost 170 posts and no one’s mentioned “Alice’s Restaurant.”

[Drumbo]

Firstly, "Black Betty" is attributed to Delta bluesman Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter and was first recorded in 1933 by a convict named James Baker at Central State Prison Farm in Sugar Land, Texas. The 1977 version by Ram Jam is a cover of Lead Belly's 1939 a cappella version which supposedly referred to the nickname of the "Black Maria" - a penitentiary transfer wagon. Black Betty was also the name of a driver's bull whip used on prisoners ("bam-ba-lam").

My favorite origin story is that the song is derived from an 18th-century marching cadence about a flint-lock musket with a black painted stock; the "bam-ba-lam" lyric referring to the sound of the gunfire. Soldiers in the field were said to carry Black Betty. In one interpretation, the musket was superseded by its "child", a musket with an unpainted walnut stock known as a "Brown Bess". Another version of the Black Betty musket claims the child is the musket ball. "That child is wild" meaning the ball did not always go where it should. "The child is blind" meaning it did not care whether it hit friend or foe, "Black Betty don't care" meaning the musket doesn't care who is killed by its child, and "that child ain't mine" meaning that the shooter couldn't be held responsible for the work of the the projectile. At least that's what I wrote on Wikipedia, lol.

In 1736, Benjamin Franklin published "The Drinker's Dictionary" in the Pennsylvania Gazette offering some 200 phrases for being drunk. One of those phrases is "He's kiss'd black Betty", the nickname of a liquor bottle, so that might explain it.

This is the first I've heard about Ray Charles' mother! If you have a source I can cite I can add it. Ray was born in 1930 and actually had two mothers! His biological mother Aretha, as well as his absent fathers first wife, a woman named Mary Jane. Growing up, he referred to Aretha as "Mama", and Mary Jane as "mother".

But, you said Post your own (worst song) - so I will.

In 1980, I was being interviewed on WNOR FM99 in Hampton Roads Virginia by radio host the late Henry "The Bull" Del Toro (and his sidekick "Bucky" played by Jimmy Rae Dunn). I had a tape of a previous telephone interview where The Bull and Bucky had trashed my band Thunderstruck. Before the live in-studio interview I rushed into the station's production studio and hurriedly wrote lyrics and recorded "The Drumbo Rap" utilizing the tape of The Bull disparaging my band (backed by the instrumental "Funny Bone", a 1979 Nile Rodgers and Chic flip side to the Disco single "Good Times". "Funny Bone" is still in bumper music rotation on the Rush Limbaugh Show. "The Drumbo Rap" isn't).

It's easily the worst thing I ever recorded, but it was aired on the #1 rock station in the 18th largest radio market in the country, butchered lyrics and all. I have no shame.

The Drumbo Rap
~ Drumbo Thunder ~

---

[JDoutrider]

...

[glennaro]

The Bob Dylan Christmas Album

WARNING: Listen with care. You may never recover (even if you love Dylan).

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Russians by Sting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHylQRVN2Qs

[SparkyBass]

Run Joey, Run (hide all sharp objects and rope)

[1Old Pro]

Worst music? Probably anything post 1985.

Just remembering Earth Wind and Fire founder, makes me realize how great the music of the 60’s and 70’s was and what a dearth of talent there is post 1985.