Sucky CD Sunday

McCartneyism

First off, let me confess that writing SCDS is like shooting fish in a barrel. It is that easy because there are so many candidates for bad music that we love! They just keep making more. I was having a hard time deciding on the winner of this week’s blog space until it dropped into my lap by way of a conversation I was having with my mother.

Let me give you some background. My mom is the person responsible for my love of music. When I was 5 she gave me her original copy of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band complete with double fold out album cover. I stared for hours at the picture of the Beatles in front of that crowd of people and played the album over and over on my Fisher Price turn table. I scratched the shite out of it and dog eared the sleeves. It is a collector’s item now. Damn. When my Janis Joplin or Led Zepplin CDs go missing, the first place I look is in mom’s stash and she is an expert on R&B, Motown and Gospel since the days when her father was telling her to turn it off and listen to “normal” music. So you get the point, she has my respect, so when we were flipping through some CD’s my younger sister gave to her (she had already loaded them into the iPod) we can across this one…

… at which time my mom said, and I quote, “Wings! Who in their right mind would buy this! I feel embarrassed for your sister!” And I said ahah! Yes! The point of SCDS is to come to terms with your embarrassing CDs so instantly became the choice of the week. Mom’s reaction was tempered a little bit when she asked and I told her that, no, “Ebony and Ivory” was another post-Beatles atrocity committed by Paul McCartney and could not be pegged on Wings. Paul has been responsible for a few crimes against good music. Think Michael Jackson and him before MJ bought all the rights to the Beatles tunes and they hated each other.

Let’s just hit the mother load and review Wings’ Greatest Hits.

Another Day

Depressing song about a spinster. I actually can track my daily routine along the sad sack in this song which makes it more depressing. Interestingly enough, the music does not match the sentiment or the lyrics of the song and sounds like it is an advertisement for fizzy drinks or a beach holiday. Loneliness becomes something we can dance too. Please, where is Eleanor Rigby when we need her?

Silly Love Songs

Ok, I have heard the opening bars of this song about a million times 1976 – about the length of time it took my mother to turn push the button on that AM radio. The only hope you have when listening to this song is that the repetitive nature of it puts you into a temporary coma.

Live and Let Die

This is an awesome song! One of the best James Bond songs if not THE best. Even my mother had to concede.

Junior’s Farm
Huh? Never heard it. I hate when they put songs that no one has ever heard on a Greatest Hits album. It defeats the purpose. I put it into hear it and I realised why it got no air play. Totally unremarkable if not slightly annoying.

With a little luck

I think that Paul McCartney’s love for his wife Linda (not his second wife whom he had the good sense to dump) addled his brain. Talk about “Silly Love Songs”. This is a song written by a man who is happy and has lost his edge. I can’t fault him for that, nor do I think great art comes from great misery. But it helps.

Band on the Run

Yes, please run. Run away! Fast! Two compelling reasons for committing suicide when you are not depressed or schizo may be food poisoning and prolonged exposure to this song.

Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey

This has that weird englishy thing going on which sort of reminds me of “Day in a Life” as far as arrangement but can’t touch it with a ten foot pole. Who cares about “butter pies”? What are they anyway?

Hi Hi Hi

I would rather be murdered by blunt force than listen to this song ever again.

Let ‘em in

“Someone’s knocking at the door. Somebody’s ringing the bell.” Paul Mc is obviously stuck for inspiration for song lyrics. What was he thinking?

My Love

I like it. Mom doesn’t. I win. I don’t have anything bad to say about this song. I think it is heart felt and nice.

Jet

I am on the fence about this one, let me listen again. Ok, no, it sucks but I like the big orchestra thing going on.

Mull of Kintyre

This is an old Scottish song. You can’t really mess it up.


Now, I don’t know where “Maybe I’m Amazed” fits into Paul McCartney’s career. Was it with Wings? If so, they left off the best song he has ever done without the Beatles off this collection which makes me think that it wasn’t a Wings’ song. It must not have been, it doesn’t suck.
Oh, by the way, my sister stole this CD from me. Mom doesn’t know.

posted by pog mo thoin @ 7:28 AM 5 comments

10cc's of pure bubblegum pleasure

I have a treat for you this week kids! This week's feature item on Sucky CD Sunday is anything by 10cc.

