It's pretty much an article of faith among music geeks that the popular music canon is deeply flawed. "Oh yeah," we'll say, " 'Trying to Get To You' is way better than 'Jailhouse Rock,'" or "Nirvana is nothing but a third-rate Squirrel Bait," or "Too Tough to Die is really the best Ramones album." etcetera, etcetera. I believe I actually committed a few of these to print in It Takes a Worried Man (still available! Buy buy buy and keep it in print!). Of course, what anybody is saying when they say something like this is "I have better taste than the rest of the world," or, more simply, "I'm smarter and better than everybody else." Gosh, it seems kind of pathetic all boiled down like that, doesn't it?
Ahem. Anyway, my asssumption that the canon is usaully wrong was challenged recently. I noted that Belle and Sebastian lifted the "Been Caught Stealing" bass line, and this made me seek out that song for download, so I grabbed "Jane Says" and "Pets" while I was at it, and I realized that, in the case of Perry Farrell, the canon has it exactly right. Those are the only Jane's Addiction or Porno for Pyros songs you ever hear, and, strangely, they are the only Jane's Addiction or Porno for Pyros songs that don't totally suck. So, in this case, the canon is exactly right. And this got me wondering if there is any other artist with such a wide disparity in the quality of their songs. Because all three of those are really great, brilliant songs. And the rest of the output is just awful. Not a lot of middle ground there.
This got me wondering if there are any other artists with two or three songs that you might consider essential and a whole bunch of other ones that you might consider unlistenable. Hmmmmm....
I like the Rush songs I've forever heard on the radio but I've always suspected that the rest of them are pretty bad. But I wouldn't know for sure.
What else? The Police? Smashing Pumpkins? SS-20? I just don't know....
Posted by: Eric T. | March 22, 2006 at 09:01 AM
Filter's Take My Picture is a fab song, but Filter is in general a terrible band. I bought the album based on that song, and the rest of it is basically unlistenable.
Posted by: Doug | March 22, 2006 at 09:17 AM
I kinda like Filter's "Hey Man, Nice Shot" too, but maybe that's just because I was living in Pennsylvania when Budd Dwyer ended it all on live tv.
I have the Rush greatest hits album, and while it does have the classix, it's got such crap ("Temples of Syrinx," "Passage to Bangkok") that you wonder how bad the stuff that got left off the greatest hits album is.
I don't know squat about Smashing Pumpkins, but I do like their canonical works. The Police have some great album tracks--for me the problem is that I can hear the seeds of Sting's future suckitude in so many of the songs now.
And, of course, every SS-20 song is essential. Especially "Right Wing Death Squad" and "Is Santa Listening".
Posted by: Brendan | March 22, 2006 at 09:24 PM
I was ordering some CDs from the library online, and a thought popped into my head: "they only play 5 or 6 Badfinger songs on the radio and they're all GREAT." Stands to reason that the rest of their music would be good, too. I got a best of CD, and when it arrived, I realized why they only play 5 or 6 Badfinger songs on the radio--the rest of them suck!
The canon was right this time.
Posted by: Mike M | March 28, 2006 at 08:07 PM
I unearthed my "Best of War" CD the other day, and this is another sad case of a band that can't fill a greatest hits album with great hits. "Summer" was pretty much the only song not in the radio canon that I would call good. But the other songs aren't wretched or anything--they're just not that good. Not sure if that counts. But man, "Low Rider" is just fantastic.
Posted by: Brendan | March 30, 2006 at 09:11 AM
I always thought that Smashmouth was essentially a band that would put out five really, really catchy songs across three or four fairly dull albums, and that one day I would just pick up their Best of and have everything I needed from them.
Of course, this was in a time before iTunes, which means people no longer have to wait for such things.
Posted by: Josh | April 05, 2006 at 12:40 AM
bauhaus - they have a 2 volume singles collection and maybe 10 cds in print at amazon, but the only thing you actually want to keep in your collection is that one great single.
Posted by: chris green | April 10, 2006 at 02:06 PM