10 Songs From Bands I Couldn't Otherwise Care Less About

[Charger]

^^^
That is a good version (better than the original) but oh my god did it play a LOT on Radio Rock last year and the year before...I have most likely heard that song over 100 times there and I am totally sick of it!

Ring Of Fire I think is my favourite Cash song but that too has ofcourse suffered from being over played.



My #9 takes us to the late 70s and to a killer galloping riff!

HEART - Barracuda

First time I heard this song was on a DORO album called Love Me In Black but that version is very different as it was Doro's more experimental phase. Usually Doro's covers are atleast as good as the original but this one wasn't. The original is far superior.
But I have not found anything else of real interest from Heart. But this gallop is just awesome....call me nuts but I love a good galloping riff!

I saw that Heart have done some comeback shows in the past week or so and I watched a preformance of this song and oh god it made me want to cry...horrible. But thankfully we have the original.

Fun Fact: Ann Wilson is actually together with former DIO drummer Simon Wright and they are pretty active posters on Facebook.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I don't mind Heart, Barracuda is their best song. Anne has a great voice, but they didn't make good use of it as often as they might have.

[Zzzptm]

Regarding Van Hagar, I thought I liked one of their songs, but I actually almost liked about 6 of theirs. At least they were better than the next version with the Extreme singer.

HEAD SPINNING ALERT because KDC dropped another truth bomb I didn't expect! Oh man, yes, that is an incredible rendition, full of the passion and emotion Johnny Cash can convey in a song. He took that song and made it a signature for himself. To be sure, I like tons of stuff from The Man in Black, it's entirely possible to be a fan of his.

Not so much head spinning with the Heart pick from Charger. There are about 10 songs from Heart that I like, and Barracuda is the queen of them all. In the 70s, they could go too soft on their albums and in the 80s OH MY THAT IS DIFFERENT with them going all the way on the 80s ballad metal thing.

A wee tiny rabbit hole is that the music in the Lord of the Rings trilogy sends me up the wall. It's so "hey, I'mma gonna make you *feel* a certain way, so, yeah, get ready..." and not actual composition that I would want to hum along with as I strolled about. The music from Star Wars and Indiana Jones, that I could hum along with and remember. Same for the Harry Potter theme. LotR? Can't remember a note of it, except that it just hit me the wrong way. So the films come out on DVD and I go to certain scenes and turn the movie volume down and crank up the stereo. This was the track for the Battle of Helm's Deep when Gandalf's crew show up. Yeah. I think I played The Mob Rules for the Uruk-Hai attacks and stuff like that, it just made better sense.

On to my 9th pick...

Late 70s, discovering things on the radio... I'm a kid, not even a teenager, just got an old radio my folks were about to toss and now I'm finding rock and roll stations in Dallas. There's a lot of Top 40 crap, but I settle on two that got a great feel to them, KZEW 98 "The Zoo" and "Q102" KTXQ 102. Don't look for them now, they're not there anymore... but they played album rock, the format where DJs would just grab any old song that they fancied and spin it for the kids out there. Yes, there were hits that were in rotation and stuff like that, but in-between, the DJs got to shine with their picks. Love that style and it's how I like to DJ my shows.

So one day, it's 1980, I'm in the summer between 6th and 7th grade and I hear this song on the radio and fall in love with it...

I go with this YouTube link and not one that shows the band performing because that's how I heard it, on the radio, no images except what was in my head. I had no clue who these guys were or what they looked like other than I really liked the pulse and the riff on the keyboards. I'm like, "yeah, Genesis, they rock."

Then I heard other stuff they did with Phil Collins on lead vocals and there was some OK stuff, sure. There was some cringe stuff, true. But nothing like this song. And I wanted to like them.

Years later, it's the early 90s and someone says, "Oh dude, they were riding on fumes when they did Duke! You should check out their stuff with Peter Gabriel! Blow your mind how awesome it was!"

It blew my mind, all right, but it was how HORRIFIC it was... the song with *THAT NOTE* just creeps me out and then The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, WTF is that? A rock opera about the consequences of castration?



Consequently, I can be happy with never hearing another Genesis song from the Peter Gabriel era. I'm cool with that. And I like this one from the Collins era, end of story.

[Charger]

I was thinking about adding Van Halen to the list but part from the drum intro to Hot For Teacher I couldn't think of anything I liked enough!

[Vyn]

Heart is ok - Magic Man is such a period-piece, it's like I can smell 1976 when it plays. And I don't really like it, but it's "ok". Basically how I feel about their entire catalog, they just didn't write music with me in mind haha.

Genesis. Would love to hear what Billy thought of the Gabirel era. I'm of the same mind as Z; I have straightforward dislike for those tunes. Unlike Z, though, there are two Genesis songs that I like: Turn It On Again and Abacab. Abacab by a slight edge.

Johnny Cash. I agree, his rendition of Hurt is great. I've always felt his music was "ok", much like I feel about Heart. It doesn't scare me away, but it doesn't attract me either. Would rather hear "Five Feet High and Rising" than "The Return of The Giant Hogweed" any day, though.

I present to you all The New York Dolls, performing their internationally acclaimed, smash hit, "Trash".

"Trash, go pick it up" fucking brilliant. Sadly, not even "Personality Crisis" could make me interested in anything else they did.

