Great songs with a terrible section

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.

The ill-advised rap break in Capsule's 'Love Or Lies' (comes in at around 2.55), all the more egregious for seemingly being lifted from a sample bank.

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

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

omg I love that section!

Me too. In general, interjections from brass sections are good, not bad.

Ha ha! Pretty soon every example in this thread will have its champion!

(But it's awful thin synth brass! And it was floating along so serenely...)

Madness' lovely version of The Sweetest Girl has a total Fairlight percussion meltdown in the middle that kinda ruins the vibe.

Well earlier I was gonna put the "Gorgon's heard gossip" line in House of Fun. Clunky as hell.

But it's awful thin synth brass!

Well, at the time, according to this article, OMD had expanded to include a real brass section! It sounds good to me.

I don't like early (or much) Arctic Monkeys but I'd probably be able to enjoy the first two hits a lot more if:
- the last 15 seconds of Dancefloor where it gets all shouty weren't there
- the horrid strummy beginning and end of Sun Goes Down sabotaging the nice riff they flank also weren't there

but it turns out the lunkhead was Esthero's primary collaborator Doc McKinney.

Where are you seeing that btw? Shug is credited as the lunkhead on discogs, with Meesah as Esthero's stunt double. Certainly rings a bell and a quick glance at the tracklist of Shug's 1996 album seems to square with that.

xxxxxp - Thanks for that Sparklehorse track!

Ha ha! Pretty soon every example in this thread will have its champion!

― Michael Jones

Only the fools and the damned would defend Einar.

The ill-advised rap break in Capsule's 'Love Or Lies' (comes in at around 2.55), all the more egregious for seemingly being lifted from a sample bank.

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

― ol' flint-eyes is back (Matt #2), Friday, September 2, 2022 10:23 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah I always hated that part too. it's a pretty unreal track otherwise though.

The composed part of Brubeck's "Blue Rondo a la Turk" is great, but I edited out all of the jamming on blues changes in the middle.
My edit of "Bitches Brew" took out the free time staccato sections at the start, middle and end, keeping only the "groove" part.
"100,000 Years" on Kiss Alive is a favourite, especially now that I edited the drum solo/call-and-response part down to 5 seconds.

I love the Close to the Edge intro. I don't think any prog bands had tried anything quite like that as far back as '72.

Closest predecessors might be King Crimson's "Battle of Glass Tears" or parts of Pawn Hearts? Not quite the same thing, but it's funny how Soft Machine open up the first side of their double album with five minutes of multiple fuzzy organs noodling and a droning horn section.

that bit in "Sleepwalkers" is worth it just because it comes back at the climax of the song

Right, "you thought this riff was just a bit of fun but look out!!"

Time Heals from Over is all deep until the ragtime part.

It is awkward, but I'd call it "bad Elton John" instead of ragtime.

Only the fools and the damned would defend Einar.

He's good on "Motorcrash".

WE ALL WANT TO HOLD IN THE EVERLASTING GAZE
ENCHANTED IN THE RAPTURE OF HIS SENTIMENTAL SWAY
BUT UNDERNEATH THE WHEELS LIE THE SKULLS OF EVERY COG
THE FICKLE FASCINATION OF AN EVERLASTING GOD

Was this really sixteen years ago?

You know that part of Led Zeppelin's "Fool in the Rain" where they come out of the silly Latin section back into the main piano riff and there's like a steadily rising drum roll and
...and then there are two absolutely great drum fills--one loping and carefree and the other one very tight and focused? And then that hard shuffle starts up again as if the song had never departed from it in the first place?
Ain't that cool?

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Wednesday, August 2, 2006 7:38 PM (sixteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I could do without the whistle, though.
― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Wednesday, August 2, 2006 7:39 PM (sixteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I love the whistle. I love everything about this song except that it ends.
― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, August 2, 2006 7:40 PM (sixteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Upon reflection, MarkR otm.

I was wrong and I am sorry

I made an edit of The Doors' Touch Me with all the crap bits cut out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyZH0ev0oMk

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

The first CD reissue of Moby Grape's Wow actually had the annoying part at the end of "Bitter Wind" snipped off, probably to fit the album and the (mostly monotonous) Grape Jam bonus disk on one CD. The whole album is full of decent songs messed up by terrible sections in it actually. "The Place and the Time" has some lovely parts like the "make the changes..." section about 45 seconds in, but also out-of-tune singing and sound effects near the end. "Just Like Gene Autry: A Foxtrot" was pressed at 78rpm and was preceded by spoken instructions to get up and change the setting on your turntable, followed by another spoken part read by Arthur Godfrey. "Funky-Tunk" has a verse sung half-speed-recorded chipmunk style. "Rose Colored Eyes", one of the album's best songs, has that spoken argument thing near the end. The recorder riff that begins and ends "Bitter Wind" is pretentious and unnecessary.

