| Author | Message | ||
     Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 677 Registered: 03-2006 |
We've all had 'em...moments when a favorite artist makes a detour and you don't wanna go there with 'em...all you can do is say, "what the f___?"...I had one of those moments yesterday. Mighty Grant is not infallible. I was listening to "Fireboy" (my least favorite of his solo discs by far) and "Pawnbroker" came on...I had forgotten it and was left muttering, "what the f___ is this noise, Grant?"...apologies to anyone who likes it, but I didn't get it. That boat left and I wasn't on it.... Another one, though I liked the album it came from, was "Stand" by R.E.M...what the f___? The only thing worse was that stupid little dance they made up to go with it... Sorry, just doing a little venting... | ||
| C Gull Member Username: C_gull Post Number: 37 Registered: 05-2005 |
Seeing Neil Young perform Greendale -what the f___ was that all about? Ł50 a ticket and after missing out on the full blown electric set at Brixton a year earlier cos Neil had a sore throat. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 522 Registered: 04-2005 |
See also the "jumping the shark" thread, hmm? Anyway, for this question, I'd nominate pretty much every album Neil Young made in the '80s. Just when you started to think maybe you could stand "Trans" after all, he hit you with "Everybody's Rockin'"! WTF? Get a handle on that one...pow! "Old Ways"! WTF?? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 534 Registered: 05-2005 |
Kurt: This Note's For You (1988) and Freedom (1989) are both great records. Well, I love them both anyway. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 535 Registered: 05-2005 |
Paying a fortune in Sydney to see Neil perform Greendale seemed like a terrible mistake at the time ... but I now I'm thankful that a boozy dnner with mates also going to the show meant we missed most of the awful Greendale section and saw all of the awesome, hour long second half. It was only five songs in that one hour too! As far as I can recall, it was Cinnamon Girl, Like A Hurricane, Rockin' In The Free World, Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) and Powderfinger. Was anyone else here at that show? | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 682 Registered: 03-2006 |
The WTF moment, while similar to the jumping the shark concept, is slightly different. WTF victims often have violent physical reactions and are unable to avoid actually uttering the phrase, often culminating in actually hurling the CD cover across the room. WTF victims are often observed to have facial expressions resembling Tony Soprano's when he's beating up somebody who owes him money. Umm, don't want to enter the fray on 80's Neil, but boy, that Greendale was a stinker! | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 524 Registered: 04-2005 |
Padraig, I guess I should have been a bit less loose with my generalizations. You're right--"Freedom" was great--and it just barely squeaked into that decade. (Come to think of it, Reed made "New York" in '89, and Dylan made "Oh Mercy"--good comeback year for the old codgers!) I think I listed "Freedom" on the "great comebacks" thread. Not sure I can agree with you on "This Note's For You," though. | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 84 Registered: 01-2006 |
I saw the Greendale tour in front of 1000 people in Vicar St in Dublin and thought it was great, a pretty unique gig for Young instead of the usual shows where he trots out bores like Sugar Mountain and The Needle and the Damage done (why does he play these at every live show?)...and then he came back to play 6 songs including 'Birds' and 'Ambulance Blues' which he never, ever, ever plays...it was the show that eventually came as a DVD withe the CD, pity those tracks weren't included. I think Greendale is one of his better albums of the last 10-15 years.. | ||
| C Gull Member Username: C_gull Post Number: 38 Registered: 05-2005 |
LK - my only physical reaction at the Greendale show was falling asleep. Not violent but I may have scored on the facial expression part. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 689 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Stranglers album Gospel according to the meninblack. For me they blew it big time. Folie and Feline were good after that they went down hill with Wurul Sculpture and beyond leading to their demise. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 171 Registered: 01-2005 |
Hardin, Right On with the "Stand" comment. In 1988 I was introduced to The Pixies, Throwing Muses and Wire. REM's Green, in particular "Stand" sounded like pure pop drivel compared to Surfer Rosa, House Tornado and A Bell Is A Cup. I never play Green anymore or Monster, and didn't buy anyting after Monster by REM. And REM was my favorite band from 1983 to 1987! | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 750 Registered: 05-2005 |
Michael, your last 2 sentences could have been written by myself! Totally agree. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 690 Registered: 03-2006 |
'Round that time I started gettting into the Pixies...they really did seem like the coolest band ever. I remember seeing them at a small club near LSU. They were late coming out (I found at later that it was due to an arguement with the club owner who had a rep for being a prick) and Frank Black apologized thusly: "Sorry we're late - we were taking a dump"... They then proceeded to tear through their set list in alphabetical order...I remember thinking, "this is some weird, wild stuff"... Next to that kind of inspired madness, "Stand" seemed fairly insipid. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 697 Registered: 05-2005 |