[Charger]

Genesis I never liked...always considered them as girly rock...no power.

New York Dolls is the kind of punk I'm really not interested in at all.



Okay then...
My final pick is going to be the shocker....or not depending on how well you know me....and you know me pretty well so no shock.

LED ZEPPELIN - Dazed And Confused.

And even so I think this version is FAR superior to the original:

Not a fan of the Zep...to me it was always the lesser interesting and more poppy distant cousin of Purple and Sabbath. They lacked punch. And their live versions took the "wankery" to a whole new level.
But out of their career there is one song that I do enjoy and that's Dazed And Confused. It's got enough of that heavy blues vibe that both Sabbath and Purple had but they lacked for the most part.  Ofcourse Plant's vocals are the weak spot which is why I also added a version with proper vocals.

Ofcourse this isn't REALLY a Zep song at all which I guess is why I like it! 

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I've never been a huge Led Zep fan either, but I like a few songs here and there so wouldn't have made my list. I'll give that Tony Martin version a listen later.


My last choice, and may not be a surprise to some, but this song was what inspired me to suggest the topic in the first place.

Bon Jovi - Dry County

Ok there's a couple of other songs by them I don't mind but this is the only song which justifies their existence!

The song is epic at nearly 10 minutes, has slow and gentle moments, faster moments an interesting middle section with a really good guitar solo. It has a story too!

[Charger]

There are two songs from Bon Jovi that I really really like. Blaze Of Glory and Wanted Dead Or Alive. So they wouldn't have made it to this list. There's another good one that I've heard on radio few times but damn if I can remember the name right now...
Majority of their stuff is pretty poppy crap but they do have those few gems. Never heard that song before so I'll be giving it a spin as soon as I can!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Wanted Dead or Alive is one of the two songs I don't mind the other being Keep The Faith, but in themselves neither justify the existence of the band.

[Zzzptm]

Hello, I'm the guy who likes the kind of trash glam punk sound that New York Dolls was laying down. The kind of stuff that sounds better the closer it is to a demo tape that never went anywhere but straight to fans' bootlegging tapedecks!

I'm surprised that Charger likes a Zeppelin song, albeit one that is done much better by someone else. Zep was a band that I liked much more as a teen than I do as an adult. There are still tunes of theirs I like to reach for now and again, but most of the time, it's with a twinge because I know there's another song that inspired them that I have in my library that's a total gem of a rocker as an original. So, usually when I'm in a mood for Led Zeppelin, I spin some old Willie Dixon.

Tell you what, Iron Maiden could benefit from a workshop with Bon Jovi about keeping a listener's attention over 10 minutes of a tune. Good pick, KDC.

Now for my big finish, I was saving this for the end...

Got this as the lead track off of Metal Massacre compilation from Metal Blade and really really liked it. I got other Slayer albums after that, this was like the late late 80s, and I was really into thrash and speed.

Then I got older and everything started to sound the same. I wasn't getting a rush off of the tunes anymore and then there was how the lyrics were really turning me off at some point, so I just couldn't anymore with the constant thrash.

As years passed, I could take it in small doses again, but I've always kept a little spot for this track. If I need more thrash than this one, then I really need some thrash. If not, then I play it, get my neck good and sore, and then go back to my business and previous playlist.

[Vyn]

Slayer would not have made my list, too many of their tunes that I like.

I have never been a Bon Jovi fan, but of course have heard the hits - never heard Dry County before. It's not bad, I would never have thought they could produce something of that quality!

Led Zep. They occupy the same space in my head as the Beatles. But whereas with the Beatles I just really can't get into them at all, I can listen to LZ, but as background music. They sort of act as a musical palate cleanser. Whenever I can't decide what to listen to because nothing sounds good, I'll put on some LZ, listen to while doing other things, and then suddenly everything else sounds so much better

Last one from me is from The Cars. When I first heard about them, they had a sort of punkish aura. But not really. Like Elvis Costello when he first hit the scene. I tried to catch their groove, but could never quite get there, but this song of theirs is excellent. I especially like this low-fi version, I think it suits the song, and Ric's style, perfectly. Too bad they chose to be more "geek" than "punk".

[Zzzptm]

Lol, yeah, The Cars! I like their "Just What I Needed" as well, so that's 2 songs of theirs I like. Their earliest stuff is best and then... 80s happened in a bad way to them...

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I now realise I could have included Slayer as the only song of theirs I like is Seasons in the Abyss (it's a little less thrashy even a little commercial... with a melody!!)

Yup, The Cars while a band I'm no fan of they have done a 2 or 3 good songs

=========

Tomorrow I may post a few (dis-)honourable mentions!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Here's some honourable mentions, I won't put links in, if you wanna listen to them google it!

REM - Losing My Religion

Duran Duran - Rio

Talking Heads - Psycho Killer

Nickelback - How You Remind Me Ahem!

[Charger]

Nickelback - How You Remind Me Ahem!

A ditto for ZZZ for having Slayer on here...that's a travesty!


I could add Duran Duran but I would have chosen A View To A Kill instead.

Pat Benatar - Hell Is For Children was close of making my list as well...although I'm not super crazy about that song either nor do I know enough about her other stuff to really judge.

Venom was something I considered as well but I do enjoy a few of their tracks although In League With Satan is SUBERB.


And honestly I probably missed a lot due to the fact that I just can't remember