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Woeful Music Choices

post #1 of 96
4/15/08 at 12:42pm
Thread Starter 
I like to think I've got pretty good taste in music. As a teenager I was so certain of this that I became a bit of a fascist about it, something haranguing strangers at Camelot for daring to browse the Bon Jovi section in my presence.

I've lightened up over the years, going so far as to marry a big, big fan of Bon Jovi (though she later cast them off for Smashing Pumpkins and Marilyn Manson.) And though I'll go to my grave convinced of my sterling musical sensibilities, I've made a few questionable decisions over the years.

The first bands I ever loved were Blondie and The Police ... but the first record I ever bought with my own money was Supertrooper by ABBA.

A few other offenders?
Bruce Willis: The Return of Bruno
Poison: Open Up and Say Ahhh
Dragnet: The movie soundtrack


Anyone else want to use the anonymity of the Internet to confess to buying some bad, bad music at some point in their lives?
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post #2 of 96
4/15/08 at 12:50pm
ABBA isn't woeful. And how is Marilyn Manson an improvement over Bon Jovi? Your post is confusing.
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post #3 of 96
4/15/08 at 12:52pm
One of the first albums I ever owned was Pac Man Fever by Buckner and Garcia. Not the single, the entire album.

And yeah, Super Trouper is a decent album, and the title track and "The Winner Takes It All" are great tracks.
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post #4 of 96
4/15/08 at 12:59pm
I had two cassettes by the California Raisins. Although, those covers eventually lead me to the originals so I can't really complain too much. I got introduced to Booker T. and the MGs at a young age that way.

And yeah, give me Bon Jovi over Marilyn Manson or (most) Smashing Pumpkins any day.
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post #5 of 96
4/15/08 at 1:07pm
I think the first record I ever bought with my own money was the Nine to Five soundtrack.
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post #6 of 96
4/15/08 at 1:20pm
My first CDs were Vanilla Ice and Hammer. Speaking as a 4th grader (I think), I feel no need to apologize.

EDIT: EH.
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post #7 of 96
4/15/08 at 1:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissZooey View Post
ABBA isn't woeful. And how is Marilyn Manson an improvement over Bon Jovi? Your post is confusing.
ABBA is pretty close to woeful but I otherwise agree.

I would say my first tape purchase, No Jacket Required, was shameful but I still think some of the songs on there were pretty good. It wasn't until the mid-90's or so that Collins went 100% shitty.
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post #8 of 96
4/15/08 at 1:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gravedigger View Post
ABBA is pretty close to woeful but I otherwise agree.
::flips the switch on the Chavez-signal::

Dancing. Queen.

The first record I owned was Thriller, when I was six. The first tape, if I had to guess, was probably Hangin' Tough by the New Kids on the Block. The first CDs were New Miserable Experience by the Gin Blossoms and Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins. All in all, I'd say I have very little to be embarrassed about.
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post #9 of 96
4/15/08 at 1:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissZooey View Post
::flips the switch on the Chavez-signal::

Dancing. Queen.

The first record I owned was Thriller, when I was six. The first tape, if I had to guess, was probably Hangin' Tough by the New Kids on the Block. The first CDs were New Miserable Experience by the Gin Blossoms and Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins. All in all, I'd say I have very little to be embarrassed about.
Yeah, I'm not trying to hear this anti-ABBA talk. Dancing Queen is THE TRUTH.

I actually went back a few weeks ago on a whim (an alcohol-induced whim) and bought all the Gin Blossoms singles off Amazon. They hold up pretty well. I wouldn't say they're in steady rotation, but there's some good pop songwriting going on there.
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post #10 of 96
4/15/08 at 1:43pm
The first album I ever bought was the Footloose soundtrack. It must have been the cover because I hadn't seen the movie yet. So yes, for a brief period I too danced to the musical stylings of Kenny Loggins.
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post #11 of 96
4/15/08 at 1:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gravedigger View Post
ABBA is pretty close to woeful but I otherwise agree.
Between this statement and the one you made the other week in the Idol thread about Our Lady Peace, I don't think I know you anymore.

