There are some bands that polarise people.
I have a friend who hates UB40 with every bone in their body. I on the other hand have always found them very easy on the ear. Their blend of reggae-lite, reviving old tunes I might never have heard and giving them their own twist has always sat well with me. They're a bit of a Status Quo when it comes to their songs, in as much that they're not so different from each other, but I like his voice and you can't beat songs like Food For Thought, Breakfast In Bed, One in Ten, Don't Let It Pass Me By, If It Happens Again and many, many more.
Another friend of mine loathes Queen with a passion. Then again, I like them, not everything but they're not an instant turn-off. They were around all through my childhood, teens and twenties and so lots of Queen songs hold lots of memories. Under Pressure: A school trip to Paris in 1981. Hammer To Fall: A party in Oxted, summer '84. Thank God It's Christmas: Christmas. Tie Your Mother Down: My first Top of the Pops LP, etc.
My particular Marmite artist, though, is George Michael. I can't stand him. Or Wham.
Last Christmas is my least favourite Christmas song, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go has been overplayed to the point of extinction and as for his solo stuff: Yawnarama.
Songs like Kissing The Fool, Praying For Time, Father Figure, I Want Your Sex, Fast Love, Outside, blah, blah, blah. Beyond dull. The pompadoured one has never done it for me. It's bland, bistro background music, middle management rock, music for people who don't like music, Bluewater pop. I could go on but you get my drift. Don't buy me any George for Christmas. It's taylor made to be sung by X Factor auditionees. It's a lot of hysterical warbling and faux crooning. Plus, he looks like a bit of a tit.
Who's your Marmite artist?
17 comments:
Van bloody Morrison. Oh, and Jim bloody Morrison. One's a grunting misanthrope masquerading as a sage, the other's a vapid pretty boy masquerading as a god. He continues to annoy me from beyond the grave. Which presumably Van will also do, once he croaks. My blood pressure's gone up just typing this.
I quite like George Michael, though.
I'm with you on Van. The old curmudgeon. He's not as great as he thinks he is.
Don't mind Jim, musically.
I can generally take most stuff and find something good in it, but when Cleo Laine and her ilk start booop-be-doo-ing over godawful Jazz I'm out the door pronto.
Celine Dion and virtually all of John Lennon's solo work.
And as for George Michael, he is great!
Annie F-ing Lennox, for sure.
Van Morrison makes me cross too.
"Thank God It's Christmas: Christmas" is my favourite thing on F-C this year!
Bjork - sets my teeth so on edge it hurts!
I don't mind the odd Annie Lennox song, but generally I find her as grating as Chrissie Hynde as a person. She's so chilly.
Lennon is my least favourite Beatle. I'm a Harrison man.
Jazz is okay if the mood suits.
It's the three wisemen of rock for me - all have invented earthy 'Popstar of the People' type personas for themselves, then fallen for their own non-smiling, shades-wearing, frown-faced, myth-making
Bob Dylan
Bono/U2
Joe Strummer/The Clash
Some of Elton John's music is exceptional, but I can't bear the man at all. I also think Paul Weller is hideously overrated.
I like George Michael though, always have done.
I'll give you Paul Weller, though I do like the Jam and the Style Council. Some Elton's fab, but not in the last 20 years.
Joe Strummer's a fake, don't mind a bit of Dylan or a bit of U2, but I try not to think about Bono too much.
my problem is I adore everything David Bowie does and hate everything Queen ever did with a passion. Imagine my crisis when Under Pressure came out.
UB40
10cc
ELO
Anything touched by the hand of Midge Ure, except Visage's Fade to Grey
Steely Dan
Spandau Ballet
Take That/Williams
Teenage Fanclub
U2
Leona Lewis and all other vocal histrionics merchants
Coldplay
ELO, 10cc, Visage? Are you insane?
I like Visage.
I can't stick the Beatles-lite of ELO (or, indeed, Jeff Lynne's beard and sunglasses 'look'). 10cc, I find to be, like Steely Dan, too clever for their own good. Steely Dan could get away with it a bit more because they're American and a little bit, I'll concede, cool. 10cc made Dreadlock Holiday, Life is a Minestrone, I'm Mandy, Wall Street Shuffle, The Things We Do For Love, Donna, Rubber Bullets, Good Morning Judge and the excerable I'm Not in Love. They also foisted Godley and Creme onto the public. I rest my case, m'lud.
Fucking hell... where do I start?
A lot of the stuff which makes me question my very desire to live has already been mentioned above. I notice that BA mentioned Cold-fucking-play - I really fucking hate them from the very bottom of my heart(they're the only band whose sound makes me feels like I've got flu).
R.E.-arseing-M. MPeople (happily now defunct). Sting (sadly, still alive). And - perhaps it's too obvious to say - I loathe Boyzone and Westlife even more.
I'm no fan of Westlife either, Sky, but I do quite like the odd Boyzone song and REM are one of my all-time faves.
Still, horses for courses.
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