Songs that Grate on your Nerves!!!

Brint Hannay · Post by **Brint Hannay** » 18 Mar 2009 1:56 pm

Donny, what about the coda to Layla? A good melody that gets beaten to death by far too much repetition, with two good guitarists eedling aimlessly along on slide, never finding anything to play (at least mercifully mostly buried in the mix)?

All this talk about the BeeGees got me thinking about their "BeeGees 1st" album, which I had back in the day, and long since lost along the way. Here's the review quote they put on Rhapsody about it, which I agree with:

The disco-era BeeGees so defined the times that their previous incarnation as trippy, baroque (yet rocking) chart toppers was all but forgotten. That's a shame, because this grand mix of Beatles psychedelia, Kinks kitchen sink drama and the band's own brand of majestic melancholy remains one of the key albums of the late 1960s. The big radio hit was the morose "New York Mining Disaster 1941" but the lasting number is "To Love Somebody". Barry Gibb wrote the song specifically for Otis Redding and recorded it after his new friend's death. The song quickly became a soul standard.

--Nick Dedina

Bill Hankey · Post by **Bill Hankey** » 18 Mar 2009 4:59 pm

"Yellow Submarine" - Beatles

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 18 Mar 2009 6:01 pm

Yet a cultural high-water mark: "Yellow ['Yaller'] Submarine"-The Charles River Valley Boys (1967; "Beatle Country," Elektra; rereleased on Rounder a few years ago.)

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 18 Mar 2009 7:07 pm

anything by "Yanni".

Yes!

and John Tesh, and any New Age, and those Celtic Women on PBS... they give new meaning to the term "boring"!

"Weird Al" Yankovic is pretty annoying too! He grates on my nerves.

Bob Ritter · Post by **Bob Ritter** » 18 Mar 2009 8:42 pm

Dang Donny, I guess you had to beat Bobbe to the punch and pick on Hendrix first...All right I am gonna piss everyone off just for laughs and choose.

steel guitar rag

steelin the blues

sleepwalk

Billy Tonnesen · Post by **Billy Tonnesen** » 18 Mar 2009 8:56 pm

The one I hated was "Lord Gave Me Mountain" (something like that). Unless I really listened to the words I never knew where the singer was at and when the end was coming up. So many bad singers that we let sing with the band would just murder this song.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 18 Mar 2009 10:22 pm

The one I hated was "Lord Gave Me Mountain" (something like that).

"You Gave Me a Mountain" by Elvis, also by Marty Robbins. Yes, a lot of singers used to murder that song. Songs like that, with long sustained vocals, over and over, really grate on me. "You Light Up My Life" was like that. And it was really overplayed back in the day.

-------------------------
A few more unpleasant memories from yesteryear:

Hey There Lonely Girl
Ben
Silly Love Songs
Can't Smile Without You
Mandy
(It's so) Nice To Be With You
My Love Does It Good
The Hustle
Baby Hold On
Reunited
Nobody Does It Better
Stuck In The Middle With You
I'm Not In Love
I Just Want To Stop
In The Navy

Jody Sanders · Post by **Jody Sanders** » 18 Mar 2009 11:52 pm

As one forum member said, "they laughed all the way to the bank". It is all about money guys. At the time, a genuine country hit was lucky to sell 100,000 copies. Where most of the "grating songs mentioned, were selling a million . The problem still exists today. Jody.

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 19 Mar 2009 4:39 am

Bingo, Jody. When country music folks are happy selling in the 5 and 6 figures instead of the 7 figures, we can get back to "REAL" country music again.

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 19 Mar 2009 7:11 am

1. Teddy Bear - Red Sovine

I worked with Red for a while, and yeah, that was a tedious one.

"Trilogy" is another one. Here in the South people stand up and remove any headgear that may be present and look real solemn. Sometimes they hold up lighters.

Clyde Mattocks · Post by **Clyde Mattocks** » 19 Mar 2009 8:41 am

Cal brings up "Trilogy" (or American Trilogy). This
is a perfect example of a piece that may have been a decent idea at one time (like the centerpiece of
Elvis' show), but has become the touchstone for the
overwrought, seemingly endless anthem that every show feels obligated to close with, inclusive of the entire off pitch singing cast.

It gets down into the appearent last throes, and there are several "gates" that one could gracefully
exit, but no, we have to flog them with more of this thing.

It's like an amateur comedian, who delivers a decent joke, but then feels obligated to explain it to his audience.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 19 Mar 2009 9:10 am

The most endless, droning song in history Has to be In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, with that stupid riff played throughout the entire 17 minutes of the song! ...the pompous vocals, the endless, mindless solos...

The song has become a parody of itself; it's like a joke that ridicules the excesses of psychedelia and heavy metal. It reminds me of the movie Spinal Tap. It Has to be a put-on... right?

