"Dame Elton" HA, HA, HA!

Nimoy singing about Bilbo Baggins:

Link (new window)

I had just gotten into Neil Young around 1981. It was just what my 15 year old hippie soul needed in a world dominated by musicians with red stripes on their guitars and diagonal zippers on their clothing.

Then this came out Link (new window)

(which I liked for some odd reason)

Then he released "EVERYBODY'S ROCKIN'" a year later and I realized he was out of his mind.

It took another 20 years for me to come back to Young. And he still kicks ass.

Ummmm....exactly what track on "Load" sounds like nu-metal? I don't remember Jaymz rapping anywhere on the album, or samples being used. And there certainly weren't any backwards, red Yankees caps.

If you're gonna bash "Load," at least know what the hell you're talking about. There's nothing remotely "nu" about it. It's a bluesy hard rock record.

List fails. The worst musical makeover of all time was Dee Dee Ramone as Dee Dee King. Ramones rock, but that was awful.

T.M.S.: I had just gotten into Neil Young around 1981. It was just what my 15 year old hippie soul needed in a world dominated by musicians with red stripes on their guitars and diagonal zippers on their clothing.

Then this came out (which I liked for some odd reason)

Then he released "EVERYBODY'S ROCKIN'" a year later and I realized he was out of his mind.

It took another 20 years for me to come back to Young. And he still kicks ass.

I'd been listening to Neil for years and I loved Trans (also for some odd reason) but we had just had our 2nd kid and money was tighter and I was trying to curb my album-purchasing appetite so I lost track of what people were releasing for a few years. Looks like the timing worked out because I missed Everybody's Rocking completely!

quizkid8279

If you're gonna bash "Load," at least know what the hell you're talking about. There's nothing remotely "nu" about it. It's a bluesy hard rock record.

There was *nothing* bluesy about it. Or hard. It was metallica copying the stone temple pilots, garth brooks and all that other crap from the period. Back then we just called them "alternica". Pity it didn't stick.

Calling "THEIR SATANIC MAJESTIES..." a misstep is fair, considering how it stacks up against the other psych-pop albums of that year (Sgt. Peppers, SF Sorrow, Piper At The Gates Of Dawn). But putting it at the top of this list? Come on now.

Sure, it's a tad uneven and full of experimentation.. it has Bill Wyman's first vocal and writing credit (ugh), but it's a surprisingly good record, even if it's a blatant attempt at Sgt. Pepperdom.

"She's A Rainbow" is one of the best songs the Stones ever recorded.

Client No. 9: List fails...The worst musical makeover of all time was Dee Dee Ramone as Dee Dee King. Ramones rock, but that was awful. because whoever wrote it has different opinions to me.

FTFY

No, THIS is the worst musical makeover :

Celtic Frost
"Cold Lake"



/cold lake, hot link

Psssh, whatever. Load is a fantastic album.

/ReLoad has it's moments.
//St. Anger is still a mess though.

Trans is my favorite Neil Young album. I am not joking.

The story behind the album might get a few people to re-evaluate it. See, Neil's son has Cerebral Palsy. When Neil spoke to him using the vocoder, he found that he got a better response than when he used his normal voice. It inspired him to write an album of songs with the vocoder, and the result was Trans. A few of the songs appeared in his film "Human Highway," which co-starred DEVO - whom he had connected with a few years back.

/Yes, that DEVO
//Here's Neil and DEVO performing Hey, Hey, My, My (Into the Black) from the film. It will melt your brain.

DarKrow: Trans is my favorite Neil Young album. I am not joking.

The story behind the album might get a few people to re-evaluate it. See, Neil's son has Cerebral Palsy.

That would explain the lift on the side of the tour bus. (the left side, just in front of the rear "skylight")

/fans Don't require an explanation.

Kelly Clarkson existing was a bad musical makeover.

"...looking like a cross between Tennessee Ernie Ford and Henry Lee Lucas."

Made me chuckle.

New York Dolls' David Johanssen as Buster Poindexter. facepalm.

