Musical Misteps By Your Favourite Artists

[Deleted]

I was enjoying listening to the original version of Kate Bush's "Never Be Mine" today. Its theme of the hurt/thrill of unrequited love still deeply resonates with me after all these years, as does the fantastic imagery.

I then shuddered as I remembered the version she "reworked" as part of the very perplexing "Director's Cut" project - completely ripped out the heart and soul of the song in my opinion  - how she thinks this is an improved version I have no idea (same can be said for all the songs she reworked - dreadful idea).

Now Kate normally walks on water in my eyes, but this was a total misfire I still find hard to forgive her for (she basically ruined some great tracks and precious memories of them).

Do you have any similar experiences, where your favourite artists have released something that has made you question your usual fanatical liking for them?

[raliverpool]

Easy.

Forget Tin Machine, as most Bowie fans prefer that era to his ultra commercial "Phil Collins Years" (1982-87), where he seemed to become a public friendly unit shifter ... which contained his worst ever recording from the Tonight album, where God Only Knows why he thought it was a good idea to cover the Beach Boys best song in a hammy 1980s pub singer pretending to be the Walker Brothers manner:

[Earl Purple]

In recent times, Tich doing a silly disco version of "Breathe In Breathe Out" and pulling the superior original (well the strings version from the first Candlelight EP) off Spotify and nearly everywhere else.

Others who changed their musical direction, in particular Debbie Gibson wanting to be R&B when she was great at making catchy pop-rock songs.

Pulp stopping being good with This Is Hardcore.

By the way, I liked David Bowie's mid-80s music.

[Whitneyfan]

I loved Mariah Carey in the 90s before she went down the generic r&b route and all her songs started to sound the same.

[Deleted]

Definitely with everyone when artists start to go down the "generic R'n'B" route - they always lose whatever they had originally that was special about them. My nomination here is Kylie, who really misfired with her Body Language album. The world would have been happy with more of the same from Ms Minogue after the poptastic Fever album, but she had to go and spoil it...

[Kingpin]

Agree about Kylie, Fever was fab but Body Language was a let down, I thought Slow was one of her worst singles. Not the first misstep for Kylie though...love all of her SAW output and the Confide In Me era but not keen on her indie stuff at all.

[Laurence]

Feb 28, 2017 16:01:16 GMT 1 @roos1ter said:

I was enjoying listening to the original version of Kate Bush's "Never Be Mine" today. Its theme of the hurt/thrill of unrequited love still deeply resonates with me after all these years, as does the fantastic imagery.

I then shuddered as I remembered the version she "reworked" as part of the very perplexing "Director's Cut" project - completely ripped out the heart and soul of the song in my opinion  - how she thinks this is an improved version I have no idea (same can be said for all the songs she reworked - dreadful idea).

Now Kate normally walks on water in my eyes, but this was a total misfire I still find hard to forgive her for (she basically ruined some great tracks and precious memories of them).

Do you have any similar experiences, where your favourite artists have released something that has made you question your usual fanatical liking for them?

Kate's Directors cut was a weird project - the version of 'The Sensual World' entitled 'Flower of the Mountain' with the actual Ulysses lyrics just sounded rubbish. The manic shrieking 'Lily' and rockabilly 'Rubberband Girl' are fun though. 

Fave artist is Tori Amos and many fans consider the mid-late 00s trio of 'Beekeeper', 'American Doll Possee' and 'Abnormally Attracted to Sin" a huge low point in her career with overlong concept albums with poor instrumentalists (i.e. Her husband), cliched insincere lyrics, bizarre plastic surgery photos in her artwork that they came up with the nickname Fori. I agree although do like a lot of AATS.

PJ Harvey had to wait 15 years and over 10 albums to come up with her first misstep 'The Hope Six Demolition project' - it's not bad per se but too political and ordinary for such a genius.

[raliverpool]

John Lennon following up his brilliant first two (proper) post Beatles solo albums "Plastic Ono Band" & "Imagine" with the ultra political tune free 1972 double album "Sometime In New York City" which featured this jaw dropping lead single ....

