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[Limmo]

Here's an interesting little tidbit I found on Metafilter.

The worst CD in the world. Here's something to while away the office hours, compiling the worst CD in the world from tracks that you own.

"What's your least favourite track by your favourite band? It's a difficult question, because often we're reluctant to admit that our favourite bands have written bad songs. We program ourselves to take sides: we'll often convince ourselves that a good song by a band we don't generally like is worse than a bad song by a band we normally love.

I'm interested to know if there's any common stuff in people's most hated songs list, and conversely if something you own and hate happens to be someone else's favourite. And if there's something you really can't stand - why did you buy it? Why do you still have it?

So it's fifteen tracks in your own record collection that you hate the most. "

I'll post my own list later today.  Our own PinkStainlessTail has posted some suggestions on the MeFi comments page.]

[V-Adore]

I've been trying to do this for a while. Will consider and post a list as soon as I have one.

[CortJstr]

My problem is that I only rip/encode the songs I like.

As for favorite bands: TMBG's worst song is Dead by far. Mary Prankster's is Darlin' or Green Eggs & Hamlet. For Fidel it's easily My Spot.

[andalucia]

Man, I wish I had my mp3 collection here.  Well, tomorrow I'll be reunited with it.  (But first of all, I'm appalled that CortJstr dislikes "Dead", or at least that he thinks its worse than the Malcolm in the Middle theme.)

My list:
1.   Sonic Youth, My Friend Goo or StreamXSonicSubway
2.   Magnetic Fields, Punk Love, Washington DC, and Love Is Like A Bottle of Gin
3.   R.E.M., Shiny Happy People
4.   Old 97s, Question.  But it got all of my friends into them.
5.   Elliott Smith, Amity, which has the most annoying opening ever.
6.   Nick Drake, Poor Boy.  I will never ever understand why it seemed like a good idea to use that kind of arrangement for a Nick goddamn Drake song.  Jesus.
7.   Cat Power, Names
8.   Tom Waits, Warm Beer and Cold Women, oh no wait, god, that one with Bette Midler.  Jesus.
9.   Bob Dylan, Blowin' in the Wind or Ballad in Plain D
10. The Velvet Underground, Beginning to See the Light
11.  Lou Reed, Hallowe'en Parade (off the top of my head, since I dislike quite a lot of his solo things, with the exception of Songs for Drella, which I love with all my heart.
12.  David Bowie, China Girl, because it's both politically and musically sketchy.
13.  Pixies, Gigantic
14.  Wilco, Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again)

That was difficult.

[CortJstr]

?! Gigantic is my favorite Pixies song!

When doing TMBG I was only counting album releases. So I ruled out the themes and weird TMBG Unlimited stuff.

[St_Zartan]

This is a hard exercise. I'm sure there are more, but you know how it goes. In no particular order, what I can think of Right Now:

1. Pixies, Silver. Narrowly beat out The Navajo Know; the latter is not fuck*ng unlistenable like Silver, but it sure as shit should not have closed out Trompe Le Monde.
2. The Smiths, Meat is Murder. Come on, Morrissey. You've weighed down otherwise great albums with some clunkers, but at least you had the British decency to put this one right at the end where it's so easily avoided.
3. The Fall, Hip Priest. No fuck*ng idea why people consider this one to be so seminal; maybe you had to be there at the time. Only down spot on the otherwise mighty Hex Enduction Hour.
4. Saint Etienne, Soft Like Me. What really makes me dislike a song is when it could have been really quite good indeed if not for one bit of indulgence that fuck*ng ruins it. In this case, the awful awful lyrics that are being rapped by some guest vocalist.
5. Black Box Recorder, The Facts of Life (Chocolate Layers Remix). See above. This version I would actually like better than the original, no small thing, were it not for the adolescent (har har) choice of samples. Wow. A woman having an orgasm? That's original.
6. The Olivia Tremor Control, The Bark and Below It. Thank you for breaking up this sparkling gem of an album with something like twelve minutes of atonal masturbation, fellas.
7. Belle & Sebastian, Beyond the Sunrise. Sort of a cheap and easy shot, but seriously: does anyone like this song?
8. Big Black, Jordan, Minnesota. Steve Albini really got into the whole child-abuse-role-play aspect when playing this one live; nothing rounds out a performance like a one-man molestation show over prolonged guitar feedback.
9. Radiohead, Climbing Up the Walls. Why did they choose this for inclusion on OK Computer over Palo Alto?
10. Komeda, Campfire. Dear Komeda: Stop letting the boys sing. Thanks. Love, Saint Zartan.
11. Sonic Youth, Kool Thing. Andalucia mentioned My Friend Goo which reminded me that I did in fact own Goo (my first Sonic Youth album, in fact; I bought it for Dirty Boots after seeing the video on Beavis and Butt-Head of all places) and that Kool Thing makes me fuck*ng cringe. Kim Gordon's husky "I'm a rough girl OK" thing is somehow amplified in its awfulness by the presence of Chuck D exhorting her to "tell (us) 'bout it", to "hit (us) where it hurts". The ears presumably.
12. Aphex Twin, Ventolin. Hey Richard? If I wanted to be physically injured by my music experience, I'd dust off my Throbbing Gristle discs. Said dust seems to indicate that I actually listen to songs now, thereby excluding this awful fuck*ng racket. Amazing this was on a disc with ICCT Hedral and Next Heap With.
13. Lush, Cul de Sac. This wonderful, wonderful band handed the songwriting reins over to the boys. The boys did not typically handle the songwriting chores, and thank goodness for that - they handed back this tepid instrumental suitable for playing in any threadbare, dimly lit Holiday Inn lounge you care to recall / imagine.
14. This Mortal Coil, Baby Ray Baby or The Jeweler (tie). What's worse, having a really good album interrupted with infant noises, or listening to What's-His-Face Appleton lisp his goddamned way through a song that is heavily laden with the letter "s"? ABC SPORTS AND NISSAN PRESENT: YOU MAKE THE CALL
15. Joy Division, Autosuggestion. The drums on this track bug the ever-loving shit out of me.

