Then why not tell us why you love a particular piece of music gosteelers? I'm not saying justify its existance, but give us your impressions of the piece. For example, I love "Whiter Shade of Pale" which some people hate. I like it because it reminds me of sitting out back with my dad. It conjures a certain memory for me, so it's important to me. Others don't have to like it, that's just peachy by me. The point is, not all of us like the same kinds of music. I hate Led Zepplin, which is my right. There are people here who absolutely love them, which is their right. I don't get angry at them and they don't get angry at me. Trust me, music is my passion as well. Nothing moves me in quite the same way, but I know that not everybody agrees with my taste in music.

Maya, while it is true that rich folks often hired classical musicians to perform, most classical musicians died penniless. The same goes for artists at that time. Being hired did not guarantee payment in those days. They did what they did for themselves.

While there are some "classic" songs I don't like, I don't think
there are any classic songs that I don't "get". It seems to me the record buying public has proven that just about any song can be a hit and eventually a classic- whether the song deserves it or not. I just wish the many radio stations would quit over-playing the same 20 or so songs they play each day.
Over-playing a song shouldn't qualify it as a classic, though I'm not sure MTV, Rolling Stone magazine and the so-called Rock and Roll Hall of Fame would agree.

It's too bad that the music industry is so corrupt and greedy as there is so much great music out there today and even more great music from recent and past years that has never or rarely been heard or promoted. Should there be a thread
on non-rated rarely-heard should-be classic songs?

Quote:

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Maya, while it is true that rich folks often hired classical musicians to perform, most classical musicians died penniless. The same goes for artists at that time. Being hired did not guarantee payment in those days. They did what they did for themselves.

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Not exactly. Composers weren't hired to play, they were commissioned to compose music for their wealthy patrons. They didn't earn a fortune, but those whose compositions pleased their audiences and their patrons were the ones who earned enough to eat. Thus there was a commercial incentive to their work. Very few musical compositions by composers who did not have "commercial success" are still around today.

As for over-rated "classics", in my opinion Mozart's "Eine Klein Nachtmusic" is vastly over-rated, as are Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

SNM that's a very relevant comment, the classical composers were (in the main) commisioned to produce the music (It was the pop music of the day!)

"I don't no art but I know what I like" springs to mind.
I want to know who left that darned cake out in the rain and who commissioned Richard Beethoven Harris to sing it!
Do mares eat oats, and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy?
cheers
Maynooth

Hey look at that, I look just like MotherGoose!
That'll teach 'er to not log off!

cheers
Maynooth

Everything by Prince, utter rubbish.

Much of the Doors is vastly overrated, especially "Light My Fire", "Touch Me" and "Love Me Two Times" (it's about oral sex, right?). Their underrated song is "L.A. Woman", the only real rocker they did, and still a classic I love!

BTW, just what "other side" did they mean in "Break on Through"?

tjoeb};>

I’m surprised that among this bunch of pedants, that no-one has pointed out that “Imagine” is NOT a Beatles song. While, being an Aussie, I’m happy to bag anything, I tend to agree with GOSTEELERS (probably because just about everything that has been bagged here is music I love).

Ripping on "Bohemian Rhapsody"? I'm sorry, but I won't allow it!

When I was a 10-year-old boy, listening to my tinny AM clock-radio trying to convey the world of popular music to me, "Bohemian Rhapsody" was a revelation.

Think about it: Most pop songs are between 3 and 4 minutes long, and here was this unusual and unique song that literally came out of left field!

Then, picture me at the local library a year later, discovering that they have records (!) you can listen to or even check out. Granted, like all library records, this collection's copy of "A Night at the Opera" was scratched almost to death, but I the stereophonic mix, which I had never heard before, still came through.

Fast-forward to the next year, when this writer discovered FM rock radio. For the first time, the clarity of the music comes through, and I am forever converted!

I have been a Queen fan ever since!

Now, as for "annoying song," the so-called rock station where I live, which plays a so-called "variety" of Classic Rock, plays at least three of the following songs EVERY DAY during the 5:00am hour:

Grand Funk, "Some Kind of Wonderful"
Phil Collins, "I Don't Care Anymore" (Okay, I do like this one)
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, "Born to Run" (I still like this one, too)
John Mellencamp, "Pink Houses"
John Mellencamp, "The Authority Song"
John Mellencamp, "R.O.C.K In the U.S.A." (Do you detect a pattern here?)
Queen, "You're My Best Friend"
Queen, "Killer Queen" (...and I'm a fan!)
The Rolling Stones, "Start Me Up"
The Rolling Stones, "You're So Cold" (The absolutely worst song they've ever done!)

There are some more, but I have saved the worst for last:

The Rolling Stones, "Angie" -- I used to like this song, but I want to break my 45* of this song and gouge out my eyes with the shards!


While I'm here, whenever this station plays a live track, I go into shock when it isn't "Do You Feel Like We Do?" by Peter Frampton!

(* -- For those of you in the younger set, a 45-RPM record, also called a "single")

Anything by Cliff Richard, Phil Collins and Robbie Williams. These guys know how to entertain but not much else. Their musical ability is minimal, which explains why they all keep churning out the same old mindless pap year-in, year-out. Look guys you've made your money, so just go and retire to somewhere nice and quiet and give our eardrums a break!
Ditto, to the 'Old Farts' namely..Rod Stewart, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton etc. You've got nothing else left to offer us fellas, so please just STOP.
Mex

Freebird by lynyrd skynyrd! How and why this annoying, droningly off-key song with such trite lyrics has achieved rock anthem status I will never understand. I LIKE a lot of the rest of their stuff so much better, why THIS song?

