Posted on 05/01/2013 4:06:21 PM PDT by Para-Ord.45
#5: Pink Floyd
Let’s tackle Roger Waters’ reputed antisemitism first, since it lets me put off having to actually talk about his dreadful “music” for a bit.
I grew up trying to avoid The Wall. It was ubiquitous in my steel mill home town — a whining drone blaring from every paneled suburban basement and tricked out Chevy van.
#4 – Bob Marley
The king of rasta “music” (and his idiotic “religion”) inspires so much loathing I barely have to do more than cut and paste this entry. Thanks, other people!
Remember that “tribute to Bob Marley” at this year’s Grammy Awards? Neither does anyone else, because it was terrible. The most entertaining part? You can actually see all these A-list performers’ suddenly remembering, too late and on live TV, that Bob Marley’s songs are, in fact, really really bad.
#3: Stevie Wonder
At the risk of wandering into Elvis Costello territory — yes, he really did say this — I’m gonna come right out with it:
If Stevie Wonder wasn’t black and blind, there’s no way he’d be as highly esteemed as he is.
A white guy who named himself “Wonder” would never hear the end of it. Instead, we never hear the end of Stevie’s songs, especially on American Idol.
OK, so that’s not his fault, but you know what is?
Besides The Secret Life of Plants and “I Just Called To Say I Love You” and “Ebony and Ivory”?
#2: The Doors
The Doors are like certain Twilight Zone episodes or The Shawshank Redemption:
Really deep and profound — if you’re 12 years old.
Jim Morrison’s lyrics — sorry, I mean “poetry” — is, well, let this guy say it:
Jim Morrison wrote a lot of poetry, and most of it was (…) pretentious, regrettable, faux-intellectual diarrhea. Reading Jim Morrison the poet is like watching a shirtless SAE pledge strumming James Blunt on his old acoustic in the university commons during spring break: totally insufferable, uninspiring, and distasteful.
By the way: the dude who wrote that is a fan of The Doors.
Just saying.
#1: Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen is a pompous blowhard whose overwrought, arrested-adolescent lyrics make Jim Morrison sound like Philip Larkin.
And like Morrison, he wrote about stuff he knows nothing about — like having a real job — and, like both Morrison and Stevie Wonder, he gave himself a ridiculous “penis” nickname: “The Boss.”
The only reason “Because the Night” is good is because Patti Smith co-wrote it.
But as usual, it took an Englishman to give Springsteen the thrashing he deserves:
Someone like Tom Waits makes me feel like I understand America a little better. Springsteen makes me feel hopelessly estranged from the place with his hyperventilating soap operas about young lovers riding outta this one-horse town on the back of a hurricane down the highway of dreams. (…)
His lyrics are wrought from overcooked high school poetry (“we ride through mansions of glory on suicide machines”), homespun hokum, and the York Study Notes to John Steinbeck.
Springsteen appeals to the eternal adolescent in every rock fan, but not the fun, irreverent version, rather the inner Holden Caulfield, earnestly searching for ANSWERS and TRUTH, desperate to be a hero in the drama of his own life, utterly incapable of laughing at himself or the world.
Pt.1 :http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2013/04/23/the-5-most-overrated-male-musicians-part-one/?singlepage=true
Pt.II:http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2013/04/30/the-5-most-overrated-male-musicians-part-two/?singlepage=true
What about "Kill the Poor" by The Dead Kennedys.
They meant it as a satirical swipe at the neutron bomb, but every listener is welcome to his own interpretation ... at least that's what the literary critics claim.
There was more going on with Melanie than that one obnoxious novelty hit. “Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)” was one of the more powerful songs of the very early seventies, owing a lot to the gospel harmonies of the Edwin Hawkins singers backing her up, true, but it’s a great period piece that has aged well. She was quite a beautiful girl, too, with a unique voice and a style of her own.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOExGVgQzRg
“Rush is probably presently the greatest collection of rock musicians and musicianship. All time greatest rock musicians???..... Emerson Lake, and Palmer.”
Bah! Steely Dan is tops.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Meat could ROCK OUT something fierce. I couldn't stand his work with Jim Steinman. OTOH, his work with Ted Nugent on "Free for All" was awesome!
Mark
Steely Dan was basically Becker/Fagen and a bunch of studio musicians.
Both DF and WB are musicians on thier own.
It could be either. But does it really matter? Dylan left it up to the listener to unravel the mystery, and that's just fine with me. A lot of his best songs were that way.
I love the Byrds' version of the song, but it's a shame they never (to the best of my knowledge) recorded the complete version as Dylan wrote it.
But it’s a good concept.
Let me cover my head first, OK......Bob Dylan. Never understood the magic, never will.
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As others have mentioned, if you focus on his voice, yea, it can be offputting (to some, not me, though).
Do you like bluegrassy music by any chance? Have iTunes? Check out a guy named Tim OBrien (please don’t vet his politics first) and a record called Red on Blonde - a joke only a Dylan fan would appreciate. Anyway, it’s an entire record of him covering Dylan tunes. Just about entirely acoustic, great singing and fine playing. So much so that if you don’t know Dylan’s catalog, you’d have no earthly idea he wrote the songs.
And yes, I have a similar answer for those who will put the Grateful Dead in the top 5.
Springsteen - I probably know all the lyrics to ten songs (grew up in the 80s) but I won't sing along to any of them, even in the car alone at night.
The Doors - I don't know what their “classical organist” got but he should have gotten 20 to life.
Grateful Dead - They were annoying and their followers smell. I was glad when it ended so I didn't have to listen to people gush about them any more.
Nirvana - I get what they did for music. Really. This is right in my wheelhouse and my generation. But I don't care. They are obnoxious.
Rolling Stones - I like some of their songs so I almost didn't add them to the list but I was probably four the last time they made a legitimate hit and people still fawn all over them. For the last quarter century plus the only thing they've done is decompose. Way overrated.
I forgot to add Dylan. I’ve tried singing through my nose. It hurts.
XTC was way underrated, but "Skylarking" was masterful, BTW, produced by Todd Rundgren.
Mark
That is awesome...
Best version of Mr. Tambourine Man is from the Concert for Bangaladesh. HUGE!
I always said that the party was over when someone put on Pink Floyd or The Doors. As for the Stones, few bands, if any, had as impressive a run of albums as they did from 68 to 75.
A good friend is a big Moodies fan. Long ago I told him that Moodies songs are like original Star Trek episodes. The good ones are really really good; the bad ones are just gawdawful. Exhibit A: Tuesday Afternoon. Exhibit B: Melancholy Man.
I actually liked "Lay Down" when it was a hit in 1970, even though it was a tune from "the other side." It seems to have been inspired by the "Moratorium" anti-Vietnam War protests of October, 1969.
Great
Full
Dead
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One in every crowd.
To the naysayers, I play Reckoning. An acoustic set. I can think of a handul I’ve known who’ve gone out and bought it after saying the same as you. Not that they’d admit it.
Steely Dan is really just 2 guys, Becker and Fagen (and a lot of the time, Skunk Baxter). However, they used some of the top studio musicians around for their albums and tours. But they really weren't a band with a static membership.
Mark
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