Sucky CD Sunday

A Hard Habit to Break

2006-11-30T16:04:00.000-08:00

Ok, I am so ashamed. This is what I have been listening. Chicago's Greatest Hits and I just feel dirty. I used to HATE, HATE, HATE Chicago, especially that nasally bitch Peter Cetera ... but I guess my last migraine headache must have rewired my synapses in such a way that I had to buy this CD (actually JPD did) because it cost next to nothing - go figure - who buys Chicago CDs anymore except potentially brain damaged migraine suffers.

I'll come clean. It really wasn't a migraine that did it for me. There was a commercial on Irish TV that used that song "Please don't go". You know the one. "If you leave me now, you take away the biggest part of me, ooo ooo ooo no, baby, please don't go..." I bought it because I realised that after all this time, my musical taste has gotten so depleted that now I like - no -almost love this song.

Imagine my surprise when I find me singing my Sunday morning lungs out when track after track of such previously despised but now loved tunes are coming out of my CD player. Don't tell me "Saturday in the Park" and "Does anyone really know what time it is?" (That is deep there!) and those are the ones I expected. "Wishing you were here" C'mon! I didn't even know that was Chicago! Big bonus for Pog! I even like the 80's ones that I used to turn off of MTV like "Hard Habit to Break". Did I mention I feel dirty?

Still, Chicago may be one of the most annoying bands in musical history. "25 or 6 to 4" - annoying. "Beginnings" - doubly annoying. I still have to hit the FF button pretty damn quick.

All in all though, Chicago fits on my Sucky CD shelf quite nicely.

Nevermind indeed!

2006-10-16T06:46:00.000-07:00

I know what a lot of you are going to say and I don't care. I never "got " this band. They are on my top ten list of most overrated rock bands. And while I like Sucky CD Sunday to represent music that gets a bad name but people like anyway, I think the opposite is true of Nirvana. They get written up as one of the most important bands off the half century but I don't know anyone who actually listened to them past 1994. Let's explore why that may be:

The Grunge Movement of which this album is the anthem was a depressing, no-style era which held up the little to no talent losers as its icons. Actually, that is the job description for being a "garage band - "no talent" and "loser".
Kurt Cobain - oh Lord I am going to catch hell for this but the poor guy was a mental case. He was not Jesus, Buddha or the Shiva. He was a disturbed young man who knew no more than 3 chords on a guitar and owned a distortion pedal. Please don't let me see his narcotic blurred, unshaven face peer out of another T-Shirt. They guy should have been institutionalized. And no, his is pity-inspiring, not awe-inspiring.
The best song that Nirvana ever did - in my humble opinion of course - was the cover or Bowie's Man Who Fell to Earth. Not exactly a testimony to the power of their own stuff. Don't get me wrong, "Teen Spirit" as ok. It was all OK. I probably wouldn't be picking on them if they were touted as being an "ok" band of the '90's. But they are not. They are treated like the Second Coming.

Next week on Sucky CD Sunday (unless I change my mind) the top ten most overrated musical acts of all time!!!! I have all week to think about them but beforewarned. They will be controversial! You can gear up to take your shots early on or be nice and provide me with suggestions.

Until next week! Keep it Sucky!

A love song has come into my mind

2006-10-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

I don't know anything about this band. Surfing around to find this picture, I learned that the Little River Band is Australian. Go Figure! I pegged them for some midwest, moved to California, hung out with Air Supply and made history type of band. Imagine my surprise when this geographical twist was added to my very limited knowledge.

And hey! Did you know that the Little River Band had 13 top ten hits in the US over a 4 year time period including "Lady", "Lonesome Loser", "Cool Change", and of course "Reminiscing."?

This is one of the most unassuming, underrated, "easy listening" bands of the 70's. If you think that I am using "easy listening" as a derogatory label, think again! I love the entire genre and will put it up against many other musical genres of the time. Yeah, its easy listening. Yeah, your parents like it. So what! They like red wine with dinner and natural fibers in clothing - does that make wine and 100% cotton lame? No! Pog - 1 / People who use "easy listening" as a derogatory term - 0.

