My Favorite Least Favorite Songs
Submitted by AJDaGreat on Fri, 12/26/2003 - 13:55
Tags:
- Andmoreagain - Love (Forever Changes)
- Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite - Beatles (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)
- Big Black Mariah - Tom Waits (Rain Dogs)
- Brand New Cadillac - The Clash (London Calling)
- Crackity Jones - The Pixies (Doolittle)
- Doctor Robert - Beatles (Revolver)
- Far Out - Blur (Parklife) (Wow, you can play bass, sing, AND you know the names of celestial bodies too? Amazing!)
- Four Sticks - Led Zeppelin (IV)
- Goin' Mobile - The Who (Who's Next)
- I Can't Own Her - XTC (Apple Venus Volume 1) (Yeah, I know this is cheating)
- If You See Her, Say Hello - Bob Dylan (Blood on the Tracks)
- Let's Go Away for a While - Beach Boys (Pet Sounds)
- Loudmouth - Ramones (Ramones)
- Meeting Across the River - Bruce Springsteen (Born to Run)
- Missing the War - Ben Folds Five (Whatever and Ever Amen)
- Pledging My Time - Bob Dylan (Blonde on Blonde)
- Shake Your Hips - Rolling Stones (Exile on Main Street)
- So Long - Adam Again (Dig)
- Star Me Kitten - R.E.M. (Automatic for the People)
- The Wait - Pretenders (Pretenders)
- When You Dream - Barenaked Ladies (Stunt)
- Zoo Station - U2 (Achtung, Baby)
Author Comments:
I realize that this title requires some explanation...
These songs are my least favorite songs for the albums they're on. However, the song quality on those albums is so high, that I still like these songs. For example, I like the song "Goin' Mobile", but I like all the songs on Who's Next so much, that one of them just had to be my least favorite.
I did not include albums where the song quality is very high except for one or two bad songs - for example, "My Roots" on Something / Anything? or "Wild Honey Pie" on The White Album. This list is reserved for when I like all the song on an album.
Oddly enough, at least three of these songs are among my favorites on their respective albums.
Yeah, I figured I'd do something like that. I can't really qualify why I don't like these as much as the other songs on the albums. They've just never grabbed me as much as the others. But they're certainly not bad songs.
Which three songs are you talking about?
That would be "Shake Your Hips" "Star Me Kitten" and "Missing the War"
Oops, I mislabelled the Stones song. You're right, it's not "Hip Shake." But alas, while it's a song I enjoy, I must admit it's not one of my favorites on the list. For Exile, I'd personally prefer "Tumbling Dice", "Let It Loose", or "Torn and Frayed", just to name a few.
"Star Me Kitten" was a closer call. "Missing the War" was even closer.
Man, this is a wonderful idea for a list.
I see where you're coming from with "Brand New Cadillac". I really disliked it when I first heard it. But now, I sometimes skip over the title track (London Calling) and go straight into it. I think it's got a wonderful drum track and the guitar solo cooks.
Thank you! For what it's worth, "Brand New Cadillac" is among my the songs I like the most on this list. I think it says a lot about the album London Calling, which in my opinion is a masterpiece.
I love Brand new Caddilac!
Again, good song, on a very strong album with many better songs. Just my opinion.
Good point.
Hmm, I could do without "Lost In The Supermarket" from London Calling. Good choice for the Ramones, though - "Loudmouth" definitely isn't one of my favorite songs from the album.
Wow! I can't believe you don't like Missing the War. That's my favourite song from that album! Plus, When You Dream by the Barenaked Ladies is such a great song!!! Do you have a thing against ballads on otherwise upbeat albums, perhaps?
Ah, I think the title of this list was just bound to be misinterpreted. I DO like "Missing the War." I DO like "When You Dream." Just because they're my least favorite songs on their respective albums, doesn't mean I don't like them. That's what makes these albums so great.
I certainly have nothing against ballads on otherwise upbeat albums. In any case, there are many ballads on Whatever and Ever Amen, which is often upbeat ("Steven's Last Night in Town", "Battle of Who Could Care Less") but also contains astounding ballads like "Brick", "Selfless, Cold, and Composed", and "Evaporated", all of which I like better than "Missing the War." It's just a personal thing really. On the other hand, here are some ballads on largely upbeat albums that I do love: "Jungleland" (from Born to Run), "Tupelo Honey" (from the Van Morrison album of the same title), "Wild Horses" (from Sticky Fingers), "In the Cold, Cold Night" (from Elephant), "I Know It's Over" (from The Queen Is Dead), "You Don't Love Me Anymore" (from Weird Al's Off the Deep End - OK, maybe that one is a bit of a stretch), "Break Your Heart" (from BNL's Born on a Pirate Ship), "This Is a Low" (from Parklife), "End of the Tour" (from TMBG's John Henry)... I could go on.
As for "When You Dream", I guess I object to the structure more than anything else. It's just a strung-together list of questions about what you dream about, occasionally quirky, but then again, so is nearly every BNL song. It just doesn't work for me as well as the other songs on Stunt.
Thanks for your comments!
Are there any songs you don't like on Sigur Ros - ()?
There might be, if I had heard the album.
There, you see! You've got no complaints about that masterpiece!
Anyway, I recommend it, then :-)
Great idea for a list; I'm going to think on this one for awhile and maybe clone it.
I think "Acrobat" is my least favorite of all the great songs on Achtung Baby and either "Lost in the Supermarket" or "Wrong 'Em Boyo" on London Calling.
Johnny Waco
I actually love "Acrobat", but I think it's really interesting the disparities that come up - especially since we both clearly love Achtung Baby. I do agree with you on "Lost in the Supermarket" though - that'd be towards the bottom of my list.
I love both songs, and "Acrobat" is actually probably my favorite on Achtung, Baby.
Just goes to show, one person's trash... :)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Trash? Certainly not. Merely those songs that are not quite so awesome as the others. I will confess, I do like "Wrong 'em Boyo" a hell of a lot too.
Yeah, I have to clarify as well: I certainly don't think "Acrobat" is trash! More like, one person's lesser treasure is another man's favorite treasure...
Johnny Waco
Sorry, guys! I know you weren't saying the tunes are trash. The hack writer in me simply demanded a cliche, and I've been using, "Different strokes..." much too much lately... The trash-treasure saw cut through and won. ;)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Kudos on Meeting Across the River