SongShitting, as in, "Thats a real good song, except for this part"

Cafe Society
1

I was listening to the radio today and Led Zep’s Fool In The Rain comes on and I haven’t heard it in a long time. Then I remember why. I avoid it like a dose of The Clap due to the fucking Miami Sound Machine Conga Line middle section. Complete with a fucking whistle. Whistles are not musical instruments! They are what sports coaches use to get kids attention.

Otherwise a pretty decent song. Totally ruined, or SongShitted (I’m gonna trademark, that, I am!).

My wife hates My Sharona for, what she calls, the gratuitous guitar solo that (she claims) is half-assed and thrown in and doesn’t jibe with the rest of the song. I kinda like it.

I’ve got some more, but I wanna have The Dope nominate other examples of Songshitting. I won’t get into the excruciating second half of Layla because I don’t think the first part is all that good to begin with. So, lets list some *really good *songs with some really bad parts!

I predict this will fly like a… oh, never mind.

2

When I was ripping Lucky Man for my song collection, I thought, screw that inane synth crap at the end, so I used Audacity to blend it into my favorite Steely Dan song, East St. Louis Toodle-oo.

3

Wow. I consider the rest of the song a life-support system for the guitar solo. It’s not bad, but the song would have never done as well as it did without that roller-coaster of a solo. One of the great rock guitar solos of all time. Yeah, it was lengthy and perhaps indulgent, but it was also awesome. There was a time when such epic guitar solos could be commonly found in the wild. Sadly, as near as I can tell, they’re mostly found in zoos and museums now.

I love “For the Love of God” by Steve Via, but at about 5:45 to 5:55, he gets all “noodley”. I thought that ruined the flow of the song, and even went so far as to edit out that section. Luckily for me, the song gave me the opportunity to do so without a noticeable click or abrupt change in the music.

4

Yep, I will endure all of the protests of anyone in the room or car to listen to that guitar solo. The ring modulator tone is just crazy, and Page is in one of his best moments.
My vote is for the key change in the guitar solo of Mr. Soul by Buffalo Springfield. It’s all cute sounding to me, and kind of stomps on the mood of the song. I love that song, but when it comes on, my brain starts nagging about that part until we get past it.

5

“that inane synth crap” is the best part of the song. YMMV, and indeed does.

6

Blondie - Rapture

The ethereal melody in the first half of the song may be the best one they ever wrote. And then Debbie starts rapping… :(.

7

The Fugees cover of Killing me softly has that rancid assed call and response shit going on part way into the song. I also used audacity to edit that shit out

8

Sweet Home Alabama is a great song about state pride except the part with all the racism in it.

9

The kazoo section in Pink Floyd’s Corporal Clegg.

10

Yeah, that’s bad. The pachydermic drums are even worse, though.

For a while, in the 1990s and early 2000’s, it seemed that the way to go when you wanted to cover a song was: “You know what this tune needs? BOOM-BOOM-BOOM. OK, it’s a wrap.”

11

Yeah, the obvious paean to George F’n Wallace is pretty horrible. :mad:

And they were from Florida, so they actually had to go out of their way to write a song that praises Alabama as “home.” :smack:

12

Love that song. They wrote it as a tribute to the Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama where they recorded in the early 70’s. The studio was their “Sweet home” during those years.

13

The Doors. “Light My Fire.” They got the single version right by cutting out the terrible organ solo.

14

Huh?

15

They also included lines like “the Governor’s true”, and some stuff about Neil Young after Young wrote songs criticizing George Wallace and Alabama during Civil Rights.

16

Was never a fan of the up-tempo section at the end of “Magic Carpet Ride.” It does have a place in the song, but it goes on for WAY too long. What should have been a few bars at most turns into a pointless organ solo and “Look! Backwards guitar!”

17

You guys seem to have totally missed the point of that verse in “Sweet Home Alabama.” They literally boo George Wallace, and defend the populace of Alabama by saying that they shouldn’t be judged by Wallace any more than the rest of the country should be judged by Nixon.

In Birmingham they love the governor (boo, boo, boo)
Now we all did what we could do
Now Watergate does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you?

18

Then why did they say “the governor’s true”? Further, defending the populace of Alabama (at the time, considering what majorities supported) is objectionable in itself.

Not a huge deal, of course.

19

Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!
Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!
Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!
Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!
Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!
Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!
Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!
Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!
Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!
Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!
Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!
Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!
Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!
Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!
Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!
Nah, nah nah, na na na na! Hey Jude!

Repeat a thousand times.

20

There’s related discussion in this previous thread: Great songs ruined by terrible solos.

For me, the quintessential example of this phenomenon is “Something in the Air” by Thunderclap Newman, an otherwise wonderful song ruined by someone whose idea of a solo is to bang tunelessly on a piano for a full minute.