Artists you love with quirks you hate

I love me some Ray Charles. Any period. Crooner, Jazz, Instrumental, Soul, Country, whatever. What I can't stand is when he says / yells "listen" and "wait a minute" seemingly twice per song. I've had a few of his box sets on rotation in the car lately (Complete Atlantic, Complete ABC Singles) and it really brings me out of the music when he feels he needs to remind me to pay attention.
Does anyone else have similar issues with bands they love?

 

While I will love him to the death and beyond , I cannot stand it when McCartney pulls these "spontaneous" faces of sheer surprise in the middle of one of his stage chatter routines which you know have been planned and repeated a thousand times before.

 

I imagine between song banter can get tedious on a long tour. The bands really aren't expecting anyone to see more than one, maybe two shows, so I'm sure they get in a groove and just robot that stuff out. I know when I saw Motley Crue late on their The End Tour, Nikki's speech seemed a little forced / rehearsed.

 

Bernard Sumner of Joy Division/New Order, when playing live back in the early days....in between songs, he used to ALWAYS put his fingers on the guitar neck, and tentatively play the first two notes of the next song, to make sure he had his fingers right. Go back and listen to just about any old Joy Division show and listen for it, you'll hear it soon enough. Once you realize he's doing it, it is really annoying. It gives away what song is next in the set list!

 

Pete Townshend's personality just grates.

 

Damn, I hate it when Sinatra turns a long sounding "I" into a long "e". (Strangers in the Ni-eete), but he's part of my plasma at this point.

 

When Bob Weir says "like a Swiss watch"...

 

Love Tori Amos, but when she drags out notes, stays too far behind the beat, etc. while playing live, I get the feeling she’s bored with the song and trying to change it up. But it alters the melody too much for my taste.
Tori, you may be bored but I’m not!

 

The obvious one for me is Morrissey. Musically, he’s the most adventurous he’s been in thirty years, but when he strays into politics (either in his lyrics, or interviews), he comes across as the sort of person I’d cross the road to avoid.

If lack of productivity counts as a quirk then I’d add John Sebastian and Green Gartside. I also wish Scott Walker would work the avant garde tendencies out of his system.

 

For me the obvious one I am sure is shared by many has to do with the Rolling Stones. I've always been more a Keith and Charlie fan, and a Mick Taylor fan for that period, but I do have tremendous respect for Mick Jagger's huge contributions to the group over the years to say the least. But his whole fashion world/overdone androgyny/celebrity hobnobbing thing really detracts from what the Stones I think are about. From what I gather Keith shares this view, and I would guess to some extent Charlie and Bill do, too. Perhaps not the worst example but surely a highpoint was his marriage to Bianca and all that went with it. I am not sure that is the kind of quirk the OP is asking about, but there you have it.

 

Peter Gabriel taking soooooo long to make an album.

 

I love Doc Severinsen until he sings, or talks to the audience.

 

According to Peter Hook, Barney has plenty more quirks to hate.

 

Bono when he says that a new album will come soon

 

It bothered me when Elvis Presley would play a final chord on his acoustic guitar (in concert), and it was always the....A11/E. Musicians joke.

 

I love Captain Beefheart, but I wish he didn't squawk away on that saxophone as much as he did.
It only works for me a few times, the rest of the time I'm trying to concentrate as much as I can on the other instruments. Haha.

 

Willie Nelson’s phrasing when he sings live.

 

Radiohead.....it's like the drums are always electronic blips or really subdued for long time now. Where is the cool pyramid song prog type drumming?


Nirvana....the primal scream songs on in utero. Some of them are cool but when he keeps it up for scentless apprentice the entire time it grates.

 

So

 

Driving back today, I realised that I’d overlooked Amanda Palmer in my original list. Massachusetts Avenue came on my iPod. It’s not one of her best tracks, and it’s on probably her weakest proper album, but it made me realise what a fantastic songwriter she can be. She doesn’t even seem to have to try-it’s a near perfect 80s pastiche with incredibly incisive lyrics. Her weakness is that she seems unable to resist passé shock tactics. Sometimes it works-Girl Anachonism, Oasis (if you ignore the overly-pleased-with-themselves backing vocals)-but mostly it gets in the way of the, frequently wonderful, songs.

 

Axl half-ruined several songs on Use Your Illusion by holding and embellishing the final note like he was Florence Foster Jenkins.

 

That is some fantastic drumming on "Pyramid Song" !

 

David Lee Roth talks a bit too much, especially during the song. Though rehearsed, I feel uncomfortable because I always assume the bamd wants to just get on with it, as do I.
When performing live and Ozzy Osbourne says, "Let me see your hands!"

 

I love Van Morrison, but I can't endure his rants about how he's been screwed by the music industry. I'm sure it's all true, but I don't want to hear you moan on about it, man!

So many excellent late-period albums of his have been marred by one. "Big Time Operators" on Too Long In Exile is the absolute worst, since it's the second track and kills all momentum.