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Was that before or after he recorded that really boring song about the wristband?
It’s because you posted a list of songs that you like, so someone scanning through the thread to see if a song had been mentioned as the worst would gloss over your post.
Have you ever had the experience of being tired of a song when it came out, and then many years later you heard it for the first time in a really long time and, because you weren’t suffering from overexposure, found yourself thinking “Goddamn, you know what? That really is a great song. I guess I was just tired of it, but now that I can hear it a bit more fresh, I realize why it was popular. It really was a fabulous tune.” I’ve had that feeling about “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, “Stay” by Lisa Loeb, any song U2 put out in the 80s, and lots more.
Well, “Ice Ice Baby” is like that but shitty. I thought it was shitty when it came out, but a few years ago I heard it for the first time in a really long time and it was actually MUCH shittier than I remembered. It wasn’t just irritating; it was amateurish. I can’t believe it was even on the radio.
Are you kidding? It’s a fun song! I’ve heard both sides of whether Haggard meant it seriously or satirically (probably the former is my WAG), but I heard it sung by longhaired friends of mine many times, always intended satirically, before I heard Merle’s recording. Which made me go, “WTF?? Somebody meant this seriously??” Because it’s so easy to perform as a parody of anti-hippie groupthink.
ETA: It’s Muskogee.
Totally agree on this one.
What do you think about the source material from which it was stolen?
While less successful than “Ballad of the Green Berets” (it only reached #37 on the Billboard Hot 100), “Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley” achieved a unique position in recording hell, as well as an honored place in my 45s collection.*
For your enjoyment. The visuals are a nice touch.
*Back in my college radio DJ days, I once segued out of a public service announcement for the U.S. Army (“The Army wants to join you”) into that song.
I must have missed the post nominating “Feelings” by Morris Albert because it’s such an obvious choice.
Does hitting #1 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart count? If so, I nominate “Watching Scotty Grow.”
Micky Mouse says it’s thirteen o’clock.
Well, that’s quite a shock, but that’s my boy.
And the only reason for not putting “Convoy” at the top of the list is that it’s barely a song. The sole reason for its popularity was the CB craze. The Pet Rock trend hit at about the same time. Obviously 1975 was a cultural low-water mark.
And one my subconscious just dredged up: “It Must Be Him” by Vikki Carr, the 1967 histrionic song about a woman waiting for a phone call:
Let it please be him, oh dear God
It must be him or I shall die
Or I shall die
Oh hello, hello my dear God
It must be him but it’s not him
And then I die
That’s when I die
[quote=“nearwildheaven, post:7, topic:851170”]
“Convoy” by C. W. McCall.
[/QUOTE]Weeeeell - there has been much vilification of this song in this thread, and rightly so; it’s appalling. But after much soul searching, I’m here to tell you that there was a “fun” British parody “version” of this song as well. And that was far, far worse.
Upthread I commended posters for omitting links to these horrors, and urged them to keep up the discipline. But I think science demands that I provide a link here, just to make available proof how awful it was. For decency’s sake I have spoilered it, and I would urge you not to click - just take my word on this one.
You have been warned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d189uP-48sU
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You fuck* one* goat…
I will risk bringing opprobrium upon my head for belatedly appreciating Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe”. It was despised in 1967 because of its nominal Southern-fried corniness, but I think that was partly because it was an AM radio hit that was played to death-- Bob Dylan even wrote a parody, “The Clothesline Saga”, because he was sick of hearing it on the radio so often.
It’s Southern Gothic all right, and the “mystery” of what got thrown off the Tallahatchie Bridge is arguably a kernel of corn, but it’s much more sophisticated than meets the eye. For one thing, it really is an “ode” in the classical sense.
I imagine it in cinematic terms: a mini-movie consisting of one continous shot starting out in the fields (Delta Barbizon School), then one of those complete circles around the dinner table; each verse and speaker adds another layer circling back to the heart-stricken narrator.
It’s under-appreciated. OTOH, I never could stomach “A Boy Named Sue”.
Even I, as a true lover of the CW McCall original, despise this one. Actually, that’s possibly in part because it’s making a horse’s arse out of a favourite track…but also because that lazy humour (“do a cod-scouse accent, that’ll be funny!”) just doesn’t do it for me.
I agree that Okie from Muskogee is a great song; it’s only if the lyrics are taken unironically that it’s bad.
Agreed. Bobbie Gentry called it “a study in unconscious cruelty”, which is spot on. Lyrically, it’s brilliant; it’s like a short Faulkner story.
I was lying in bed in my teens, listening to the radio late at night, and this came on. I immediately adored it and never stopped. Something slightly sinister and other-worldly in the deceptively gentle harmony, something with just a faint hint of menace, while also resigned. It’s at once bleak and sweltering…and that’s just the music. Add the lyrical intrigue and it’s a masterpiece.
OK non-Boomer, Baby Boomers are generally considered to be in 1946 and after. The oldest Baby Boomers would have been 2 in 1948 and too young for kindergarten.
It’s been done:
I feel like the closest I ever get to believing in the Mandela Effect is my being able to remember when Johnny Cash records would only be played as a joke.