Yeah, but y know, we are not the music police! Its nice to have some fluff!! | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 529 Registered: 04-2005 |
Besides, I thought "Shiny Happy People" was the real turd in the punch bowl in the "classic R.E.M." catalog. "Stand" just seemed to me like an unusually obvious hit single bid with a very standard chord progression--shades of "Like A Rolling Stone," for one. Cheesy, but harmless fun. And let me ask you this--wouldn't "Stand" have been a welcome change of pace on any on the last three turgid, boring R.E.M. albums? | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 695 Registered: 03-2006 |
At least SHP didn't have its own dance! At least, not that I'm aware of... And, of course, fluff has its place in the world, but this really seemed like shameless pandering for an MTV hit. But anyways, I wasn't really debating the relative worth of REM songs, just saying that that, for me, was a real WTF moment: "What the F___? This is not my REM. This is not my beautiful wife!". | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 533 Registered: 04-2005 |
Fair enough. But I remember a hell of a lot of dancing in the "SHP" video, along with a very uncomfortable (and probably extremely inebriated) Peter Buck stumbling along with all the shiny happy dancers. Speaking of R.E.M. "dance" vids: was "Pop Song 89" the one with the topless female dancers? | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 754 Registered: 05-2005 |
yip. i wonder if they ever got sued for ripping off hello i love you by The Doors. Or should The Doors be sued for ripping off All Day and All of the Night by The Kinks? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 539 Registered: 05-2005 |
I like Stand. I love Shiny Happy People. I hate Around The Sun. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 536 Registered: 04-2005 |
To sort of paraphrase Neil Young about pop music--"it's all one song!" I think Padraig has identified the real villain in the R.E.M. canon. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 542 Registered: 05-2005 |
That reminds me of the smartest thing anyone ever taught me in college. An American called Robert Ginty was guest lecturing us on US films and he said: "There's only two kinds of films; a guy goes on a journey or a stranger arrives in town." Brilliant! | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 758 Registered: 05-2005 |
Around the Sun was rightly panned by almost every reviewer under the sun, except esteemed UK reviewer Andy Gill (not the guy from Gang of Four, this guy has wrote for NME and Uncut amongst other publications) who gave it a 5 star review. Wonder what he heard that the rest of us didnt? Here's his review from The Independent http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article39342.ece | ||
| Cichli Suite Member Username: Cichli_suite Post Number: 155 Registered: 08-2004 |
Dylan and the Dead. When that came out I didn't listen to Dylan again for several years. Also, I remember buying Dylan's 'at Budokan' double lp when I was a teenager. That was a real 'what the fuck' moment, because I was broke as well. Thankfully, the guy in the shop was kind enough to let me exchange it for a Tom Waits record - Swordfishtrombones, I think. I loved that. Funnily enough, for many people who were used to Uncle Tom's barfly ballads, Swordfishtrombones was a 'what the fuck' moment. Hey, it seems the message board software allows us to write 'fuck' once again. fuckity fuck! | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 710 Registered: 03-2006 |
Top of the fuckity fuckin mornin' to you, Cichli! The WTF is completely in the ear of the beholder...I'm sure there are people out there who still say, "Tom Waits used to be great before he completely lost his marbles and started making crazy noise instead of proper songs", but I'm not one of those people: I love both eras of Tom, almost equally, but think he's probably scaled the highest peaks artistically in the latter period...He has a box set coming out, btw, of rarities, called "Orphans"... You can recover from a WTF moment and go on to love the record...when I got Imperial Bedroom, by Costello, and put it on the first track, "Beyond Belief", I really did have a WTF moment - it sounded like some crazy, obnoxious noise...course I grew to love it and now the album is one of my faves. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 175 Registered: 01-2005 |
I would add Talking Head's Little Creatures. I mean, I guess it's okay to sing about kids and family, but all the edges that were in Fear of Music and Remain in Light were gone. | ||
| Cichli Suite Member Username: Cichli_suite Post Number: 156 Registered: 08-2004 |
And to you LK! Thanks for the info on Tom's Orphans. I'm sure they'll find many a new home Regarding Costello, Spike seems to be a WTF for many people. I stopped buying his stuff regularly after that, although he has released some really good records since then. All this useless beauty, for instance. I like his record with Bacharach but I know Attractions fans who just can't bear it. Then there was the Juliet Letters, a worthy experiment, but I just can't listen to it - classic WTF | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 716 Registered: 03-2006 |
