Your Musical Hot-Takes/Unpopular Opinions

Lots of good, piping-hot takes here!

• re Band on the Run: I’m always gonna love “Let Me Roll It”, “Jet”, and the title tune, but the rest of that album...ugh. Precious, self-important dreck. As you mention, this would become a depressing trend.

• I pretty much agree with your high opinion of Paul’s first four solo albums — other than Red Rose Speedway, which bores me to tears. I listened to Wild Life just the other night and loved its off-the-cuff, goofy stoner vibe.

• re Electric Arguments: This is Paul’s best solo album by a mile. It’s fearless and weird, very Lennonesque. “Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight” sounds like I imagine the Beatles would sound today if fate had allowed them as lengthy a career as the Stones.

 

I think we tend to agree about a lot, and I agree with all of that except the psychedelic Beatles claim which is a real mind**** .

 

I agree with you..Van Halen is jock/athlete rock

 

Saw an old clip of them where they were being interviewed in a fast food place in Toronto. Nobody is paying any attention to them at all. Fast forward a few years and they're the biggest band in the world.

 

"Queen were a singles band that never made a good album."

Recently, I've been (re)listening to a lot of Queen material and came to the same conclusion. In fact, I'll take it further ... they are definitely on the B list of rock n roll groups. With the occasional, brilliant gem shining through as the exception to the rule, much (perhaps a majority) of their output is terrible, as is Freddy Mercury's indulgent, solo material in toto. I also have come to the same conclusion about Prince.

P.S. I agree with your assessments of 'The Strawbs' and Lennon.

 

And I was hoping that "Band..." would be the first Paul album I actually like, but from that description it sounds like "Ram part 2"

 

Let me briefly board the KISS bashing bus while it's in drive....
When I saw the first KISS album way back when , I knew right away it was some jive b.s. and a marketing ploy and I didn't even pick it up to look at it further.
Some weeks later sure enough one of my friends bought it and thought it was amazing and played it for me. I didn't find it amazing at all.

 

Being rich means he’s not a great songwriter and performer? Makes him a bad guy? Judge much? Get over yourself

 

Just a diverting side note about that list ...

What happened to the other two members of ABBA? Did these two get the best of their respective divorce settlements or did they just save their money and made better investments? And how does a singer (1/4 of the performing group) make more money than another 1/4 member of the performing group who also has approximately 50% of the writing royalties?

Anne-Frid Lyngsta - 15

Björn Ulvaeus - 16

 

I'd say that the release of "Walk this Way" and Licensed to Ill (both in 1986) was the point when rap really broke through to the mainstream and became impossible to ignore. So the demarcation line is closer to about the age of 52 today.

But your point is well-taken. It's been at least 30 years.

 

Yes, subsequent efforts...

It's Bob Dylan that I shouldn't have included on the list, as his rise and fall was not exactly linked to the breakup of a band. Maybe you could say Bob lost his mojo when he was separated from his motorcycle...

 

Yes, it does.

 

Proverbs is like a boxed set which should have been whittled down to a single, killer "best of" compilation.

 

Wow, EA is awesome! Paul's voice is still solid, he still sounds like Paul!

I too like those BOTR songs you mention and maybe one or two more but the album just sounds dated to me as a whole.

As to RRS, I really dug the 2018 PMAC Box, the bonus material brought that album alive like never before.

And what can we say about WWL, too many fans dismiss it off hand because they were conditioned to hate it by ROLLING STONR, NME or Carr & Tyler's book! They need to listen to it with an open mind! It sounds like it could have been released in 2020!

 

Would you say that a tune like this is blues?



Or:

 

Or this:



Because those have similarities to Zeppelin tunes you're naming. I can give you more.

And of course there are the songs that you're not naming . . .

 

So did The Who.

 

I don't either. Led Zeppelin's sound was evolved well beyond amplified blues links even if Willie Dixon was responsible for a good number of their songs.

 

This. No 70s act emerged from the 80s better for the experience and the only useful musical movements to originate in the 80s were college rock and urban folk, both of which improved in the early 90s. New wave originated in the 70s and does not count.

 

If it wasn't for Morrison the other three would still be playing Martin Denny covers in the Tiki Lounge.

 

The Boatman's Call is Cave's most overrated album. Dig!! Lazarus! Dig!! was a spectacular return to form that no-one could have predicted.

 

Anything post April 1970 is "relatively recent" to some.

I remember one person arguing up and down that Springsteen hasn't had a "long career" because he's only been around since 1972.... 48 years is nearly half a century, I'd consider that a LONG ASS CAREER lol

 

I always regarded Hounds of Love as a disappointment because she backed off the wilder theatricality of her early work. It's too slick, too trebly, and the first side is a bore.

 

Right. Few artists have given back more than he has. Plus, he and Patti have raised children who seem to be intelligent and actually going into serious professions (one son is a fireman, a daughter is a marine biologist, etc...) as opposed to spoiled rock star children who just socialize and live off their parents' earnings. I respect Bruce and Patti, and I love their political views... I'm glad he's not Ted Nugent or Kid Rock

 

In context though, The Dreaming, while now regarded as a cult classic, was seen as a failure in 1982 and I recall hearing that one UK magazine actually published a "Where are they now?" on her shortly prior to Hounds' release. She needed to turn things around, and she did. Hounds pretty much cemented her as a legend and it also helped crack the elusive US market.