Their lyrics are good too. Really good. I mean, this was the era of the singer/songwriter like James Taylor and Jackson Browne, Elton and Taupin, so they had a lot of competition and probably couldn't be put in the same league but if you take another look at them now, they penned some pretty beautiful stuff.

For example ...

"And that Porter tune (night and day) made us dance across the room... it ended all too soon
And on the way back home, I promised you'd never be alone..."

Nice, huh? Then there is this one ...

If there's one thing in my life that's missing

It's the time I spend alone

Sailing on the cool and bright clear waters

There's lots of those friendly people

Showin me ways to go

And I never want to lose your inspiration

Time for a cool change...I know that it's timefor a cool change

Now that my life

is so pre-arranged

I know that it's timefor a cool change

Well I was born in the sign of water

And it's there that I feel my best

The albatross and the whales they are my brothers

It's kind of a special feeling

When you're out on the sea alone

Starin' at the full moon like a lover

Excuse me, I am going to the beach.

All over the world - oh, and Xanadu too

2006-08-27T05:30:00.000-07:00

I always knew, since the first posting I did on Sucky CD Sunday, that this post was inevitable so I figure, why prolonged the inevitable? Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you - the Electric Light Orchestra.

There has been a lot of tribute paid to music of the 70's and much credit for that should go to Hotwire, who has really put that much maligned decade back into the black (oh, yeah, didn't Back in Black come out in the 70's too?) but ELO was one of my first introductions into the decade's music when little Pog and her 27-year-old mother would go every weekend to the roller disco. Pog's fav song to take those corners under the disco lights was "Don't Bring Me Down". It was way better than "My Sharona" by the Knack or "I Can't Smile without You" by Manillo - thank God they saved that for couples skate. It was knocked out only by "Hey 19" by Steely Dan, some years later (again, thanks for the memories Hotwire!)

ELO's angle was that the band was supposed to be this science-fiction based band whose music and look and everything was supposed to be futuristic. The problem with that is that they never really sounded "futuristic" just "over-engineered" and they were dated about 2 days after they launched their records. It reminds me of those movies made in the 70's that were set in 2000-something which were so indicative of the 1970's that it is worth watching them for the laugh - Like the James Caan version of Roller Ball.

I bet everyone reading this likes, sort of, at least one ELO song, whether is be "Evil Woman" or "Livin' Thing". It's ok, we are not here to judge. I bet everyone reading this hates one too - like, will-not-even-let-it-stay-on-the-car-radio-if-you-are-underneath-it-and-have-to-wheel- yourself-from-under-the-chassie hate. Songs like "Xanadu" and "Telephone Line" spring to mind. But keep this in mind whether you are secretly digging an ELO song or scrambling to turn them off - they had an undeniable influence in the culture of the 1970s. They provided a vision of the future which would permeate into every aspect of our lives.

Remember this? Tell me you don't see the ELO album cover influence.

May the force be with you.

Purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka

2006-08-18T06:40:00.000-07:00

I want to go on record as saying that I think that Prince, formerly known as the Artist formerly known as Prince, is a musical genius. The guy is a natural talent with skills that rival any musician and certainly an ability that well exceeds his contemporaries. If you don't believe me, look at his unplugged sessions where he performs the most heavily studio engineered of his songs on one acoustic guitar without letting his audiance feeling that miss any of the track overlays.

I have included this album on this blog because, well, it defined a moment in time that was so specific, so over-the-top-1980's that it is dated. Because it is dated, it is open to that half-admiration and half-deprecation that is the nucleus of this site. Don't get me wrong, I love it. I still love it. "Let's go Crazy" with its electric piano opening ("Dearly Beloved, we gather here today to get through this thing called life") was played at EVERY grade school dance I attended. "Darling Nicky" was borderline porno in my young mind ("you know he is talking about masturbation" we whispered in 8th grade home room) and "Take me with you" - there is a boy who has a special place in my heart when I think about that song. I wonder if he is shaving yet? "Beautiful People" - my God, this was the most anguished song ever written by anyone - ever! And of course, "Purple Rain" the prom song coda dance itself! We dreamed of being teenagers to that song!

