Regrets, I’ve had a few. Problem albums

[Munster]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...-ghost-to-rest

I was going to add this link to a Brian Eno thread but then thought it might be more interesting in a thread on bad or problem albums that the artist wished he/she had never started or been involved with. ‘My Life in the Bush of Ghosts’ may be such a one. The legal problems rumble on.

‘Graceland’ caused a whole lot of trouble for Paul Simon for a while for breaking the South African cultural boycott. I wonder too if, post 9/11, ‘Remain in Light’ would now get a release with the track Listening Wind: “Mojique sees his village from a nearby hill / Mojique thinks of days before Americans came … Mojique holds a package in his quivering hand / Mojique sends the package to the American man.”

And so on. There must be many more examples.

[Piskie]

Smile almost destroyed Brian Wilson.

[ronmac]

Peter Frampton and the ultra-silly and woefully misguided "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearst Club Band."

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Pete Townshend has a couple of songs he regrets writing, of which the prime example would be "Squeeze Box."

[GuitarGeek]

Peter Frampton and the ultra-silly and woefully misguided "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearst Club Band."

Frampton, the Bee Gees, and all the other people Robert Stigwood conned into doing that stupid movie.

[SunRunner2]

The Clash ~ Cut The Crap

From the BBC:

The Clash’s sixth-and-last album not only spelled the end of their careers, it almost destroyed their legacy as well.

"By the time the Clash came to record it, two of the Last Gang In Town had been summarily fired: drummer Topper Headon and guitarist and co-vocalist Mick Jones. Frontman Joe Strummer reunited with the band’s original manager Bernie Rhodes, a union that had caused chaos in the band; this time, Rhodes wanted to co-write the songs and produce the album. Strummer and bass player Paul Simonon were joined by session musicians, with Strummer and Rhodes clashing more and more over the direction the album should take.

Cut The Crap was a mess, and a career-ending one at that. Rhodes’ inexperience as a producer meant the album was cluttered with unnecessary guitar parts and football-terrace vocals. The album was received so badly that the band refused to tour in support of it. Strummer, appalled by the negative press, moved to Spain. The band’s last album has never been re-released, and its songs rarely crop up on Clash compilations".

[3LockBox]

Frampton, the Bee Gees, and all the other people Robert Stigwood conned into doing that stupid movie.

I know that Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space is universally considered the worst movie ever made but Sgt Peppers was so bad it surpassed the 'so bad, it's good' threshold. And this was in the late '70s when so much bad cinema was tolerated.

[Progbear]

Frampton, the Bee Gees, and all the other people Robert Stigwood conned into doing that stupid movie.

Barry said it was fun to make but a total mistake from a career standpoint. Maurice called it, “the best of times, the worst of films.”

[Digital_Man]

Pete Townshend has a couple of songs he regrets writing, of which the prime example would be "Squeeze Box."

Apparently he wasn't much of a fan of "let my love open the door" either.

[Digital_Man]

The Clash ~ Cut The Crap

From the BBC:

The Clash’s sixth-and-last album not only spelled the end of their careers, it almost destroyed their legacy as well.

"By the time the Clash came to record it, two of the Last Gang In Town had been summarily fired: drummer Topper Headon and guitarist and co-vocalist Mick Jones. Frontman Joe Strummer reunited with the band’s original manager Bernie Rhodes, a union that had caused chaos in the band; this time, Rhodes wanted to co-write the songs and produce the album. Strummer and bass player Paul Simonon were joined by session musicians, with Strummer and Rhodes clashing more and more over the direction the album should take.

Cut The Crap was a mess, and a career-ending one at that. Rhodes’ inexperience as a producer meant the album was cluttered with unnecessary guitar parts and football-terrace vocals. The album was received so badly that the band refused to tour in support of it. Strummer, appalled by the negative press, moved to Spain. The band’s last album has never been re-released, and its songs rarely crop up on Clash compilations".

That's an album (cd) that I own for purely sentimental reasons. I actually don't hate it but no it would not be the one to get people interested in the Clash that's for sure.

[Dana5140]

I would say that the shock of the MC5's "Back in the USA" was huge after the firestorm of their first live album. A second album of short punchy rock songs after the blitz of Kick Out the Jams and Starship absolutely confused fans- screw producer Jon Landau on that one, which helped kill their career.

