I think "Albatross Songs" is worthy of its own post, as started in the Jazz Club comments, so here it is...
So far we have:
"Shiny Happy People" - REM
"Creep" - Radiohead
"Nothing Compares 2 U" - Sinead O'Connor
"The King Of Rock & Roll" - Prefab Sprout
"Born In The USA" - Teh Boss
"Rip It Up" - Orange Juice
"Hi Ho Silver Lining" - Jeff Beck
"You're Gorgeous" - Babybird
"Come On Eileen" - Dexy's
I'd like to add:
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, the song that came to embody everything they hated about the 'jock meathead' fans that they gathered by having a massive pop smash.
I've heard that Randy Newman hates his most famous song "Short People" cos it's essentially a novelty song.
I'm sure there's many more - any to add, 'Spillers?
43 comments:
I know for a fact that Radiohead also hate their hit "Pop is Dead" - an awful tune about wanting to be Jim Morrison, but i bought it at the time (i was teenage, okay??!) and liked it.
I must say, I feel bloody dismayed when bands slag off their old LPs that us the fans bought and loved and supported them with - allowing them to make their next masterpiece.
And don't forget Radiohead even wrote a song about "Creep" - called "My Iron Lung". Tee hee, the jokers!
Salesman: (shouting) Albatross....albatross....albatross....
albatross....albatross...albatross....albatross....albatross
Man: Two good humours please.
Salesman: I haven't got any good humours, I've just got this bloody
albatross....(shouts) Albatross
Man: What flavor is it?
Salesman: It's a bird mate, it's a bloody bird, it's not any bloody
flavor....(shouts) Albatross
Man: It's got to be some flavor, I mean everything's got a flavor.
Salesman: All right, it's blood albatross flavor, it's bloody sea bloody bird
bloody flavor....(shouts) Albatross
Man: Do you get wafers with it?
Salesman: Course you don't get bloody wafers with it, it's a bloody albatross
isn't it...(shouts) Albatross
Man: I'll have two please.
Salesman: I've only got one you cocksucker....(shouts) Albatross....albatross....
albatross....albatross
Ooh! That was a bit rude!
Anyway, Deep Purple were never truly enamoured of their throwaway track from 'Machinehead' which went on to be a Music Shop joke - 'Smoke on the Water'.
Mesen, I've always thought that 'Alright Now' is one of Free's poorer tracks and doesn't represent what they did atall.
And would it be terribly gauche of me to mention 'Albatross' by Fleetwood Mac.....?
Robert Plant won't perform Stairway To Heaven these days.
Los Lobos - La Bamba
The movie break gave them some big paychecks they probably would not have had otherwise. But it capped them creatively and they never recovered which - as their brilliant Latin Playboys stuff confirms - is a big loss.
No one paid attention to the LP's and its great. As Los Lobos, they were always that latino band that did that song for that movie.
Carole, I agree with him - I think all of Led Zep 4 is fantastic, except bloody Stairway To Heaven (seeing as this is quite a sweary discussion).
Stevie Wonder has started singing all the beautiful soppy tracks from Side 4 of Songs In The Key Of Life again (If It's Magic / As / Another Star). I saw him twice in the 70s and 80s and he ignored our pleading, probably because he was no longer with the lady about whom they were written...
'Sit Down' by James?
Despite winning the Battle of Britpop, I don't think Blur were very keen on 'Country House' - though they gave a good account of it at Glastonbury this year
Albatrosses are gorgeous birds, aren't they?
What does it say about me that I rather like almost all of these songs - the one exception being Shiny Happy People..?
Blue Monday was written as New Order refused to do encores in their petulant early days. The idea was to leave the stage & let the computers play on for 10 minutes. Best version of this was at a Festival Hall gig, when the thunderclap was replaced by an almighty belch: "tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, BUUUURRRRRPPPPP".
PIL's "Albatross" is about putting the Sex Pistols behind them, until Wobble & Levene left at least then PIL bacame a sad Lyden caberet act.
@Aba - the goodness of the songs here isn't in question (apart from Shiny Happy People, which is an abomination, and despite 'Spill rules, I'm sure no-one will kind me saying that...)
there really should be some sort of automated lockdown, that stops me from posting awful typos/opinions after several glasses of wine...
(last one - i bet you a fiver that a similar blog topic comes up on the GU music pages within 20 days...)
Carole, I found that having not listened to 'Stairway to Heaven' for a few years, I quite liked it again.
Jethro Tull were heartily sick of 'Living in the Past' after a number of years, I believe.
I think the Birthday Party got fed up with 'Release the Bats' as it caused them to be associated with goth and obviously they weren't (ahem).
I recall hearing that Hawkwind, particularly Dave Brock got very irritated by having to sing 'Silver Machine' as Lemmy did the vocal and it was not in his range. I suspect the money from the car ad was welcome though.
Oh and I wonder how Lindisfarne felt about 'The Fog on the Tyne'? I believe they did some other good songs, but I could have remembered that wrong...
I would protest such a lockdown!! I always like seeing a flurry of Blimpy comments in my inbox in the evening.
