Classic Or Dud - Sheryl Crow

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I surely cannot be alone in my liking for the throaty Dadrock songstress?

― Tom, Monday, 8 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

She ruined 'Sweet Child O' Mine' for my grandchildren. Damn her. Damn her and the horse she rode in on.

― J.M., Monday, 8 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

i can't believe this is even a question!

tom, tom, tom. oh sigh.

― maura, Monday, 8 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

You're not alone, I like some of her songs. Just not that first single she did. That was awful.

― Ally, Monday, 8 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

I don't know why I like her - but I do - up to a point. I sort of see Sheryl Crow as a female Faces era Rod Stewart, which I think you'll agree makes the idea more palatable. That Sweet Child O' Mine is excrable though.

Any chick who likes a beer buzz in the morning is my kind of gal. (Must go stock up cans of Kestrel Super Strong for the bag ladies in Russell Square).

― Pete, Monday, 8 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

OK, OK, I'd forgotten "Sweet Child O Mine" which is obviously criminal. But otherwise, rrrrrrrrrrrrockin'. The lady Rod Stewart is a fine analogy.

― Tom, Monday, 8 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

The answer has to be CLASSIC, dude. Not sure I can explain why without going all Chuck Eddy, but they're great pop-rock songs, less whiny than the Alanis crew, less shiny than Shania and co., and wrapped up in a gutsy, pub-going (well, being a septic, she has to make do with bars) not-so-pathetic-and-lovelorn, persona. Sweet Child of Mine possibily a mistake, but balance that against the Bond theme...

― alex thomson, Monday, 8 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

I'm with Ally to an extent, in that the first single was An Abomination on God's Green Earth. Made sense it hit big in the era when you could say 'the chart-topping Hootie and the Blowfish.' I differ from her, though, in that I think her whole career since then has also been a total Shower of Shit. I'll grant she may do the Faces/Stewart thing better than, say, the fucking Black Crowes -- not that that's hard -- but otherwise, this is still pop-as-inspired-by-fusty-classic-rock-stations, as played by an extremely weak bar band. NOT A GOOD SIGN. And I mean that from the bottom of my black, evil, poisonous and hatred-filled heart. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 8 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

heavens, all the brit aesthetes are falling over each other to praise this . . . this . . . well, throaty dadrock monstrosity. and i thought i was being a rockist square by liking the pumpkins. "is she still dating clapton?" is all i have to say.

― sundar subramanian, Monday, 8 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Classic, no doubt. I like Sheryl. I don't own a single CD of hers, but if you were to compile a CD of say, her 12 or 15 best songs, that would be a pretty damn good CD.

What I don't like is by playing a relatively safe style of music, she's able to win acclaim from all bases without ever doing anything exciting or new. I've got three music channels, one roughly equivalent to MTV, one to VH1 and one to a country music channel. All three regularly play Sheryl - I might chastise the woman for being so WIDELY popular, commercially successful, critically acclaimed and because she has way too many Grammies in categories she probably didn't deserve, but I can't really hate her because she so so frequently comes up with the goods. How many female rock singers who surfaced in pre-1995 are still around with a similar level of success?

Oops. I just realised I actually do have "If It Makes You Happy" on single. What a fine song that one is. As for "Sweet Child Of Mine", it wasn't the greatest song in the world to begin with. The original worked not because it was a great song per se, it was just done perfectly. Do that song un-perfectly and it isn't going to work.

― Edward Okulicz, Monday, 8 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Aaaw, come on! Why are we even giving her the benefit of the doubt? I give all kinds of stuff house room but Crow is beyond the pale. This is MTV sponsored rock-lite, and it's shit. A very sticky, smelly kind of shit. Who next? Shania Twain? Zuccero? Phil Collins?

― Dr. C, Tuesday, 9 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Shania Twain is quite fine, thank you:P

The reason why "female Rod Stewart" is such a great comparison is because I BLOODY CAME UP WITH IT, THOUGHT STEALER! Ha ha ha. Bastards :P

She still sounds like female Rod Stewart to me, except Rod Stewart in his tolerable phase, as opposed to Rod Stewart post-D'Ya THink I'm Sexy? (God, no, nasty old git)

― Ally, Tuesday, 9 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

I actually think she's closer to Fleetwood Mac before they went shit than Rod Stewart. Maybe Stevie Nicks spooky vulnerability and Lindsey Buckinghams mean-spirited "perfect popness" rolled into one person. But basically the only song of hers I really like is "My Favorite Mistake", a "Gimme Shelter" ripoff sure, but it sure sounds classy amidst the other crap it's usually played around. Shania Twain is a lot better, if not really comparable.

