So at my brother’s trivia jam at the 3-3-1 last night, DJ Knol Tate played “The One I Love,” an indisputably great song, by R.E.M., an indisputably significant band. I’m not going to say they’re indisputably great, but clearly they’re very good, and a band worth knowing about if you have any interest in popular music of today and the recent past.
This brought us, perhaps inevitably, to “Shiny Happy People,” a godawful song that’s been disowned by the band itself (”R.E.M. disowned the hit, and left it off their Best Of. (”It’s not a terrible song; it’s just irritating to some degree,” Michael Stipe admitted to Blender last year.),” writes Stereogum). What’s really bizarre about the song is how it comes at a point when the band was clearly making great music. As we discussed this last night, Martin Devaney posited “Kokomo” by The Beach Boys as one of the worst songs by a good band ever, and while it’s a bad song, The Beach Boys that released it were not The Beach Boys who made Pet Sounds.
“Shiny Happy People” just doesn’t seem to have anything to do with R.E.M. in a way. And obviously, we can quibble over what constitutes a good band, but I would also say “Spoonman” by Soundgarden has got to be up there. Maybe you don’t personally like Soundgarden, but they were certainly popular and critically well-received in their time. Superunknown is certainly their most ambitious and sonically diverse album. So how did a song about a guy playing the spoons on his leg get all the way onto the record and then released as the first single? “Feel the rhythm with your hands”? Come on, Chris, you can do better than that.
Eric Clapton—he’s just had way too many stinkers to single one out. That entire Pilgrim album is a crime against humanity. To the point where you have to wonder if his negatives outweigh whatever positives he’s accrued as a legacy.
Other possible nominees mentioned last night: “I Just Called To Say I Love You” by Stevie Wonder, “Living in America” by James Brown, and … I’m forgetting some. Anyways, I’m really curious what you out there think are some of the worst songs by good artists.
This press release was originally put out by Olson’s label, Hacktone Records.
“Victory is spelled O-L-S-O-N.”
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KANYE OUTDUELED BY MARK OLSON IN NORWAY BEEF
The rock-solid numbers just don’t lie: alt-country troubadour and founding member of The Jayhawks Mark Olson has outsold hip-hop popster Kanye West in Norway’s hottest music feud.
Explains a relieved Olson, “I said I would retire - just plain stop making records - if I didn’t outsell him in Norway. Luckily, my fans still believe in the power of romantic folk rock.”
After a tense few weeks spent combing the blogosphere and eyeballing the charts, Olson heaved a sigh of relief, learning that his solo opus The Salvation Blues has clearly trumped West’s Graduation, selling hundreds and hundreds and hundreds…and hundreds more copies to Norway’s esteemed audiophiles. The beef is over and Norwegian music fans have declared Olson the undisputed winner.
As of press time, the defeated West has yet to comment. Critics are abuzz with speculation that Olson’s Norwegian triumph in the sales wars may even push the embattled 50 Cent further towards retirement in the wake of West’s Scandinavian flatline. The message is clear - Olson’s got game and the hits will keep on comin’.
The trash talking leading up to this point has been fairly nonexistent, mostly because Olson’s a nice fellow and because, well, Kanye probably wasn’t even aware of the Salvation/Graduation feud in the first place. But that doesn’t stop HackTone Records’ David Gorman from commenting:
“This is a great day for romantic folk rock and for HackTone in general. We have nothing but respect for Kanye and we look forward to a rematch when both he and Mark are ready to drop their next joints on the Norwegians. Either that or Kanye and Mark could just bury the hatchet and collaborate on a new track. Mark’s a wonderful lyricist and a terrific harmony singer, qualities Kanye can no doubt appreciate.”
Team HackTone remained professional throughout the nail-biting chart-climb, but maintains Gorman, “We always secretly knew that when squared off, Mark would totally top Kanye, especially after the Norwegian press went bonkers over the album. Victory is spelled O-L-S-O-N and man, it’s sweeeeet.”
Indeed, the Norway critics still can’t stop throwing stars at a pleased Olson and his album. Says popular daily paper Dagsavisen, who rated Salvation 6 out of 6, “Et fint etterord til et album som fra før var så godt som perfekt.” Not to be unsportsmanlike, but it’s pretty much a sure thing that Kanye was barely a blip on the Dagsavisen radar.
Olson, ever the kind soul, is quick to add, “But that Kanye’s a good guy-seems real nice, a hard worker…salt of the earth.”
In an extraordinary, but not unfamiliar move, the rock legend Prince is using an army of lawyers to launch attacks on his own fans.
Several of the largest web communities dedicated to the artist have received notices to cease and desist all use of photographs, images, lyrics, album covers and anything linked to Prince’s likeness.
It is our opinion that these threats are not made in an attempt to enforce valid copyright as Prince alleges in his threats, rather we believe they are attempts to stifle all critical commentary about Prince. We strongly believe that such actions are in violation of the freedom of speech and should not be allowed. Prince claims that fansites are not allowed to present any artwork with Prince’s likeness, to the extreme that he has demanded removal of fan’s own photographs of their Prince inspired tattoos and their vehicles displaying Prince inspired license plates.
Prince’s representatives have requested that the fansites provide them with “substantive details of the means by which you [the fansites] propose to compensate our clients [Paisley Park Enterprises, NPG Records and Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG)] for damages…”
The owners of the three largest fansites supporting Prince: www.housequake.com, www.princefams.com and www.prince.org have come together to fight back to what amounts to an injustice to the fansites and the very fans who have supported Prince’s career, many since the very beginning nearly thirty years ago.
It is their hope that Prince will reconsider his position and allow these fansites to continue their existence without constant threats from Prince and his attorneys. Should this not be possible, the fansites are fully prepared to defend their position in the proper court of law, as well as fully prosecute any claims to which they are justly entitled.
The owners of housequake.com, princefams.com and prince.org acknowledge that, while Prince is entitled to control of his copyrights, it should be within the law. The law clearly provides for displaying of images of a celebrity’s likeness for newsworthy events or matters that are considered to be public interest. All three websites feel that the photographs and/or likeness displayed on their websites clearly fall within the public interest category. Additionally, the use of photographs is legal based on the fair use doctrine, i.e. the displaying of album cover art, or the collage headers created by website members using a variety of different photographs.
So at my brother’s trivia jam at the 3-3-1 last night, DJ Knol Tate played “The One I Love,” an indisputably great song, by R.E.M., an indisputably significant band. I’m not going to say they’re indisputably great, but clearly they’re very good, and a band worth knowing about if you have any interest in popular music of today and the recent past.
