The Steel Guitar Forum

Honey - Bobby Goldsboro. What a bore!

I see Alone Again Naturally has been singled out at least four times so far. What is it everyone finds so unappealing about this song? Is it the lyrics more than the music?

Minnie Ripperton had an incredible voice,
and had that one hit that grew annoying.

But not nearly as annoying as the waste of voice
Maria Cary commits with each new album.
A great set of pipes (legs, etc) mostly
wasted on utterly forgettable music,
that she is making millions on,
but won't last.

I am waiting for her to get old and lose
her fan base and discover real music.

I like Conway but- "Don't Cry Joanie"???????? Eeeeyew!!!!

Has anyone mentioned "Feelings"? That song never resolves. It's like a long intro that never ever gets to the song.

But as far as the 70's go, you did have, just to give a few examples of the positive - The Band and Traffic in the first half of the decade, ....

Sure - there was lots of cool stuff (to my tastes) going on in the late 60s and early 70s, which is what made Manilow, Billy Don't Be a Hero, disco, and the other (again, to my tastes) dreck of the mid-late 70s so hard to take.

I know we can't enforce any standards on any of this - which is why I just dropped out of the mainstream music world about this time and eventually started doing my own thing again.

Mountain Music by Alabama - and many more of them....

Kind Regards, Walter

Great (grate) lists!

Two I don't think have been mentioned:

My Way
People

...possibly my most hated song of all time is Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You."

I agree... I always thought that "Lovin' You" was just a vehicle to display Minnie Ripperton's five-octave vocal range. The song itself was pretty boring IMHO.

...there was lots of cool stuff (to my tastes) going on in the late 60s and early 70s, which is what made Manilow, Billy Don't Be a Hero, disco, and the other (again, to my tastes) dreck of the mid-late 70s so hard to take.

Yes, the shift to bland rock was hard to take after hearing such great music... on AM radio!... in the late 60s, early 70s... Motown, British Invasion, early country rock. As rock became heavier and more wierd in the early '70s... Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Bowie, heavy metal, glitter rock, etc., the pop mainstream became softer and more radio-friendly... Manilow, Bread, Air Supply, Fleetwood Mac, etc. In other words, soft rock was a reaction to the harder edge stuff that was out there.

I have great respect for bands like the Grateful Dead who stayed true to their music throughout their career... unlike some bands who jumped on the pop/Disco bandwagon in the 1970's. The BeeGees are one of those bands. Their early stuff is far more interesting IMHO than their formula Disco stuff. Oh well, Money Talks!

...now I got Macho Man looping thru my head. Fortunately, I like that song, and YMCA too..., anybody ever do a steel version of these?

Ok I guess I'll join in. The first that comes to my mind is that Phil Collins song In the Air Tonight, is that the name of it. I keep waiting for something to happen during the song and it never does. BORING

I think my choice for Most Grating Song Of All Time is:

American Pie

It never fails to put me in an on-edge, cranky mood. I hate the music, I hate the words, and it goes ON AND ON!

...............Hey Don McLean, rye IS whiskey!

Absolutely anything by Barry Manilow! I won't think on it, lest I get an earworm! And anything by the Bee Gees.
I disagree on Fleetwood Mac, I like most of their music up to and including Rumors. JP

Will Houston wrote:Ok I guess I'll join in. The first that comes to my mind is that Phil Collins song In the Air Tonight, is that the name of it. I keep waiting for something to happen during the song and it never does. BORING

Yes, that is the name.
I always thought something big happened when
those HUGE drums come in recorded in the Town House's stone room.

Anything by Billy Mays, including the Ballad of Oxiclean, Orange Glo, and Kaboom.
I think his beard actually amplifies his voice, which definitely grates on my nerves.

A few more annoying songs that stick in my mind, unfortunately:

Mahnah mahnah
Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer
Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy
Me and You and a Dog Names Boo
Ghostbusters
I Honestly Love You
I Just Want To Be Your Everything
We Built This City
Xanadu
You Make Me Feel Like Dancing
Play That Funky Music White Boy
U Can't Touch This

Man, Doug, this is getting depressing!!! I normally go through life having put out of my mind the existence of all these awful songs! There are so many, so many...

Did we forget Sarah Smile...

What no Air Supply represented.

...all these awful songs! There are so many, so many...

Yes, and they were all hit records! It makes you wonder what it takes... not much, apparently!

What about '80s Hair Metal? My only contact with the genre is in my guitar teaching, when I've had to learn and teach a couple of songs by bands like Poison, The Scorpions, Ratt, etc. Most of these bands seem like parodies of rock bands, way over the top. There must be some fans of this genre here... eh?

Doug Beaumier wrote:

...all these awful songs! There are so many, so many...

Yes, and they were all hit records! It makes you wonder what it takes... not much, apparently!

What about '80s Hair Metal? My only contact with the genre is in my guitar teaching, when I've had to learn and teach a couple of songs by bands like Poison, The Scorpions, Ratt, etc. Most of these bands seem like parodies of rock bands, way over the top. There must be some fans of this genre here... eh?

What does it take to make these songs hits?

13 year old girls and 33 year old house wives in despair.
And a liberal does of the Lockenbar myth too.

*-*

What does it take to make these songs hits?

13 year old girls and 33 year old house wives in despair.

You're right, David!

#1 on my list of despised songs.....(drum roll please)

SHIFT WORK

"Goodbye Porkpie Hat", by anyone (yes, even Buddy).

"All Along The Watchtower" by Hendrix. The epitome of a bar rock-band instrumental. A few good riffs adrift in a sea of sloppy distorted chords.

"Little Wing", SRV - more sound effects than song, a good player trying his best to sound like a 13 year-old who's just discovered fuzz and a vibrato tailpiece.

"Layla", Clapton's foray into repetitive-licked schlock. It's like "Groundhog Day" for rock in the way it changes to a decent song, and then lapses back into the same old guitar lick and one word refrain.

Wow, Donnie! You may be treading on sacred ground.

Doug,

Don't forget that great BeeGees tune - "Massachusetts" - God! How could we forget?
But I liked some of their pre-disco bilgewater - "I Started A Joke", for one.

To continue on with the rant -

Anything by the BIG DIVAS - Mariah Carey, Celione Dion, Whitney Houston (except her rendition of "I Will Always Love You"), and least but not last, anything by "Yanni".

The divas are just screeching, almost atonal most of the time.
Their shrill voices could give a crocodile a headache.

And, BTW, who is this David Foster of late? Being pumped-up on PBS stations, along with other accomplices - God, what a bowl of watered-down soup. I never ever heard of this guy, until the usual PBS pledge. Where they always present performers to suck you in, but the rest of the year, you never see those folks again. Until pledge time rolls around again. Thank you.