# Pink Floyd=plodding shite, The Romantics 1st album=guitar masterpiece, and other musical blasphemies

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 5, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546 "2011-01-05T23:28:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/21 "2011-01-06T07:47:24Z")

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> [@woodstockbirdybird](#):
>
> I’ll say that Led Zeppelin was dull, screechy and sloppy-sounding. The worst punk band rocked harder.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/TWUBHA2DBDA?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque

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**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/22 "2011-01-06T07:58:31Z")

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The Clash and the Ramones and the Sex Pistols aren’t nearly as good (or influential) as many people make them out to be.

Bjork is stupid, incomprehensible garbage.

Radiohead is the most overrated band of the past 15 years.

John Lennon was a self-important, ego-maniacal asshole.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/23 "2011-01-06T08:19:24Z")

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Rolf Harris cover of _Stairway To Heaven_ is better than Led Zep.

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**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/24 "2011-01-06T11:14:22Z")

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[QUOTE=woodstockbirdybird]  
The worst punk band rocked harder.  
[/QUOTE]  
Have you heard Crass?

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**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/25 "2011-01-06T12:06:23Z")

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> [@Locrian](#):
>
> This I believe:
> 
> Frank Sinatra is the worst wannabe crooner ever and he couldn’t act.
> 
> Ditto for Neil Diamond.
> 
> Neil Young and Willie Nelson should always write songs and never, ever perform them.
> 
> Rap and hip hop are not musical genres. They are examples of plagiarism and a contest to see who can get the most sheepish audience members to repeat “Yeah!” and “Oh” the loudest.
> 
> Jimmy Buffet should just stick to boats.

I listen to Sinatra, and I’m struck my the same thought I have when I listen to old Tony Bennett. “I’d really like to hear him sing without the schmaltzy, dated music behind him.” It’s not the instruments, it’s not the melody, it’s that much of it is played in the most saccharinely-sweet, cheesy manner possible. It’s like listening to the soundtrack of _Fantasia_: Great music, but they dumped a ton of syrup on it for that performance.

Neil Diamond was, for five minutes in the 1960’s , the tits. GREAT voice, good tunes. Deep Purple covered him! Then he went Vegas and started a ground-glass gargling regimen.

Jimmy Buffet is about having fun. He found a niche and filled it, and does it well. And he wrote/performed a few songs that aren’t entirely cheese and shit. Not a big fan, never been to a Buffet concert and never will be, but I can’t hate on him.

Neil Young and Willie Nelson are musical categories unto themselves. Truly bad voices, but they often work very well for the music they write. “Everyone Knows this is Nowhere” is one of my 5 desert island CD’s. I’m not a Country music lover, but I’d watch Willie perform live anytime. Dunno why, but I would.

I hate Rap and Hip-hop. H.A.T.E. it. Not my thing, never will be. I WISH I liked it. I wish I could wake up in the morning and find an album had been released and I LOVE it, because I haven’t done that since like 1990. I have no new music I like. Oh, for a _Rumours_ album, a _Live Bullet_, a _Couldn’t Stand The Weather_, an _A Night at the Opera_. Look, I even called them ALBUMS! (Sigh) Rock (now ‘classic rock’)was on it’s way out when I graduated high school, and I SOOO wasn’t ready for that.

To address other posts:  
Pink Floyd has written and performed some of the most beautiful music ever, and yes, most of that is on their most popular albums. It’s kills the hipsters, but Floyd made amazing music and it was popular.

Led Zep ripped off Blues musicians and songs, who themselves made a career out of ripping off each other - only they didn’t call it “ripping off”, or “stealing”. It’s just how it was done -a riff here, a line there, and it evolved. That said, they should have paid the musicians and given them credit. Selling out arenas and releasing multi-platinum albums with borrowed material isn’t the same as traveling from town to town and playing “borrowed” tunes at little bars, or cutting records that sell a couple thousand copies. Though they did that, Led Zep was much more than just a group that ripped off aging Blues men. They put together some great, epic rock masterpieces that were all their own, and are influential to this day.

