Wilco’s “Less Than You Think” is a lovely bit of music until the 12 minutes of metal machine noise at the end. IIRC Jeff Tweedy was trying to simulate something about his migraines, but honestly, I see no need to suffer along with him.
I was going to post about the electric organ in any Doors song - or any song from that era. The electric organ sound during that time period is just grating.
Ok, three more:
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The last minute of every Prince song that I can think of right now. Probably the greatest funk/dance musician of my lifetime, but the man could not figure out how to end a song.
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Ditto on the spoken word issue - the worst offender? The Ink Spots.
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Chicago’s “Hard To Say I’m Sorry”. Sure it’s schmaltz, but it was original (before every Chicago song became schmaltz in the mid to late 80’s) but it was a great slow dancing song. But Chicago didn’t trust their own song, and added the jarring and awful “Get Away” to it - ruining the last slow song/romantic moment to numerous high school dances.
Ben Folds’ song Cologne is one of his best solo songs IMHO. Amazing lyrics with amazing music.
Well it could be his best, if there wasn’t this bit in the middle about a story that was in the news at the (presumed) time of writing:
“Says here an astronaut
Put on a pair of diapers
Drove 18 hours
To kill her boyfriend”
It takes what could be a timeless song and makes it timely and topical. And the words are not poetic. And it’s gross.
Pisses me the hell off.
Sorrow by Bad Religion. Would be one of the top 10 modern rock songs ever if not for the static crunch during every chorus
“And there will be…” CRUNCH!!! “…sorrow”.
“It’s that BABY you’re HOLDING!” Urrrgh, I agree.
I completely agree with this. I forgot about it, otherwise I would have beaten you to it. The whole song comes to a crashing halt in that portion.
The guitar solo in Rage Against the Machines “Killing in the Name”. It sounds like a toddler rubbing 30 grit sandpaper against a theramin.
Buddy Holly’s “Dearest” is just about perfect. Until he drops into a gravelly non-singing voice to do a “I love you” thing.
Too many for me to get started listing, but in general, I also dislike spoken parts, as well as near-rhymes (such as “time” and “mind”), off-rhythms (particularly when the wrong syllable is emphasized), and inverted word order (of the “happy I always will be” variety). To me, those are the signs of a lazy lyricist, and if he doesn’t care, why should I?
Agree, agree I do.
But for who else is it a crime?
I’m afraid it’s seen as so
for only you and I.
The guitar solo in Pantera’s “Walk” kind of takes me out of the song.
Dream On by Aerosmith, where Tyler sends his voice up, and higher, can he go higher? Well, not without causing actual pain to the listener, no…
There are quite a few good songs that unfortunately feature the “walk/talk” rhyme which I cringe at. It’s the most lazy, pointless rhyme and yet it made its way into dozens of great songs (and about thousands of awful ones).
Had my ipod on shuffle and this song started just as I was reading your post.
I like the song “Who Are You”, but can’t stand the little "Who? Who? Who? Who?"s that appear after every instance of the phrase “Who are you?”
The cackling at the beginning and end of Feel Good Inc. by Gorillaz is annoying.
Beercan. Agree totally. About my favorite Beck song, but ouch!
Someone mentioned that Prince doesn’t know how to end a song. Same goes for Eric Clapton. Motherless Children, Let it Rain, several others.
Several Lauryn Hill songs from “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” would be substantially improved by having just one less rap track.
“Everything is Everything,” in particular, has Hill herself doing a background rap while she sings, and it’s just too intrusive.