DL Open Thread Tuesday May 25th 2021
Worst Songs EVER!
I have no standing to talk about who is the best guitarist, but I know a bad song when I hear one. Here are my top (bottom?) three songs of all time:
- Starship, “We Built This City”
- Limp Bizkit “Nookie“
- Bryan Adams, “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You”
What if the Unorthodox Arizona Audit Declares Trump Won?
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a law that gives the state the power to penalize social media companies when they ban political candidates, escalating a fight between the tech industry and Republicans such as DeSantis and former President Donald Trump.
The law to prohibit “deplatforming” is the first of its kind in the nation and may be a model for other states to follow, even though one tech business group said the law runs counter to the First Amendment.
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I like “We Built This City” and most other Starship Starship singles. Although I admit it doesn’t hold up well to repeated listens. Maybe once every few years. I also like “Play On Love.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR6w-LrCLZk
I like Jefferson Airplane, and I like Starship/Jefferson Starship for entirely different and sometimes conflicting reasons. Starship singles are tuneful and well-made songs compared to others at the time, and it’s always great to hear Grace’s distinctive voice cutting through the harmonies.
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Holy shit, Dude.
“Starship’s, “We Built This City” is the worst song ever” is the least controversial – most widely accepted truth I’ve ever posted on the blog.
I didn’t own a TV during the rise of MTV, so probably I didn’t build up the same prejudices from repeated listens. My mass music exposure in the 80s was mostly limited to hearing songs occasionally on the radio or on a bar jukebox.
They built this city on corporate rock (no roll).
That’s true. It also probably helps that I accept the song for what it is, rather than holding it up to the past glories of Airplane or some concept of rock and roll. It’s a pop song, not for rock purists. It also helps that I’ve never bothered to listen to the lyrics and just let the tune wash over me.
I dont think there is a single 60s/70s rock group/artist who put anything out in the 80s that was remotely close to their earlier work…. much less better.
Some of the new music was great, but much of it embraced new recording and production methods (synths) that weren’t well developed.
Great decade for new humans, not so great for new music…. there I said it.
The hate for that song is built almost entirely on the ashes of the ’60s. The problem for most people wasn’t the song itself, it’s that it was corporate rock at its slickest (no pun intended) being performed by what had once been one of the most anti-corporate groups out there.
I don’t have any 60’s music nostalgia. That song simply sucks elephant balls.
The music and lyrics are vapid nonsense. It is a commercial jingle selling boredom. That’s why people (not named Puck) rightly hate it.
The nostalgia wasn’t for the music but for the anti-corporate attitude. This song stands for all the ’60s hippies who sold out to the greed-is-good ethos in the ’80s, and is hated accordingly.
Actually lots of people liked it, which is why it went to No. 1.
I’ll tell you all about it in Song of the Day.
What have I done?
Genie – Get back in the bottle, please.
Just to be clear about it, I would listen to “We Built This City” on an infinite loop before I would play a song by Journey, REO Speedwagon or Styx. Eighties arena rock sucked. This song, because it was sung by people who should have known better, was the Judas goat, having the sins of all corporate rock loaded on its back and driven into the wilderness.
The Florida law will be declared unconstitutional as soon as the state tries to enforce it. It’s merely DeSantis lobbying for the 2024 nomination.
I never thought “We Built This City” was as bad as everybody else does — except Puck, who I think gets it right. I even kind of like the Marty Balin solo tunes. There, I’ve said it. But I have nothing good at all to say about Limp Bizkit, and my mind just goes blank when I think of Bryan Adams.
I saw ’em in concert, soon after they’d morphed from the Airplane to the Starship. At Syracuse. They sucked. They were in a bad mood as (I think) the drummer had been busted for pot the night before. Grace Slick was about 11 months pregnant.
It was a free concert. And it was overpriced.
I warmed up to Journey a little after “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” was played over the final scene of “The Sopranos,” but that was more about the TV show. I hated them in the ’80s, but I was kind of a rock snob then.
“Don’t Stop Believin'” lends itself pretty well to a Bluegrass format. I don’t know who started the trend, but here’s the 2007 version by Pine Mountain Railroad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0zZ_pmBroE
That’s a great cover, Mike Dinsmore.
Looks as though it was Pine Mountain Railroad, after all, who started the trend. Here’s their live version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAjAR0FEv0Y
How can you name a worst song of the modern era and leave out and entire billy ray cyrus catalogue and rico suave.
“Achy Breaky Heart” was No. 2 on Blender’s list.
My personal list for Worst Song Ever is Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” in which a band of asshole rednecks throws a fit because Neil Young used Alabama as the symbol of our national shame on race, going so far as to praise proudly racist George Wallace.
In doing so, they of course proved Neil Young’s point. I won’t allow the song to be played in my presence.