Great songs with a terrible section

The first CD reissue of Moby Grape's Wow actually had the annoying part at the end of "Bitter Wind" snipped off, probably to fit the album and the (mostly monotonous) Grape Jam bonus disk on one CD. The whole album is full of decent songs messed up by terrible sections in it actually. "The Place and the Time" has some lovely parts like the "make the changes..." section about 45 seconds in, but also out-of-tune singing and sound effects near the end. "Just Like Gene Autry: A Foxtrot" was pressed at 78rpm and was preceded by spoken instructions to get up and change the setting on your turntable, followed by another spoken part read by Arthur Godfrey. "Funky-Tunk" has a verse sung half-speed-recorded chipmunk style. "Rose Colored Eyes", one of the album's best songs, has that spoken argument thing near the end. The recorder riff that begins and ends "Bitter Wind" is pretentious and unnecessary.

“Funky Tunk” also has the line, “How come you ain’t got on your clothes on?” (or something similarly grammatically confusing)

I wish I’d found a copy of Wow when I was 12-15 and still had a record player that could play at 78. I did, however, take advantage of the 78 speed when I read about the “star fleet” dialogue on Hendrix’s “Third Stone From The Sun.”

I've been on the fence about the acoustic section of "Symptom of the Universe" for the better part of 4 decades. Not terrible of course but I'm still not sure it should be there. Maybe it should have just been a separate song?

Air's Radio #1 is the first one to pop into my head for this. Those goofy vocals that come in after the three minute mark kill the song.

Another one is the album version of Too Much Too Young by Specials. I knew the two minute single edit first, so when I got the album I was so disappointed at the moment when the song starts again and drags on for another four minutes for no reason.

He's good on "Motorcrash"

Eh. He really doesn't add anything to the song. Live--at least to judge by their SNL debut--he detracted from it. It was really all Bjork.

Come on, now. Einar sucks in “motorcrash” too. Every sugarcubes song would be improved if you remove him. Best thing Einar ever did was creating the band and pushing for Björk to go solo.

tbf, he did serve on Reykjavik city council after the Sugarcubes disbanded.

Re:Specials, My friend has or had it in for part 2 of Stereotypes, finding it to be basically pointless. But I love it and (thinking aloud so haven't checked) it's also the only real showcase moment for toasting on any of their early material.

Where are you seeing that btw? Shug is credited as the lunkhead on discogs, with Meesah as Esthero's stunt double. Certainly rings a bell and a quick glance at the tracklist of Shug's 1996 album seems to square with that.

― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Friday, September 2, 2022 12:46 PM (two days ago)

shit, you're right. I did some very hasty "research" and wound up mistaking Doc's songwriting credit for a feature. was never my intention to sully his name like that

count me among the "You" conclusion defenders. also my buds and i made so much fun of the a capella Corgan section on The Everlasting Gaze but now i kinda think that and "you know I'm not dead!" are kinda the only good parts of the song.

another ruinously bad and offensive male guest rap: "Shoop."

i love einar

Yeah Einar is great!

He once posted on ilx!

Omg "2 On" is definitely a good incentive to explore this question although the "money money money weed fashion" part is fun. Why didn't anyone just ask him to track another verse?

A common answer I've seen on ILM many times (I think it was almost always the same person) is "Work," which I still don't really get. I'm not a huge Drake defender, but everything he added to that song always seemed in good taste, appropriate, and very collaborative. Even the "if you had a twin" lyric isn't 1% as bad as Schoolboy's verse on "2 On."

he's done worse things in his life but it's still the greyest portion of the song. I often forget he's on it and it's always a slight drag when he comes in

being forgettable is drake's best mode tbf

would y'all agree that the more you like an artist, the more the terrible sections are part of the fun because you just kinda "get" them as artists and can kinda get on their level, even if you know something is kinda stupid? (not talking about things that are actually offensive, just things that are artistically cringey and musically distracting?) and that therefore only the truly, really, appallingly terrible sections stand out to you, while the everyday-terrible ones just feel like part of the song?

or is this specific to my feelings about Paul McCartney, who probably has dozens of these as far as the general public is concerned?

