one shit wonder - amazing acts that somehow created one of the biggest duds in history

The Laughing Gnome is an obscure single from before he was successful, also it slaps.

China Girl's another one of iggy's blunders, still not as awful as African Man though

I like China Girl but feel guilt about it. I rationalized it one way or another for a long time but at a certain point I heard a live version where he says “just you shut your mouth” in a chinese-ish accent and it was just embarrassing. “Oh Grampy Bowie, don’t do that…”

Does it work better with Iggy Pop or is it just bad? I dunno.

If you listen to his singles in order, China Girl is the moment he flips to Nope

What's that really icky Iggy Pop music video from the early 80s? Don't know if I want to go looking for it.

The first person to post "Real Wild Child" gets a flag.

xp Oh yeah it's Bang Bang. Song is ok, video is not ok.

Chris O'Leary offered a defense of that Tin Machine single.

I seem to be the world's biggest Reeves Gabrels fan and the sole person to repeatedly vote him "Bowie's best guitarist" over the likes of Alomar and Ronson (and I do believe I'm right)

TM2 isn't "saved" by Gabrels because he's not the problem, the problem is (for me) that Bowie is aping Black Francis so obviously (and completely missing everything about what makes Pixies work, when it works), it is so grotesque a steal-parody, it insults me as a listener, insults Gabrels as a guitarist, insults Black Francis as an influence and insults Bowie as a creator, it probably insults God as well

But, incredibly Drummer Sales manages to turn in the worst tracks on the album and yeah my vote for "the nadir" is "Stateside" over "I'm Sorry", by dint of the fact that I actually watched all eight minutes of the live version of "Stateside" from "Oy Vey, Baby" and it is the musical equivalent of walking in on your father masturbating

Anyway seems unfair to be shooting guns at Bowie's fishbarrels when, in his classic period, he definitely has a few shits among the diamonds; of his original material I'd fart at "The Secret Life Of Arabia", and if we're including covers, then his garbage take on "Across The Universe" (already an ugly, ugly song to begin with)

The "Bang Bang" video is brilliant. Iggy made a bunch of $5 videos for his Arista albums and they're all great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcUa65cgX9c

and ooh boy Bowie's cover

trying to work out if China Girl would be not terrible if it wasn't so racist but this doesn't seem like a thought worth pursuing

"Across The Universe" (already an ugly, ugly song to begin with)

WTAF

No idea what Bowie's biggest dud for me is - God Only Knows, Beat of Your Drum and Too Dizzy perhaps.

You Belong in Rock 'n' Roll might be his worst lead single. Bless, he tried very hard - perhaps harder than usual - for it to be a UK hit.

RHCP's Love Rollercoaster would have been much worse without AK singing through a megaphone/trapped down the well effect. It's like the record's trying to get rid of him.

I can't stand RHCP, but they have done a lot worse than their version of Love Rollercoaster, it works fine in its context (The Beavis & Butthead movie)

A quick google puts "Across The Universe" at #93 on a Vulture list and at #84 on the Rolling Stone list of "every Beatles song ranked" so I'm not alone here

I don't know if there's really a bad Beatles song

Weird, it's one of my top five. I love the lyrics and the phrasing.

I hate “Honeypie.”

Conrmtrop: I could totally get behind versions of "Across the Universe" AND "Here Comes the Sun" that omitted the Indian pastiche bits.

Like seriously. Record "Across the Universe" without the jai guru deva om bits. Record "Here Comes the Sun" without the unconventionally timed bit.

Both songs improve, and nothing of importance is lost.

Worst Beatles original is "If You've Got Trouble" from Anthology 2, worst cover is "Three Cool Cats" from the first Anthology.

I'm the only person who loves Bowie's "Across the Universe".

hi! Sit by me.

(1) The guitars sound wonderful (2) Bowie's acrobatics on the line "Thoughts MEEANDEEHH like a restless wind in-SIIIIIDE a lettah BOX!"

I am going to be super basic and assert that the best "Across the Universe" cover is by Rufus Wainwright.

Controp cont'd: Lots of very good actual Indian musicians played actual Indian music way better then the Beatles did.

The Beatles were not from India. And their music was working fine before anyone decided it needed a sitar in it.

...but I hate Bowie's "Let's Spend the Night Together".

love that one

love it too, so deranged

across the universe is so teen poetry it makes me cringe it feels like the kind of song I would have written at 15 if I had talent

I don't understand why the bowie version is so hated doesn't he always sound like that?

Sheila Chandra did the raga pop thing way better than George Harrison or any other 60s rockers

Generally I dislike Bowie's covers, not because they're bad necessarily, but because they're consistently the weakest track on any given 70s album. That said, I like "Pin Ups" a lot haha

I don't think John really wrote any bad songs for The Beatles (except "Across The Universe" imo) but Paul's got about ten pieces of shit in there ("Honey Pie" being the worst)

the granny music bashing is way out of control at this point and lennon wrote bad songs at every stage of his career and almost exclusively after 1968

I'm the only person who loves Bowie's "Across the Universe".

Not the only one.

I always assumed that "Honey Pie" was British slang for shit

Not the only one.

OK, we're an exclusive club!

brb gotta take a wicked honey pie

One of Macca's attempts to capture the cornball essence of Tin Pan Alley.

i.e. "Oh no, I just stepped in a honey pie."

Guess I was mixing up honey pots and cow pies.

Pretty sure I would accept a career that includes a dozen or so pieces of corny shit in exchange for a half-dozen indelible, immortal classics, but whatevs

Obvs

I do love that when everyone in the rock world was putting on their serious blues rock faces McCartney was like, "You know what's really cool..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX4u4J6m5Pg

HP isn't great but it gets way too much stick coming from an album that contains piggies and people sometimes act like mccartney is the old corny beatle which is ridiculous

the granny music stuff will surely be reevaluated after his death, it's very much what the kids call "a choice" and even if it doesn't always work for me I appreciate big swings that are so studiedly uncool, then or now

it's interesting to me that he started fucking around with this stuff in earnest when his reputation for countercultural coolness was at its height as part of the psychedelic everythingness vibe of the time and how it retroactively became a mark against him when reputations flipped and there is a def an element of misogyny to the reactions these songs provoke among serious beatle nerds

"only corny" I meant but he is the old corny beatle now too xp

When I'm Sixty-Four is the big offender for me there. I kinda like his other cornball stuff but this is just like every reason to dislike the Beatles rolled into one

I know there’s some interesting shit going on in the vocals but I really really do not like “good day sunshine”

GOOD DAY

SUNSHINE

HULK EAT BREAKFAST

I don’t see Paul’s “granny” music (ugh that term) thing as being that far from the general whimsical children’s book vibe that was a big part of uk psych

I am going to be super basic and assert that the best "Across the Universe" cover is by Rufus Wainwright.

Come on. Laibach take this in a walk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTQcJx7xqAc