NA, na, na NA na ha, NA na na NA na na…
Repeat two thousand times.
Billy Joel’s “Angry Young Man” is a terrific extended intro followed by a fun little song with a horrible synth solo stuck in the middle of it.
I’ll probably get virtually tarred and feathered for the mere suggestion, but “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus isn’t horrible, except for that “wre-ee-ee-ee-ck me” bit at the end of the chorus. It’s weird and jarring, and takes what’s an otherwise decent song and makes it sound like she’s trying to imitate some sort of electronic voice effect.
This may be obscure to most of you. I really like Midnight Radio from Hedwig and The Angry Inch. Except it eventually gets into repeating “Lift up your head.” over and over and over …
No song needs a line repeated that much. No song needs a line repeated that much. No song needs a line repeated that much. No song needs a line repeated that much. No song needs a line repeated that much. No song needs a line repeated that much. No song needs a line repeated that much.
Once you hear the cowbell in Don’t Fear The Reaper, you can never un-hear it.
I assume you’re referring to a certain Journey song here. At least that’s what I thought of when I saw **Leaffan’s **post.
For me, not being a musician and all, the majority of extended solos bore / piss me off. Even that classic solo by Mr Page on *Stairway to Heaven *comes dangerously close to “shut the fuck up already”.
I’m very lyrics oriented so a stupid phrase is more likely to ruin a song for me, but I don’t think that’s what the OP is talking about.
A pox on you. The world has few enough organ solos without your baseless attacks.
Agreed.
And don’t go anywhere near In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, man!
I refer to that as the song running out of words before it runs out of music.
Yeah. They thought Young was dissing the South in a few of his songs, so they kind of shot back at him. Neil Young actually sang “Sweet Home Alabama” at a memorial service for the 3 members, who died in the plane crash. That’s pretty cool.
It doesn’t change that it might be a great song, but I feel just a tiny bit nauseous (while singing along) when it occurs to me that Skynyrd was attempting to defend the morally indefensible. Skynyrd isn’t the devil, and they might be great guys, but they were glossing over some of the worst moral wrongs of 20th century America.
In Sympathy for the Devil, once I pointed out to my wife the background “woot woo!” now that’s all she can hear. She sings that part along with the song. I’ve created a monster!
RE: Skynyrd vs. Young
At the risk of hijacking my own thread, give this a listen. A great song with no bad part. It addresses the “Sweet Home Alabama” thing.
*The Three Great Alabama Icons * Drive-By Truckers / The Three Great Alabama Icons - YouTube
I really like Taxi, but that part in the middle, which I’m sure many people think is so cool, is really hard for me to get through.
Oh, I’ve got something inside me
To drive a princess blind
There’s a wild man, wizard
He’s hiding in me, illuminating my mind
Oh, I’ve got something inside me
Not what my life’s about
'Cause I’ve been letting my outside tide me
Over 'til my time, runs out
The best part of “My Sharona” is the guitar solo!
I’m probably not going to get much agreement in this, but the Derek and the Dominoes “Layla” is my vote. I can’t stand that (IMHO, I stress) boring, repetitive, tacked-on piano ending.
Plus I agree with “Light My Fire.” My main instrument is piano/keyboards, and I can’t stand that endless meandering noodling. That said, I’m also not much of a Doors fan, and I think that type of meditative, psychedelic space-out is probably what a lot of fans like. When I’m in the mood for extended two-chord modal improvisation, I’ll turn to Miles Davis.
I only left it alone because the OP more or less pre-empted it. But if we want to talk about the coda to “Layla”:
God, I hate that thing. It goes nowhere for like three full minutes. It sounds like someone recorded the first take of them fucking around, without even knowing the chord progression yet, and printed it to tape. It’s hard to believe that’s a prime Duane Allman and a near-prime Eric Clapton. I’ve never been so glad to hear two guitarists buried behind a piano in my life.
Skynyd was to the left politically (see “Saturday Night Special”).
“Sweet Home Alabama” is a joke from start to finish. It’s a parody of anthems, told from the point of view of a redneck. Calling it “morally indefensible” is like getting outraged that Jonathan Swift advocated eating babies.
Re: “Light My Fire.”
I have no objection to organ solos; I just want good ones.
Damn. I didn’t even notice it buried in the OP. Whoops! So I guess I’m not the only one.
Ok, I feel like I need to make up for missing the end of the OP with another contribution. I’m a big Smashing Pumpkins fan, and the first time I heard “Everlasting Gaze” off Machina I was liking it well enough until that a capella bridge about 2:45 into the song. It was at that point that the Ounpkins turned into self-parody for me, and that was the last album I bought by them.