Barking Spiders

3 minutes ago, tobiewharton said:

Which is exactly what I took your opening post to mean - something I experience too! Perhaps we're just contrary...🤣

Funnily enough, I was having a similar conversation with my partner just yesterday. We were recalling that it's sometimes argued that the original must be superior simply because it is the archetype. Personally, I find that argument interesting but ultimately futile. 

I prefer classic Soul to classic rock and so to my ears two of the three original tunes mentioned by the OP are far better than the covers. As for Knocking...to my ears G n 'R's version is a lumpen, clodhopping monstrosity.

8 minutes ago, tobiewharton said:

Pap - in the same camp as Snow Patrol

 and Travis 🥱

6 hours ago, LeftyP said:

There are many songs that I can live without but Come On Eileen has to be one of the worst records ever made. 

One of the probs with that song is at the time Kevin Rowlands was a bit of a kn*b as I recall 

42 minutes ago, Mykesbass said:

Anyone else find themselves on the wrong side of popular opinion when it comes to original versions vs cover versions? Three examples for me that I've had to play:

Ain't no Love in the Heart of the City - brought the Bobby Bland version to a band, everyone else wanted to do the White snake version.

Too Hard to Handle - can't find anyone else who wants to play it in the Otis Redding style.

Knocking on Heaven's Door - we played mainly Dylan covers, and the drummer insisted on ramping it up like the awful GnR version. 

You're right and your band mates are just so, so wrong! 

1 hour ago, Carl_D said:

Flea

Stu Hamm

Chris Squier

Wooten

Billy Sheehan

Les Claypool

Jaco (sorry,  but I just don't get the w**kery)

 

All very fine players in their way but I find it very hard to get past their music

On 28/03/2024 at 06:58, NancyJohnson said:

The one that really makes me want to start breaking things is 'Walking On Broken Glass' by Annie Lennox.

 

Our local BBC radio station (Berkshire) just seems to have such a limited playlist and I'd hear this song maybe once every couple of days.  At work, the consultants have a terrible oldies station on at the other end of the office and I hear it twice, sometimes three times a day. 

 

It's torture.  I can't bear her or The Eurythmics at the best of times.

 

 

I used to think it was tantamount to blasphemy to not like 'Dave and Annie' as Steve Wright used to refer to them and so had to keep my vehement dislike of their music to myself. 

Today I heard another pet hate, `Mary's Prayer ' by Danny Wilson. They were part of the New Twee genre along with Deacon Blue, The Bluebells, The Beautiful South and Prefab Sprout.

49 minutes ago, lowdown said:

Dancing in the Street - 

The Jagger & Bowie version. 

 

They should be made to eat it, and when nature calls, open up their bowls and deposit it down the nearest available toilet. 

I'm fine with the original but this possibly takes the crown for worst ever cover version, although it's the video that's really cringeworthy. Van Halen's slightly iffy version by contrast is  brilliant.

1 hour ago, JottoSW1 said:

Freebird. Lynyrd Skynrd. Interminable

Stairway to Heaven Led Zep  'ditto'

And two great examples that have been overplayed on rock radio. I wonder if music artistes have a say in how often their songs get played on radio. Gotta be a trade off between royalties and engendering hate due to overkill

4 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

I'm with you.

 

Ship Called Dignity is my all time top most worstest song in the world ever. I can't put my finger on what about it makes it so awful, it's just the entire thing.

100%. Something about Deacon Blue that make me cringe every time I hear them. I mentioned Real gone kid but Ship.. is every bit as bad. I can put my finger on why their songs grate. The lead vocals, the backing vocals, the kitchen sink production and the embarrassing lyrics that try to be meaningful but instead sound too earnest.

Not many songs I intrinsically hate as I tend to zone out if I'm uninterested but there are definitely many that have outstayed their welcome in my head thanks to radio saturation e.g 'Dont stop me now' (Queen), 'Alright now', 'Born in the USA', 'Livin' on a prayer', 'With or without you', 'Come on Eileen'. Oh yes, come to think of it there are 3 tunes that have me trying to rip my ears off...'Perfect' by Fairground Attraction, 'Young at heart' by The Bluebells and 'Real gone kid' by Deacon Blue.

I'm a huge sucker for country guitar playing and this evening have been listening to and trying to cop licks from three of the best in the business

I think the list of unacknowledged/unappreciated but hugely talented musicians goes down the road and around the block several times especially $h!t hot pioneering guitarists outside the rock genre e.g. Tommy Emmanuel, Lenny Breau, Danny Gatton, Leo Kottke, Adrian Legg, Peter Huttlinger, Roy Buchanan, Isaac Guillory, Martin Taylor, John Jourgensen, Pierre Bensusan, Davy Graham, Andy McKee, Tony McManus, Bryan Sutton, Scotty Anderson...

4 hours ago, Obrienp said:

Sorry, I couldn't stick it out to the end (I haven't got that much of my life left to waste) but based on the first half, they also seemed to have essentially the same idea. Now that might have been caused by the underlying theme they were jamming to but I was hoping one of them would come up with something different melodically, rather than just different versions of the same parlour tricks (harmonics, rapid percussive slapping and bending the neck mostly). BTW I'm not against this kind of music per se but it only took the keyboard player's intervention to show how little the bassist were actually developing the theme. At least with one of Eric Clapton's Crossroads line-ups the guitarists do display genuinely different approaches to soloing (well mostly, some fall flat on their faces). However, to be fair to these guys, in a genuine band performance, they would probably do one of these solos once in a whole tune and in that scenario it might sound genuinely fresh. A string of bass solos is bound to make the audience lose the will...

