Re: Most Universally Despised

Almost every artist who has been savaged on this board has also had their defenders - for instance, I've spoken up on behalf of Johnny Mellencamp on several occasions, and have also had a kind word or two for Springsteen and Corgan when they were taking their lumps. Others have leapt to the defense of hair metal in general (although admittedly it was something along the lines of "Well, hair metal sounds pretty good if you compare it to what passes for metal now"), Rush and even the Bollock Brothers. And nobody better dis Bryan Adams when Ira's in the house.

But there's one band that as far as I know has never had any advocates on this board, which leads to the question....are the Eagles the most universally despised group in TP Land?

yes



[buddylove.us]

>
> But there's one band that as far as I know has never had any
> advocates on this board, which leads to the question....are the
> Eagles the most universally despised group in TP Land?


nah

warriors, come out to play-ayyy...

"in the city"!!! pretty great song even without the walter hill assist, right?

eagles barely survive, but who has anything good to say about limp bizkit?

Actually I think "In the City" may have been just a Joe Walsh solo, not the full Eagles.

Besides, nowadays the Eagles are too "quaint" to really be despised.

Until everyone shares my long-held view that The Doors blow dead bears, I will go out on a limb to say that Meatloaf is universally despised. I remember going to school for spell in London as the 80s drew to a close. Anglophile that I am, I believed I would encounter only Roxy Music and Kinks fans wherever I went. How hard it was to discover, then, that EVERY pub in London had Bat Out Of Hell blaring from the CD jukebox. Talk about a wake-up call.

I'd be surprised, moreover, if anyone on this site who isn't pathologically perverse would write an unironic apologia for Styx, Creed or Celine Dion.

It seems more and more people diss The Doors. Maybe it's the backlash resulting from their double rebirth in the 80s and 90s. To that, I scream in Morrisonian fashion, YAEYUH!! WHOOO!! and drop my pants in front of some Miami natives.

I think you're taking for granted the gifts The Doors gave us. Ray Manzarek's morbid, smokey, acid-circus organ. Morrison's writhing leather pants, which, if touched by Moses's staff, could turn into cobras. Robbie Krieger's zombie expression as he noodled his guitar. And John Densmore's drumming, which, well, kept the beat.

Yeah, Jim's ego nearly ruined the band. Yeah, a lot of Jim's lyrics were bad acid doggerel poesy, ring around the rosey type shit. I still can't get over the bad grammar of "You know they are a liar." But beneath these faults lie real vision. Their reptile psycho-sexual nihilism pervert vibe still resonates with me. Sometimes I write Doors-inspired lyrics of my own. Dig:

Anyway, I was walking through the desert and decided to hitch a ride. An old Indian picked me up and cast a spell on me. He let me off and then I met an ancient rattlesnake. We spoke with our minds. I then met a fair, naked, Indian maiden. We cut our veins and exchanged blood after making love.

Morrison & Co. inspired Nico, who took their vision to places even The Doors couldn't go.

The spirits of MorrisonManzarekKriegerDinsmore move me.



Post Edited (10-28-08 23:04)

And now, I would like to sacrifice Whitney Houston to the stake. Her dumbass cover of I Will Always Love You nearly gave me a brain tumor.

So light the fire and let her burn!

The Eagles are probably my least favorite band in general. I mean I fell in love with "The Big Lebowski" right when Jeff Bridges tells the cab driver to turn them off.

Now having said that, I think we can all agree that the jerk who has been impersonating the once great Rod Stewart since the mid 70s is more worthy of our collective hatred.

Also : Air Supply.

For me, I could handle a night of Celion Dion doing Air Supply and Eagles covers before Rush. They are most despised band.

Ooooh what a topic! I love Joe Walsh, but I'm not too crazy about the Eagles.

Back in the late 80s I was working in an office where I had to be bombarded by the same songs over and over and over again. Because of this, I came to despise the artists: Stevie Winwood, Richard Marks, BRYAN ADAMS, and I can't think of the next one.

