All-encompassing supersongs

[Darrell]

Electric Bums - 'From Mama Cass To Working Class (Unngh)'.

Everyone loves that one!

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

I was shocked to discover Set Me free and Let Me Be Your Fantasy both came out in 1994, meaning they are officially old-school. For me, 'Thank God they're playing something old' would have to be in response to...ooh, Theme from S'Express at the latest.

[geeef]

These days I would only get mad to go on the dancefloor in a club if they were playing 'California Uber Alles' or summat, so I could leap around...obviously that is never going to happen, but when drunk I do have a tendency to ask DJs if they have any Dead Kennedys. Never goes well, oddly enough.
I've always found 'Angels' annoying.in fact there is something about Williams' style that I always find slappable, though that doesn't stop every woman I know getting moist at the thought of him and his angst-lite Hallmark card lyrics..actually, maybe that's why I find him vexing, though he is a cut above the usual chart dross, as there is some genuine individual character there..though it is becoming ever more self-parodic as the years go by.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Every Robbie Williams ballad has the same tune - that's one problem. And he sings them all in that life-sapping Generic FM wheeze he calls a voice. And  pronounces 'time' as 'taaaaam'.

[geeef]

Oh god , yeah, his voice, should we call it that, is a problem..."Generic FM wheeze" is a fine description. I'm still kinda glad he's around though, as he is better than the usual gubbins. I hope that the cameras are trained and ready though, as I predict that he will disappear up his own arse (no one else's, mind you, as the courts say he is heterosexual beyond belief, and I for one wouldn't want to suggest otherwise, no sir) sometime in the near future, and I think the footage of him disappearing will be quite something,waving as he goes...presumably to the usual tune (kind of Chorlton and the Wheelies theme stretched on a rack). God bless him. I think it's his psuedo-sincere vocal tick that annoys me the most...that and the fact that all the women I want to get off with seem to think he's a tortured soul, and I just don't get it (well, I don't get it at all, to any extent, but there y'go). I feel a Robbie lyric coming on....pray god I go to bed before that abomination happens.

[geeef]

[quote
If you want these all-encompassing super songs flick through the compilation section. The same tracks just pop up over and over again- There She Goes, Sit Down, Heroes, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Angels. No wonder we all start to find our favourite bands b-sides the most interesting.

I hate bloody "Sit Down", it just reminds me of tedious student-union discos in the early '90s...I don't mind James other than that though.
I was reminded of those times as recently I heard 'Set Adrift On Memory Bliss' by PM Dawn...whatever happnened to them? I used to despise Spandau Ballet, but I liked that song. I ueed to have a tape of the whole album, but I don't know what happened to it.
I wish more clubs would play stuff like 'Love's Secret Domain' by Coil, that's a great song...and what's all this on the cover of Mixmag I see about Ketamine abuse? Is that the same drug that was known as "special K" all those y-eras ago, or "baby food" (Coil did a track called that of that title, 10 years ago or more). Why is Ketamine such big news now, unless clubbers want to tranquilise a horse amok in the club...and  yeah, Daily telegraph journo-guide, I know that, technically, only Malays can run amok, but the kids, y'know..seriously, has that horse-tranquiliser come back into fashion? Oh, I've digressed..don't worry. I'll clear it up myself.

[thepuffpastryhangman]

Silly me, how did I fail to forward the entire album

Proxima Estacion:Esperanza by Mano Chao

absolutely everyone loves that...right?

[Almost Yearly]

Only for one summer ('99?), and the whole album at once is quite wearisome. Manu.


Those dance ones Utter Shit brings to the table, hmm, bit lame and prole club, what about:

Leftfield - Space Shanty
Propellerheads - Bang On!

[Jemble Fred]

Windmills of Your Mind by Noel Harrison! Brilliant song.

For me, the only good thing about that song is that it inspired the brilliant 'Constantly Irritates Our Mind' by R&M. I hate the original version, personally – it seems to last forever and each line is more jarringly pretentious than the last.

EDIT: Oh, and Hannah Gordon's version on Morecambe & Wise is good, but only because she was quite foxy and it's got Eric & Ern clowning around with a wind machine.

[Neville Chamberlain]

Big Ship - Cardiacs

Well, it would be if any fucker knew it.

[thepuffpastryhangman]

Only for one summer ('99?), and the whole album at once is quite wearisome. Manu.