While "Creep" was certainly quite close of killing them before they even got started, I've always understood the song in their catalogue they truly can't stand is "High & Dry"...
Can't say I blame them.
@ bethnoir
I heard Hotel California by Los Lobos with Gipsy Kings and it wasn't as annoying as the Eagles.
Oh and I'm with steen on this one - I think there should be a non-drinking rule about this place. No posting after 11 p.m. if you are sober. Something like that.
Personally, I've always loved Stairway myself.
Terry Pratchett sends it up in his book Soul Music, which I think is one of the very best of the Discworld novels.
Definition of an albatross: the one where all the fuckers behind you who've talked through everything else suddenly engage and become excruciatingly ebullient uberfans, spilling your pint in the process.
I think that we actually have two very slightly different categories here. In one corner there's the 'one hit wonder' effect (into which corner I'd put Prefab Sprout, Orange Juice and Babybird (yes, I know they weren't strictly-speaking one hit wonders, but it's close enough). I get fed up with telling people that Prefab Sprout are my favourite band only to hear them say, "Oh, are they the ones that did that awful, King Of Rock & Roll?"
Then there are acts like Radiohead and Springsteen who are well-known for a whole body of work but their fans keep demanding these particular songs. Into this category, I would add Jonathan Richman's Roadrunner - a song which he was actually bored with long before it became a hit.
Actually, there's a third category into which we can place REM. Songs That Bands Should Be Ashamed Of ...
Bethnoir - you have exquisite taste in music i have to say : either you are the only person on the blog who recognised "Sonny's Burning" or they didn't want to say plus you "hear hear"-d my Neubauten- vielen Dank. Like your website BTW.
Gremlin, your Sonny's Burning was ignored (by me) as it seemed to (to me) to have fuck-all (should that be hyphonated? Gonna go with it) to do with the theme. Agreed, great song & I'm sure demonic exorcisms are desperate situations, but it was (again, to me) a tangenital pick at best. It's not always polite to point these things out, but sometimes you're ignored for a reason.
I do hope people have heard The Fatima Mansions' demolition of Shiny, Happy People. The words in their fade-out say it all and fit in rather well with the sweary songs in later threads. Here's a link to it.
@shoegazer - thanks for your explanation there Schuhmeister - maybe it was tan-genital and had fuck all to do with the theme , bit hard to tell with the Birthday Party at times. Was the last sentence necessary?
Yep.
FU2
Aw come on guys...
What - do you like U2?!
I honestly thought maybe because I'd only put a line in between posts (4 in all i think) and because it isn't what i'd consider a well-known song, it was a good spot , maybe easy to miss or spotted and not on theme or whatever. Shoey's last line definitely not needed and provocative.
as are you gremlin.
I see you are doing for the Spill what you did for RR
Wonder where we can all go next.
Tincanman don't exaggerate and don't try to fan any non-existent flames. I made a completely non-offensive comment re.a post. Shoey made a fair point which i didn't argue with but I don't like the point he made at the end. End of. There really is no need to make your comments either. RR seems to be the healthiest it's ever been in all the short time i've been on and t'Spill seems to be regulating itself. Let's keep it in perspective. Apologies to Shoey if u were offended.
Gremlin, you seemed to be asking (again) why you were ignored. You have an answer. You may not like it. You get abusive. If you're going to be high-maintenace & hard work to interact with, you might need to get used to being ignored.
Yep- just re-read the exchange and unless i am completely blind and lacking have missed something massive then i really am perplexed. As I said some time back criticisms of indiviuals made public should be a last resort - it's all too easy to mud-sling on here if you wanted to. i have no problem with fall-outs about stuff but personal comments are something else. Personal insults send to gremlinfc@hotmail.com
That post crossed with yours Shoey - i can even accept that point - i'm sure i'm not either. Maybe we will have to agree to disagree. C'est la vie.
Thanks for the nice comment, Gremlin fc.
Not sure what all the grumpiness after it is about, but I much prefer it when we all try to be friendly.
Thanks Bethnoir and "hear hear" - all i can do is apologise if that seemingly inoccuous remark provoked Shoegazer into putting me in my place. You have got good taste though.
Thanks Bethnoir and "hear hear" - all i can do is apologise if that seemingly inoccuous remark provoked Shoegazer into putting me in my place. You have got good taste though.
No problem, Gremlin.
I'm just observing that everywhere you go you leave the same trail Gremlin. I'm sure that hasn't escaped your notice.
I shall take Shoey's sound advice and ignore you. Which makes you, in a Spill/RR community of hundreds, special and unique.
Tincanman - "everywhere I go" - i've only been 1 place! There are over 1300 posts now so not sure what the trail is. I am well aware you ignore me. There's nothing i can do if you take against me. You have your reasons. Everyone -well, almost everyone - makes comments which other people cringe at , it's unavoidable. If you choose to ignore me that's a shame. I didn't see Shoegazer's advice to ignore me BTW...have a good weekend.
bethnoir - you have a website? Us Blixa fans have to stick together!
Even though I can't stand them, and think it's good enough for them, in a Greek myth/Sisyphus kind of way, surely U2 are heartily sick of 'Where The Streets Have No Name'.
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