[vastar iner]

McCartney was even worse, probably, with "Give Ireland Back To The Irish"; at least Lennon was trying to make a point using shock language.

Not particularly a mis-step, as it's something very interesting, but I wonder what Beatles fans thought when they bought George Harrison's second solo album.



Though I'm guessing not many did buy it...

[Jordan]

I quite like the original song, but this parody... BAD move!

[borneoman]

Tori Amos's biggest mis-step was the Professional Widow dance mix, even if it went to #1

the last albums are not a momentary misstep, it's more like a career dead-end cos the inspiration is no longer there

[SheriffFatman]

As a big Eminem fan, I was hugely disappointed, actually even a bit upset, by Rap God.

Throughout his career he has occasionally been accused of homophobia, but I had always felt that he was really just reflecting society back on itself, I didn't believe for a minute he was personally homophobic, he seemed to be very cleverly ridiculing the hypocrisy of modern society's desperate need to demonstrate diversity regardless of how people really feel. I respected him for it hugely, to convey that sort of message via the means of catchy and funny pop records which went to number one in the charts is a hell of an achievement.

Rap God didn't sound like that though, it just sounded like he personally was being nasty about gay people. I couldn't quite believe it at first, I downloaded it and listened to it lots, trying to find some other way to interpret it. In the end I settled on the notion he was just in a bad frame of mind when he recorded it, and no one at the record company was brave enough to tell him he was being a dick. Doesn't change how brilliant his earlier work was, but he did seriously go down in my estimation.

[Deleted]

I'm probably the only fan in the world of Tori's The Beekeeper (with the exception of the distinctly odd "Ireland" track - "driving in my Saab on my way to Ireland"), but not AATS or ADP (although the idea around the latter was interesting, just not the delivery). I didn't lose any love for Tori and I've always been glad she has been really prolific, and there are still a few golden nuggets she comes up with - just a bit sad the quality couldn't continue forever (I'm just greedy!)

[borneoman]

i also like TBK especially Orange Knickers, Garlands and the title track, but putting the b-sides inside the album kinda ruins it for me

part of the problem with Tori is that she had that deal with Epic that she had to make 3 albums in 5 years, which is nuts, no one can do that without losing quality

[raliverpool]

Mar 1, 2017 0:36:27 GMT 1 vastar iner said:

McCartney was even worse, probably, with "Give Ireland Back To The Irish"; at least Lennon was trying to make a point using shock language.

Definitely not. McCartney has released many dubious records, but GIBTTI was not one of them.

Except McCartney's debut Wings single was released in February 1972, having been recorded 1st February 1972, and had major balls in response to the events of Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland on 30 January 1972; and was completely banned from media exposure in the United Kingdom, being banned by the BBC, Radio Luxembourg and the Independent Television Authority.

Whereas as Lennon's childish shock (oh my god he's used the N word ..... yawn) was recorded in March 1972, where the phrase "woman is the nigger of the world" was coined by Yoko Ono in an interview with Nova magazine in 1969 and was quoted on the magazine's cover; and subsequently used as the title of a 1969 New York art exhibition; and not released until the end of April 1972.

Which according to top session drummer Jim Keltner who played on the Lennon track was inspired not by Lennon's concern for feminism; but his envy at what he saw his "ex-fiance" pushing the envelope with an uncharacteristic bold political statement of a record (although anyone who had heard the original bootlegged version of The Beatles "Get Back"; and obviously "Blackbird" knows otherwise).

But in numerous interviews including a handful he made in November/December 1980 he still claimed he recorded and released the track first; and that it was McCartney who copied him in the "one up man ship" stakes (despite that being factually incorrect). And Yoko Ono has continued to peddle this "alternative truth". But hey it gets you voted POTUS so it works.

Still guess which one of the those two songs was selected as a 50 minute plus documentary in the Stuart Maconie 50 part 2013 radio series "The People's Songs" (clue it was not John Lennon's awful attempt to shock).
Which also noted Lennon's risible response to Sunday Bloody Sunday (& McCartney's effort) with some utterly shocking national stereotypical & risible lyrics you'd think it was a Father Ted inspired parody; but hey all proceeds went to the IRA, so that all when and good ....