I'll definitely have to get back to you on that.

i started out liking the eagles when i first started liking music at 12.
once they got so overplayed i started hating them.
to a limited degree i started to like them a little bit do to my never listening to the radio for music again they are thus not overplayed.

same theory goes for a few other dinosaur bands. doors floyd etc.

getting back to the eagles there are def a few songs i like a lot by them

takin it easy,johnny come lately,in the city. there are def a few songs i cant stand either. peaceful easy feeling. desperado.
there is the jackson browne warren zevon connection so on a second degree of seperation im somewhat of a fan.

now bands like creed n limp bisquit those are bands that never had to be overplayed for me not to despise them

The objective part of my brain thinks the Eagles have some virtues, outside of the smarmy rich white guy lens through which they viewed everything. God knows there are worse bands. I have to admire their craftsmanship, if nothing else.

That said, the subjective part of me who grew up in small-town Texas, where the Eagles got heavy rotation on every radio station (top 40, AOR, oldies, country) never wants to hear them again. Ever.

Seriously, I've been known to walk out of stores and restaurants that have the Eagles playing on the Muzak. Same with the Doobie Brothers.

I find the bloated grandiosity of post-60s Pink Floyd much more despicable than the Eagles. In order to be wholly despised a band must have huge and enduring impact. The Floyd rival the Eagles on that. Otherwise, if we lift that distinction, then we open the door to the Bizkits and Third Eye Blinds of the world.

I'm pretty sick of Pink Floyd, too, but I'll take their "bloated grandiosity" (that should be the title of their box set!) over the Eagles' "poor little rich kid" whining any day of the week. But then, I have an uncommon (for a TP fan) affection for pompousness and pretentiousness.

Madonna doesn't have many defenders here. Her shtick represents a lot of what went wrong in the 1980s. Michael Jackson fits that too.

Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Yes seem to define everything that's wrong with prog.

Tom Petty may be my least favorite musician who ever appeared on the cover of TP.

I love Yes - at their best they're precisely what I want from prog.

Agreed on ELP, though - that's prog at its absolute worst.

I don't know if Madonna has no defenders here - the TP entry is overall pretty positive. She's never been my cup of tea, but I can see how she could be perceived as more than just bubblegum fluff.

Like many here, I'm ambivalent about the Eagles. I don't own anything by them anymore (not since middle school), but there are a few songs that aren't completely heinous and I too have some respect for Joe Walsh (I'm sure seeing him at age 7 with that big gong behind the drum kit has something to do with that).

Anybody wanna defend Perry Farrell? JA had its moments musically and since Watt was involved with Porno for Pyros, I can't bring myself to totally hate them. But Farrell himself? Despicable in every way.

Eagles get my vote!

Celine, Rush, Limp Bizkit, Yes, etc, haven't had the deleterious effect on music the Eagles did. I could not name more then two songs by any of them. But the Eagles' ubiquity, their status as flagship for the Rolling Stone aesthetic, and how we're all supposed to say how great they were*, created a juggernaut of shallow '70s faux-country smarm that, almost single-handedly, made punk necessary.

So...if they made punk happen, I guess we should thank them..?


*astounded co-worker to me: "I thought everyone liked the Eagles?!"

Yikes! Back in 1980, my brother and I spent our hard earned money on Devo's 1st, AC/DC (Dirty Deeds) and Styx (Pieces of Eight). That year I also bought Hotel California because I absolutely loved 'Life in the Fast Lane' but I found that I hated the rest of the album (too slow) and I don't think I have listened to it again.

I don't care for the Eagles now and I can trace it to one person - Don Henley. He has to be the perfect example of the pretentious rocker.

I thought that was Sting.

[The following are statements of my opinion only, and should not be mistaken for reflections on the actual merits of any of the acts named below.]

I love Rush -- always have, always will.

Madonna's best songs definitely have staying power. Same goes for the Eagles, Mellencamp and Springsteen.

Limp Bizkit, Korn, Slipknot and their ilk definitely suck. The less said about them, the better.

For me, though, the most despicable acts in rock history remain the late-'70s/early-'80s groups that pretty much all my high school classmates (except the ones who were into disco) liked the most: Styx, Journey, Supertramp, REO Speedwagon et al. My brother and I labeled that strain of music "fake rock," around the time we discovered Blondie, T. Heads, the B-52's, Devo and Elvis Costello.