This depends on whether I'm listening to them myself (fine) or whether I'm playing them to someone else (unbearable)

In answer to your question: The Replacments' Hootenanny to thread! Maybe.

speaking of, i love most of “uncle albert” but the “live a little, be a gypsy” part…i could take or leave

Okay, upon reflection, Macca is a pretty good example. A lot of stuff that seemed kind of silly at the time which I tolerated way back when, then cringed at, but ended up ultimately not minding. Thinking particularly of, say, Venus and Mars or especially Wings Over America. But maybe it's just a case of the premise of this thread

Reggae section in Live & Let Die, ugh

B-b-but it fit with the locations in the film! Oh wait.

Macca is a perfect example, the intro and outro sections of Pipes of Peace are the most beautiful little sections of music that I wish had been extrapolated into a whole song.

Instead, in the middle, there's terrible reggae with tabla breakdowns and lord knows what.

If ever somebody needed an editor or collaborator, oh wait!

Macca may be especially susceptible because he clearly really likes having a lot of musical ideas in one recording, and also constructing songs out of "sections"... with varying degrees or success.

“Bad Guy” outro

“8 Out Of 10” outro

“Boo’d Up” outro

Somehow now recalling some half-remembered details of the collaboration on his “Liverpool Oratorio.”

Drunk In Love is an amazing track with a bad Jay-Z interlude

it's still an amazing track

agree about the “bad guy” outro, the beat just feels cheap and repetitive

the “boo’d up” outro where we find out she’s british is great and i won’t hear otherwise

Love "Blerwytirhwng?" by Super Furry Animals but I'm not sure I've ever listened to it through. the loop is kinda cool for one minute, not six

It's a locked groove on the vinyl Out Spaced and I think also on the Llanfair EP 7". On the CD EP it's about 30 seconds, it's only on the Out Spaced CD that it goes on for a while (never bothered me)

I made an edit of The Doors' Touch Me with all the crap bits cut out

i did this too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOQX3IcsN6E

Ah interesting, makes more sense now xp

budo jeru at 4:46 5 Sept 22

I made an edit of The Doors' Touch Me with all the crap bits cut out

i did this too!

Jay-Z’s rap in “Crazy in Love”

the hilariously out-of-place monster rock drumbeat in Sting’s otherwise light jazzy “Englishman in New York”

I thought it was supposed to be a "hip-hop beat", to underline he's in New York.

My McCartney answer is "My Love" - the bridge/coda ruin it for me.

the hilariously out-of-place monster rock drumbeat in Sting’s otherwise light jazzy “Englishman in New York”

That was the first example that came to mind when thinking of the opposite phenomenon - amazing bits in otherwise okay songs. Tackhead intruding and then leaving and the song acting as though nothing ever happened

Nick Berry's Every Loser Wins is similar in that regard - random huge drums appearing for about 20 seconds near the end and then the song forgetting all about them. Except this time it's an amusing bit in an otherwise awful song.

The radio edit of Just Jack's Starz in Their Eyes works so much better than the album version with the quasi-grime interlude that threatens the momentum/nostalgia completely

“James BROWWWN! James BROWWWN!”

More-so in Stop Making Sense. He STILL is the Godfather of Soul y'all so CHECK-IT-OUT

the rap breakdown in Erasure’s cover of “Take A Chance On Me”

._.

nooo kinky makes it :(

The only Alcest song I enjoy, Tir Nan Og, has a boring and overlong moody guitar interlude that I always skip through

the hilariously out-of-place monster rock drumbeat in Sting’s otherwise light jazzy “Englishman in New York”

its so weird and out of left field that I can't dislike it exactly

Top 2 brief surreal moment from a 1987-88 pop hit along with the waltz bit in When Will I Be Famous

I thought the whole point of alcest was moody overlong guitar bits at least that's the impression I got from a few listens

I don't feel great dismissing the schoolkid stuff on stevie's "black man" considering where it's coming from but I don't love it, it nearly drowns out one of the best grooves on the album, and it hasn't aged as well lyrically as his better songs tackling race (still better than you know the one which is mostly a white man's fault anyway)