THE worst album.... EVER!!!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

He plays a vague blend of country/tropical/caribbean music that is very simplistic, designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator, mainly when people are gathered to drink.

That's really about all one needs to know, I think.

So why does he have those satirical-looking song titles?

MG

Because he's "clever".

Ya' know, when he first hit the scene he was cool for a few minutes. It was droll and wry, and yes, "clever". I mean, how do you not get a kick out of an album called "A White Sport Coat & A Pink Crustacean"? At least, that is, until the same type joke gets told over and over and over without any variance whatsoever and self-parody and self-caricature are warmly embraced and cashed in upon...

Thank you, Jim & Jazzmoose - that's most helpful.

MG

[papsrus]

[i mean, how do you not get a kick out of an album called "A White Sport Coat & A Pink Crustacean"?

I'll confess, I bought it. And enjoyed it. I just didn't sign on for the thirty year cruise...

[danasgoodstuff]

FWIW, I'll take Seeger's "Night Moves" over Dan's "FM" any day of the week. Yes SD is clever, but the're also annoyingly arch and just as cold as you'd expect of a band named after a dildo (not an actual dildo, that would be kinda funky, a literary dildo). As for the album in question, yes I could live quite happily without hearing any of it ever again, but it's hardly the worst ever. Just kind of mediocre and predicable like what FM radio had become by that time - predictably SD's somg "FM" tries to have it both ways by accepting the benefits of inclusion therein while being all snidely superior to it...fuck them.

[Big Al]

FWIW, I'll take Seeger's "Night Moves" over Dan's "FM" any day of the week. Yes SD is clever, but the're also annoyingly arch and just as cold as you'd expect of a band named after a dildo (not an actual dildo, that would be kinda funky, a literary dildo). As for the album in question, yes I could live quite happily without hearing any of it ever again, but it's hardly the worst ever. Just kind of mediocre and predicable like what FM radio had become by that time - predictably SD's somg "FM" tries to have it both ways by accepting the benefits of inclusion therein while being all snidely superior to it...fuck them.

Good point. I don't necessarily agree, but good point nonetheless.

[.:.impossible]

MG, Bev... if you've ever heard someone say "Hell, its five o'clock somewhere!", your world has been invaded by Jimmy Buffet.

Wearing a Hawaiian shirt in some in-land suburb, the funniest guy at a toddler's backyard birthday party will kick off the adult festivities tomorrow with that very line. Somewhere around 2PM.

His buddy will reply, "Get'r done!"

The fun begins.

[zen archer]

Ok wise guys, laff all you want, but if you think you'd have the beloved Steely Dan (or at least Steely Dan in the form they took) w/o Linda Ronstadt, think again.

First of all, I respect your logic and your reasoning, and I think I know where you're coming from (i.e. the ONLY reason I like Foreigner's Double Vision is simply because it was one of the first rock records I ever bought. I tried listening to it with the attitude of not having heard the record before. My reaction, naturally, was one of revulsion. This record truly, TRULY, sucks, as do most (aw hell, I'm on a roll, let's just make it ALL) Foreigner records); in other words, I get the part about things being a product of their time.

But that ignores the fact that, especially in Ronstadt's case on these two tracks (which are both live, BTW), the performances are absolutely, mind-bogglingly BAD. It's as if they spent all this time and money on production values but completely forgot about the song itself! I'll grant you that Abbey Road had a shitload to do with that, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. Shawn is dead-on about Queen in this respect: the songs may be shit, but DAMN do they sound nice! For my money, the radio can't play "Fat Bottomed Girls" enough for my taste; sure it's a stupid song, but that drum sound totally KICKS ASS!!!

In other words, I dig that it's totally subjective, but in Ronstadt's case, it would've been nice if she'd maybe dug just a little deeper than the surface of the songs she was butchering.

Al, have you heard Linda's versions of these songs .....Rock me on the water (which i prefer over jackson browne's) Willing, and she does a nice version of Neil Young's Birds.

I think the songs you mentioned are the overplayed hits of the day like "when will i be loved" there is a lot more to her than that.

[Tom in RI]

I hate Manute Bol, too tall.

Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar and Danny Kortchmar were James Taylor's frequent studio guys, they recorded several lps in the 1970's as The Section. I think Kunkel and Sklar in particular did a crapload of session work in Los Angeles.