Let's get the paperwork out of the way:

Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley & Lol Creme are the band. Godley and Creme had a hit called "Cry" in the '80s which was largely unmemorable except for the video where the face morphing thing was done for the first time and was pretty damn cool. The song was ok.

10cc - for those of you youngsters who were not subjected to 1970's commercial AM radio because your parents only had a push button one band in the 1974 Toyota Corolla -were the '70's equivalent to Maroon 5. I like Maroon 5, at least that "Sunday Morning" song, and I like 10cc, especially "I'm not in Love" and "Dreadlock Holiday". "The Things we do for Love" can still be heard on the easy listening stations but it is the kind of song you only hear because you can't reach the tuner. Having said that, I probably have it on my iPod because that's the kinda girl I am. I can't stomach a good percentage of what I have on my iPod. It's all nostalgia. I will dig deeper into two 10cc cuts this week.

"I am not in love" is a great make-out at the school dance song when you are slow shuffling under the spinning disco ball. Its a great chick song because if you listen to the lyrics, it is basically a guy telling a girl that he couldn't give a shite about her and he is just stringing her along; BUT there is a heavy handed implication and sub-theme that the reason he is an emotionally unresponsive and unavailable asshole is because he loves her too much. You have to read inbetween the lines. Girls love to read in between the lines. I have had the same conversation with my friends as the subject of this song so many times, I can do it in my sleep. Sex in the City ran for a million seasons on the basis of this conversation. 10cc put it to music. Brilliant. Then they have that english girl whispering with her half sexy/half London fish-monger whisper "Big boys don't cry, big boys don't cry" as if every guy that never called me was sitting, tortured, by the phone, sobbing his eyes out and wrestling with his insecurities. I knew it! Ha!

"Dreadlock Holiday" is one of those ones that God forbid you get it into your head before having to do brain surgery or make a speech before congress. Its reggae-like beat and kind of funny lyrics create an infinite loop in your brain. You IT geeks know what infinite loops do, don't you? They drain your system of processing power and it just slows down and clogs up everything. Such is the effect of this song on your ability to manage your day. If it gets in my head, I am useless for the rest of the day until such time that the loop is terminated but some more powerful force - like the Alan Parsons Project.

10cc are the self-professed, "Worst band in the world" and while they are not out of the running, they do not hold the title. We have yet to bestow that title on anyone here on Sucky CD Sunday.

But we are working on it.

posted by pog mo thoin @ 5:54 PM 4 comments

How Sweet it is!

The first post of Sucky CD Sunday is dedicated to the musical stylings of '70s Glamour Rock band, Sweet. Since I have admitted to utterly robbing this idea from forgotten Disc Friday, I am going to start with the administration details, just like he does. Here they are ...

The Band: Andy Scott, Steve Priest, Brian Connolly, Mick Tucker.
Origin:England
Years active: 1968 , 1981
Genre(s):Pop, Glamour Rock
Label(s):RCA,Capitol Polydor

These guys had 8 #1 hits in Germany. That pretty much says it all. Have you heard what constitutes as music over there? And all you Kraftwerk fans with your fingers on the comment button, forget it, they are the next post on Sucky CD Sunday.

"Ballroom Blitz" was their big hit, best known for a cover that Tia Carrera sings in Wayne's World. Sweet's own version is better because it sounds freaky and maniacal. My personal fav is "Love is like Oxygen". I think I like it for the astute, angst-ridden lyrics that speak to me like poetry.

Love is like oxygen
You get too much you get too high
Not enough and you're gonna die
Love gets you high

Truer words have never been spoken.

When I think about it, for me, Sweet is exactly what their name denotes. I sometimes crave them - sometimes I need to crank Ballroom Blitz to "11" and let that just rip. And then I feel sick to my stomach.

posted by pog mo thoin @ 2:19 PM 2 comments