Friday Fives - great songs by bad bands

This is a cross post from my main writing site.  Since it is music based, I figured I would share the love... and the content.  Stick with me, it really is music based.

name 5 songs by bands you dislike

Creed > My Sacrifice

What’s not to like about this song. That riff is so bad ass. It is just a well written, well performed, and well sung song.

About the band – what’s to like? Scott Stapp is just a horrible person. He was marginal talent at best. Couldn’t even play and instrument, and became a collosal prick. You get to do that if you are Axl, maybe, but not a bunch of half wits who just got lucky. I feel kinda bad now. It turns out Stapp is nuts. Seriously nuts. Like publically said that the President is a secret member of Isis and tried to kill him. He was institutionalized so he would not commit suicide.

Scott hears phantom voices and has visions of people on fire. She says he's also paranoid. He left a message with the dean of his kid's school on November 10, warning that the school was about to become the target of an ISIS attack.

We didn’t know this 20 years ago. He was just a prick back then.  He also recently threatened to kill the president. I do like the guitarist, Tremonti.  Oh, and the bass player called Pearl Jam a bunch of Creed wannabe’s. Every song kinda sounds the same. Tremonti (the guitarist) uses this dropped D and super saturated sound that becomes awfully formulaic.  I really like his guitar choice, though.

 Kiss – Beth

 This song is great. It is so dumb, but it’s also beautiful. This was their biggest hit, can you believe that? I think it charted higher than ‘rock and roll all night’. You know that had to kill the band’s egos… that their biggest hit came from their drummer. I just strongly dislike their music. It isn’t about their overt commercialism. In fact, I respect Gene Simmons for being so upfront about their commercialism. Plus, it gave us this brilliant piece of snark. Here is how much I don’t like Kiss. I was trading hard drives of music with my buddies. We all met and brought our hard drives, with about 400 CDs each on them, and copied them to each other’s drives. Brad had 8 Kiss CDs on his hard drive. I had TONS of room on my hard drive, and I went in and deleted every singe Kiss album.

 Black Crowes – Hard to Handle

 I know it’s not cool to say, especially since I am a guitarist. This band is way overrated. Every song sounds the same to me, and I even saw them live. This is a very old song by Otis Redding. Here is how old we are talking, the Grateful Dead used to do this live, before I was even born. See that guy in the video? He was the original singer for the Dead, not Jerry Garcia. That was up until the Crowe’s version. After their version, there is no other. The Crowes just killed this version. No other version should be placed in the time capsule, not even the original.

 Lou Reed –Walk in the Wild Side

 Lou Reed is wildly, wildly overrated. I find his ‘music’ boring and pretentious and just shitty. For one thing, he doesn’t sing. I am not talking about Velvet Underground. I am talking about solo Lou Reed. He just talks, and it bores me to tears. He is like Patti Smith. All I hear is adoration, and how influential they were. I call shanigans!

This song, though, is just genius.  It is beautiful and catchy and weird as all fuck.  I think this put him on the map as a solo artist.

The Roots - You Got Me

I am not against the Roots.  Questlove is the bomb.  I read his autobiography.  Thing is, their music does nothing for me.  I am sure it's great, I don't know.  I have to admit I don't care.  I am neither furrit, nor am I agin it.  The Roots are like the NFC in the NFL.  I know it exists, but I don't pay attention.  This song, though, is just amazing and beautiful and perfect.  All credit to Erykah Badu, really.  Btw... that thing on her head... it's a wig. Another interesting thing about her, she has kids with Andre 3000 from Outkast. Weird, huh  It's about as subtle as Marge Simpson. Their singer, Tariq, calls himself 'Black Thought' as his stage name.  That is so badass it is unspeakable.

Rob Thomas & Carlos Santana - Smooth

I don't like Rob Thomas or Matchbox 20.  It just sounds like it looks - white bread safe rock for white people.  Rob Thomas seems like a very nice guy.  He'll take your daughter out, not bang her, and even have her home on time.  When he calls you sir, he means it out of respect... not because he is banging your daughter.  I get no passion from these guys.  In fact, if I had a daughter, when she turned 16 I would replace all her Cds with Matchbox 20 Cds.  No one is going out and getting pregnant listening to that stuff.

This song, though, is the bomb!  Maybe it's because they have Carlos Santana, who I love.  Also, to give full credit, Rob Thomas wrote this song.  It's a really great song, and it (re)introduced a whole new generation to Carlos Santana.  I love Santana.