I think a better question to ask is worst bands by decade. As each decade passes there have been bands that somehow got a recording contract and we all wonder why? or better yet - How?
as for me -I'll start in the 70's - styx, KISS, REO, the ramones (hate them-personal)
80's - the whole hair metal copycat scene too numerous to name, the special mention .38 special- horrible 90's - the whole white boy rap metal scene - Korn, limp bizkit etc, then tonic, soul asylum, counting crows, wallflowers 2000's - the beginning of the end of rock - fill in the __________
Got to say a lot of bands can be listed as the worst, but my personal opinion is George Thorogood can’t sing worth a crap. Don McLean 10minutes of Bye Bye American Pie.
Blues Traveler has the worst harp player I’ve ever heard. Hearing him blow is like watching the majority of white men dance: unintentionally funny, or brutal torture.
Oops, I of course meant to say Wexler was Aretha’s producer at Atlantic Records. After Columbia failed to figure out what to do with her, Wexler got Aretha out of her contract with them and took her down to Muscle Shoals, putting her in Fame Studios with that studio’s house band, known amongst musicians as The Swampers, the best R & B band ever in the opinion of those who matter. He did the same with other Atlantic singers: Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke, Dusty Springfield, buncha others, and took Dylan down there too, for his found God albums.
Before all that, Wexler had produced Ray Charles, Big Joe Turner (one of my all-time favorite singers. I saw and heard him in the mid-80’s at Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd., backed by a "pretty good" white Blues band, The Blasters), Dr. John, Ruth Brown (SUCH a great singer) and LaVerne Baker (a fantastic singer, check her out). So he knew just what he was getting in Lou Ann, and exactly the musical environment to create for her. Great material, a great band, and a great singer; that’s "all" it takes. ;-)
Sorry, imo Janis was not a great singer, or even a good one. And the Big Brother musicians were absolutely dreadful (what could be worse than a hippie garage band?!). Even her contemporaries were telling her that, and that she should dump them. She stood by them though, until she just couldn’t anymore. She hired The Full Tilt Boogie Band, and that was more like it. The band’s piano player, Richard Bell, was later a member of The Band. What a contrast from the clowns in Big Brother!
Hey, if you wanna hear a really great white male R&B singer from the relatively modern era, listen to Willy DeVille (and the band he debuted in, Mink DeVille). He unfortunately developed a nasty little drug habit, which effected his career. He collaborated with Doc Pomus, Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, and Jack Nitzsche (Phil Spector’s arranger and orchestrator, and Neil Young’s piano player on the Harvest album). I would have loved to hear Willy and Amy Winehouse duet, but they’re both dead.
@dgarretson, I realize mine is a minority opinion, but yes, it was in the Summer of '68 I saw/heard them live. The guys in Big Brother exemplified everything that was wrong with hippie musicians, and Janis was doing her standard "shrieking/screeching" style of white-girl Blues "singing". You know, trying too hard to be "soulful". Cheap Thrills was produced by John Simon; John also produced the first two superlative Band albums, so the blame can't be laid at his feet. Hey, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. ;-)
For anyone who wants to hear how it CAN be done, give a listen to Lou Ann Barton. She has a few solo albums, and often tours with Jimmie Vaughan. She was the singer in the original version of Double Trouble, when Stevie Ray was "only" playing guitar in the band. Her fantastic Old Enough album was produced by Glenn Frey and Jerry Wexler, Wexler Aretha's producer at Columbia Records. Now THERE'S a great white woman Blues singer.
Many of ya'll may be too young to have seen/heard Big Brother & The Holding Company live. Believe me when I tell you, you have never heard anything as bad. I had to leave the ballroom.
Having a vested interest in the music of my generation ('70 Rock) I was more than a little dismayed seeing so many bands that I had either seen in concert or had at least one album./cd of. I am a little curious how everyone is gauging 'worst band'. What is the benchmark that you are using? Having never recorded a decent song in their entire career, fron first to last? Having only one listenable song per album, two maybe?
While I do take exception to a lot of the name put forth as if I like one or several of their songs I would be hard pressed to call them the worse. There are a lot names that if I did not hear a single track for the next twenty years I would consider myself fortunate. All bands, no matter how sucessful tend to go off the rails at some point. I doubt that many can say they love every track of every ablum that a specific band recorded over their career. Equally, I doubt that a band you might have liked and wnet to go see blew the live event. I doin't know about everyone else, but I have my good and bad days. I think it is human thing....