[AllenLowe]

awright, here's a listing of the worst albums ever, Stevie Wonder-lovers:

• 1972: Talking Book (U.S. #3)
  
• 1973: Innervisions (U.S. #4, UK #6)
  
• 1974: Fulfillingness' First Finale (U.S. #1, UK #5)
  
• 1976: Songs in the Key of Life (U.S. #1, UK #2)
  
• 1979: Journey through the Secret Life of Plants Soundtrack (U.S. #4, UK #7)
  
• 1980: Hotter than July (U.S. #2, UK #2)
  
• 1982: Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium (U.S. #4, UK #8)
  
• 1984: The Woman in Red (U.S. #4, UK #2)
  
• 1985: In Square Circle (U.S. #5, UK #5)
  
• 1995: Conversation Peace (U.S. #17, UK #8)
  
• 2005: A Time to Love
  

[Jazzmoose]

FWIW, I'll take Seeger's "Night Moves" over Dan's "FM" any day of the week. Yes SD is clever, but the're also annoyingly arch and just as cold as you'd expect of a band named after a dildo (not an actual dildo, that would be kinda funky, a literary dildo).

Yeesh...not me. I guess it all boils down to how much you penalize a band for being convinced of their own coolness. For me, if I'm not hanging out with them, I don't feel it comes into play. Of course, that's just comparing the Bob Seegar to Steely Dan; in comparing the two songs in question, I'll pass on both.

[danasgoodstuff]

FWIW, I'll take Seeger's "Night Moves" over Dan's "FM" any day of the week. Yes SD is clever, but the're also annoyingly arch and just as cold as you'd expect of a band named after a dildo (not an actual dildo, that would be kinda funky, a literary dildo). As for the album in question, yes I could live quite happily without hearing any of it ever again, but it's hardly the worst ever. Just kind of mediocre and predicable like what FM radio had become by that time - predictably SD's somg "FM" tries to have it both ways by accepting the benefits of inclusion therein while being all snidely superior to it...fuck them.

Good point. I don't necessarily agree, but good point nonetheless.

Al - thanks for giving my point due consideration, couldn't ask for more...

Dana

[Hoppy T. Frog]

Are you being serious, or are you doing a Thing? My money is on "a Thing".

awright, here's a listing of the worst albums ever, Stevie Wonder-lovers:

• 1972: Talking Book (U.S. #3)
  
• 1973: Innervisions (U.S. #4, UK #6)
  
• 1974: Fulfillingness' First Finale (U.S. #1, UK #5)
  
• 1976: Songs in the Key of Life (U.S. #1, UK #2)
  
• 1979: Journey through the Secret Life of Plants Soundtrack (U.S. #4, UK #7)
  
• 1980: Hotter than July (U.S. #2, UK #2)
  
• 1982: Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium (U.S. #4, UK #8)
  
• 1984: The Woman in Red (U.S. #4, UK #2)
  
• 1985: In Square Circle (U.S. #5, UK #5)
  
• 1995: Conversation Peace (U.S. #17, UK #8)
  
• 2005: A Time to Love
  

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

what, did u read on AMG that "too old to r&r" was a disapointment, so now you think it?

the critics have been spewing that about since back in '76...and here u are, in twenty-08, licking up rock-critic diehereea

quote ian:

"I must confess I'm slightly put off by the fact that the 'Too Old To Rock And Roll' song was completely refused as a single by the rock press and by BBC radio. I hadn't realised just how difficult it is at the BBC these days to get plays."

but anyone who was there can tell you that the tour for it was stellar: the new album sounded even better on stage...some of the songs, which never stuck in the regular tull setlist again, i urge you to watch this clip from the tour stop in Flordia:

[Jazzmoose]

what, did u read on AMG that "too old to r&r" was a disapointment, so now you think it?

the critics have been spewing that about since back in '76...and here u are, in twenty-08, licking up rock-critic diehereea

Oh, fuck off. I was there; you weren't. It sucked then and it sucks now, and I certainly don't need any critic to tell me that it was crap. One spin on the turntable was enough.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

MG, Bev... if you've ever heard someone say "Hell, its five o'clock somewhere!", your world has been invaded by Jimmy Buffet.

Wearing a Hawaiian shirt in some in-land suburb, the funniest guy at a toddler's backyard birthday party will kick off the adult festivities tomorrow with that very line. Somewhere around 2PM.

His buddy will reply, "Get'r done!"

The fun begins.

Thankfully, nothing like that has ever happened in my vicinity.

I'm sure I speak for Bev, too. This just hasn't come over here at all.

MG

[papsrus]

MG, Bev... if you've ever heard someone say "Hell, its five o'clock somewhere!", your world has been invaded by Jimmy Buffet.

