That One Awful Song.
A couple weeks ago, Glyph and I talked a little bit about Love and Rockets. Glyph mentioned this song of theirs and, yeah, it’s a great song… that never, ever sees airplay. Instead, That One Awful Song does.
I can probably think of a million examples. Everything But The Girl has That One Awful Song that gets airplay instead of this one.
Temple of the Dog has That One Awful Song that gets airplay instead of this one or that one.
(PICK ONE, JAYBIRD!!!!)
Okay. Blind Melon. Driving home from the grocery store the other day, we heard That One Awful Song. I came straight home and listened to this one instead:
I’m sure I left out a dozen that deserved mention instead… Dire Straits, Genesis, Alice Cooper… I’m just going to stop before I go nutser.
So… what are you listening to?
The one Kinks song you always hear on the radio is Lola, which is, no question, terrific. But if I had my own station, it would play Shangri-la instead.
Mine would play this.
Greatest rhyme in all of pop. (regatta -> get at her.)
I always hated Lola until I listened to the whole album.
It’s more of a statement than a song, I’d say.
“Come Dancing”.
Here’s my problem with listening to Lola:
I’m listening to it in 1992 (0r 2012, whatevs).
I can’t listen to it in 1970.
I can’t listen to Lola without singing Weird Al’s “Yoda”.
You’re also listening to it in the US, not in the UK where the comic possibilities of tranvestitism have always been commonplace. (Think how many Monty Python sketches have them dressed as women.) But, regardless of time or place, the joke is still that it’s ambiguous — is Lola also glad or also a man?
We had Bosom Buddies!!!
But, in any case, I listen to Lola and it doesn’t strike me as particularly comedic. More Crying Gamic. Well, there’s *SOME* humor there… but it’s a bit of a love song that has a lot of conflicted impulses.
In 2012.
It was really more of a comment on the state of the record industry.
That was the Kinks joke on their record co.
Their record companies revenge was that this was the song they would become known by in latter days.
Dire Straits? I do hope you’re talking about Sultans of Swing, which is not That One Awful Song, but one of the greatest guitar songs of all time. It’s fishing brilliant. If you’re talking about that MTV song, yeah, it’s awful.
For Dire Straits, it’s that One Awful Album. The earlier ones all had a mixture of terrific, good, and pretty awful songs, but at last they were all DS songs. Brothers in Arms has a few good ones, but they’re generic pop blandness.
The best DS album is, of course, the first side of Making Movies. My station would have that in heavy rotation too.
Listen to the instrumental outro of Tunnel of Love, starting at about 6:00. Heaven.
The rolling piano triplets at the very, very end are alone worth the first seven minutes.
The title track of Brothers in Arms is quite good, in my opinion.
But I could listen to Love Over Gold in its entirety every day for years and never grow weary.
Easier said than done. I get annoyed if I start to listen to Telegraph Road and get interrupted before it’s over. I always do.
My (now deceased) drummer was really into Genesis.
I never did really like the band, but I got to listening to them more being around him.
This is one song that kicks ass that you’ll never hear on the radio.
Really, it’s sort of surprising that they would give airtime to Duke.
Phil Collins’ alternate identity in Brand X seems completely unknown. Hate Zone is a showcase of what Phil could do after hours. Brand X has a tie-in with the Monty Python crew as well. Oh hell, might as well throw in Noddy Goes to Sweden: one of the few times music has ever made me laugh out loud, beyond Zappa’s stuff.
Why oh why was the awful “She Don’t Use Jelly” the single, when this was on the same album?!
And now
She’s got helicopters
(Yes she has)
In Defense Of This Particular That Song:
When the song came out, I had a friend whose last name was “Martlesteen”. (Note: That wasn’t his real name but it had the exact same cadence.)
I sang:
I’ve got a good friend
he doesn’t date
he wakes up early
he stays up late
he hates doing homework and studying
he likes playing Sega and Magic the Gathering
HIS NAME IS MAR-AR-AR-TLE-STEEN
He doesn’t talk to me much, anymore.
You can tell it’s “college music” because they’re in a field.
Also, in case dhex shows up in this thread, I gotta post this for him before I forget it:
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/reindeer_in_blood_its_the_slayer_christmas_sweater
I tried to change the lyrics of “Raining Blood” to “Raining Men” but it didn’t work.
if it was a knit version of the cover of hell awaits, i’d consider it.
I was an idiot for forgetting this one.
. . . and this.
EBTG’s “Walking Wounded” is indeed a fantastic song. I also like this one and “Good Cop Bad Cop” off the same album.
Actually that whole album is good, and I often listen to it around this time of year. Which is weird, because not all the memories associated with originally hearing it are pleasant. But it aches in a good way I guess.
What the hey, Tracey Thorn with Massive Attack:
http://youtu.be/Epgo8ixX6Wo
When Massive Attack collaborates, they do it right. “We need someone angelic.”
Everybody knows “Teardrop” because it has been used on TV/movies so much, but Group Four is where it’s at, particularly from 5:30 – end, when the song just takes off into another dimension.