Great songs with a terrible section

The reggae breakdown in 'Cortez the Killer'

that only happens in the live versions tho

i'm gonna say it: the sex noises part of "whole lotta love" goes on for way too long

The introductory solo to "Close to the Edge" is amazing! Mahavishnu Orchestra vibes.

I don’t hate it as much as some do but Jay Z’s spot in Kanye’s Monster almost brings the track to a screeching halt, it doesn’t help that the track itself is very long, editing his verse would probably make it better.

But then we’d lose this meme masterpiece of him just listing monsters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v52s9w9Q25Q

I don't like the middle-eights in Just Dance, Poker Face or Paparazzi. Damn near sink all of them.

"Terrible songs with a great section" is also a thing. Like the introduction to Touch Me by The Doors.

^It's by no means a terrible song but the only reason I care about The Buckinghams' Susan is the eerie Charles Ives collage bit, when the opposite is usually true of people in that's the part they don't like.

most grateful dead songs would be in that category for me

it's not terrible by any means, but i was listening to Sparklehorses' Good Morning Spider earlier today, and after listening to "happy man", i went looking for a radio edit, or at least some version which doesn't cloak the first half of the song in parody radio dial noises, panning. there is another version ("memphis version"), but it's another recording altogether, and it's missing something. anyway, wonderful song made even more mysterious by a section that isn't terrible but maybe should have not been there though

Esthero - Breath from Another

I always assumed the lunkhead guest rapper was some hack that her crew dragged into the studio to lend the album "street cred" or whatever. but it turns out the lunkhead was Esthero's primary collaborator Doc McKinney. Esthero's own rap works well enough as a bridge, so I don't understand why they thought the song demanded an extra verse

Also not at all terrible but I usually turn Blood on the Motorway off when it gets to the silent part. First 3:30 or so are all that was needed really.

Esthero - Breath from Another

was totally gonna post this one, even though it's not the greatest song that's some of the worst rapping i've ever heard. also v surprised it's Doc.

The Deliverance sample at the start is also unbearable

"Terrible songs with a great section" is also a thing. Like the introduction to Touch Me by The Doors.

― link.exposing.politically (Camaraderie at Arms Length)

Yeah maybe it deserves a new thread, I can think of several bad songs with a redeeming section.

I don't object quite as strongly as some but The Go-Betweens' "Bachelor Kisses" contains a middle eight that sounds incongruous and unnecessary at best. Its inclusion was demanded by management/label hungry for a hit single. Cover versions (there have been more than one might imagine) are at least as likely to omit it as retain it!

The sax solo in Total Control by The Motels. Completely ruins the restrained beauty of what is otherwise an exemplary slice of minimalist girl-group-inspired new wave pop.

Try this version on for size:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg5yi18x424

Sparklehorse - Happy Pig

Maybe I’m alone on this one but “Donna Lewis - I love you always forever” is a great song with a great groove until the “say you love love me forever” with the piano that ruins the mood for me. Sounds like it turns into an ad for feminine towels.

Also every Sugarcubes are ruined by Einar.

LOL

You don't think his trumpet squonks and bizarre rants added to the band's sound?

Ugh, thank you, I meant to post about Einar earlier. I SAID OUCH, THIS REALLY HURTS! You mean your presence in this song? Because yes it does!

I’ve always wanted the moody Vangelis/Blade Runner-ish parts of “Eyes Without a Face” to go on forever, but the rock-out section, while not all bad, ruins that vibe.

Isn’t ‘terrible song with a great section’ basically going to be every song on WhoSampled.com

thinking bout Charli’s “Femmebot” which glides along so beautifully then goes to clown town with Mykki Blanco’s godawful verse and neutron bum-bum

peter hammill is the king of this! Time Heals from Over is all deep until the ragtime part. That one song on World Record with the reggae!

Miss Broadway by Belle Epoque is one of my favourite disco songs of all time. But I really dislike the part where it breaks down and it's just the backing dudes singing "Uh-huh / I like it" for just a bit too long

"My Wandering Days Are Over" by Belle and Sebastian - one of the best and most affecting verses they've written. I've no love for the "disenchanted pony" part though. Shit lyrics and just nothingy for a chorus

"Always on Time" has a stellar chorus by Ashanti but virtually everything Ja Rule says in the verses is offensively dumb

'Feel Too Good' by the Move is an amazing song that I have to shut off before they start doing whatever ill-advised goof-ass doo wop thing they start doing at the end.

