# Worst band of the Seventies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 5, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021 "2012-05-05T21:04:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/41 "2012-05-06T06:05:12Z")
For the sake of reference, here are 10CC’s best known songs: [“I’m Not in Love”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rgepWg4rzw) [“The Things We Do For Love”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3WbTU_awCY) 10CC later became Godley & Creme. They were also directed some of the more memorable videos of the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/42 "2012-05-06T06:11:52Z")
I voted for Rush, but: REO Speedwagon The Partridge Family Starland Vocal Band Foreigner The Captain and Tenille The Osmonds ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/43 "2012-05-06T06:19:01Z")
What, no hate for Air Supply? (Who still appear in Bangkok fairly regularly, I kid you not.) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/44 "2012-05-06T06:21:15Z")
Thanks for the links. Don’t recognize either of them though. Not terrible, but not my style. I should say I _have_ heard of the band, and know their name possibly, maybe is a reference to semen. **koeeoaddi** , if you’re going to mention REO Speedwagon and Foreigner, that list really needs to include similar bands like Journey, Boston, Kiss, and maybe Styx. I don’t hate any of them (although some are campy), they’re just in a similar genre, and it’s easy to forget which song goes with which band. **Siam Sam** this thread is about bands who play **music**. :dubious: I hear that they have a big police officer fanbase… ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/45 "2012-05-06T06:25:30Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > For the sake of reference, here are 10CC’s best known songs: > > [“I’m Not in Love”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rgepWg4rzw) > > [“The Things We Do For Love”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3WbTU_awCY) > > 10CC later became Godley & Creme. They were also directed some of the more memorable videos of the 80s. Maybe their best known, but very from being their best. I suspect the people voting for 10cc here are voting almost entirely on the basis of “I’m Not in Love,” which was (by far) their biggest hit precisely because it was their blandest song, and the one most easily mistaken for vacuous commercial pop. And “The Things We Do For Love”, made after Godley and Creme had left the band, actually is vacuous commercial pop, so far as I can make out. Much of their other stuff, however, especially when Godley and Creme were still around, is very sharp and witty, if a little “cerebral”. Also, they were in no sense prog rockers (_if_ that is meant to be the point of the poll). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/46 "2012-05-06T08:03:36Z")
I don’t really know _Rush_, as far as I know they didn’t get any airplay where I grew up, but I know they have their ardent fans who cling to them tenaciously. Now, having heard some of their songs… I cannot fathom their popularity. They seem to have the inverse of talent. It’s bad teenage poetry accompanied by the worst misuse of synthesisers. And that’s saying something. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/47 "2012-05-06T08:05:46Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > For the sake of reference, here are 10CC’s best known songs: > > [“I’m Not in Love”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rgepWg4rzw) > > [“The Things We Do For Love”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3WbTU_awCY) Really? For me _10CC_’s best known song is [Dreadlock Holiday](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5xm3F-s6xE). The original video clip used to be on YouTube, but I can’t seem to find it now. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/48 "2012-05-06T08:31:40Z")
Back in the 70s, my sister shoplifted an LP by [Mark-Almond](http://www.amazon.com/Rising/dp/B000TQZLEU/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_8) (not the Soft Cell guy). It was so awful she seriously considered bringing it back. She thought it was an Allman Brothers Band album… ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/49 "2012-05-06T08:32:55Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > What, no hate for Air Supply? (Who still appear in Bangkok fairly regularly, I kid you not.) Really? I thought bands like that came to Korea to die. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/50 "2012-05-06T09:45:53Z")
I’ll shut up about 10cc after this. I just recall that if you asked me what kind of band they were, I’d say an 80s to early 90s subversive acronym-type band, like the KLF or TISM. I honestly had no idea they were like this. ---
**Author:** ![Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ee7513/32.png) [@Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kim_o_the_Concrete_Jungle)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/51 "2012-05-06T10:07:26Z")
None of the above. You’re not even beginning to plumb the depths of the “decade that good taste forgot.” ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/52 "2012-05-06T10:14:06Z")