I saw the movie with 6 other of my teenie-bopper friends in the theater when it came out. It was a life changing experience. Prince oozed his very greasy, slightly distasteful but very watchable sexuality on a big screen amongst 5 stories of glitter eyeshadow and hair with it's own scaffolding. Brilliant. The Revolution was just creepy. Everything was opulant. Everything was like pirate pillage (especially the clothes). Everything was purple.

When I think back on that time, as buddingly sexual as it all was, it was all so innocent - or maybe it was just because I was looking at it from innocent eyes. I am not sure but, whichever, I remember this movie, this music, this time with great fondess. I guess I was in no need of the purification of Lake Minnetonka. For those of you who do not understand the allusion, please go and rent Purple Rain, listen to some great but dated tunes and laugh at Prince, the Revolution, Morris Day and the Time (oh we oh we oh), the entire decade of the 1980s and if you are old enough, yourself and your skinny piano key tie (male) or vertically stripped miniskirt with matching plastic bangles (female).

If you won't waste one of your netflix choices on Purple Rain (cheap bastards), then take a look at this ... 'cause in this life, things are much harder than in the afterlife, in this life, you're on your own.

My Kinda Lover

2006-08-13T07:05:00.000-07:00

This album is one of my guilty little secrets. I am ready to confess. "Forgive me Father for I have sinned. I upgraded by cassette to CD and listen to it on a regular basis"

When "the Stroke" was popular, Freddy Mercury was still alive and Queen was putting out hits. We were just getting over the Journey/Foreigner/Styx hangover (keep watching this space for those) although Styx had the bright idea of "Mr. Roboto." I hated it to much to even listen to it to poke fun. Billy Squire was slightly ahead of my discovery of David Bowie, the Talking Heads and all that "art rock" of the 80's that I signed up to without a second thought. He was pre-MTV - obviously by the looks of him.

"The Stroke", "My Kinda Lover", "Lonely is the Night" ... this is good stuff! I used to listen to this stuff on an illegal transitor radio at a summer camp in the Berkshires who only encouraged "the music that we made with our own voices." Hippy nazis is what they were. The only thing I remember about the place is doing chores...oh, and making blueberry jam from berries we picked in a graveyard, from trees growing out of the graves. Ugh.

I am not sure why Billy Squire remained squarely on the grade b rock star list. Ozzy's "Crazy Train" and Aldo Nova (remember him? his skintight leapord print pants) were churning out hits as well. To my naive, certainly not a musician's ear, all his songs are sort of clunky and crude - but hey, isn't that what rock and roll is all about?

Another thought I had about Squire while I was thinking about this post was that he was uncool. As much as he tried, as much as he grew his hair, greased it up, failed to button his shirts - all those "cool guy" trappings never worked for him. I think this is why is has a special place in my Sucky CD collection. He was good, he was solid, he was steady - oh, and I just found out he was a Berklee School of Music student - a boy who did his time in Boston! My favorites. I knew there was something about him. And his attempts to be cool just left him vulnerable and that vulnerability makes him human and it is the human side that is the most attractive.

Have you seen Billy now?

He is kind of a hottie, as the kids say. I am much more attracted to him now - now that he is decidingly not even on the cusp of being cool and playing gigs at the Mohegan Sun. Hmmm. I wonder if he is single?

I don't belong to you and you don't belong to me

2006-08-06T11:48:00.000-07:00

This blog comes via Simone, making a very special guest appearance here at Sucky CD Sunday! Please join me in welcoming her!

Album - Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1
Artist - George Michael
Produced By - George Michael
Released - 1990