I don't get all the Shocking Pinks hate. He's just making tunes like the ones he grew up loving, but he made them in a time when no one wanted to hear that kind of music. Doesn't mean it's bad, just means it didn't suit the 80s. John Lennon did all kinds of oldies rock songs, Robert Plant formed the Honeydrippers, Bob Dylan's newest stuff sounds straight out of the 30s sometimes. rock stars do this stuff all the time. My exposure to the album came from a friend who listens to lots of Neil Young and I thought it sounded cool, anyone care to explain what's so awful about it? Oh, and there is music in Metal Machine Music, I swear.

"If all of the people who hate Ishtar had seen it, I would be a rich woman today." ---Elaine May,film director


I use that above quote because it reminds me of "Satanic Majesties Request" Everyone claims they hate it but nobody has ever actually listened to it. People would much rather jump on the bandwagon than make up their own minds. "200 Light Years" "2000 Man" and "She's a Rainbow" are among the best songs the Stones ever did on ANY record.
It is indeed very much UNLIKE any other Stones record but that does not automatically mean it was "bad"

Also, "Everybody's Rockin'" was Neil Young's response to his record label demanding he release a "rock and roll album" as they were dismayed at his previous "Trans" album.

Neil Young in my opinion did some really cool and varied stuff in the early 80s.

"Reactor" --kinda garage almost "punk" album
"Trans" --electronic synth and vocodor experimental
"Everybody's Rockin'" --classic 50s style good old rock


...all three of those above were released consecutively in that order. His label then filed a lawsuit against him.

You know somebody is COOL when their own label takes 'em to court.

SATANIC MAJESTIES

"She's A Rainbow" and "Gomper" = fantastical!

Well, I must disagree with "Metal Machine Music" being on this list.

The Elder is a kickass album, I don't give a shiat what anyone says.

No Alice Cooper, "We're All Clones"? (new window)

I kinda liked the Neil Young one

Client No. 9 wrote:

:The worst musical makeover of all time was Dee Dee Ramone as Dee Dee King. Ramones rock, but that was awful."

Oh dear sweet merciful crap, THIS.

That was indeed, an abomination.

Actually, doesn't the Garth Brooks "Chris Gaines" album belong on here?

That Alice Cooper "Clones" song actually came out within a year of Gary Numan's "Pleasure Principle" so he wasn't totally off the mark.


Nobody has yet mentioned David Bowie -- Tin Machine.
.....which nobody got back then.
I thought Tin Machine was Bowies's genuine attempt at NOT being contrived or stunt-like.
It was just a basic stripped down rock band with no hype.

quizkid8279: Ummmm....exactly what track on "Load" sounds like nu-metal? I don't remember Jaymz rapping anywhere on the album, or samples being used. And there certainly weren't any backwards, red Yankees caps.

Nu-Metal does not necessarily mean rap-metal. Granted, rap-metal was the most well-known aspect of nu-metal, but I consider Nu-Metal to be one of those nebulous genres like post-rock that covers a broad range of acts, but is more descriptive of the approach rather than the sound (i.e. metal mixed with alternative, industrial, rap, etc.)


Oh, and please stop putting Metal Machine Music on lists of bad albums. Is it unlistenable? yeah. Is it a serious work? No. Mocking it just makes it sound like you're not in on the joke.

dougfm: No Alice Cooper, "We're All Clones"? (new window)

If it weren't Alice Cooper doing it, this would be remembered as a pretty good new-wave song. Then again, if A Flock of Seagulls had suddenly begun chopping off baby heads on stage, that would probably be off-putting as well.

/by the way, it was "Clones (We're All)" by Alice Cooper '80. In related news, Cooper '80 was such a drunk during this time he has no memory of making this album.

I don't know if it was Gahan's heroin problem or if they were trying to hop on the grunge wagon or a little of both, but I remember when Songs of Faith and Devotion came out I was thinking "Why does the lead singer of Depeche Mode look like he should be in Alice N Chains?".

FeedTheCollapse:
Oh, and please stop putting Metal Machine Music on lists of bad albums. Is it unlistenable? yeah. Is it a serious work? No. Mocking it just makes it sound like you're not in on the joke.

From Wiki:
As a radical departure from the rest of Reed's catalog, Metal Machine Music is generally considered to be either a joke, a grudging fulfillment of a contractual obligation, or an early example of noise music. Reed himself has said of the album "I was serious about it. I was also really, really stoned."

Also:
Today the record is seen as an early form of ambient music and a defining pillar of the noise music and industrial music movements.

I really like "Metal Machine Music." Honestly.

