Confessions of Bad Musical Taste

In My Humble Opinion
61

Well I must say I was more than a bit surprised to see this thread making its way back towards the top again.

Also, I didn’t anticipate there would be so many “Hey, why are you embarrassed by [insert name here]? They are awesome!” I guess this just illustrates what a curious thing personal taste is as well as the influence our friends and family have on us, since they likely have much to contribute to what is or is not embarrassing. That I claim ownership of Bon Jovi’s first album is indeed embarrassing to me. However, I would certainly admit that one who counts him/herself as one of the Bon Jovi faithful would be pleased to possess such a treasure. That said, I still have trouble coming to grips with my facination and fondness for Boy George and Culture Club.

Of course true embarrassment comes from within as in when I find myself saying just moments after the purchase, “How could I possibly have forked over $12.00 for Barry Manilow’s Greatest Hits?” Well fortunately no one will ever know I bought it (until now of course).

Napster has been quite the savior for me. Now I am free (no pun intended) to acquire various and numerous pieces of bad music that I just didn’t have the courage to do when it required walking into a record store. Can I interest anyone in some Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Nena, Allan Sherman, or Aqua?

62

can the compassion you show be extended to a person such as me?

I own:

All the Archies albums, even the one after they lost the rights to use the character’s images.

All the original Monkees albums.

A Partridge Family album (don’t remember which)

The Josie and the Pussycats album (with Cheryl Ladd)

The Kids from C.A.P.E.R. album

A Cufflinks album (“Tracy, when I’m with you/something you do/bounces me off the ceiling”)

The “The Jelly Jungle of Orange Marmalade” album by the Lemon Pipers

The “The Peanut Butter Conspiaracy is Spreading” album by The Peanut Butter Conspiracy

A Weather Girls Album (“It’s Raining Men”)

One or two Association albums (“Who’s peekin’ out from under the stairway/smiling at everybody she sees?/Who’s bending down to capture a rainbow?/Everyone knows it’s Windy”)

God help me, the Coven album ("One Tin Soldier rides a-waaaaay)

The Fifth Dimension “Up Up and Away (in my Beautiful Balloon!)” album.

Whoever did the “My name is Michael/ I gotta nickle, I gotta nickle/shiny and new/I’m gonna buy me/all kindsa candy…etc” album) Clint Holmes?

The A(bba)Teens CD

Bunches of singles: Edison Lighthouse (“Love Grows where my Rosemary Goes”), Reunion (“Life is a Rock, but the Radio Rolled Me”), Shawn Cassidy (“That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll”), Limahl (“Neverending Story”), The Seekers (“Georgie Girl”), Royal Guardsmen (All three songs in the “Snoopy vs the Red Baron” trilogy), Melanie ( <squeeky voice> “You got a bran’ new paira rollerskates, I gotta bran’ new key” </squeeky voice> ), etc

Vast quantities of bad/weird/obscure musicals (Carmilla: A Vampire’s Tale The Musical and Eating Raoul: The Musical to name two)

Katisha: Be proud of your G&S love! And I went through a brief obsession with Starlight Express that I now find completly inexplicable too.

jadailey: There’re more than three Starlight Express cast recordings…I think it’s closer to five or six. If you care, I can give you a list when I get home.

Has everyone lost whatever respect they had for me?

Funky Fenris

63

Clint Holmes is correct, Fenris. The song is “Playground in my Mind,” and I could probably rattle all the lyrics off the top of my head. I’d normally be embarrassed to say it, but I guess it’s OK in this thread.

I also see that you’ve got all three of the Snoopy songs by the Royal Guardsmen–would this be the album the RG put out in the sixties with the Snoopy trilogy on one side, and a bunch of RG songs generally having to do with aircraft and flight on the other?

(Sample lyric, possibly paraphrased: “We can go up/We can go down/But we won’t be going 'round/If we don’t get off the ground/In my airplane.” Now you know why they hit best with their “Snoopy” stuff.)

Heck, I’ll admit to owning that album. Always thought I was the only one who did.

64

Dear God, no! They’re probably out of print - I’m better off not knowing.

However, Fenris - I respect your ability to come out with all of this stuff you have. I feel your pain. But I think you’ve won the competition… :o

65

No one’s mentioned Billy Idol…am I alone…?

66

I own a bunch of the stuff mentioned here.
In an effort to update my collection from albums & cassettes, I have bought a ton of greatest hits CDs over the past couple of months. These include Journey, Styx, Warrent and Poison. I love cheesey rock and metal. I’m not embarassed by that stuff.
The things that are embarassing are We Are the World, Hall & Oats and Coolio.

67

Thanks Blur…

Now I don’t feel so bad for owning the greatest hits of Poison,Def Leppard and the Big Hair collection :slight_smile:

::bangs her head to “Talk Dirty To Me”::

68

Ah, “Talk Dirty to Me.” I love that song. I love Poison. Only seen 'em once, and that was on the “Open Up” tour with Britney Fox. But I own all of their CDs, and am not ashamed to admit it.

69

The Men Without Hats greatest hits cd. I walked confidently to the cash register and bought it proudly.

And to whoever was embarrassed about Shonen Kinfe, they and Pizzicato Five are seriously cool Japanese bands (that nobody in Japan has heard of). Now, if you said you were into Morning Musume, that would be another story…

–sublight.

70

Lynyrd Skynyrd, “One More from the Road”.

I’m not really embarrassed about that CD in particular, but because it always reminds me that I once considered “Freebird” to be a truly wonderful song, indeed the pinnacle of musical artistry. I still like lots of Skynyrd, but “Freebird” nearly invokes a gag reflex now.

“Keep Your Hands to Yourself” by the Georgia Satellites. Actually bought the single rather than spring for the whole album, although I’m not sure it’s still around anywhere. Unlike “Freebird” though I still enjoy this song.

And a couple from my childhood that my sister owned and certainly should be ashamed of: “Seasons in the Sun”, and “Billy don’t be a Hero”.

71

(with flushed face)

“You Light Up My Life” by Debbie Boone

“Beth” by Kiss

“Seasons in the Sun” by ?

Andy Gibb

Soundtrack to, um, “Grease”

grab your armchair…

Mantovani

72

Mr. Terry Jacks, I believe…

73

Hey, don’t be too embarassed. That album touches my sensitive side, too.

And it’s truly a good album, in a weird way.

74

That Root Boy Slim album is one of my prize collections. I shipped it from Boston to Madrid along with the rest of my collection. Being an expatriate for so long, I didn’t hear the news until just about a month ago that Foster MacKenzie III died back in 1993. He rocked, I can only think of Don Van Vliet (Capt. Beefheart) as being more over the top.

Some of the bad musical taste disks I’ve bought are:
Year of the Cat - Al Stewart (always a soft spot for the way that Broadway Hotel song rhymes along.)
Supertramp - Breakfast in America (I new I shouldn’t even back then.)
Michael McDonald - Greatest Hits (so wimpy, but, I admit that I love his voice.)
Patsy Cline - 2 lps (what can I say "I fall to pieces…)
Nat King Cole - 3 lps (no, I take that back. Nat King Cole is cool).