― Kris, Wednesday, 10 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

I'd say more like Fleetwood Mac and Rod Stewart AFTER they went to shit. Which means she still might come up with an interesting song every once in a while. But if the only choices are classic or dud, then dud it is.

― Mark Richardson, Thursday, 11 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Belongs in the same room of hell as Alanis Morrisette and Anouk.

― Stevo, Thursday, 11 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

offcourse she's not a classic. but All I wanna do is great. it was the first alternative single I liked! I mean i was between 7-10 years old then. (don't know the exactly year it was released) I loved that single, and I still do.

Ludo

― Ludo, Friday, 12 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Ewing and the Rodsters are right. No-one has quite mentioned 'songwriting' - but I think that the Crow has a certain gift for that. A *certain* gift. Not a groundbreaking one or one that boldly throws melody and structure out the window, like the geezer Robert Forster. Just a gift for working in certain existing forms and doing them right, not wrong. The one thing that I don't like is that she thinks that certain casual lines sound 'cool' when they don't: eg. 'Schoolboy Jane's in jail / making a killing thru the US mail'. That sounds like it's pretending to be casual.

Some good songs, thought: Run, Baby, Run (its beginning is terribly evocative for me, terribly spacious); Strong Enough (sweet melodies); All I Wanna Do (the chords are relatively unusual. I think the track's great); If It Makes You Happy (for the chorus at least: I always thought it melodically good); and 'Mississippi', which I think was written by Dylan. Surely he didn't write it for her?

*I'd* write a song for her. Sheryl, if you're reading this, just drop me a line. I won't take long.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 20 February 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Okay, I have to defend Phil Collins' honor. I admit, he's commited many a sin against humanity over the years. But he's no Hitler! He's just a Goebbels, at the worst. Not only was he a dang fine rock/funk/fusion drummer in his day, he's also responsible for one of the most spinechillingly perfect "pop" songs ever, "In The Air Tonight."

― Jack Redelfs, Wednesday, 21 February 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

People were saying they hated her first single? That's "Leaving Los Vegas", correct? That's the only one I like! But boy, do I ever hate her new song "The First Cut is the Deepest." That's not even true! It's so bad. She sings "When it comes to being lucky he's cursed." That's not good songwriting! Dud.

― applepie baseball, Friday, 19 December 2003 07:27 (9 years ago) Permalink

And the Rod connection comes full circle.

― Prude (Prude), Friday, 19 December 2003 09:12 (9 years ago) Permalink

her "Mississippi" (which was evidently originally a Time Out of Mind outtake, but then he offered it to her?) doesn't come close to his. her unplugged country version of "If It Makes You Happy" is pretty great (but I fall for anything with a pedal steel). "Maybe Angels" and "Home" from the second record are as good as the singles.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 19 December 2003 23:55 (9 years ago) Permalink

"Home" was a single, it was just the fourth or something from that album so kind of got lost in the shuffle. But it is very nice.

Sheryl kind of fascinates me because she's sooo middle america; she doesn't have any edge to play with whatsoever, but she still manages to write songs that get you somehow. Even though the quality of her voice is nothing extraordinary at first listen, she has a really amazing sense of harmony, and many people have praised her for her ability to instantly work up a harmony part and nail it on the first take.

She was in a sorority, the one for smart girls, and she was a hospitality hostess at college games, talking to prospective recruits about playing for the team. She sang in bar bands for extra cash, and then she was a music teacher. She's pretty and nice and keeps in touch with her old friends.

― teeny (teeny), Saturday, 20 December 2003 00:20 (9 years ago) Permalink

Tons of people blame her for Kevin Gilbert's suicide and her reaction after it was pretty callous and harsh. The guys from the Tuesday Night Music Club apparently all hate her. This might be macho jealousy though.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Saturday, 20 December 2003 00:23 (9 years ago) Permalink

Yeah on the other side I've heard horror stories, but always more than secondhand.