Being completely truthful, I like Spike a lot...don't know why it put anybody off. There were some clangorous production flourishes being worked on it, for instance, Marc Ribot's guitar and some of the trashcan-sounding tuned percussion you'd find on a Waits record, but I thought it complimented the material beautifully...I liked all the great supporting players on it, too, like the Dirty Dozen...it's got some mega great feats of Costello songwriting, too - "Chewing Gum", "Baby Plays Around" and "Tramp the Dirt Down"... As for Juliet Letters,....erm...interesting effort, but I have a hard time with it, too. Something about the combination of his voice, much as I love it, with an orchestra...they don't work well together...but, I did enjoy the Metropole Jazz Orchestra thing he did...Like the Bacharach record, too...I'm sure it's quite a maddening game for artists like him - you have to mix it up, even if people don't always want to "go there" with you. Otherwise, you get accused of making the same record over and over...Sort of the case w/ R.Hitchcock, whom we were discussing on another thread...great artist, but I quit buyin' his stuff cuz I knew exactly what to expect. The "Live at Budokan" WTF moment is a classic Dylan one, up there with "Self-Portrait"...And, I had a bit of a WTF frisson when he came out with "Street Legal", the one that had him in pancake makeup and Vegas regalia on the back cover, when he was going through his "Elvis phase"...not really a terrible record, though, despite some over the top production choices.. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 543 Registered: 04-2005 |
"Street Legal" was the first Dylan album I bought, I think--it was the one just out when I started to get interested in him. It put me off of him for years. I recall it being cluttered and unpleasant to listen to. But I've read that the recently remastered version is much improved, adding clarity and definition to the sound that wasn't there on the original mix. Do I dare invest in a new copy of an album I once hated? Any advice on this one? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 550 Registered: 05-2005 |
Some people on here said it was much better Kurt. I didn't get the remastered version though as I like Street Legal anyway. Hey, I even used to love the Budokan album when I was a kid. It was the first Dylan album I ever heard (in the early 80s, a few years after it came out) and I thought it was great. I think it's rubbish now though - definitely not one that outlasted my youthful enthusiasm for it. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 719 Registered: 03-2006 |
Don't know what to tell ya bout it, Kurt. SL has some good songs on it, but there are definitely others in the catalog I'd get first if I didn't have 'em, like "Infidels", which was produced by M.Knopfler and has Sly and Robbie as the rhythm section...it has great songs on it like, "Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight" and "I and I"...and one, er, interesting one about Israel called "Neigborhood Bully"...oh yeah and "Jokerman".... But there are definitely much worse items in the Bobster's catalog, like "Knocked-Out Loaded" and "Empire Burlesque"... | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 387 Registered: 08-2004 |
The remastered Street Legal is quite good, never heard the original. Slow Train Coming is a better one. The worlds going to end & all we can hope to do is save our souls. All set to music, genius. Despite the Dire Straits input it's quite challenging, quite Gospel at times. | ||
| Duncan Hurwood Member Username: Duncan_h Post Number: 51 Registered: 05-2005 |
The remastered "Street Legal" is streets ahead of the old version. Get it now. It's one of my favourite Bob albums - better than anything he did in the 1980s IMO. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 772 Registered: 05-2005 |
Another vote for the remastered Street Legal. Government health warning - Mark Knopfler can seriously damage your musical output. Hardin, as a big reggae fan the thought of a Dylan song called "I and I" similultaneously intrigues me, and makes me squirm. I need to download this from Napster. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 545 Registered: 04-2005 |
I have "Infidels," but passed on all the other '80s albums except "Oh Mercy." Of course, "Infidels" is famous for being the album that could have been a masterpiece if he'd replaced a couple of the weaker tracks with the far superior songs he'd recorded at the same sessions--"Blind Willie McTell," "Foot of Pride," and there may be one or two others I'm forgetting (all on the first volume of the Bootleg Series). Sounds like the remastered "Street Legal" is a must-hear! | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 721 Registered: 03-2006 |
Kev, by all means download it, but, full disclosure, it's not really a reggae song as such - it just takes as its theme the Rastafarian concept of "I and I" which means....hell I dunno what it means, but still, check it out! | ||
| Duncan Hurwood Member Username: Duncan_h Post Number: 53 Registered: 05-2005 |
I can't cope with the sound of "Infidels". It's not the songs, but the way they sound that's so awful on that record. That, and Bobs over-earnest desire to be meaningful and spiritual in the early 1980s. |