 There are 3 or 4 players there who are among my faves but I agree with you.  This sort of thing works better with just three players. I've seen footage of Clarke, Miller and Wooten together and they pull it off. In this vid it's all a bit incoherent and repetitive.

There are no bass players 'I don't get'. It's more the music they play that can pass me by. I'm no fan of shred guitar but I've seen live footage of Satriani which I fast forward to Stu Hamm's 'Country Music' solo which I think's great.  On the strength of this I listened to Radio Free Albemuth but for me classical tunes transposed onto electric bass doesn't work.

No fan of the RHCP but I'm fine with Flea and he's done a good thing for the bass by raising its profile in the mainstream, like Mark King did in the 80s.

currently caning my latest purchase, from Future Sound of London, Environment 7.003. These guys still keep up the quality despite being so prolific

On 01/03/2024 at 11:30, Bassybert said:

That’s both hilarious and really sad at the same time. I’m imagining him breathing away like some sort of Davros/Darth Vader hybrid whilst playing!!

Maybe I'm a bit sick in the head but I found anecdote very funny, even though I probably ought not to.

12 minutes ago, Paul S said:

 

Must be a few weeks since you last posted a shouty rant against music you don't like!  😂

So wrong and way off the mark.  As the 2024 RNRHOF induction is soon it's a timely post about it.  Of those named in my OP I have no strong dislike of any of them. I just can't see what they've done to be nominated. That's not the same thing at all.

Here's Wiki's full list of inductees year by year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rock_and_Roll_Hall_of_Fame_inductees

Can't argue with those inducted between 87 and 89 as these were mostly pioneers and major influences but in each year thereafter ?

6 hours ago, cetera said:

Foreigner should be in. Ozzy maybe. The rest, nope....

But how come?

1 minute ago, peteb said:

 

Maybe, but also the Midlands and the North East.

 

We did play quite a lot of gigs in the Greater Manchester area / Lancashire rather than Manchester itself. 

 

yeah of course, Brum in particular has been the hotbed of metal and hard rock in the UK. 

If the Merkans hadn't come up with the RNRHOF I don't think it would've been invented in the UK. It seems to go against the very spirit of what r n'r was about i.e. kicking back against authority etc. Anyway. it's that time of year again and here are the noms should you so wish...

https://vote.rockhall.com/

The only two I agree with are Eric B and Rakim and  A Tribe Called Quest, these being two of the pioneering groups in hip hop /rap. As for the others..

Sinead O'Connor - really only known for having one big hit

Oasis - if making a career out of plagiarism is noteworthy then yes, good call.

Cher - 'pioneered' the use of autotune and errm....

Dave Matthews Band - yes, they've really changed the course of rock n' roll haven't they?

Lenny Kravtiz - admittedly has made a career out of taking lack of originality to a new level

Peter Frampton - is having one big selling album from the 70s enuff?

Kool ATG - I like their pre-disco stuff but they were never at the cutting edge of funk, not like JB, Sly ATFS etc

Foreigner - ??????????????????????????????????????????

Mary J Blige - don't know enough about her TBH but she's no Aretha Franklin or Nina Simone

Mariah Carey - if you want OTT vocal 'shredding' I guess she's the go-to/GOAT

Jane's Addiction - i imagine there'll be much head scratching among many potential voters

Ozzy Osbourne - poster boy for making very little talent go a very long way

16 hours ago, peteb said:

 

Not so much in the north. Hair metal and AOR were massive around here, and you can still get a decent audience in pubs today playing covers from those genres. It may have been a niche, but it was a pretty big one! 

 

 

I would say that agrees with my experiences, having gigged around the country in the 80s (and again more recently) and having lived in both the north and the south. 

 

I was raised in Liverpool in the 70s-90s and wasn't aware of any metal scene or any of that American AOR stuff being popular. The only metal band of any note from the area is Carcass.  Used to go and see bands in Manchester a lot too. Not aware there was much of a metal scene there either. Certainly Manchester hasn't produced any metal bands of note. Maybe hair metal and US AOR were more popular the other side of the Pennines.

15 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

 

Comedy just doesn't translate. Every time I try watching a septic comedian, the audience are in hysterics and I just don't get it. There are a few exceptions but they are few and far between. I don't think our colonial friends get British comedy either.

I've watched many of their most popular stand-ups on YT and I agree with you. I'm referring to the likes of Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Bill Burr, Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer, John Mulaney and all that SNL stuff.  Too manic and shouty for me. That said, the popularity of Michael McIntyre, Peter Kay, John Bishop, Jack Whitehall, Sarah Millican, Sarah Pascoe, the two Russells and James Acaster also goes over my head.

The Cure have a big cult following over there when Kiss Me... came out and they got three platinum albums on the spin but after Wish it seems to've gone downhill for them

5 hours ago, SumOne said:

US mainstream market seems to me generally more macho/conformist. 

 

Not so much US popularity for bands along the lines of Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Pulp, Suede, The Cure. They'd be considered too sissy and odd for a lot of the US market that go for more conformist stuff like Country music that doesn't do so well in the UK. 

 It'd be very odd/hypocritical if they rejected the likes of Suede and PSB for being sissy when they made platinum sellers out of 80s homegrown bands that wore spandex, had big hair and plastered themselves in lippy, eyeshadow etc!