"Classic rock" performers who really aren't very good

[DancingBear]

Just because they recorded between '65 and '72 doesn't mean the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame should open its doors. To wit:

Billy Joel - Gawd, can ANYONE be more annoying than this guy. Pedestrian piano playing, a voice that makes one yearn to hear fingernails across a blackboard, and some of the worst lyrics ever put to paper. If "Piano Man" is not the worst album ever pressed to vinyl it is certainly in the top two.

(Joe Queenan, in his book "Red Lobster, White Trash, and the Blue Lagoon", has a laugh out loud section about Joel. if anyone has read it you'll know what I mean).

Bad Company - OK, how can members from two great bands like Free and King Crimson, and one pretty good one in Mott The Hoople get together and put out drek like this. Geez, when they talk about "formula rock" this is who they mean. Awful, just awful.

OK, your turn - but keep it in the '65-'72 (maybe '73) parameters. Otherwise, you get stuff like Styx and Journey, and that's like pickin' cherries. :)

[LSparkle]

1. Ugh, Stynx!

"Sail Away" -- nails on blackboard. And I couldn't even GIVE away my Journey LPs; had to trash 'em.

[devilgrrl]

12. Dang! You beat me to it!!!!

Billy Joel sucks ass too.

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. Aren't Bad Company more in the '74-'77 timeframe?

And Billy Joel, too. Broke your own rule. Heh.

[Spinzonner]

3. Who cares what you think

[asthmaticeog]

9. My god, you're right!

Who cares what *anyone* thinks? I call for an immediate ban on anyone ever posting their opinions on message boards again! I expect that I can count on your support in this?

[Squeech]

4. Rod Stewart

Fascinating singer with Jeff Beck, partymeister with the Faces, and compelling raconteur on his own first four albums.

Then, preening fop and ever-burgeoning embarrassment.

[donheld]

13. Agreed

He's just plain tragic now.

[tuvor]

5. Canned Heat

If the guy didn't have that nutty falsetto, could I even recall their name today?

[Webster Green]

16. You mean Al Wilson...aka "The Blind Owl"....

He was awesome!

[NightTrain]

6. Aerosmith, Queen, Marshall Tucker, and Eric Clapton, to name but a few.

[CanuckAmok]

10. C'mon..."Queen"?

Queen were totally fun and good. Particularly early-on.

But the rest...yeah.

Especially "Bad Company". Any band that writes a song with a title of the name of the band should automatically get booted out of the Hall.

With the exception, of course, of Motorhead.

And any band which can be found on the mix cassette of music carried by every Southern Ontario touring stripper from 1980-1997 (or the introduction of techno music to the mainstream...your choice) should be booted out, too. I'm talking "Bad Company". I'm talking "Grand Funk Railroad". I'm talking "Aerosmith".

[Spider Jerusalem]

15. To be fair...

Clapton wasn't bad in the relevant period. He really started to suck after about '71-'72 or in there (coincidentally, about the same time he kicked his heroin habit).

[Left Is Write]

21. Put me solidly in the anti-Marshall Tucker group.

That's for personal reasons as well as the fact that I simply do not like their music.

[gizmo1979]

22. Aerosmith clapton

one of the longest running rock bands ever and one of the best rock/blues guitarists ever are you bloomin crazy!Who would you consider good?

[asthmaticeog]

7. The Doors.

Flame away if you must, but fuck that weak shit. Manzarek was very good, but Krieger and Densmore were dime-a-dozen, and Morrison's faux-shaman 15-year-old-creep crypto-mystical bullshit is more unbearable than Bono, and that's sayin' a lot.

[datasuspect]

8. i have to agree

although i still like the album l.a. woman.

[gizmo1979]

23. You're nuts

[datasuspect]

11. it's a beautiful world

boy, that song "white bird" was just unmitigated dreck.

[Beaverhausen]

17. I think their name was It's a Beautiful Day

I used to do that song when I was in an acoustic duo. It was fun to do live. It had a cool harmony.

but obviously it wasn't your cup of tea.

[datasuspect]

18. you're right

the white bird
in a golden cage
on a winter's day
in the rain.

i have this song, i hate it, but can't help myself from listening. it evokes mental imagery of a 70s "earth" couple with 3/4 length macrame sweaters complete with flared sleeves and big bowls of granola.

[FrankBooth]

14. Boz Skaggs

One of the worst live performances I've ever seen. Lifeless, bloodless and mind-numbingly dull.

Admittedly, I am not really a fan and only went because my girlfriend's brother bought me a ticket and asked me along.

[SouthoftheBorderPaul]

19. Too easy

The Eagles, James Taylor and The Doobies

Vomitous, the lot of them.

[Fenris]

20. Eagles

A band put on this earth for the sole purpose of boring the fuck out of me. Henley, Frey, Skeletor B. Schmidt and the rest of them should be tried and, if found guilty, promptly executed for doing their part to turn rock into easy listening.

Except for Joe Walsh.

[Boswells_Johnson]

24. Good call! I can't stand them.

[SouthoftheBorderPaul]

26. I agree

Joe Walsh gets a pass. Sure The Eagles suck but who could turn down that kinda money?

[Redstone]

25. All of them, especially

any group named after a city or a state.

And Lynrd Skynrd (spelling?), in a class of their own. Awfulness so bad as to transcend the merely dreadful.

Redstone

[ChoralScholar]

27. ya didn't use enough frickin' Ys

Lynyrd Skynyrd

What a messed up spelling...