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**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/26 "2011-01-06T12:19:08Z")

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> [@silenus](#):
>
> Punk is just noise. So is rap, hip-hop, crunk, and anything else anybody under 30 likes.

I got some bad news for you, sunshine, but the original punk generation is in its fifties these days.

😉

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**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/27 "2011-01-06T12:23:28Z")

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> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#):
>
> I listen to Sinatra, and I’m struck my the same thought I have when I listen to old Tony Bennett. “I’d really like to hear him sing without the schmaltzy, dated music behind him.” It’s not the instruments, it’s not the melody, it’s that much of it is played in the most saccharinely-sweet, cheesy manner possible. It’s like listening to the soundtrack of _Fantasia_: Great music, but they dumped a ton of syrup on it for that performance.

I could never stand Frank the Vegas Performer but his early stuff with Tommy Dorsey and his more mature songs like “One for My Baby” are pure gold. The man could sing and, much to my surprise, he was a more-than-decent actor for a crooner (better than Der Bingle, certainly). And I heard Tony Bennett in concert about 15 years ago in the Royal Albert Hall - he sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” a cappella and unmiked, and carried to the back seats without a problem. A hell of a voice.

On another note, I love listening to Bjork but I could certainly understand why others hate her. She’s definitely a Marmite musician.

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**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/28 "2011-01-06T12:53:35Z")

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> [@An\_Arky](#):
>
> Louis Armstrong was fucking Tom.

**An Arky** - I enjoy a good pot stirring and therefore don’t want to disrupt your rant. However, while I disagree with some of what you say and chuckle in empathy with much of the rest, I gotta say I disagree with this. Louis Armstrong was a dominant artistic presence at the genesis of jazz - and he got paid at a time when racism was still the order of the day. As a white man in today’s America, I simply can’t imagine knowing what he experienced and judging him by anything other than his brilliant music. YMMV.

Carry on.

- My ears shut down when anyone utters the words “The Grateful Dead”

- For that matter, pretty much the entire SF music scene back then was populated with truly awful guitarists.

- People who rant that Green Day “aren’t punk” aren’t focused on music and piss me off

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**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/29 "2011-01-06T13:06:03Z")

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I have another:

Contrary to what just about every rocker will tell you, drugs don’t make music better, nor do they enable musicians to make better music.

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**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/30 "2011-01-06T13:07:00Z")

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> [@Sam\_Stone](#):
>
> Frank Sinatra was an interpretive genius.

If by that you mean he sang the words of one song to the tune of another, I’ll agree…

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**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/31 "2011-01-06T13:16:40Z")

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> [@WordMan](#):
>
> **An Arky** - I enjoy a good pot stirring and therefore don’t want to disrupt your rant. However, while I disagree with some of what you say and chuckle in empathy with much of the rest, I gotta say I disagree with this. Louis Armstrong was a dominant artistic presence at the genesis of jazz - and he got paid at a time when racism was still the order of the day. As a white man in today’s America, I simply can’t imagine knowing what he experienced and judging him by anything other than his brilliant music. YMMV.
> 
> Carry on.
> 
> - My ears shut down when anyone utters the words “The Grateful Dead”
> 
> - For that matter, pretty much the entire SF music scene back then was populated with truly awful guitarists.
> 
> - People who rant that Green Day “aren’t punk” aren’t focused on music and piss me off

He did give generously to civil rights causes later. I know he got unprecedented pay and privilege. Who could blame him for not wanting to upset the apple cart? Still, he was criticized in his day for that, though that could that whole “crabs in a pot” dealie.

Anyway, I am just stirring the pot in good fun, not trying to rile anyone or anything…I still respect Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin (and even Eric Clapton, sometimes) as musicians. It’s just that sometimes I think irreverent things and want to explore and share those moments of flippancy, as many a truth is said in jest.

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**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/32 "2011-01-06T13:23:11Z")

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> [@WordMan](#):
>
> - People who rant that Green Day “aren’t punk” aren’t focused on music and piss me off

Nng. Can we at least agree that Good Charlotte suck?