Delvin - I definitely despised all that stuff at the time, but now have a certain fondness for those late '70s bands. I know it's entirely high school nostalgia at work, but nowadays if I'm in my car and turn on the oldies station and "Goodbye Stranger" or "Point of Know Return" come on, I'm more likely to crank it than change the station. Makes me feel like I'm heading for a high school football game. Which my school's team would inevitably lose in a humiliating fashion, but oh well. It passed the time on a Friday night until it was time for Don Kirschner's Rock Concert or Night Flight to come on. (Or even the dreaded Fridays, which usually had decent bands but was dreadfully unfunny, and any revisionist theories that it was great because Larry David and Michael Richards were involved are crap.)

But still, that nostalgia has its limits, and that limit seems to be the Eagles. Something like "Heartache Tonight" fills me with as much animosity now as it did in 1979 or whenever it came out. Hell, I have a softer spot in my heart for the Little River Band than I do those LA douchebags. I've grown to like (well, like might be too strong a word - peacefully coexist with is more accurate) most of the other 70s country rock types like Poco and Pure Prairie League, but I don't know that I can ever make peace with the Eagles.

Agree about the majority of Nu Metal. I'd be hard pressed to think of a genre that produced less of value than that one, although as always I have to footnote that with a shout out to the Deftones and to a lesser extent System of a Down. Two worthwhile bands that managed to claw their way out of a worthless category.

That's what I was listening to when I was in high school. Rush, Kansas, Styx, Journey...that was all those of us who wanted to blow off top 40 and country had in small town Texas.

I still like Rush, still like some Kansas, will occasionally listen to Styx, depending on the song on the radio, but can no longer stand Steve Perry's voice, so Journey is out.

But it was my interest in those bands that made me a music obsessive, reading the rags (which where I lived meant Rolling Stone), which led me to start buying the records they reviewed that I thought I might like (Smithereens and Richard Thompson were the biggies that got me off the classic rock train), which led me to the cool record stores in Houston (an hour away from where I lived) and mags like Alternative Press and The Big Takeover and record guides like Trouser Press, which became a bible to me...so I can't diss those bands too much. I wouldn't be on this board today without them.

The one good thing about Fridays was Melanie Chartoff, the sexygal who did the news.

By deductive reasoning, I've picked the most universally unfunny comic on the planet. Friday's Mark Blankfield.



Post Edited (10-30-08 21:12)

> I know it's entirely high school nostalgia at work ...

That's probably a reason why I still hate the fake rock so much. I have virtually no nostalgia for high school. (Moving to a new state during the teenage years has that effect, sometimes.)

Actually, the new home itself (New Orleans) was not so bad. My family and I got into the fishing, the boating and water-skiing, and the food. And it was cool to be able to go to the Mardi Gras.

As for my high school there, and my classmates ... well, the less said, the better. Believe me, I will never "make peace" with Styx, Journey or Supertramp.

In fairness, if any of those people happen to read this, they probably regard me the same way.

The older I get the more I realize I was pretty lucky as far as high school experiences go. I wasn't popular, I wasn't unpopular, but was tolerated by both the jocks and the stoners. And for a high school that was literally in the middle of a corn field everyone was for the most part pretty cool and had a live and let live attitude towards everyone else. I took some abuse for being one of three people in a student population of 1,000 who liked punk & new wave in the late 70s, but it was mostly regarded as an art student exercising his right to be peculiar.

But hell, the prom king for my class (class of 81) was not only NOT a jock, he was an unrepentant Lord of the Rings/sci-fi geek with a brother named Alvin who used to ride a bicycle around town smoking a pipe. So I think my class in school was maybe a bit unusual.

We had a pretty kickass school mascot, too. The Piasa Bird: "The Devourer of Men."



We may now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

no, i think that honor belongs to the Grateful Dead

Ya know, I have to agree with the grand poobah here. The Grateful Dead are essentially a bad bar band with a huge following.



Post Edited (10-29-08 08:51)

Q: What did the Deadhead say when he came down?
A: Who are these guys? They suck.

After years of resistance, I finally succumbed to American Beauty. Can't listen to anything else, though.

I like "Ripple" because it provided the soundtrack for the closing scene of Freaks and Geeks. Beyond that, I am grateful to do without the Dead.

That Deadhead joke was reworked for the techno era (talk about another kind of utterly disposable music):

Q: What did the raver say after he came down off of Ecstasy?

A: Why is the dj playing all this shitty music?

