Terrible Bands You Still Like, Supertramp Edition

[Tommy D]

The drugs & alcohol, Sexism & strippers, over-the-top playing & look, were not something I could relate to

Good thing that's a thing of the past now that THAT genre has run its course.

The glorification of it by a huge amount of artists that took over almost an entire decade, yes.

I don't think any band that reaches that kind of popularity would be considered "terrible".

Nickelback.

Too easy.

^^^ While I'm not a fan, the people that have bought their over 50 million records would disagree with you. ^^^

No doubt?! How did Nickleback get a bad rap to begin with? They certainly weren't as bad as the Beatles.

This did not help.

While formulaic in nature, what you are hearing is Nickleback's "sound" moreso than a rip off of one of their other songs. AC/DC has a very distinct sound which verges on ripping themselves off album after album, but nobody hates AC/DC for this. If people enjoy a band's sound, why should they change it? Why not keep hitting home runs record after record?

Some bands try to create a new sound for a new place that they are in and get ostracized by the fans because of it. Metallica's "Black Album" to this day still gets thrown under the bus by "purists" as being a sell out album. So its damned if you do and damned if you dont I guess.

 

[CaptainCrunch]

While formulaic in nature, what you are hearing is Nickleback's "sound" moreso than a rip off of one of their other songs. AC/DC has a very distinct sound which verges on ripping themselves off album after album, but nobody hates AC/DC for this. If people enjoy a band's sound, why should they change it? Why not keep hitting home runs record after record?

Some bands try to create a new sound for a new place that they are in and get ostracized by the fans because of it. Metallica's "Black Album" to this day still gets thrown under the bus by "purists" as being a sell out album. So its damned if you do and damned if you don't I guess.

I remember a Brit guitar mag had a review of the then-new AC/DC album a while back: "The experimental electronica-tinged soundscapes envelop you in a womb of near-transcendental blissed-out sonic amniotic fluid. You float along on a river of currents and eddies of swelling synths, live strings, and complex burbling drum machine work. A journey that will leave you both humbled with the grandeur summoned by the sound, and.....

Just kidding. Are you daft? It's "Back In Black: Pt. 8". What did you expect?"

(some liberties taken, but that was the gist of it)

 

[DanC]

I heard this band was pretty good, but a lot of people think they stink:

 

[Vistalite Black]

It's back!

 

[Houndog]

I’m the opposite, I’m liking bands that I didn’t used to .

 

[drummingbulldog]

Bob Seibenberg was an outstanding drummer.

 

[Squirrel Man]

The logic song is terrible?

Yeah, ok ..

Anyway, closet W.A.S.P. fan.

Blackie Lawless once said in an interview after his flaming codpiece exploded on him "if we wrote better songs we wouldn't have to do this (mess)".

 

[Pat A Flafla]

The logic song is terrible?

Yeah, ok ..

Anyway, closet W.A.S.P. fan.

Blackie Lawless once said in an interview after his flaming codpiece exploded on him "if we wrote better songs we wouldn't have to do this (mess)".

Blackie sang the hell out of The Real Me on whatever record that was. (Frankie's no slouch either.)

 

[bigbonzo]

Clickbait.....

 

[Squirrel Man]

Clickbait.....

Never heard of them

 

[dsop]

I like the entire Crime of the Century album (except for Bloody Well Right) and some of the early albums did little to indicate how truly atrocious they would become.

Says the person who loves Metallica.... 'nuff said.

 

[studrum]

VB's pretty much dead-on right about Supertramp. Their albums before Breakfast in America were interesting, creative, singular (their own) visions. "I was there" when BiA came out, and it was clearly a lowest-common denominator, sell-big cheese-out, part of underground, innovative rock music crawling towards becoming Arena Rock. Ugh! Couldn't stand it then; can't stand it now. Even some of their post-BiA albums had a bit of return-to-form that I appreciated.

I can't think of bands that I liked "before" that I now think have not worn well. I can hear some shortcomings on some albums that I used to devour whole, and I recognized then when bands declined. But if anything, I've added bands and artists and genres over the years. My tastes are not locked in the past.

 

[Stretsch]

Up here in the Great White Snow we have Canadian Contect laws which mean 1 in 4 songs on the radio have to be from Canadian "artists" which makes this band even more grating...

 

[Bandit]

Says the person who loves Metallica.... 'nuff said.

I have tried to like Metallica, but to no avail.

 

[Pat A Flafla]

My day job involves grading music students on singing in tune, so I think this certainly qualifies as a guilty pleasure:

Somehow I'm not tired of this record 20 years later.

 

[pgm554]

A song I heard this morning reminded me that the first concert I attended was Supertramp on the Breakfast in America tour in a big hockey arena.

Looking back, it's amazing that I still like music--live music, anyway--after being pummeled with the 100-db-plus awfulness that is The Logical Song, Goodbye Stranger and Breakfast in America. Not sure of the collective insanity that led U.S. radio listeners to make any of those hit songs, but there you go.

Fortunately, some instinct told us to find a way to blunt the full force of the proggers-turned-popster aural assault, so one of our group brought along a goatskin wine bag filled to over-flowing with a random assortment of cordials and whiskies from her parents' liquor cabinet. Thankfully, this put us in the right headspace for a mid-set instrumental featuring a point-of-view film of a train racing through mountains and tunnels. Whoa.

At this point, it's probably fair to say that S'tramp's early output was at least as good as other third-tier prog bands. I like the entire Crime of the Century album (except for Bloody Well Right) and some of the early albums did little to indicate how truly atrocious they would become.

Unfortunately, the impossible-to-explain success of Breakfast--which went No. 1 and quadruple platinum--casts kind of a stink on the earlier catalog. It's impossible to hear Even in the Quietest Moments without recalling the unmatched stupidity of 1979 lyrics like "Can we have kippers for breakfast, Mummy Dear, Mummy Dear. They got to have 'em in Texas, because everyone's a millionaire."

Other low-lights of my concert-going include Duran Duran (which is explained by the simple fact that I liked the young lady who invited me along more than I hated the Duranies, who by then were a dozen years past their MTV prime).

This all leads to the question: What terrible bands do you still like despite how little sense it makes?

I'll admit to owning pretty much all the collected output of The Sweet, and I'd argue that their couple of high points--chiefly their epic 7-minute-long version of Love is Like Oxygen--barely make up for their truly unctuous early output.

Also, for some reason, Ugly Kid Joe has always been a guilty pleasure, even though it's a band with abundantly obvious limitations in terms of musicianship.

So, what terrible bands do you still like?

Only a 100 db?
Ted Nuisance used to crack 130.

 

[nmosko]

I friggin love Poison's greatest hits record

 

[SpinaDude]

The logic song is terrible?

Yeah, ok ..

Anyway, closet W.A.S.P. fan.

Blackie Lawless once said in an interview after his flaming codpiece exploded on him "if we wrote better songs we wouldn't have to do this (mess)".

WASP!! LOL That's an amazing comment. I have to give him credit for being self-aware enough to come out and say that. There's a lot of cheese in that danish to be sure, but some really great stuff too.

The Heretic (The Lost Child) is still one of my all time favorite tracks. The late Frankie Benali on that album I believe. He was a monster on that whole CD.

 

[mydadisjr]

I heard this band was pretty good, but a lot of people think they stink:

How did those four guys decide which two got to wear those cool man-panties?

(the guy on the right looks slightly embarrassed by the photo shoot... must be the drummer)

 

[JazzDrumGuy]

It's funny that what one person sees as terrible, others hail as genius.

"One man gathers what another man spills..."