― teeny (teeny), Saturday, 20 December 2003 00:27 (9 years ago) Permalink

My Favorite Mistake is an amazing pop song though, especially the "Did you see me walking by? Did it ever make you cry?" bit.

She sang backup for Jacko!

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Saturday, 20 December 2003 00:28 (9 years ago) Permalink

DUD, DUD AND MORE DUD. God she is the Bono of tribute concerts, just have one and her boney ass will be there.

― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Saturday, 20 December 2003 02:54 (9 years ago) Permalink

i wouldn't say "classic" but she has some good singles. All I Wanna Do, If It Makes You Happy, and Soak Up the Sun are all excellent pop songs.

― MerkinMuffley (MerkinMuffley), Saturday, 20 December 2003 02:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

teeny's post is great. And reaffirms why I like music, why the broad spectrum of music is interesting and full of humanity.

Merkin OTM ... her singles are usually excellent, esp. "soak up the sun".

― Broheems (diamond), Saturday, 20 December 2003 04:36 (9 years ago) Permalink

8 months pass...

The teenage clerk gave me a funny look when I bought the DVD of her videos today. Apparently it's not a big-seller in the early-20s/male demographic.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 00:34 (8 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

Revive.

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 28 August 2006 22:41 (6 years ago) Permalink

"All I Want to Do is Have Some Fun" was so awful, it's dragged down the occasional competence she's shown since then. Also loses point in the "My record label dresses me funny" department. I don't think "Female Rod Stewart" is quite right. More like the female Lenny Kravitz.

― bendy (bendy), Monday, 28 August 2006 23:20 (6 years ago) Permalink

classic for her second and third albums (i'm not including the unreleased one), and stray things from the first and latter ones -- but most of her newer stuff is thoroughly, thoroughly terrible.

what was good about her at her peak was her vocal delivery and weird-ass production, but now she sounds like she's on every sedative known to man, and even her depressing songs are trapped inside some lyrical gerbil wheel of good-fun-happy that they'll never get out of.

― el borracho (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 28 August 2006 23:29 (6 years ago) Permalink

it's kinda funny how bill bottrell, david baerwald, kevin gilbert, etc. were so outraged about being the REAL TALENT BEHIND TEH TUESDAY NIGHT MUSIC CLUB ECT ECT, when that album holds up really poorly (except for the big singles, which would be nothing without her vocals anyway).

― el borracho (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 28 August 2006 23:32 (6 years ago) Permalink

C (dodges bullets)

― less-than three's Christiane F. (drowned in milk), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 01:29 (6 years ago) Permalink

11 months pass...

So I borrowed my sister's iPod shuffle, and was surprised to be knocked flat by a Sheryl Crow number. I've been skipping back to it for days, and mentally rewriting my top-ten-artists-of-the-nineties list.

I've just found out I was actually listening to 'Live and Learn' by the Cardigans.

Nevertheless, classic for 'My Favorite Mistake'. And for all the reasons upthread.

― Ismael Klata, Friday, 24 August 2007 20:19 (5 years ago) Permalink

Her level of excellence is directly proportional to the tightness of her clothes.

― PhilK, Saturday, 25 August 2007 22:49 (5 years ago) Permalink

I've just found out I was actually listening to 'Live and Learn' by the Cardigans.

hahahahhaa

― Cunga, Sunday, 26 August 2007 03:05 (5 years ago) Permalink

I really really really hate "Soak Up the Sun."

― Mr. Snrub, Sunday, 26 August 2007 05:52 (5 years ago) Permalink

when did ally stop being british?

― gershy, Sunday, 26 August 2007 06:15 (5 years ago) Permalink

4 years pass...

omg guys can I just

― Cass McCars (Stevie D(eux)), Sunday, 28 August 2011 20:41 (1 year ago) Permalink

9 months pass...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/05/showbiz/sheryl-crow-brain-tumor/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

yikes

― WHEY AHR MAH DREGUNS? (DJP), Thursday, 7 June 2012 01:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

Maybe I don't get around much but I never would've connected "huh, my memory's fried" with "I should get an MRI". Is this a thing? Hope she's OK

― Ò (Ówen P.), Thursday, 7 June 2012 02:13 (1 year ago) Permalink

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