[arkabee]

I'll be slowly adding to my list of songs i HATE by bands i LOVE:

1. Luna- "Bonny and Clyde".  I think it's on Penthouse.  It's the one about Bonny and Clyde with the French(?) lady Singing(?).  maybe it's an OK song, if i were to be able to get over the sheer pomposity of it, except that it just does not fit on the album.  the album is not experimental.  why put this song on the album? why? whywhywhywhywhy? Dean, you would have made this type of song in G500 with the crazy art-school lady, but you guys broke up that band? remember? OF COURSE YOU REMEMBER because otherwise you wouldn't have been able to make this crappy song.
Sadly, it makes me ALWAYS pick this album LAST when i'm looking for a bit of Luna.

[slink]

1. Pixies, Silver.

Goddamn.
I like it. Probably the weakest track on the album, but I certainly don't think it's unlistenable.
Then again I can on occasion enjoy a bit of squarepusher, or NIN remix cds.


For me the only one that comes to mind would be Deep by NIN. Written hastily for the Tomb Raider movie, and it was shit. Everything else by the guy I think is fantastic, but that one single was dreadful and I like to pretend it never happened.

[side_show]

3.   R.E.M., Shiny Happy People

I remember reading an interview with Michael Stipe where he said he felt deep regret and shame for writing that song.  Recently he, Mills and Buck, did a version of this, with lyrics changed, for Sesame Street called "Furry Happy Monsters."  It's actually very enjoyable, and that woman from the B52's is replaced by a puppet that looks just like her.

Here's the Sesame Site with a clip from it http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/tv/stars/article.php?contentId=34500

9.   Bob Dylan, Blowin' in the Wind or Ballad in Plain D

I used to love The Times, They are A Changin', until it was used in a banking comercial for Bank of Montreal.  I'm not sure how these things happen - if Dylan had any say in it when it happened, but it just screamed sell out.  The recent Victoria's Secret thing - I just watched the comercial again from the link below, it's just so, so very, creepy.  What the hell Bob?  What. The. Hell.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2098635

I'd actually have to dig through my CD's to find out the names of songs I hate by artists I love.  It's so automatic to hit the skip button.

[St_Zartan]

1. Luna- "Bonnie and Clyde".  I think it's on Penthouse.  It's the one about Bonnie and Clyde with the French(?) lady Singing(?).

That's Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab singing on that track. For some reason, this song was chucked in on the end of a Stereolab Peel Sessions bootleg disc I bought a few years back. It grew on me, but then again I am pretty damn weak-willed when it comes to female voices with lovely accents. I'm willing to admit that musically it pretty much goes nowhere.

[Bozack]

Okay, I'ma do a list tomorrow, but for today: songs on andalucia's list that I actually like a lot:
My Friend Goo, all of the Magnetic Fields songs, Question, Names and Gigantic. I am weak. And I hold a soft spot in my heart for "Kool Thing," just because, in concert, that song is fuck*ng HOT.

[Limmo]

This was harder than I thought it would be.  Partially because many of my favorite artists have put out entire albums of suck: The Rolling Stones, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Radiohead, Prince, RHCP, etc.  Nevertheless, when I lunge for the FF button screaming "How could you?!?!", these are the fit fifteen:

The Beatles - The Continuing Adventures of Bungalow Bill.  Several McCartney tunes leapt to mind, and "Revolution #9" is an evergreen on these sort of lists, but "Bungalow Bill" really is horrible.  And should have been left in the loser bin with "What's the New Mary Jane".