“Funky Tunk” also has the line, “How come you ain’t got on your clothes on?” (or something similarly grammatically confusing)

I wish I’d found a copy of Wow when I was 12-15 and still had a record player that could play at 78. I did, however, take advantage of the 78 speed when I read about the “star fleet” dialogue on Hendrix’s “Third Stone From The Sun.”

I've been on the fence about the acoustic section of "Symptom of the Universe" for the better part of 4 decades. Not terrible of course but I'm still not sure it should be there. Maybe it should have just been a separate song?

Air's Radio #1 is the first one to pop into my head for this. Those goofy vocals that come in after the three minute mark kill the song.

Another one is the album version of Too Much Too Young by Specials. I knew the two minute single edit first, so when I got the album I was so disappointed at the moment when the song starts again and drags on for another four minutes for no reason.

He's good on "Motorcrash"

Eh. He really doesn't add anything to the song. Live--at least to judge by their SNL debut--he detracted from it. It was really all Bjork.

Come on, now. Einar sucks in “motorcrash” too. Every sugarcubes song would be improved if you remove him. Best thing Einar ever did was creating the band and pushing for Björk to go solo.

tbf, he did serve on Reykjavik city council after the Sugarcubes disbanded.

Re:Specials, My friend has or had it in for part 2 of Stereotypes, finding it to be basically pointless. But I love it and (thinking aloud so haven't checked) it's also the only real showcase moment for toasting on any of their early material.

Where are you seeing that btw? Shug is credited as the lunkhead on discogs, with Meesah as Esthero's stunt double. Certainly rings a bell and a quick glance at the tracklist of Shug's 1996 album seems to square with that.

― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Friday, September 2, 2022 12:46 PM (two days ago)

shit, you're right. I did some very hasty "research" and wound up mistaking Doc's songwriting credit for a feature. was never my intention to sully his name like that

count me among the "You" conclusion defenders. also my buds and i made so much fun of the a capella Corgan section on The Everlasting Gaze but now i kinda think that and "you know I'm not dead!" are kinda the only good parts of the song.

another ruinously bad and offensive male guest rap: "Shoop."

i love einar

Yeah Einar is great!

He once posted on ilx!

Omg "2 On" is definitely a good incentive to explore this question although the "money money money weed fashion" part is fun. Why didn't anyone just ask him to track another verse?

A common answer I've seen on ILM many times (I think it was almost always the same person) is "Work," which I still don't really get. I'm not a huge Drake defender, but everything he added to that song always seemed in good taste, appropriate, and very collaborative. Even the "if you had a twin" lyric isn't 1% as bad as Schoolboy's verse on "2 On."

he's done worse things in his life but it's still the greyest portion of the song. I often forget he's on it and it's always a slight drag when he comes in

being forgettable is drake's best mode tbf

would y'all agree that the more you like an artist, the more the terrible sections are part of the fun because you just kinda "get" them as artists and can kinda get on their level, even if you know something is kinda stupid? (not talking about things that are actually offensive, just things that are artistically cringey and musically distracting?) and that therefore only the truly, really, appallingly terrible sections stand out to you, while the everyday-terrible ones just feel like part of the song?

or is this specific to my feelings about Paul McCartney, who probably has dozens of these as far as the general public is concerned?

This depends on whether I'm listening to them myself (fine) or whether I'm playing them to someone else (unbearable)

In answer to your question: The Replacments' Hootenanny to thread! Maybe.

speaking of, i love most of “uncle albert” but the “live a little, be a gypsy” part…i could take or leave

Okay, upon reflection, Macca is a pretty good example. A lot of stuff that seemed kind of silly at the time which I tolerated way back when, then cringed at, but ended up ultimately not minding. Thinking particularly of, say, Venus and Mars or especially Wings Over America. But maybe it's just a case of the premise of this thread

Reggae section in Live & Let Die, ugh

B-b-but it fit with the locations in the film! Oh wait.

Macca is a perfect example, the intro and outro sections of Pipes of Peace are the most beautiful little sections of music that I wish had been extrapolated into a whole song.

Instead, in the middle, there's terrible reggae with tabla breakdowns and lord knows what.

If ever somebody needed an editor or collaborator, oh wait!

Macca may be especially susceptible because he clearly really likes having a lot of musical ideas in one recording, and also constructing songs out of "sections"... with varying degrees or success.

“Bad Guy” outro

“8 Out Of 10” outro

“Boo’d Up” outro

Somehow now recalling some half-remembered details of the collaboration on his “Liverpool Oratorio.”

Drunk In Love is an amazing track with a bad Jay-Z interlude

it's still an amazing track