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**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/33 "2011-01-06T13:27:15Z")

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> [@Sam\_Stone](#):
>
> That doesn’t change the fact that their reinterpretation of it was fantastic, that Robert Plant is one of the great all-time rock vocalists, and that Jimmy Page was one of the all-time great rock guitarists and songwriters.
> 
> Pink Floyd Rocks. Or at least, it did in the 1970’s.

Agreed and lest we forget, Yes, and Emerson Lake and Palmer, added to the cerebral canon.

The problem has always been that the supergroups can’t give up. Having siphoned their creative genius dry, they carry on producing records long after the muse has fled. Understandably it would be boring to play the same few albums of songs for decades…although the Rolling Stones seem to manage very well. 😃

U2 should have quietly retired 15 years ago.

There are two exceptions I can think of - Cream, and Abba. Now there is a juxtaposition noone expected…:smack:

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**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/34 "2011-01-06T13:36:24Z")

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> [@Gyrate](#):
>
> Nng. Can we at least agree that Good Charlotte suck?

Jesus Waffle-Making Christ yes - we certainly can agree that Good Charlotte sucks. Most of the mall-punk bands totally, irrevocably suck - one of them had a fucking violin player in the band - I think it was Yellowcard (which sucks as a name). It would’ve been totally punk to have a violin - if you stuck the bow up your ass and then used it to play the fiddle during the song…

**An Arky** - we were good prior to the thread and are good now. You know your music and how to disturb a little shit 😉

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**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/35 "2011-01-06T13:50:21Z")

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Of course, of course…BTW, my 12 yo son is a huge fan of _Violation_ now…🆒

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**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/36 "2011-01-06T14:01:03Z")

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> [@An\_Arky](#):
>
> Of course, of course…BTW, my 12 yo son is a huge fan of _Violation_ now…🆒

I wanna rock n’ roll - No that’s a violation!

(for those not in the know, Violation is an album by an obscure 70’s rock band called Starz that was loosely based on A Clockwork Orange and is a shared, um, guilty pleasure by \*\*An Arky \*\*and myself)

WordMan - who still pulls out the opening riff to Cherry Baby pretty regularly…

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**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/37 "2011-01-06T14:13:17Z")

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Hell yes Floyd sucks. Boring, pretentious drone.

I also think that The Doors, especially Jim Morrison are overrated in the extreme.

But I hold a special place in my black heart for Bob Marley. Bob is the worst representation of reggae. A bad song writer, a bad singer, and a bad instrumentalist. Rot in hell Bob.

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**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/38 "2011-01-06T14:35:22Z")

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> [@Cluricaun](#):
>
> I also think that The Doors, especially Jim Morrison are overrated in the extreme.

You’ve been away for a bit as a poster, haven’t you **Cluri**? Either way, good to see you.

And yeah, Jim Morrison was a pretentious douchebag who represents most of what I hate about rock (even though I do listen to a few of their songs when they come on, unlike, say, The Dead - I nearly crash the car reaching for the radio knob every time…)

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**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/39 "2011-01-06T14:42:13Z")

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> [@WordMan](#):
>
> You’ve been away for a bit as a poster, haven’t you **Cluri**? Either way, good to see you.

Yup. Good to see you too duder. 🆒

I can’t join on the hate for Zep, Zep rocks, end of story. But I will say that I find Jimmy Page to be highly overrated as a guitar player. Dude was definately outplaying his abilities a lot of the time. He’s more than sloppy, he blows entire progressions and his fingers can’t keep up with his ideas, leading to a lot of mistakes. He’s a terrible technical player, but he can write a good riff. That’s not enough to enter the pantheon of guitar gods.

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**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-plodding-shite-the-romantics-1st-album-guitar-masterpiece-and-other-musical-blasphemies/566546/40 "2011-01-06T15:14:09Z")

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Fuck Elvis. His main innovation was simply being white.

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