@ghosthouse, Yeah, that's a good one. Also on Pet Sounds is the sublime "God Only Knows", one of my three all-time favorite songs. It has not only strings and brass, but also woodwinds. And unlike The Beatles who required George Martin to write the parts for the orchestra instruments, Brian wrote his himself (he reads and knows music notation). "God Only Knows" has three bass parts---one for electric (Carol Kaye playing an incredible part containing numerous examples of inversions, my absolute favorite thing in music. It was hearing that part that woke-up Paul McCartney to the possibilities of the instrument), one for string (upright) bass, and a third for the Fender-6, a really cool 6-string bass that Duane Eddy played guitar solos on. Just above the basses is a cello.
Brian's aborted Smile album is what I think Progressive Rock can be, and mostly isn't. Informed by Classical (actually, using your knowledge of music theory in the writing of songs is a better way to put it), but not attempting (with poor results, imo) to combine it with Rock, or play it with a Rock band. That's just silly, and sounds that way. Pictures At An Exhibition by ELP is just dreadful. It was written for solo piano (I have a recording of it so performed), and orchestrated by Maurice Ravel. THAT is how it should be performed, not by a 3-piece Rock band. That can not possibly do justice to the music.
FWIW (little in the larger scheme of things, I know) - but generally, I've got nothin' against strings or horns. Did kinda expect anti-strings would go along with anti-prog is all - but the reality ain't so simple, it appears.
Talking about strings and horns and doing a 180 from the OP's original intent. These might be the most ravishingly beautiful 144 seconds of contemporary music ever written -
@ghosthouse, yup, I'll be posting my thoughts. As a teaser, there are plenty of examples of them used in a way of which I approve ;-) ; Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, Roy Orbison, Randy Newman, The Lovin' Spoonful, and George Martin immediately come to mind. The use of brass (horns) is a related subject. Hint: my approved list won't include Chicago. I'll be back.
I sort of get where you are coming from though I don't share the position. It sort of reminds me of some of the aficionados over on the Jazz thread and their view of "real" jazz and jazz purity (my term for it). Anyway, I'm curious how you felt/feel about the use of strings in rock. I remember a conversation with a school chum long time ago...musta been in 7th or 8th grade. He was incensed about the use of strings (maybe a new Doors album had come out). Thought they had NO place in "rock". I remember being somewhat taken aback by his vehemence. Noteworthy that he had much older sisters - suspected influences on the development of his musical taste.
I went through what I guess could be called a Progressive phase. I had the debut album by The Nice, Keith Emerson's pre-ELP band. I even saw them live in late '68. My favorite Rock 'n' Roll guitarist Dave Edmunds had his pre-solo band Love Sculpture, who did a Rock band version of "Sabre Dance" by Classical composer Aram Khachaturian, much as ELP later did with Mussorgsky's "Pictures At An Exhibition". Dave soon after saw the light, and devoted himself to celebrating American Rock 'n' Roll, recording his debut solo album which included an incredible version of Smiley Lewis' "I Hear You Knocking". Hail, Hail Rock 'n' Roll!
The Ramones are a misunderstood band. They were an "inside joke", a wink between those who got it. They were waging a deliberate and calculated attack on Progressive Rock, which they and many other Rockers (myself included) despised. While on their first three albums they sound a little "weak" as a band (though the material isn’t), the replacement of Tommy (not a strong drummer) with Marky on the fourth (Road To Ruin, a great album. It was actually produced by Tommy.) cured that. Marky was a very "muscular" drummer, and had been in Richard Hell’s band The Voidoids (and in the Hard Rock band Dust, who put out one album in the early-70’s). The great Jazz drummer Tony Williams in an interview speaking of Marky: "Have you heard the guy in The Ramones? Now THAT is a great drummer."
Here’s a fun fact about The Ramones: In polar opposition to Spinal Tap, the two remaining living original members of The Ramones are Tommy and Marky ;-) !
steve miller was a natural, which is both a blessing and a curse--on the one hand he could effortlessly knock off a great, simplistic AM tune like take the money and run or the joker, while on the other hand much of his stuff is remarkably underbaked and tossed-off. his late 60s records (e.g. sailor and the above-noted children of the future), when he still cared, are really well-recorded and advanced + he had some really outstanding musicians such as boz and ben sidran (also an uncredited paul mccartney).
Steve’s debut album (Children Of The Future. It’s cover looked great under a black light ;-) was credited to The Steve Miller Band, and featured Boz Scaggs solely on rhythm guitar. Boz’s own debut album was a good one, with Duane Allman playing guitar.). I had seen the band the year before (’67), and they were going by the name The Steve Miller Blues Band, which they weren’t, really.
I’ve long wondered if The Strawberry Alarm Clock name was a play on The Chocolate Watchband, the 1965-8 San Jose Garage Band.
... what I think is a great recording/music is the 1st Hoobistank CD; they are pittiful when/if heard live. As I remember: The Band was rock-solid, recorded or live - almost note for note identical...
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