Besides the aforementioned Dancing Queen, there are Take a Chance on Me, Waterloo, Mama Mia, Voulez Vousand Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! to name but a few.

Your assignment. Learn the greatness that is ABBA.

Edited to add: My first album? By Peter, Paul and Mary: Puff the Magic Dragon
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post #12 of 96
4/15/08 at 1:51pm
When I was a kid, I had three Def Leopard albums. On cassette. I used to rock out hard to those on my walkman.
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post #13 of 96
4/15/08 at 2:01pm
When I was young, I had a fascination with movie soundtracks. Not scores, mind you, but the shitty "Inspired by <movie>" soundtracks featuring random licensed songs. Awful.
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post #14 of 96
4/15/08 at 2:12pm
Pipes of Peace - Paul McCartney
Ghostbusters - soundtrack
Duran Duran - Seven and the Ragged Tiger (or something like that)
Night ranger - it was the one after "Sister Christian", so it doesn't even have that going for it.
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post #15 of 96
4/15/08 at 2:19pm
First vinyl I remember purchasing of my own accord was Songs From The Big Chair when I was in grade 5 or so. Obviously, since I was alive in the eighties, I had Thriller (along with Off The Wall, a gift from my Aunt), but I believe SFTBC was the first time I purposefully strode into a music store, picked something out, and paid for it with my money (though, if memory serves, I used a gift certificate).

A few years later, Santa brought me my first CD player, along with Appetite for Destruction, Mother's Milk, and... Information Society.
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post #16 of 96
4/15/08 at 2:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattimus View Post
When I was young, I had a fascination with movie soundtracks. Not scores, mind you, but the shitty "Inspired by <movie>" soundtracks featuring random licensed songs. Awful.
I had the same problem. My cassette rack was filled with movie soundtracks and Weird Al tapes.

On ABBA, I like Dancing Queen and Waterloo but that's about it. Sorry.
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post #17 of 96
4/15/08 at 2:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattimus View Post
When I was young, I had a fascination with movie soundtracks. Not scores, mind you, but the shitty "Inspired by <movie>" soundtracks featuring random licensed songs. Awful.
I have a ton of movie soundtracks. There's nothing inherently wrong with that. It's like having a cool mix tape that reminds you of a movie.
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post #18 of 96
4/15/08 at 3:22pm
Hall and Oates- "Out of Touch" 12-inch single.

This is wrong on so many levels. The 12-inch remix is really only suited to select genres and Hall & Oates ain't one of them. But it was the 80's and everything got a 12-inch remix. Plus it was one of Hall & Oates shittier singles, released right before they disappeared from the charts altogether.
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post #19 of 96
4/15/08 at 3:36pm
I hate Abba, and Marilyn Manson and The Smashing Pumpkins are a million times better than the black hole of mediocrity that is Bon Jovi any day.
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post #20 of 96
4/15/08 at 3:38pm
Them's fightin' words, Werewolf Girl. Slappy fight at dawn, ma'am! LD shall be my second!
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post #21 of 96
4/15/08 at 3:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattioli View Post
I have a ton of movie soundtracks. There's nothing inherently wrong with that. It's like having a cool mix tape that reminds you of a movie.
But owning the Godzilla soundtrack? Or the first Mission:Impossible? I look back and shudder on what I was thinking back then. Luckily, I discovered film scores and now I feel better about myself.
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post #22 of 96
4/15/08 at 3:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissZooey View Post
Them's fightin' words, Werewolf Girl. Slappy fight at dawn, ma'am! LD shall be my second!
Excellent, you'll need a second person there to drag away your bleeding battered carcass after I betch slap you to death.
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post #23 of 96
4/15/08 at 3:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissZooey View Post
Them's fightin' words, Werewolf Girl. Slappy fight at dawn, ma'am! LD shall be my second!
Got your back, Zo'. Truth be told, I don't even particularly like Bon Jovi, outside of the few karaoke classics he's got out there.