Cooper '80 was such a drunk during this time he has no memory of making this album.

"...I thought EVERYBODY puked blood first thing in the morning"


I do also recall him stating that every time he went to bed he had to place two cans of Budweiser on his nightstand because he couldn't even rise out of bed in the morning until he downed two beers first.

lets not forget
any Paul McCartney album released between 1983 - 1996

Jesus. I own two of those.

"Everybody's Rockin'" -- It's not "Neil" in the same sense that the Honeydrippers wasn't Led Zeppelin. It's ok if you approach it as "a low energy attempt at recalling the doo-wop era by a Canadian."

"Will Power" -- Somewhere around 1986, Joe released a live album that had a radically re-worked and much more atmospheric version of "Steppin' Out" that was very cool. I assumed that his "instrumental" album would be more like that. It wasn't. Too classical for rock fans, and not sufficiently disciplined for classical fans.

padraig: No, THIS is the worst musical makeover :

Got that one, too. Sure, Boone is laughable at it, but some of the arrangements are actually interesting in their own way. If you ignore the lead vocals, "Panama" has a niece little Samba groove, and the instrumental break is actually kind of fun. And I've decided that the original "Smoke On the Water" would have been better with the little horn stings and conga accompaniment.

It's true, you really didn't hear much about The Rolling Stones after 1967.

Actually, U2's "Pop" should be on the list, too. "Achtung Baby" was a daring foray into mixing the classic U2 sound with dance music. "Pop" was just lame-brained genre-hopping with no purpose. Even the band has pretty much disavowed it.

The best part of "Let it Blurt," the Lester Bangs bio, is Bangs' long-running attempt to get Reed to admit that MMM was an effort to break his record contract.

Bangs' strategy for this was to constantly praise the album and in every interview with Reed of this period he tried to get Lou to expound on the creative process that lead to the album. This only served to anger Reed and make him curse and rant - which, of course, made Bangs' articles even more fun to read.

craigdamage: Everyone claims they hate it but nobody has ever actually listened to

I'll cop to only listening to about 1 minute of MMM - it was all I could stand. But, honestly, "Satanic Majesties" is my favorite Stones album. I think the cover is crap, but I've always liked the music.

That photo of the Village People as Euro-trash made my eyes bleed.

sheisty: Kelly Clarkson existing was a bad musical makeover.

I dont' care what you think, I'd still hit it.

List fails wihtout the Garth Brooks/Chris Gaines thing. I still don't know what the hell that was supposed to accomplish.

Actually, U2's "Pop" should be on the list, too. "Achtung Baby" was a daring foray into mixing the classic U2 sound with dance music. "Pop" was just lame-brained genre-hopping with no purpose. Even the band has pretty much disavowed it.

No it wasn't. Pop is one of their best albums. How is it different from Zooropa again?

The Glass Dragon: The Elder is a kickass album, I don't give a shiat what anyone says.

Do you ever stop being lame? Even for a second?

This was really really bad.

Honorable mention?

/hotlinked
//stfu

Load wasn't all bad and certainly wasn't a total "Alternative" record. There was one song that sounded like an STP song (and that STP song was a ripoff of a KISS song), one song that sounded like Alice in Chains, and one song that was countryish. The rest were bluesy hard rock.

/And that Kelly Clarkson album wasn't that bad. It's the only piece of music she's released that I would bother with.
//Motley Crue trying to be an Industrial influenced Grunge band was pretty bad (the album being Generation Swine).

I think U2 Pop has some good songs on it. I especially like "Do You Feel Loved," and "Wake Up Dead Man."

viccellini: I think U2 Pop has some good songs on it. I especially like "Do You Feel Loved," and "Wake Up Dead Man."

I think "Wake Up Dead Man" is one of their best songs. And "Pop" was better than most of the stuff they've put out since.

FunkOut: viccellini: I think U2 Pop has some good songs on it. I especially like "Do You Feel Loved," and "Wake Up Dead Man."

I think "Wake Up Dead Man" is one of their best songs. And "Pop" was better than most all of the stuff they've put out since.

FTFY
/they were better when they didn't care about being popular
//also likes "Everybody's Rockin'"

dougfm
No Alice Cooper, "We're All Clones"?

I'd never seen that and now wish I never had. That was truly painful.

That Joe Jackson album is actually quite good.