Bob Dylan - Lay Lady Lay.  A terrible song, made worse by the tippy-tapping cowbell and Dylan's de-nicotined voice.  Yeesh.

James Brown - King Heroin. A public service announcement disguised as a ballad, from a man who should never ever ever lecture other people about the dangers of drugs.

Jimi Hendrix / Band of Gypsys - Who Knows.  A worthy song ruined by the out-of-control scat-singing of Buddy Miles.   I read once that Hendrix had to go through these tapes with a razor to remove even more of Miles' "contributions".  Why not just unplug his mic?

Led Zeppelin - Tea For One.  For twenty-three seconds, this is a neat song.  And then it becomes the most horrible dirge they ever recorded, and stays that way for nine minutes.   No thanks.

Nirvana - Milk It. A miserable, mewling piece of shit.  

Peter Gabriel - The Barry Williams Show.  You can just hear the label executives saying "Look, we know Up is an extended meditation on birth and death, but could you just rewrite "Sledgehammer" with lyrics about how bad talk shows are and throw it right in the middle? We need a single!"  Unforgivable, especially since "Burn You Up, Burn You Down" would have made Up a perfect album.  Grrrr.

The Velvet Underground - The Murder Mystery. A multi-tracked talking-head experiment that should have been left on the cutting room floor in favor of "Lisa Says."  Somehow even more annoying than Metal Machine Music.

Public Enemy w/ Anthrax - Bring the Noise. On paper, this seemed like a good idea.  At least, to me it did. On disc, a useless gangbang.  

The Red Hot Chili Peppers - Transcending. Though half of their last album could go on this list, the last song on the Navarro album is torture of the purest kind.  

R.E.M. - Hope. Another nearly perfect album called Up ruined by one unlistenable song.  Electroclash odes to cancer patients are never a good idea.  Even if Jough disagrees.

Passengers - Elvis Ate America. Bono?  You've recorded two songs with "Elvis" and "America" in the title.  They are the two worst songs you've ever done.  Knock it off.

Stevie Wonder - Isn't She Lovely.  Kids are great.  But I don't want to hear them screaming or taking a bath on a pop song.  

The Police - Mother.  An obvious choice, but wow.  They could have thrown Andy Summers' song "Someone To Talk To" ( the B-side of "King of Pain" ) onto Synchronicity instead and saved so many people so much suffering.

Prince - It.  Takes up a lot of space on Sign O the Times that could have been filled by a dozen better songs.  He's recorded many worse songs, but this is the one that just pisses me off.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Public Enemy w/ Anthrax - Bring the Noise. On paper, this seemed like a good idea.  At least, to me it did. On disc, a useless gangbang.

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuude!
No way!  This fuckin RAWKS!

[jough]

R.E.M. - Hope. Another nearly perfect album called Up ruined by one unlistenable song.  Electroclash odes to cancer patients are never a good idea.  Even if Jough disagrees.

I do disagree, although I don't know how you'd know that.  Did I include it on a mix disc I sent you?

In any case, I think it was the best song on Up (after Daysleeper) and I can't believe you like Airportman better, or fuck*ng Parakeet.  In any case, Hope is NOT the worst song on that album, and I don't know if we can be friends if you're going to keep this one on your list.

The Police - Mother.  An obvious choice, but wow.  They could have thrown Andy Summers' song "Someone To Talk To" ( the B-side of "King of Pain" ) onto Synchronicity instead and saved so many people so much suffering.

Mother is the song that I use as an example of when a genius band can go horribly, horribly wrong.  Just strum your guitar there, Dennis Miller Show band leader. Leave the songwriting to the one-named boy.

DEATH TO THE TWO NAMED BOY!

[/godfried]

[Limmo]

I do disagree, although I don't know how you'd know that.  

Cuz I'm wearing my special Kangol cap that makes me all psychic and shit.

We disagreed about it in an R.E.M. thread I'm too lazy to link to right now.  I do think it's worse than "Airportman"( which I take as a flat-out tribute to Eno's Music For Airports ), though only marginally worse than "Parakeet." We can still be friends, though, because I'm suuuuure there will be at least one song on your fit fifteen list that I will disagree just as violently with. Whenever you post it.

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuude!
No way! This fuckin RAWKS!

My Sarcasm Detector is in the shop getting a new meter installed, so I can't tell if you're kidding or not.  If you are: Yeah, it was bad enough that they tried to play the song on their instruments, but did they have to try to rap too?  If not: I've got an album for you!