Still, I think it would be a mistake to say that either Marilyn Manson or The Smashing Pumpkins are better. In fact, time hasn't really been so kind to The Smashing Pumpkins.
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post #24 of 96
4/15/08 at 3:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattimus View Post
But owning the Godzilla soundtrack?
Well, who didn't love that Diddy song?
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post #25 of 96
4/15/08 at 3:44pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattioli View Post
I have a ton of movie soundtracks. There's nothing inherently wrong with that. It's like having a cool mix tape that reminds you of a movie.
Yeah, but some of them are nightmarishly bad. I used to own the Dragnet soundtrack. Not the Jack Webb "Dragnet," the Tom Hanks/Dan Ackroyd one. I have NO idea what I was thinking (actually, it was probably something like this: "Oooh, an Art of Noise song!")

I could probably dominate a thread titled "Woeful Soundtrack Choices." I owned the soundtrack to Howard the fucking Duck. On vinyl.
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post #26 of 96
4/15/08 at 3:45pm
I remember standing in a Tom Thumb in Jollyville, TX, holding in one hand a Thomas Dolby record, and in the other, Seven and the Ragged Tiger from Duran Duran. I was stumped. I decided on the Duran Duran vinyl. I've never looked back.

And speaking as a former resident of Tempe, I have to say this: the Gin Blossoms suck.
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post #27 of 96
4/15/08 at 3:47pm
I remember my first car had a piece of shit cassette player that had Slippery When Wet stuck in it. I tried everything to get it out but couldn't so I had to either listen to it over and over again or listen to no music whatsoever. Totally made being a teenager even worse.
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post #28 of 96
4/15/08 at 3:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Devildoubt View Post
And speaking as a former resident of Tempe, I have to say this: the Gin Blossoms suck.
Not if you were 13 in 1992 and didn't live in Tempe. It's kind of like the BoDeans if you live in Milwaukee - generally speaking, no one cares about the BoDeans. But, if you live here and you care even just a tiny bit about music, the BoDeans will make you want to go on a killing spree. They will not go away.
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post #29 of 96
4/15/08 at 3:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissZooey View Post
Not if you were 13 in 1992 and didn't live in Tempe. It's kind of like the BoDeans if you live in Milwaukee - generally speaking, no one cares about the BoDeans. But, if you live here and you care even just a tiny bit about music, the BoDeans will make you want to go on a killing spree. They will not go away.
Hello Ohio State and O.A.R.!
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post #30 of 96
4/15/08 at 3:57pm
Ain't nothing woeful about Songs from the Big Chair. And I like the regular single version of "Out of Touch", but the 12" is over-doing it just a bit. Hell, even Springsteen had a 12" remix of "Dancing in the Dark" back then.
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post #31 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TURBO-1984 View Post
Night ranger - it was the one after "Sister Christian", so it doesn't even have that going for it.
Seven Wishes, right? I had that on vinyl and Midnight Madness (the one that did have "Sister Christian" on it) on cassette.

Pre-7th or 8th grade, my music collection was a big mess of haphazard choices, some of which I can defend, some of which I can't (what the hell is a Foreigner Greatest Hits album doing there???).

But I can still say that I started my CD-buying era in a respectable fashion - I first bought the Pixies' Monkey Gone to Heaven CD single, followed by Bob Mould's Workbook and Living Colour's Time's Up. But I was already a sophomore in high school by the time I had a CD player, so it's not like I stumbled on to these as a fifth grader or something.
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post #32 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissZooey View Post
Not if you were 13 in 1992 and didn't live in Tempe. It's kind of like the BoDeans if you live in Milwaukee - generally speaking, no one cares about the BoDeans.
The entire UNC class of 1993 (all of them) would like a word with you...
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post #33 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark View Post
Hall and Oates- "Out of Touch" 12-inch single.

This is wrong on so many levels. The 12-inch remix is really only suited to select genres and Hall & Oates ain't one of them. But it was the 80's and everything got a 12-inch remix. Plus it was one of Hall & Oates shittier singles, released right before they disappeared from the charts altogether.
I went in to the local Target two hours after I saw the MTV video premiere of "Out of Touch" and proudly purchased a cassette of Hall & Oates' Greatest Hits. It was the only H&O cassette they had, but I figured that since it was such a great song, it had to be on there. After all, that video was the greatest hit of my lifetime.

