Listened again today to the Beach Boys’ “You’re So Good to Me” and confirmed my disappointment with its “lalalala” chorus. The verses are great, but near the end of each verse Jardine(?) warns of the impending doom with the “luuuuuv it, luuuuuv it” notes.
Black Sabbath’s “Symptom of the Universe” would have been my favourite number of theirs had it not been for the substantial section at the end where they sound like they were attempting some mutated extendo jam of “Black Water” or something.
Any songs that you would’ve liked a lot more had it not been for…?
The second part of Layla is pretty lame IMO.
What I found lame about it is that the songwriter of that part - drummer Jim Gordon - ripped it off unacknowledged from colleagues Bonnie and Delaney, and then when Clapton won a Grammy later on for the unplugged version, he didn’t acknwoledge any of them.
The verses of Nina Simone singing Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood are just painfully beautiful at times, but the chorus is a bit of a clunky dirge in comparison.
That was the least of his issues.
Kylie Minogue’s song “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” would be better without that weird electronic meowing sound that starts halfway through.
And that opening of “Livin on a Prayer” that sounds like a guitar throwing up.
There is a certain sound present in a few songs that is produced by some sort of percussion instrument. It sends shivers down my backbone because it is reminiscent of the sound of someone who chronically grinds their teeth. It is a grindy/squeaky noise. Consider yourself fortunate if you’ve never encountered that sound.
The Drifters’ “Under the Boardwalk” has it, but I cannot remember the other songs I’ve heard it in.
mmm
R.E.M.'s final charting single, We All Go Back To Where We Belong, is a pleasant piece of pop-music fluff, until the last 40 seconds or so. For some reason, Michael Stipe thought that making weird, nasal hum-singing noises would make the perfect coda. Bleh.
Do It Again by Steely Dan?
That has two scratchy things in it - I think your bugbear is the one deeper in the mix.
j
I know the instrument. I think it’s called a guiro. It’s a gourd with ridges cut into it and is played with a wire brushing against it (nowadays, they’re made of plastic).
The video shows one being played, but it’s being done rapidly. Still, you can hear the sound on the upstroke. “Under the Boardwark” plays it much more slowly.
Gimme Shelter has a guiro in it too.
(is there a way to reply to multiple quotes?)
Yes, it is definitely a guiro, and it is definitely Gimme Shelter that I was trying to think of. I can just picture someone leaning into the mic once every measure and giving his teeth a good grinding.
The Steely Dan cut, whatever they use to obtain it, does not produce the sound that gives me the heebie jeebies.
mmm
Yeah - I highlighted a piece of your post (section copied above) and quote marks appeared above the highlight. Click on the quotes marks and it opens the reply box with that text. And then I can scroll up and highlight some of Chuck’s post, repeat the process and voila -
But I was really dipping back in here to say that Always On My Mind by Elvis Presley is just a smorgasbord of bloody annoyances on what is otherwise a majestic performance of wonderful, intimate song.
I mean, FFS, count ‘em
At 0.29 – the backing singers
At 0.32 – is that a freakin’ flugelhorn?
At 0.38 – strings, fer chrissakes
At 0.43 – god help us, it’s a male voice choir
At 1.26 – gawd, it’s the male voice choir again
At 1.35 – is that a cornet??
And so on – it’s almost easier to list the things that they don’t throw into the recording (no kazoo!). I can’t think of a more damaging example of overproduction. Less is more, guys!
j
Even though they probably weren’t castanets, I thought it sounded more like a quick castanent flourish than giuiro in that Drifters number, but either way - at least it’s not the yucky vibraslap, as demonstated by one Mark Shelton.
Heh - almost all of Yes’s Tales From Topographic Oceans.
Ian Gillan’s high vocals near end of “Child in Time”
Katie Perry’s Dark Horse is a perfectly pleasant pop song except for the line at the end of the chorus where some electronically enhanced male voice intones
“there’s no going back”.
Irritating and totally out of place.
Harry Chapin’s Taxi has a section in the middle that vastly changes the tune and cadence. I think I see what he was trying to do, but in my mind, it doesn’t work. The song would be vast better without it.
The lyrics in that section aren’t bad:
Oh, I’ve got something inside me
Not what my life’s about
'Cause I’ve been letting my outside tide me
Over 'till my time, runs outBaby’s so high that she’s skying
Yes she’s flying, afraid to fall
I’ll tell you why baby’s crying
'Cause she’s dying, aren’t we all
I was always put off by the second line of A Cask of Amontillado because the vocalist pronounces the word “amontiLado” when it feels to me like the word should be pronounced “amontiYado”. I understand that both pronunciations get used, but the first one just sounds all kinds of wrong to me.
I get stabby when a musician rhymes a word with the exact same word in the next line. Bugs the hell out of me. It bugs me so much I can’t even think of an example right now.
Also trite rhymes like “honey” and “money” or “sky” and “high”.
Yep, it’s a güiro in “Under the Boardwalk.”
Oh COME ON - repeated rhymes are !!!AWESOME!!!