Posted on 04/26/2021 4:50:28 AM PDT by mylife
Everybody says they hate “We Built This City.”
But… everybody doesn’t — even if it really seems like they do.
In 2004, Blender magazine and VH1 ganged up on “We Built This City” and placed it at No. 1 on their list of The 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs...Ever. In 2011, Rolling Stone’s readers named the Starship tune the worst song of the ’80s, and did so by a huge margin. GQ called it “the most detested song in human history.” In The New York Times, Stephen Holden called the album that spawned the song, Knee Deep in the Hoopla, “A compendium of strutting pop-rock clichés” and that it “represents the '80s equivalent of almost everything the original Jefferson Airplane stood against — conformity, conservatism, and a slavish adherence to formula.”
Even many of the people who wrote it and sung it have thrown the song under the bus. Singer Grace Slick referred to "We Built This City" as “the worst song ever” during a 2012 conversation with Vanity Fair.
Starship - We Built This City (Official Music Video) Subscribe to Ultimate Classic Rock on
But I love “We Built This City.” And deep down, a lot of other people love “We Built This City” as well.
In 1985, Jefferson Starship crashed and took off again as Starship with singers Slick and Mickey Thomas, guitarist Craig Chaquico, bassist Pete Sears and drummer Donny Baldwin. What started with Slick writing and singing “White Rabbit” in Jefferson Airplane - shouting “And you've just had some kind of mushroom/And your mind is moving low” and screaming “Feed your head!” over gloriously trippy and relentless-driving music - had become something very different in ’85.
(Excerpt) Read more at ultimateclassicrock.com ...
” Plus, the actual concept of building a city on rock and roll comes across as smug and offensive and self-glorifying and just silly and wrong.”
Perfect.
"Coming Up" sucks too.
LOL!
Which is it, We Built This City on Rock and Rock, or Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll? It can’t be both.
No kidding.
I like this song. I like anything that Mickey Thomas sings.
Slick made a good transformation from heavy rocker to pop singer.
FYI: Airplane was extremely Apolitical (!!) They refused to ever do a fundraiser for any DemoKKKrat, saying it wasn’t their place. Yes, they were lefty, but to their credit they refused to be used.
Heh... in another interview Ian pointed out that the sequences of “Smoke on the Water” (Deep Purple) and a Zep song (Zep’s the kings of plagiarized songs) and his own “Aqualung” have similarities, but that each is just by “another monkey”. That’s on a CD extended release somewhere around here.
Now we return you to our program of non-dance music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVhM8erwKCM
We’re talking about a 36 year old song.
To put that in perspective, 36 years before 1985 (when this song was released) was 1949. The top songs in 1949 were:
“Riders in the Sky” Vaughn Monroe
“Some Enchanted Evening” Perry Como
“I Can Dream, Can’t I?” The Andrews Sisters
“Mule Train” Frankie Laine
“Far Away Places” Bing Crosby
“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” Johnny Mercer
“The Hucklebuck” Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
NOBODY in 1985 was playing these songs.
The fact that “We Built This City” is still remembered after such a long time is a testament to its quality.
For pretty much the same reason as "Never Gonna Give You Up", it became a meme.
Mick wanted to continue down the pub blues path, lots of solos for Mick, and that wasn’t going to work. Ian came into his own as a songwriter, they fought, Mick left, the world’s greatest journeyman guitarist Martin Barre came in and last I knew was still on the road. Ian’s given up touring. I think Mick has retired from the family trucking business.
Worse songs than “We Built This City”? At some point, it’s hard to rank best or worst, or even to come up with a fixed list of top or bottom 10 or 100. Here’s some which would make my bottom lists:
Matthew Wilder - Break My Stride
Shayne Ward - What About Me?
Patty Smyth - The Warrior
The fact that “We Built This City” is still remembered after such a long time is a testament to its quality.
—
Never heard it, never care to. Slick ended with White Rabbit. Done. Baked.
—
The top songs in 1949 were:
“Riders in the Sky” Vaughn Monroe - loved it
“Some Enchanted Evening” Perry Como - loved it
“I Can Dream, Can’t I?” The Andrews Sisters - loved it
“Mule Train” Frankie Laine - ok
“Far Away Places” Bing Crosby- loved it
“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” Johnny Mercer - loved it
“The Hucklebuck” Tommy Dorsey Orchestra - ok
NOBODY in 1985 was playing these songs.
—
I’d play them today as they are far better singers, song writers and musicians that anything going on today. IMHO
Felony - The Fanatic
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing
MTV brought out the best and the worst. Thriller was ranked pretty high up there.
Any Song Sounds Better In Heavy Metal | Bill Bailey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wyOy3ws8cY
it’s a democrat mantra -’we bilked this city of all its dough...’
I love that song. I used to sing ‘Ya say ya dont know me, or recognize my face’ in a cockney accent to irritate my girlfriend. Yes, she dumped me
I recall McFerrin saying in an interview that he never wants to hear that song again.
“When I hear ‘Ebony’ I think of a magazine nobody reads, and when I hear ‘Ivory’ I think of a soap that floats!”
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