Listen without prejudice? Sure, I can.
Forget Careless Whisper or Wake me Up Before You GoGo! George Michael's follow up cd to his successful "Faith" album was
"Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1" is one of the Best Sucky cds ever! No one really followed the Vol 2. It was a flop. Vol. 1
album made it bigger in the US - as a #8 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA, but only #28 on the UK singles chart.
Devoted mostly to ballads, the one song that should be played at the at high volume levels is the classic "Freedom `90" (#8
Pop, #27 Adult Contemporary, #16 Dance). Freedom 90 is six and half minutes long! The other club classic on the album is
"Soul Free." Perfect examples of 90's club music at its best. Both still are great to listen to on the Ipod. I was never a
fan of club music but when I hear "Freedom '90"- it makes me move, dance, rock, run... I'm sure you do too. Admit it!
By George, he's got... his set of problems. We all know. The drugs, the bathroom issues in public parks, he's got the right
stuff for a rock star. How'd he know his cd titled "Listen without Prejudice" would have so much meaning now?
How did I get attached to this cheesy brit pop post-Wham's cd? Hearing this song blasted in 1990 at a sound check over and
over again. Long story short, our sound guy was a Canadian rocker. A masculine, rugged, husky, Canadian man. And he blasted
George Michael before every show! Freedom 90!To hear the beginning of the song from the tambourine, symbols, into the piano
intro...god it rumbles in your core! You want to get up off your ass and you just want to dance!! The piano repeats and
repeats the same phrase over and over again --- like every pop song should. Sweet as candy.
Don't you also remember that great sexy video that accompanied Freedom? It featured hot supermodels (including Naomi
Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz and Cindy Crawford) lip syncing to his song. And no Michael
at all in the video.
The heartache he sings about on the other songs....lamenting...sorrowful lyrics and cracking voice...You feel his pain. A little too sad after hearing happy "Freedom 90". But
he's pouring his heart out! And that's life. you take the good with the bad...
But, it's George Michael!
Side Note: For those Arrested Development fans...isn't great that one of the main character is name and called George
Michael? I crack up every time I hear it!
Where is he now?
George is still in the news. Whether he's being busted for drugs or sueing a photographer. He's still making the news. Blah
Blah if you want to read more go here: http://launch.yahoo.com/read/news/34638663

God, I still love it though!

Grounds for Divorce

2006-07-29T03:06:00.000-07:00

There are two types of people in this world.
Those who like Neil Diamond and those who don't.
My ex-wife loves him.

-Bill Murray in What About Bob? Explaining why he got a divorce.

Alright, let's get into the conundrum that is Neil Diamond. I know I am going to get a lot of push back on this, as I did with Blondie last week and rightly so because Neil Diamond is one of those guys who, on one hand, is a talented song-writer in the genre of mediocre music on which Sucky CD was built. On the other hand, he is insufferable when taken in large doses.

For every good Neil Diamond contribution, there is one that cancels it out. For example:

Forever in Blue Jeans (good) v. Hello Again(awful)
Cracklin' Rose (good) v. Kentucky Woman (sucks)
Song Sung Blue (ok) v. I am ... I said (agonizing)
Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show (ok) v. Heart life (he was kidding, right?)

And then there are situations like this ...

Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon(sucks but I like it) v. Sweet Caroline (really, it isn't that good but it has become a great drunken kareoke song)

You get the idea. Neil was very prolific and he wrote tons. Some of them like "Red Red Wine" and "I'm a Believer" I feel were saved by the fact that Neil Diamond did not record them so his career as a writer is better than his career as a performer. I also get the feeling that Neil tried to fill a gap left by the death of Elvis in the 70's. It's a bit disturbing because it reminds me of the guy who is too old to be at a club but is still trying to work it with the ladies. Ewww.

So, does Bill's maxim of two types of people hold true - those who like Neil Diamond and those who don't? I don't think it is as black and white as that. But there are people who have really jumped on the band wagon of all that is Neil. Hey, if you search on images of Neil Diamond, you get a nice little photo essay on male pattern baldness.

Neil Diamond is from Brooklyn, as is my dad (and myself, born there). My dad loves him. My mom is from the Bronx. She hates Neil Diamond.

Maybe it is a cross-borough thing, maybe it is Neil Diamond thing, but my mom and dad didn't work out. Maybe Bob was right. Maybe there are just two types of people.

Sunday Girl

2006-07-23T05:54:00.000-07:00

This was the first album I ever bought with my own money. My grandmother and I walked to The Music Box in the little Hamden Plaza in Hamden CT and I gave over my birthday/Christmas/stuff I found in the couch money for this album.