Once the security case was removed and the money forked over, "Out of Touch" wasn't listed on the cover. "It's okay, " I thought. "No need to panic. I just got the title wrong. I just got the title wrong. Maybe it's called 'Private Eyes.'" An hour's worth of rewinding and fast-forwarding yielded nothing but intolerable frustration.

Out of Touch, indeed. I had a lot to learn about the record industry.
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post #34 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sherm View Post
I remember my first car had a piece of shit cassette player that had Slippery When Wet stuck in it. I tried everything to get it out but couldn't so I had to either listen to it over and over again or listen to no music whatsoever. Totally made being a teenager even worse.
Goddamn, that sounds like some kind of Kafka nightmare.
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post #35 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MSO Major Domo View Post
Yeah, but some of them are nightmarishly bad. I used to own the Dragnet soundtrack. Not the Jack Webb "Dragnet," the Tom Hanks/Dan Ackroyd one. I have NO idea what I was thinking (actually, it was probably something like this: "Oooh, an Art of Noise song!")
Come on, be serious. What you were actually thinking was, "Oooooh, Dan Ackroyd and that guy from 'Bosom Buddies' doing a Dragnet rap!" Don't tell me you tried to repress memories of "City of Crime".
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post #36 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sherm View Post
I remember my first car had a piece of shit cassette player that had Slippery When Wet stuck in it. I tried everything to get it out but couldn't so I had to either listen to it over and over again or listen to no music whatsoever. Totally made being a teenager even worse.
That story made me a little bit misty.
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post #37 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The LD View Post
Got your back, Zo'. Truth be told, I don't even particularly like Bon Jovi, outside of the few karaoke classics he's got out there.

Still, I think it would be a mistake to say that either Marilyn Manson or The Smashing Pumpkins are better. In fact, time hasn't really been so kind to The Smashing Pumpkins.
Gish, Siamese Dream, and most of Mellon Collie all hold up pretty well, I'd say, even if Corgan still seems determined to make himself one of the most bogglingly unlikeable characters in rock.

But, yeah, I'll take Abba and most of the other "woeful" choices in this thread over Manson. Although I'd certainly take Hall and Oates, the Gin Blossoms, and, yes, maybe even Night Ranger, long before Bon Jovi.
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post #38 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The LD View Post
Got your back, Zo'. Truth be told, I don't even particularly like Bon Jovi, outside of the few karaoke classics he's got out there.

Still, I think it would be a mistake to say that either Marilyn Manson or The Smashing Pumpkins are better. In fact, time hasn't really been so kind to The Smashing Pumpkins.
Bingo. Pretty much my entire reason for saying Bon Jovi is better is the existence of "Bad Medicine."
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post #39 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The LD View Post
In fact, time hasn't really been so kind to The Smashing Pumpkins.
Have you listened to "Cherub Rock" lately? Say what you will about the rest of their output, but that song ranks up there with the best guitar-crunchers of any era.
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post #40 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:23pm
Earliest album I remember: Some compilation of Disney songs you could buy at Gulf gas stations that my parents got for me and my sister. It had "I Wanna Be Like You" from Jungle Book on it and I wore that thing out.

First album bought for me: The Star Wars soundtrack album

First single I bought myself: "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen. The B-side was "Don't Try Suicide", which had the word "damn" in it so I thought it was something I had to hide from my parents.

First album I bought myself: The previously mentioned Pac-Man Fever. Sigh.

First cassette: Listen Like Thieves by INXS

First CD: Raiders of the Lost Ark
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post #41 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:24pm
You had me until "most of Mellon Collie." I tried to listen to that again a few weeks ago and started to think I had never been a fan of the Smashing Punkins AT ALL. Gish reminded me of the better times.

I think the "Footloose" soundtrack was also my first cassette purchase. In my "defense" it had a Sammy Hagar song, and he ROCKED, right?