Those dance ones Utter Shit brings to the table, hmm, bit lame and prole club, what about:

Leftfield - Space Shanty
Propellerheads - Bang On!

Fair enough, the whole album at once is way too jolly. I guess I meant on first hearing, everyone? seems to enjoy it...well, any one I ever played it to.

As for dance classics from back in the day, how about

Such A Feeling - Bizarre Inc (not to be condused with Such A Good Feeling)
Infiltrate 202 - Altern 8
and slightly earlier still, lest we forget
Pacific 202 - 808 State

[Garfield And Friends]

If the wider public had heard of it, then people would love:

"September Gurls" - Big Star

[Neil]

Bless you.  I think more people are probably familiar with the cover by The Bangles.  Actually, y'know what, I've never rated it as highly as the likes of El Goodo or Thirteen.  Do you like Of Montreal at all?  I've got a boot of one of their covers shows, and they do September Gurls in that.

[Garfield And Friends]

Do you like Of Montreal at all?  I've got a boot of one of their covers shows, and they do September Gurls in that.

I've not heard much of O.M., but I've liked the few I listened to. "Let's Do Everything For The First Time Forever" is sickly sweet (in a good way).

[SavageHedgehog]

I thought I'd bump this because I think it's a very interesting topic.

Among the suggestions so far, personally I really don't like:
Fast Car
Everybody Hurts (used to be a big R.E.M fan but never had much time for this)
Most of Bob Marley's stuff
All You Need Is Love
Fairytale of New York
Nothing Compares 2  U (the Prince version is OK)
Dancing Queen

But I would agree with (not just from the point of liking them personally, but having difficulty imagining anyone not):
Teenage Kicks
Atomic (I would also suggest Call Me)
Common People
Cool for Cats
1999
Turning Japanese
Relax (and I would also nominate Two Tribes)
Satisfaction
Once in a lifetime
I Feel Love
The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore
Superstition
Love Action (would also suggest Don't You Want Me)
Holiday Road (fuck yes!)
Going Underground
Freddie's Dead
Amateur Hour

[purlieu]

What a baffling thread.  I only got as far as the first page, but Smells Like Teen Spirit, Don't Stop Me Now... Blue Monday?!  Christ, some of the most unwarrentedly overplayed songs of all time.  Blue Monday's hideous, and I'm quite fond of New Order's early-mid 80s output.
A song that everybody likes?  Good luck.  Putting anything dance in there immediately excludes purists who only like music with 'real instruments'; anything with real instruments knocks out those who only like electronica (of whom there are quite a few).  Anything particularly poppy/catchy/very well known becomes a turn off to those who listen to music in a very different way.

Erm.  Yes, anyway.  Carry on.

[Jemble Fred]

Anything particularly poppy/catchy/very well known becomes a turn off to those who listen to music in a very different way.

You means pseuds? You mean pseuds.

[purlieu]

I think they play ukeleles.

[confettiinmyhair]

Livin' on a Prayer
Kiliing in the Name
Gangsters Paradise
Sweet Child O' Mind
Under the Bridge
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
My Generation
Waterloo Sunset
Mr Sharona
Prince Charming
Like a Prayer
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
9 to 5

[purlieu]

Sweet Child O' Mind
My Generation
Mr Sharona
Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Awful.

[Jemble Fred]

I dunno, 'Mr Sharona' can't be much worse than the worst-song-of-all-time-not-recorded-by-The-Weather-Girls-or-Geri-Halliwell, 'My Sharona'. If ever a song stank of piss, it's that one.

_{You reading this, Shearsy?}

[Morrisfan82]

The 'all-encompassing supersong' is a nice concept, but it will forever be on shaky ground, because there's nothing more obnoxious than a song you find abjectly unloveable and contrived but seems to be universally adored for reasons that are inexplicable to you.

Illustrated aptly on page 1: to me, saying 'everyone loves Bittersweet Symphony!' is not only rib-bruisingly laughable, but puts you on a par with some bowl-haired twat down the pub going 'ISSS A CLASSSIC THOUGH, INNIT, ISSS AN ANFEM!': ie., supremely punchable.

I suppose the most dignified angle you could come from is 'songs that I can't recall hearing anyone express a total disliking for'. Even then, it always seems to conjure up examples of hands-in-the-air, lagered-up dancefloor-pleasers.

The only one I can think of at the moment is Loser by Beck. Though I expect to be contradicted any moment.