I've been promising- well, threatening... no, alluding to an upcoming blog for a bit that would actually talk a bit about music. Music, of course, it a natural tie-in, as my original analog (pen and paper) database was all about my music collection, which at that time consisted of LPs, singles (both 45s and 78s- my grandfather worked for Rock-Ola, and we had a juke box in the basement), cassettes and eight tracks. I also used to do music popularity polls among my friends.
Having said all of that, I want to say that the opinions expressed here are entirely my own, and the reader is free to disagree- I can promise I'll probably make someone at least a little angry, and that someone will probably think, "Hey, he can't say that about (fill in the artist)". It's okay- feel free to continuing to like the artist or song- these are just my thoughts.
I'd like to say that there are rules to this little rant. Firstly, it's about big stars that released crummy songs, which went on to become big. The big stars also have to normally put out quality music (Bob Dylan and Alanis Morissette may be able to turn a clever lyric, but they can't sing... and Alanis is not even in the same league as Dylan). It's also not one- or two-hit wonders that produce music that is quirky, or odd or just plain bad (Alanis) music. It's also not about one- or two-hit wonders that odd, quirky, or bad music that I happen to like- Robert Hazard's Escalator Of Life, Escape Club's Wild, Wild West, The Jim Carroll Band's People Who Died. It's also not about odd, maybe even good songs by artists I don't like- Neil Young's Hey, Hey ,My, My (Into The Black). No- the rules are simple- big artist, bad song, commercial success.
In researching this blog (yes, I do research), I found out some interesting things about the songs: two of the three were written in conjunction with death- one by a writer with a terminal illness, and the other as a memorial to a child. The other one was claimed to be autobiographical by the artist, but the writer (not the same person) said it definitely was not. So, without further ado...
#3- Leaving Las Vegas by Sheryl Crow. I'm not a huge fan of Sheryl, but she has produced a couple of songs that I really like which I can only classify as "slacker" songs (if you know Soak Up The Sun) you get the idea. This was the song which was claimed to be autobiographical. I don't know- she just slumbers emotionlessly through this thorough waste of 5:10.
#2 All Of My Love by Led Zepplin. It was written in honor of Robert Plant's son, who died of a stomach infection at the age of 5. It's just a horrible song.
#1 The Greatest Love Of All by Whitney Houston. I like most all of Whitney's work, but this song is horrid. Composed by a woman with a terminal illness, it should just never have been recorded. Whitney sings it badly, the video is ...odd, and the verses just fly in the face of my beliefs: the greatest love is not self love. We have a word for that in English- it's narcissism. It is unholy and unhealthy.
And that's a wrap for now. Comments are welcome, especially if you know of any other flops- just keep to the rules: big artist, commercially successful song, bad song.
No data tonight!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
*Around every five entries, I provide links to some older posts you may have missed- here's today's crop-
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