Surely the bigger part of the problem has to be over-exposure. Certainly most of the classic songs/acts people named here had something to offer, otherwise they don't become popular, and eventually "annoying".

That being said, it also boils down to a matter of individual taste. If you don't like a certain song, style of music, or artist to begin with...chances are your opinion of it/them isn't going to improve

I kind of agree about the over-exposure of songs making them seem worse, especially with 'Bohemian Rhapsody', everybody headbanging to it in tribute to 'Wayne's World'. However, I've only heard 'Stairway to Heaven' a handful of times and couldn't understand what was supposed to be so great about it. A song being 'epic' doesn't necessarily make it great. It just makes it long.

Agree with comments about Pink Floyd and U2...don't own anything by them and never will. However, Dylan's version of Knockin' on Heaven's door I like. The Guns and Roses version is the worst cover I have ever heard Axl Rose to me is the worst singer in all of Rock -- what an annoying voice!

Though I don't mind it so much my husband can't stand "Knights in White Satin" by the Moody Blues. I take pleasure in coming across it on the radio just for his reaction to hearing it.

Songs I can't stand would have to include a whole ship-load of the stuff produced by an Aussie band by the name of Cold Chisel.
Classics? I think not. Appealing to a whole generation of drunken yobbos who can't pronounce half the god-forsaken words but who are more than happy to butcher the damn thing in a typically inebriated state does NOT make Khe Sanh a frickin' classic! All that does is put paid to the international rumour that Australians are idiots. Saturday Night by Cold Chisel is up there with Khe Sanh, but at least that one was sung by Ian Moss, who could actually pronounce the words.
Speaking of pronunciation, "Beautiful People" by Australian Crawl is considered to be a classic song here in the land downunder, and I challenge any sane person with at least 50% of their hearing intact to make out the words.
AND I can't stand Bruce Springsteen, but that may be more of a scar than anything. Any music that soothed my closted-latent-homosexual cross-dressing ex-husband is a real no-no for me these days.

Being a musician in a rock band that plays in clubs, dives etc. it's a rare occasion to get through a night without some drunk (or a bunch of them) yelling for "Free Bird" at the end of the night. It doesn't matter that we only have one lead guitar player. I think if a guy was standing up there all night playing a banjo and singing by himself, he would get a request for it. If we stooped as low as to actually play it, it takes two or more guitar players. I've played the song with other bands that had two guitar players. Thankfully, that's in the past. I have been charmed in the last few years that the requests for Eric Clapton's version of "Cocaine" and Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock And Roll" died out somewhere. If I want to listen to "Cocaine", I'll go back to the original version by J.J. Cale. "Free Bird" is one of the all time most over-rated songs. So is "Gimme Three Steps" and "Sweet Home Alabama". If you dig around in the album cuts by Lynyrd Skynyrd, they had better material. There is only one version of "Knocking On Heaven's Door" and that is the Dylan original. The Clapton version was "wanky", and the Guns 'N' Roses version is awful. I can't stand Bruce Springsteen. I never could figure out who died, and made him "The Boss".

OK, a couple of things I'd like to address in the two most recent posts. First, I have never heard the international rumour that Australians are idiots. In fact, most of the media references I've heard champion Aussies as among the most interesting, capable, and intriguing people on the scene right now. So, please, ecneluba, don't waste time worrying over an overrated band's influence on pub crawlers. We all know better. We love Aussies. Second, as usual, lemmy has let loose with some very insightful commentary that I agree with for the most part...except that I just want to add that, as a fellow working musician, I have not only been subjected to the endless "Free Bird" and "Cocaine" requests, but to a near life time of shouts for "Mustang Sally" as well. I think I once liked the Booker T. and the Mgs version at some point in my life, but after having performed it a million times, and having heard it several million more, I've decided that it is waaaay overrated. It's that back-up chorus "Ride, Sally, ride" that gets people excited. The song itself is really just pretty straightforward mid-sixties R & B. Don't you think?

Re: Mustang Sally -- overplayed, yes. and always played too fast. If anyone could sing it like Wilson Pickett at the right tempo that would be cool by me. I've played and sang this thousands of times also because people like it but always felt like a jerk because I know I'm no Wilson Pickett. I'd rather never attempt it ever again.

Gosh... I must be really lame. Almost every song or band mentioned in this thread is one I like. I love Pink Floyd, but will agree that The Wall is wildly over-rated. I even like newer stuff better. I'm also a huge Jethro Tull fan, but almost anything off of the Aqualung album (almost the only Tull they play on the radio here) is worthless. I mean, please... "Eyeing little girls with bad intent"? What the heck? What makes that a "good" song? Now, "Wond'ring Aloud" or "Skating Away" or "Reason for Waiting" or practically anything off Songs from the Wood... This is Jethro Tull. Why all the dredges from Aqualung on the radio?

Now, Lothruin, just because you like songs that I or someone else is tired of doesn't make you lame! Really, it's just the overkill factor. I have this big, strong, husky 3 octave voice, and whenever my band plays out, people just start to yell out the names of songs that have been sung by women with similar voices. I used to love "Summertime" and "Guilty" (by Bonnie Raitt), but I have sung each of them so many times, I can hardly bear to push out the notes these days. As for "Aqualung", I think you are right. That does seem to be the only Tull album that makes rotation on American classic radio. I like that "Knave" album from the late eighties, but one never hears so much as a flute note from it.