I didn't know it at the time but this punk band, a feature at CBGB's, who hung out with the Ramones and were featured in punk rags for the years coming up to the release of this album, had broken out of the utterly cool, utterly punk yet utterly broke existance to put out this record, which included, among other pop-friendly songs, "Heart of Glass". "Heart of Glass" promptly became a darling of the Studio 54 dance floor and Blondie no longer could move in their punk rock circles. Apparently, Blondie was never really well respected because a) they really couldn't carry a tune b) Debbie Harry was too good looking and classically sexy to be edgy enough for punk rock so I don't know why they were vilafied by a community that rejected them in the first place.

A little more on b) ... whilst Blondie was doing gigs at CBGB, Debbie Harry was told by punk high priestess Patti Smith that she sucked and should never come back to the club again. You know, I've listened to Patti Smith and she may have meant something in the punk era but I think she sucked too and what a thing to say to someone! I thought the spirit and purpose of Punk Rock was too allow for the raw emotion, non-polished music.

What the hell Patti? I personally think that Smith was reacting to the fact that she looked like this------------------------------------------------>

<----------- and Harry looked like this.

So much for Patti Smith being cool. She is just a catty bitch like the rest of us. And don't tell me that Harry sold out the "music" with her looks - of course she did! With the shite band that was Blondie, they wouldn't have gotten anywhere if she didn't. Women suck, they really do, especially to other women that they feel threatened by for whatever reason, real or fabricated.

So, in the true spirit of Sucky CD Sunday, we have discussed a whole lot of topics and not a hell of a lot about the music so my parting words are these...

I still love Parallel Lines. I only have my original vinal copy and I have Heart of Glass on my iPod but I am thinking this is going on my amazon list as soon as I finish this post. So there. Oh, and to those women who feel threatened by me being friends with your husbands (and you know who you are - and I doubt they read this blog but you never know) ... eat your heart out! I pick Harry over Smith every time.

Infinitely Sad

2006-07-14T18:14:00.000-07:00

Just when we thought it was safe to gain a little self-confidence, crack a smile and let go of your teenage angst, they are back! Yes, on June 21, Smashing Pumpkins announced that they will be reforming. It is fitting that this announcement was made on the longest day of the year - a day that just keeps going on and on and on and on and on - kinda like the Smashing Pumpkins. Even the announcement as it appeared in Billy Corgan's full page add in the Chicago Tribune (that he took out himself) was annoying.

"For a year now," Corgan wrote, "I have walked around with a secret, a secret I chose to keep. But now I want you to be among the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive the Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams."

Didn't this guy kill himself yet? Obviously not but I will be coming very close to it if I have to endure "the pumpkins" as part of my auditory experience again in the near future. For me, the Smashing Pumpkins spoke to a generation of idiots who walked around being disenfranchised about the fact they had nothing to piss them off. They thought this stuff was clever.

I'm never coming back/I'm never giving in/I'll never be the shine in your spit/I disconnect the act/I disconnect the dots/I disconnect the me in me

Shine in your spit? Disconnect the me in me? We are free falling now ...

the disenchanted, the romantics,/the body and face and soul of you is gone /down that deep black hole/destroy the mind-destroy the body-but you cannot destroy the heart/and you, you make me so I need to disconnect/and you make it so real/I don't need your love to disconnect

... and now we have hit rock bottom. Are they kidding? This is stuff that isn't even fit to print in a high school literary mag where all the submissions should be called "an ode to my staged suicide attempt". Speaking of suicide, did I mention that even reading these lyrics again is making me lose the will to live?

You may say that the Smashing Pumpkins have earned their right to march to a funeral dirge. Here in Dublin, a girl was killed at an over-crowded show and Jonathan Melvoin, who was Wendy as in Prince and the Revolution Wendy's brother (that is a one of those killer trivia moments), died of a drug overdose. Another guy in the band was arrested for the incident - basically, they are all a train wreck. But it may be a case of 'what came first, the chicken or the egg?' I mean, drama kings and queens tend to bring a lot of drama into their lives. Corgan himself looks like a big, endomorphic baby. But I have limited sympathy, just like I had little sympathy for those pathetic "crys for help" by the self-indulgent, ridiculous 15 year old girls who timed their confessions of suicidal tendencies perfectly so they can miss midterms while they talked to the school councilor who would remarkably deem them fit to attend the homecoming celebrations.

