Hello, darkness, my old friend
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And yetā¦ every song that doesnāt use Satanās Flatulence (i.e., autotune) is better than every song that does. The worst non-autotuned song is one place better on the list than the best autotuned one.
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Well I donāt think anyone can argue that some people just canāt carry a tune, or play an instrument, or keep proper time. Thos are the objective terms I was thinking of.
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I swear, itās like you people have never heard of Bob Dylan.
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I just want to say that this thread makes me feel that much better for not thinking too highly of Bob Segerās work. I never wanted to say anything before because I was thinking that the man was generally revered as a god or some such business, and to speak against him was some kind of musical heresy.
I try to be all positive and upbeat and see the good side of stuff, but that manās music is vomitous. I will never be at peace with the existence of āOld Time Rock and Roll.ā
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I wouldnāt say I hate Bob Seger. Many of his songs just kind of blend into the wall of music that underpins life in the western world, and donāt offend me in particular. That one song is a notable exception because of its horrific over-exposure and because itās not a very good song to begin with. That opening 8-note riff makes my heart sink when I hear it over a restaurant or store PA system. Probably the only other song opening that does that to me is āSo this is Christmasā¦ā
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Just for some balance: I donāt hate āTurn the Page.ā
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[siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh]
FINE. Iāll give him āTurn the Page.ā
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I have to say, scores of hideous songs here and the only that is in my head is Melanie. 's okay.
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I think that Bob Seger has an appeal that is really rooted in the Midwest. I grew up in a small town in the corn and his music, the characters, the settings, it was relatable to a lot of people that I knew.
The music rocked enough and there were elements of pop, R&B and country to give it broad appeal. It wasnāt necessarily complicated, but it resonated with a lot of the people where I was. What Springsteen was to the East and Skynyrd and the Allmans were to the South, Iād suggest that Seger was to the Midwest.
Personally, I never much cared for most of his stuff growing up. I knew that Iād hear it in regular rotation on the jukebox at the bowling alley or pizza place or, later on, most bars. It was inescapable on the radio. For me it was just there.
But I think that the band has done a lot of really good music. It was never necessarily innovative, but it was steeped in the sounds that a lot of folks had grown up on. It captured details of life and youth that a lot of us recognized.
Iām also finding that, as I get older, the wistfulness of a lot of his songs finally makes sense to me.
(and I canāt believe that I wrote a rather lengthy statement for Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, but, just between us, I might be a bit high)
(that said, I am perfectly fine never hearing āOld Time Rock & Rollā again)
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I feel much more visceral and intense dislike for Springsteenās works than for Segerās, which makes sense since I was born and raised about a 15-minute drive from Asbury Park. lol.
Iām honestly baffled at his popularity, and how many musicians who are better at his purported signature thing than he is just seem to worship at his feet. Itās kind of depressing, honestly. Much like his damn songs. 
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You got it. And the amazing Roger Dean is another asset that carried over from the Yes side of things, though he did numerous other album covers as well.
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āThe Christmas Shoesā must have been written by Satan himself in an attempt to destroy Xmas. Besides several other Xmas tunes (all by Burl Ives), Iām horrified by:
āMickeyā by Toni Basil. Cheerleaders irritate me anyhow.
āBilly Donāt Be a Heroā by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. Too cute by half.
"Blind Man in the Bleachers by David Geddes. Weepy manipulation.
āParty All The Timeā by Eddie Murphy. Did he spend more than 3 minutes on it?
āHoneyā by Bobby Goldsboro. Again, soppy and contrived.
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I bet thereās an interesting psychological study hiding in all this. I suspect thereās an equation somewhere that can be used to quantify the āworstnessā of songs, and itās a sliding scale that moves around as we age.
My age today minus my age when I first heard the song divided by how many times Iāve heard it, squared by some Pi-like value representing the composite āmoodā of each occurrence, etc.
Iām visualizing some sort of point/cloud graph, like @SandyFrankās 6 Degrees of MSTification tool ā¦
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Iām happy to say my hatred of my two choices (way, WAY up this thread somewhere) has never wavered.
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I would love to know which editor thought turning Parker loose on Milne could have any other possible outcomeā¦ I mean, this is the same reviewer who said of Kathleen Norrisā āBeauty and the Beastā (no relation to the fairy tale):
I wish you could have heard that pretty crash Beauty and the Beast made when, with one sweeping, liquid gesture, I tossed it out of my twelfth-story window.
(which, apparently, is as close as Parker ever got to the infamous āā¦it should be hurled with great forceā line ā she never actually wrote that)
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Hell yes, it was all a silly fashion show, but at least it produced The Clash.
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That dragon doesnāt even have wings. And if it did, you wouldnāt ride its wings anyway. Thatās how much Asia sucked.
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Iām fine with the songs Springsteen writes, but I hate his voice.
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