Similarly, “Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited” on Shazam starts out heavy and stomping, but then goes into an utterly pointless and profoundly irritating series of renditions of Bach and Tchaikovsky pieces.

Mr Blue Sky is (overplayed but it's) such a brilliant pop song... until the drawn-out ending, with the choirs and everything. At the very end you hear the title through a vocoder to remind you, tantalisingly, of the thumping joy of the first 'main' section.

“Under My Spell” by Desire. The spell is broken by that dialogue portion.

"Kashmir" is awesome right up until we come to the "Lord yeah mama, there ain't no denyin', I've been flying" bit, which is risibly inane. A real "will this do?" moment.

'You' by REM, good until the end when Stipe unaccountably adopts a Corgan-esque porcine whine when belting out those last few YEEEWWWWs

oh no that rules

anyway first thing that came to mind was taylor swift "lover" bridge

Mr Blue Sky is (overplayed but it's) such a brilliant pop song... until the drawn-out ending, with the choirs and everything

Whatever, that's the best part.

{Forever) Live and Die by OMD is pretty sweet until that terrible middle eight. Though now I've forced myself to listen it, it seems inevitable. The same family of synth tones, really. It's not like we were going to drop into 40sec of Ellesmere Port field recordings. Those days are over.

Any number of great r&b sons nearly ruined by someone shouting "Hey hey"

songs too

yeah the YEEEWWS are great + the contrast between those and the birdies afterwards

Louisa Marks' Meet Me at Sixth Street sounds great and then the toaster throws up some vile homophobia in the middle. If it wasn't for that (and the poor dead fox) Breakout would be up there with Hopelessly in Love.

Mark's

Mr Blue Sky is (overplayed but it's) such a brilliant pop song... until the drawn-out ending, with the choirs and everything

As Eric said, that's clearly the best bit!

The pointless noise section at the end of "Bitter Wind" by Moby Grape. Apparently the rest of the band retired for the evening thinking they'd just recorded a classic and were horrified the next day when they discovered what Bob Mosley had been up to in their absence.

I don't think it's a great song, but I've always thought the cool moody vibes of the second half of Mick Smiley's Magic are absolutely ruined by the first 2:19 (arguably the actual song part).

At the very end you hear the title through a vocoder to remind you, tantalisingly, of the thumping joy of the first 'main' section

That's not the title you hear, it's the words "please turn me over". The song was the final track on side 3 of the album.

Hahaha sorry, giraffe. Here’s another vote to that section being the best one.

{Forever) Live and Die by OMD is pretty sweet until that terrible middle eight

omg I love that section!

The pointless noise section at the end of "Bitter Wind" by Moby Grape. Apparently the rest of the band retired for the evening thinking they'd just recorded a classic and were horrified the next day when they discovered what Bob Mosley had been up to in their absence.

― Buckfast At Tiffany's (Tom D.), Friday, September 2, 2022 10:37 AM (forty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Haha I love that part. I'd still like the song without it, but that musique concrète bit makes the acid hangover and/or bad trip vibe of the song/album/band that much more pronounced.

Could really do without the “meow meow meow meow” bit in Luna’s “Moon Palace”

Feel the need to defend many examples brought up in this thread, but I have the exact opposite opinion of the "father, forgive me" section in "It's a Sin" - beautiful musically and lyrically, crucial to the song, even

But you did remind me of a PSB bridge I really don't like in an otherwise good song: the "everybody's got to live together" section in "So Hard"

ok if we're gonna talk about bridges how about "Orinoco Flow". its such a cool New Age single because it's so brisk and catchy, unlike what you would expect from the genre. there's nothing else like it. so why not just stick a slow tuneless part in the middle just to ruin the flow

ruin the orinoco flow you could say!

no I agree actually. The best thing about it is that when the chorus returns it sounds even better

...but it's great because it blurs out like that then comes back even better! You're like, "oh, is that all the candy I get?" Then you get some more.

It does run the risk of throwing away the momentum though. It's lucky it doesn't imo

There was a really good youtube cover of Primal Scream's Slip Inside This House (i.e. based on their version not 13FE) which is gone now I think but in the middle it went into this sparse fusty breakbeat bit and it sort of spoiled it.

No problem with "Crash Into Me" being a permanent CVS staple, but the sing-songy "I'm the king of the castle" toward the very end grates on me.