Here is a description of the 1995 offering from the Smashing Pumpkins:

The result was Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a double album release featuring 28 songs and lasting over 2 hours (the vinyl version of the album contained three records, two extra songs and an alternate tracklisting). The songs were intended to hang together conceptually as a symbol of the cycle of life and death.

Pleaaasssee, God! Take me out of my misery! Do the words "overbearing, immature and adolescent" spring to mind for you too? No? Then you must be 15 years old.

Usually on Sucky CD Sunday, I own and like the music that I know to be bad for me but not in this case. The reason for this is because this music isn't bad for me like the standard fare on this blog - bad in the junk food way which is just an over indulgence of processed pleasure. The Smashing Pumpkins are bad in a much more lethal way. It won't turn my brain into sugary, bubblegum goop like Disco does - oh no- the Pumpkins make me go straight for the razor blades. Not only does this music make me want to die, it provides me with the soundtrack for my own demise. Ugh.

Oedipus Rod

2006-07-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

I think one of our culture's modern tragedies, a 20th century Oedipus if you will, is the way an artist of some integrity can fall from grace. There are many examples, some of which are just stumbles, mere hiccups nearing the precipice of the yawning hole of mediocrity and sell out. Some are full fledged swan dives into the middle of it. This week's Sucky CD Sunday is dedicated to one such diver.

What the hell happened to Rod Stewart? He used to be cool. He used to make music with the likes of Ron Wood and Jeff Beck to name just a few. He used to be Rock and Roll. If March did a Best of the 70's FDF, Every Picture Tells a Story would have to be on it. It is a shockingly good album, the music is good, the lyrics are great, it is still one of my favorites. Ooh la la, penned by Ron Wood and Ronnie Lane, out of the Faces time period is such a classic - I don't know anyone who doesn't like this song who has heard it (we'll see in the comments to this blog). But this is only a few.

So with a mark of authenticity and a history that demanded respect, what made him release things like the 80's "Young Turks", "Baby Jane" or "Passion". You've got to be kidding Rod! I am not even going to go into the "Da ya think I'm sexy" on Blondes have more fun because that has become iconoclastic in and of itself so it redeems itself, just by being so '70s cheesy and campy ... you will find I feel that way about most of the disco era.

Fast forward a little to the 90's and his biggest hit is with Brian Adams and Sting (two others who may appear on this blog in the future). And it is for a soundtrack. I mean, that's sad. He does a cover of "Have I told you lately" which is a Van Morrison song and if you hear Van the Man's version of it, you will hear why it is actually a good ballad and not the sappy piece of rot gut that Stewart put out.

So what to do with a steady erosion of a career? I know, put out an album of Gershwin, Porter and Berlin songs that have been popular since the 40's and no one can really mess up no matter what they do with them. Its a cheap, manipulative ploy. I mean, how bad can you mess up "What a Wonderful World" although, a duet with Cher "Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered"??? - I'll pass.

My theory is that Rod Stewart's career in music is taking the exact opposite path as Tom Jones. Jones started out as a cheesy lounge singer who was more at home in Vegas than with the Rock and Roll elite and now, he is releasing albums with the latest and greatest. He never sounded better. Weird, huh? And Rod? I'll look for him doing 2 shows in the Mirage with a matinee on Sunday.

Rod Stewart was diagnosed with thyroid cancer so I will cut him a break for this crap he has been putting out for the last 10-20 years. And, as the tradition of SCDS continues, my confession is that not only do I have all his bad music, I still listen to it AND I have seen Stewart in concert during college. He was good.

I hope there is still something left in Rod. I hate to think that we offer our best up only in youth and are left to the downhill slide. I think I would rather be Tom then Rod at leave something left for my older years. The thought of it is tragic.

McCartneyism

2006-06-30T07:28:00.000-07:00

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.

10cc's of pure bubblegum pleasure

2006-06-25T17:54:00.000-07:00

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.

How Sweet it is!

2006-06-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

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.