To be honest, I enjoy prog and generally agree with **njtt** ’s rant regarding punk snobbery. Bay City Rollers was the first band that came to my mind when reading the thread’s title. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/53 "2012-05-06T11:11:58Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Really? I thought bands like that came to Korea to die. Hopefully that’s what’s become of them. Checking, I see it’s been four years since Air Supply last played Bangkok. Could you maybe spirit them across the border and have them play Pyongyang? ---
**Author:** ![Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ee7513/32.png) [@Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kim_o_the_Concrete_Jungle)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/54 "2012-05-06T11:14:04Z")
The first thing that came into my head was this: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yo4glASbEh4/hqdefault.jpg "Tommy Seebach Band - apache") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo4glASbEh4) ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/55 "2012-05-06T11:41:24Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > [The Shaggs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shaggs) were still performing in the seventies. > > What’s up next? What’s the worst cut of beef in the world? Choices are a) rib eye b) filet mignon Ah, the Shaggs. If Ed Wood had been a band, he’d have been the Shaggs. I keep two Shaggs tunes on my MP3 (_That Little Sports Car_ and _Philosophy of the World_). I figure they inoculate me against the worst music, and help me appreciate all non-the Shaggs tunes. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/56 "2012-05-06T12:04:57Z")
What a whoosh if a poll. I saw 6 of the 10 bands and enjoyed all 10. And 10cc was a great band. Check out _How Dare You_ from 1976, a tour de force of prog pop brilliance. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/57 "2012-05-06T12:38:33Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Ah, the Shaggs. If Ed Wood had been a band, he’d have been the Shaggs. I keep two Shaggs tunes on my MP3 (_That Little Sports Car_ and _Philosophy of the World_). I figure they inoculate me against the worst music, and help me appreciate all non-the Shaggs tunes. And they get namechecked in a Guster song (_Amsterdam_). This poll could be renamed _ **“Best Innoffensively Airplay-Friendly ProgRock Band of the Seventies?”** _. (Now, if one of these bands had done _“Muskrat Love”_, we’d have a real poll going.) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/58 "2012-05-06T13:26:20Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I don’t really know _Rush_, as far as I know they didn’t get any airplay where I grew up, but I know they have their ardent fans who cling to them tenaciously. > > Now, having heard some of their songs… I cannot fathom their popularity. They seem to have the inverse of talent. It’s bad teenage poetry accompanied by the worst misuse of synthesisers. And that’s saying something. I won’t tell you to like them, that’s your choice. But “inverse of talent?” You are dead wrong. Three undeniably talented musicians. One of which (the drummer) is cited by most rock drummers as the best ever or at least a huge influence. Their songs have been thoughtful and certainly not bad high school poetry. Unless basically you say all songs are. The have put out 20 studio albums. Their style has changed over the years. They started off a 70s hard rock band and developed. The synthesizers became more prominent about 10 years into their existence. They have again faded into the background. Their current stuff is some of the hardest they have ever played. Basically you have no idea what you are talking about. You dont have to like it but saying they have no talent just shows ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/59 "2012-05-06T13:29:20Z")
> [@campp](#): > > What a whoosh if a poll. I saw 6 of the 10 bands and enjoyed all 10. > > And 10cc was a great band. Check out _How Dare You_ from 1976, a tour de force of prog pop brilliance. They were the only ones that I knew of from just a couple songs. If a gun was put to my head and I was forced to vote I would have voted for them. But I admit I dont know the group well enough to really judge. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021/60 "2012-05-06T13:37:11Z")
I not a huge Rush fan though I like them and went to one concert in the 80s and had maybe 7 of their albums in all on various media. (Vinyl, 8-track, Tape & CD). They had some excellent musicians and if you like Prog Rock \*Hemispheres \*and \*2112 \*were truly great albums. Yes is another example of if you ascribe to the punk mentality, of overblown production value and too many time changes but the group had great musicians. In Wakeman someone in the argument for best Keyboardist in Rock’s history and in Squire one of the top Bassists. Bill Bruford is a top drummer and Alan White very good. Steve Howe was a very good guitarist and if his voice didn’t annoy you, Jon Anderson was a top notch vocalist that could use his voice as an instrument. I love Yes but I am clearly a prog rock fan. They are part of my top 4 groups of all time with Pink Floyd, Led Zep & the Beatles. Having Floyd on this list is the second biggest joke after the Stones. Both groups are clearly among the greatest groups in Rock history though I myself like little they did after the early 70s I can acknowledge how great and influential they were. By the way, what are the Stones doing on this list of Prog Rock groups? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-band-of-the-seventies/621021.md?page=4)