Just heard the chopsticks part of "Blinded By The Light" in a Starbucks and was reminded how it could be clever hearing it the first time, but grating if it's now part of a background-music song.

Runnin Blue by the Doors would maybe be my favorite Doors tune if weren't for Krieger's cod hillbilly chorus break down barf

Completely agree!
Several Doors songs have already been mentioned here, there are probably more - I think the Soft Parade title track may also be an example, but I'm not entirely sure how to dissect that one. I think the spoken-word "petition the lord with prayer" opening is just embarrassing. The "let me give you sanctuary" bit, I find one of their most beautiful moments. I do think it's a good thing that it flows into different directions, but I'm not so keen on the segment that follows. It works for me again when it picks up with the "welcome to the soft parade" part. Not sure about the last section. Overall, it feels to me like it should have been their masterpiece, but fails.

I still thought to mention the crying children in 'The Kids' by Lou Reed. It may fit the theme, strengthen the meaning, add to the atmosphere and whatever, but -even if it's pretty short- it's really not fun to listen to. It also puts negative weight on the entire album for me: I'm rarely in a mood to put it on simply because it is the album with the crying kids.

Bob Ezrin never misses an opportunity to get wailing, yelling or chanting children in his productions.

otm

opening 2 minutes or so of The Fiery Furnaces “Benton Harbor Blues.” Like, it’s the Fiery Furnaces so it’s kinda to be expected, but they had a hook so good they had to just throw “Benton Harbor Blues - Again” at the end of the album to knock off those annoying parts.

That’s nothing compared to the high-pitched whistle in “Whistle Rhapsody” (…not that I consider either of these to qualify as “great songs,” but they sure would’ve been better)

I suggested a superfluous middle-8 the last time around and I was just reminded of another. (Or, strictly speaking, a middle-16, which doesn't really even switch to new material, musically...)

David + David's "Welcome to the Boomtown" has a flaccid 30 seconds, 3:30 in, partly to accommodate the spoken verse "the ambulance arrived too late/I guess she didn't want to wait". Impossibly corny, but having mainly heard a (wisely) edited video version in adulthood, I didn't even recall this fabulous song being marred so regrettably.

For those who mentioned "Eyes Without A Face," (which is the first song that came to mind when reading the thread title) here is an edit I made a few years ago that cuts out the guitar solo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU1Yolk9TXg

At the time I considered going on an Edit Crusade and making a bunch of these bridge-cut edits. The only other one I did was New Edition - "If It Isn't Love." If anyone is interested, I'll dig it up.

Xxposts: Fiery Furnaces have so many of these where there’s a brilliant pop song somewhere but you have to pass through sections that are not very pleasant on repeated listens or haven’t aged very well.

i don't know how many would rank it a "great" song, but "Good" by Better Than Ezra undergoes a huuuuge quality drop for the duration of its short, oft-forgotten and totally shapeless guitar solo. yuck!

maybe not a great song, but it's at least a good song

It may not be Better Than "Good", though

I don’t hate it as much as some do but Jay Z’s spot in Kanye’s Monster almost brings the track to a screeching halt, it doesn’t help that the track itself is very long, editing his verse would probably make it better.

But then we’d lose this meme masterpiece of him just listing monsters:

this was incredible btw, exactly what I needed this AM

Also every Sugarcubes are ruined by Einar.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, September 1, 2022 7:29 PM (seven months ago)

While I'm not necessarily an Einar hater, I gotta say that the chorus of "Hit" is so transcendent ("I lie in my bed / Totally still..."), and the Einar section so banal/irritating, that the song def. qualifies for this thread for me.

Heart of the Sunrise, at 6:52

Maybe, but it's sort of effective the way it plays off the main riff.
I first heard the song on the Classic Yes compilation, where they cut off the recapitulation of "We Have Heaven" at the end, and it's never sounded right to me the way it is on Fragile.

Yeah not really sure what part you’re referring to, that game show like keyboard bit?

Yeah not really sure what part you’re referring to, that game show like keyboard bit?

oh, you know, you wind up in all kinds of places when you're lost in the city.

second post OTM, that j cole verse has one of the worst lines in rap history

sort of an inversion of the OP and a jump off of the second post but jeremih - i think of you is a song with only one great section, the first minute is amazing until the guests totally ruin in

I like that part in Heart of the Sunrise but yeah its kinda corny and weird