"Killroy Was Here" by Styx was my first vinyl. In my "defense"...umm, robots?
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post #42 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianM View Post
"Killroy Was Here" by Styx was my first vinyl. In my "defense"...umm, robots?
Playing that album in a record store I worked at inspired a physical fight between two customers. One loved it, the other hated it, and both were probably on meth.
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post #43 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianM View Post
You had me until "most of Mellon Collie." I tried to listen to that again a few weeks ago and started to think I had never been a fan of the Smashing Punkins AT ALL.
Okay, over half, at least. And I'm leaving lyrics out of this, because Corgan's lyrics were always terrible and, on their best work, they're easily ignored. The music and the playing was still top-notch on much of Mellon Collie.
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post #44 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianM View Post
The entire UNC class of 1993 (all of them) would like a word with you...
Do they know what kind of suffering they've caused? Do they know that the BoDeans still play festivals around Milwaukee every fucking summer? Do they know that the BoDeans are one of the reasons that turning on the radio in this city has been labeled a health hazard by FEMA?
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post #45 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissZooey View Post
[I] Do they know that the BoDeans are one of the reasons that turning on the radio in this city has been labeled a health hazard by FEMA?
I never thought they'd make up for Katrina, but that comes pretty damn close.
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post #46 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveB View Post
Okay, over half, at least. And I'm leaving lyrics out of this, because Corgan's lyrics were always terrible and, on their best work, they're easily ignored. The music and the playing was still top-notch on much of Mellon Collie.
I think I may be hampered by age, here: I was in Junior High and early high school when the Pumpkins were big, and one of the reasons is that kids think dark=profound. So, I assumed (since I'm not a big pumpkins fan) up until today that the Pumpkins were really saying something with their lyrics. Then I spent some of my lunch hour reading their lyrics...ouch. So, that explains why they haven't held up well in my eyes.
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post #47 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:43pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveB View Post
Okay, over half, at least. And I'm leaving lyrics out of this, because Corgan's lyrics were always terrible and, on their best work, they're easily ignored. The music and the playing was still top-notch on much of Mellon Collie.
There are bands I liked from note one, and others I learned to like. Smashing Pumpkins fell into the latter category (as did Manson, who I loathed until Mechanical Animals.) I can defend just about every album in their catalog, but think some of it suffers from Corgan's own bloated sense of ego*. Someone should have told him that everything he records isn't gold. I think Meloncollie is a fine two-record collection, but it would have been a truly great record had he pruned it to one disc. (And The Aeroplane Flies High is the definition of unnecessary.)


*But who the fuck is interested in a humble rock star?
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post #48 of 96
4/15/08 at 4:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bendrix View Post
"No need to panic. I just got the title wrong. I just got the title wrong. Maybe it's called 'Private Eyes.'" An hour's worth of rewinding and fast-forwarding yielded nothing but intolerable frustration.

Out of Touch, indeed. I had a lot to learn about the record industry.
That's so sad. And I don't mean sad disgraceful, I mean sad heartbreaking.
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post #49 of 96
4/15/08 at 5:02pm
One of my first CDs I owned was the techno filled soundtrack to the VIRTUOSITY! Ugh!
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post #50 of 96
4/15/08 at 5:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The LD View Post
I think I may be hampered by age, here: I was in Junior High and early high school when the Pumpkins were big, and one of the reasons is that kids think dark=profound. So, I assumed (since I'm not a big pumpkins fan) up until today that the Pumpkins were really saying something with their lyrics. Then I spent some of my lunch hour reading their lyrics...ouch. So, that explains why they haven't held up well in my eyes.
Yeah, the lyrics have always been bad. On Gish (released when I was a senior in high school), I barely noticed, since the vocals were strategically buried. But you can't ignore them on Siamese Dream, so I guess I figured out how to tune it out for the sake of the guitar, drums, and even Corgan's voice, which is actually pretty cool sounding, words aside.

You can probably say this about a lot of bands from that era, though. Loud guitars made up for a lot of lyrical shortcomings.
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