Agreed. Worst band ever. If there's a redeeming quality in there somewhere, I've never heard it. Well, maybe "Friend of the Devil," but it's been done so much better by other artists I'm not sure if it counts as a Dead song anymore.

I can't stand silently by while Bon Jovi gets a free pass. If you want to fire up real hatred in me, play "Living on a Prayer."

Strangely enough, despite having zero tolerance for his music, I have a little respect for Jon Bon Jovi. Unlike a lot of his 80s peers, he's managed to carve out a very successful two-decade career, despite coming out of one of the most disposable genres outside of bubblegum. And he's done it by following whatever the current music trend is (heartland rock, boy band pop, country) and folding it into his records, without subsuming his own music so that it's unrecognizable as him. It's more of a marketing and business triumph than an artistic or musical one, but I gotta give him credit.

Of course, this doesn't make his music any easier to listen to - the boy band/Bon Jovi hybrid "It's My Life" makes my gorge rise.

Yeah. I gotta hand it to Bon Shithead. His music blows, but I respect his philanthropic endeavors, like building low income housing and donating to charities n shit.

To come full circle, his Philadelphia Soul sucks.

I universally hate toby kieth.
sorry mate,
thats toby keith.



Post Edited (10-30-08 16:23)

good god!

and just in time to trick and treat.

brilliant mj!

Quote

To come full circle, his Philadelphia Soul sucks.

What do you have against Philly soul?!

firmly agree about Yawn Jon Bovi.

Meatloaf makes me want to 'pulse' blend my own appendages. Phil Collins doing Motown or anything black makes me want to accelerate onto crowded sidewalks. The mere sight of The Nuge reverses my opposition to capital punishment. Top 40 after 1989 makes me want to lock children in underground rat-filled dungeons and deny the holocaust.

Okay, first of all, amazing topic. Secondly, the Piasa Bird: Devourer of Men? Whoa.

So...I, too, despise The Eagles. And Perry Farrell. And The Doors. And most everyone else cited thus far. Some, however, don't really get why anyone would dislike them (Corgan/Punkins, Journey, Bon Jovi, the Loaf of Meat), which kind of makes me hate them all the more. Re. the Dead and Pink Floyd, neither are my cup of tea, but I've never felt oppressed enough to care very much. Everyone else that's been mentioned: eh.

Duran Duran, anyone?

Speaking of Meat Loaf, I never got into Rocky Horror. I saw it once, and that was enough. It's an overrated piece of shit.

> Speaking of Meat Loaf, I never got into Rocky Horror. I saw
> it once, and that was enough. It's an overrated piece of shit.


girl too me to a midnight showing for a first date several years ago. there was no second date. and thought very seriously about sneaking out of the first date while she was throwing toast at the screen or some such nonsense. egads

Not Duran Duran. I'll go to my grave believing Rio is a pretty good album.

Del right then,

Mysogynisic tendencies aside. I shall explain. I mistook your discription of 'behind' personal. My bad. I'm sorry, I get protective over the chickies.

Anyway, your writing is solid and enjoyable. KEEP IT UP!



Post Edited (11-01-08 20:34)

The first time I saw Rocky Horror, it wasn't the movie; it was a stage production. I was a college freshman, and some friends with an extra ticket invited me. I knew nothing about it, but agreed to go (probably because there were several girls in that particular crowd I was interested in). When I showed up, I was wearing ordinary clothes; everyone else was dressed up as the garish, flamboyant characters. I was dumb-founded ... and it didn't clear things up when they got over their disappointment in me by saying, "Oh well, you can be Brad."

When we got there, the audience was wall-to-wall Rocky Horror characters. It was such a wild night of pandemonium all around me, I could hardly comprehend any of the action on stage. I sure did love the music, though.

Since then, I've seen the midnight movie at least 30 times. I've taken some very fun dates to the movie, including my wife. I took my sister to the movie her first time, teaching her the dance steps to "The Time Warp" before we went. I've gotten quite a bit of applause at more than one party doing karaoke to "Sweet Transvestite." (It's all about attitude, baby.)

Having said all that, Hoip is right. Taken objectively, without the audience participation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a lousy movie. Watching it on video at home is an ordeal; I can't imagine keeping the DVD, even if I got it for free. The soundtrack, however, always will have a place in my music collection.

Thanks, Steve, I appreciate that! And yes, I will keep it up. Got several more reviews in the pipeline already.