Jim Hankins · Post by **Jim Hankins** » 19 Mar 2009 10:16 am

Admission: I really like "Precious and Few". Another I really like (and would guess others might add to the hate list) "Wildflower" by: Skylark. Some nice lead guitar, melodic, but possibly corny overblown vocals(?) Also adressing 80s "hair metal" I dont think you should lump togeather classic melodic bands like the Scorpions with bands of probable less substance such as Poison.

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 19 Mar 2009 3:37 pm

"Loving You" by Minnie Ripperton kinda gets on my nerves, but I guess I'm used to it. I know of only one song that kinda bothered me for some reason as a kid, and that one was "I Just Called To Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder, and I have no idea why that song bothered me as a kid. When I hear it now, I always laugh because it no longer bothers me-and I did hear it as a steel instrumental on YouTube. I'm not too crazy about Mary Chapin Carpenter's song "I Feel Lucky"-it's kinda annoying to me and I don't know why.

Brett

Eddie Cunningham · Post by **Eddie Cunningham** » 19 Mar 2009 3:54 pm

Back in 1945 & 46 "Sioux City Sue" was a big song but I was playing a six string E maj.( Roy Wiggins ) tuning and just could never get all those off chord 6th notes in !! Used to hate that song !! Works out O.K. in a C-6th tuning but that came along to me a little later !! Eddie "C"

Archie Nicol · Post by **Archie Nicol** » 19 Mar 2009 4:13 pm

Jeezo, man! This list is getting so long, perhaps we should list songs which `rate on your nerves`. I like anything with kittens.

...? Except that dirge, "Felines".

Arch.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 19 Mar 2009 4:15 pm

Here's my list:

Yesterday (Done to Death)
Michelle (Hate the High School French. Sorry Paul.)
Great Speckled Bird (The words make no sense at all. How can a church be a speckled bird ?)
Okee From Muskogee (I don't like the sentiments, especially his comments about San Francisco and Hippies)
God Save the Queen (self-explanatory)
Danny Boy (Done to Death)

I'll think of some more anon.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 19 Mar 2009 4:21 pm

I know of only one song that kinda bothered me for some reason as a kid, and that one was "I Just Called To Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder, and I have no idea why that song bothered me as a kid.

One of his crappier (but more successful) songs, IMO.

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 19 Mar 2009 5:16 pm

Anyone who doesn't dig "Woolly Bully"... like my friend Jimbeaux... has never had the experience of rocking it onstage with Doug Sahm, along with a loud Tex-Mex horn section from San Antonio, in a swelteringly hot Texas road house on a summer night, with more fantastic looking women, glowing with perspiration and feverishly dancing inches in front of you, than you could possibly count.
So close that you could just reach out and touch... oh, never mind.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking... it's not as hip as working with Yanni, but there's a good side to it, trust me.

Bo Borland · Post by **Bo Borland** » 19 Mar 2009 6:24 pm

Anything and everything by America.. I mean "Horse with no name" !!! It might have worked if Tony Soprano sang it or Rocky Balboa.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 19 Mar 2009 6:35 pm

Herb Steiner wrote:Anyone who doesn't dig "Woolly Bully"... like my friend Jimbeaux... has never had the experience of rocking it onstage with Doug Sahm, along with a loud Tex-Mex horn section from San Antonio, in a swelteringly hot Texas road house on a summer night, with more fantastic looking women, glowing with perspiration and feverishly dancing inches in front of you, than you could possibly count.
So close that you could just reach out and touch... oh, never mind.

Well, I might be willing to give it one wee try before making up my mind for sure...

Jack Francis · Post by **Jack Francis** » 19 Mar 2009 6:43 pm

[quote="Alan Brookes"]Here's my list:
"Okee From Muskogee (I don't like the sentiments, especially his comments about San Francisco and Hippies)"

As a former resident of Frisco...and one that leans to the right of Atilla The Hun...I appreciate the song AND the sentiment!!

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 19 Mar 2009 6:52 pm

One of the bands I fill in with occasionally does "Wooly Bully", and it's a lot of fun to play. Herb is right, the dancers go nuts over this song!

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 20 Mar 2009 1:44 am

Yep Wooly Bully strikes a happy nerve with a lot of people.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 20 Mar 2009 6:17 am

Jack Francis wrote:...As a former resident of Frisco...

Frisco ?

Hush your mouth...

San Franciscans stopped calling the place Frisco about 1900. Nowadays most people here would never dream of calling it that.

You'd be drummed out of the Golf Club.

There's even a restaurant here called "Don't Call it Frisco."

The Steel Guitar Forum

Songs that Grate on your Nerves!!!

Sioux City Sue !!