Wearing a Hawaiian shirt in some in-land suburb, the funniest guy at a toddler's backyard birthday party will kick off the adult festivities tomorrow with that very line. Somewhere around 2PM.

His buddy will reply, "Get'r done!"

The fun begins.

Thankfully, nothing like that has ever happened in my vicinity.

I'm sure I speak for Bev, too. This just hasn't come over here at all.

MG

Consider yourself lucky. In Florida he is a cultural force.

[Dan Gould]

I hesitate to do this, but taken on his own terms as bubble gum music, fun party music, there's nothing wrong with Jimmy Buffett. I offer no defense of "parrot heads" particularly those in those inland states that show up in Hawaiian shirts and shorts in the dead of winter.

What is lamentable about living in Florida is that Buffett is a cultural force in the sense that you can't go out to a street fair or go past five bars without hearing at least one guy playing Buffett covers for the tourists.

Real Buffett = OK, in small doses

Fake Buffett = truly horrible

[marcello]

This qualifies:

[marcello]

What is lamentable about living in Florida is that Buffett is a cultural force in the sense that you can't go out to a street fair or go past five bars without hearing at least one guy playing Buffett covers for the tourists.

This has driven me running away from the poolside many times.

It happens even at The Breakers, for christsakes!

Edited November 16, 2008 by marcello

[BruceH]

Are you being serious, or are you doing a Thing? My money is on "a Thing".

awright, here's a listing of the worst albums ever, Stevie Wonder-lovers:

• 1972: Talking Book (U.S. #3)
  
• 1973: Innervisions (U.S. #4, UK #6)
  
• 1974: Fulfillingness' First Finale (U.S. #1, UK #5)
  
• 1976: Songs in the Key of Life (U.S. #1, UK #2)
  
• 1979: Journey through the Secret Life of Plants Soundtrack (U.S. #4, UK #7)
  
• 1980: Hotter than July (U.S. #2, UK #2)
  
• 1982: Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium (U.S. #4, UK #8)
  
• 1984: The Woman in Red (U.S. #4, UK #2)
  
• 1985: In Square Circle (U.S. #5, UK #5)
  
• 1995: Conversation Peace (U.S. #17, UK #8)
  
• 2005: A Time to Love
  

Is he ever NOT doing "a Thing"?

[AllenLowe]

there's no thing; I don't do things. I really can't stand Mr. Wonder. The voice and the music are, to me, shallow new-age soul. Drives me up the friggin' wall.

[AllenLowe]

what's a thing?

[JSngry]

there's no thing; I don't do things. I really can't stand Mr. Wonder. The voice and the music are, to me, shallow new-age soul. Drives me up the friggin' wall.

Jesus may or my not love you, Allen.

But Stevie Wonder does!

[AllenLowe]

just doin' my thing -

[Big Al]

Ok wise guys, laff all you want, but if you think you'd have the beloved Steely Dan (or at least Steely Dan in the form they took) w/o Linda Ronstadt, think again.

First of all, I respect your logic and your reasoning, and I think I know where you're coming from (i.e. the ONLY reason I like Foreigner's Double Vision is simply because it was one of the first rock records I ever bought. I tried listening to it with the attitude of not having heard the record before. My reaction, naturally, was one of revulsion. This record truly, TRULY, sucks, as do most (aw hell, I'm on a roll, let's just make it ALL) Foreigner records); in other words, I get the part about things being a product of their time.

But that ignores the fact that, especially in Ronstadt's case on these two tracks (which are both live, BTW), the performances are absolutely, mind-bogglingly BAD. It's as if they spent all this time and money on production values but completely forgot about the song itself! I'll grant you that Abbey Road had a shitload to do with that, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. Shawn is dead-on about Queen in this respect: the songs may be shit, but DAMN do they sound nice! For my money, the radio can't play "Fat Bottomed Girls" enough for my taste; sure it's a stupid song, but that drum sound totally KICKS ASS!!!

In other words, I dig that it's totally subjective, but in Ronstadt's case, it would've been nice if she'd maybe dug just a little deeper than the surface of the songs she was butchering.

Al, have you heard Linda's versions of these songs .....Rock me on the water (which i prefer over jackson browne's) Willing, and she does a nice version of Neil Young's Birds.

I think the songs you mentioned are the overplayed hits of the day like "when will i be loved" there is a lot more to her than that.

No, but I have heard her version of Buddy Holly's "It's So Easy," and it would've been so easy to let the simple charms of the song speak for itself rather than run it through the same processor that made all her other songs sound the same.