[Lopez]

I'm really digging deep here: Just Good Old Rock and Roll by the Electric Prunes. I was and am a big Prunes fan, but this album is a problem. No original Prunes in sight and it didn't even try to sound like the Prunes. Maybe the cover should not have had a picture of a band that was "obviously" not the Prunes. I suppose as an album by any old band, it's not that bad, but a sad legacy to a once good name. (I won't even get into Release of an Oath.)

[JJ88]

John Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll covers album was a saga, to say the least. There's the whole backstory with the infamous Morris Levy, and the initial sessions with Phil Spector devolved into chaos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_%..._Lennon_album)

In addition to saying 'there's a jinx on that album', there's his wry 'you should have been there' sleevenote.

Talk of The Bee Gees reminds me they have an unreleased album from the early 70s. Only a few songs have been officially released, but it all 'circulates'. It's not bad, but certainly wasn't going to dig them out of the doldrums they were in at that time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Kick...t_in_the_Pants

[ronmac]

John Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll covers album was a saga, to say the least. There's the whole backstory with the infamous Morris Levy, and the initial sessions with Phil Spector devolved into chaos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_%..._Lennon_album)

In addition to saying 'there's a jinx on that album', there's his wry 'you should have been there' sleevenote.

Great album, though. The outtakes are great.

[JKL2000]

That's an album (cd) that I own for purely sentimental reasons. I actually don't hate it but no it would not be the one to get people interested in the Clash that's for sure.

There was one song that was pretty cool. but I think it might have been a b-side only, called "Sex Mad Roar."

[SunRunner2]

Girl You Know It's True ~ Milli Vanilli

Why the regret?

Well it sounded like a bunch of imposters were singing the tunes. (wait a minute, it was a bunch of imposters singing the vocals).

Then there is the fact that their Grammy Award for the album was revoked, marking the first time a Grammy was ever rescinded from an artist. Ouch!

[3LockBox]

Girl You Know It's True ~ Milli Vanilli

Why the regret?

Well it sounded like a bunch of imposters were singing the tunes. (wait a minute, it was a bunch of imposters singing the vocals).

Then there is the fact that their Grammy Award for the album was revoked, marking the first time a Grammy was ever rescinded from an artist. Ouch!

The Partridge Family were nominated for a Grammy for best new group

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Apparently he wasn't much of a fan of "let my love open the door" either.

What a shame. I love playing that one on my acoustic.

[Progbear]

Then there is the fact that their Grammy Award for the album was revoked, marking the first time a Grammy was ever rescinded from an artist. Ouch!

You know who was really happy about this? Jody Watley. After this controversy, everyone forgot about the controversy involving her winning the Best New Artist Grammy in 1988, despite having been around as a member of Shalamar for over a decade before that.

[rcarlberg]

Jethro Tull had everything that could go wrong, go wrong in the worst possible way while recording at Chateau D'Hérouville. Anderson ended up having to scrap EVERYTHING and start over, in what became "Passion Play."

[Boceephus]

Queen’s Hot Space was basically a Warm Turd.


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[GuitarGeek]

You know who was really happy about this? Jody Watley. After this controversy, everyone forgot about the controversy involving her winning the Best New Artist Grammy in 1988, despite having been around as a member of Shalamar for over a decade before that.

Well, it was only six years, but yes, I remember that being pointed out that Richard Marx was somehow ineligible for the "Best New Artist" Grammy, because his songs had been recorded by other performers before he made his first album. Yet Jody Watley somehow was eligible, despite having sung on six Shalamar albums before starting her solo career.

[GuitarGeek]

Queen’s Hot Space was basically a Warm Turd.

I think Roger Taylor said the band got "sidetracked by the success of Another One Bites The Dust down a road that wasn't really 'Queen music'", but I rather like most of the album. I think most of the songs are really solid, and I thought it was commendable they tried something different, even if it was for the wrong reasons (i.e. Jac Holzman saying, "You guys should do more stuff like this one song, since it was such a big hit").

[GuitarGeek]

How about Music From The Elder, by Kiss? So, the band hires an apparently cocaine addicted Bob Ezrin (the cocaine figures it somehow, apparently), hot on the heels following his work on The Wall, to produce what was meant to be their "comeback" or whatever. They were gonna drop all the sort of power pop and MOR pretentions, and going back to just playing hard rock music.

Unfortunately, Ezrin had other plans. In his own words, he said "I wanted to take Kiss and their audience to a place they had never been, and show people just how smart Kiss can be". (dramatic pause) "I was wrong". Dude, you're talking about the band gave the world Plaster Caster, Mister Speed, and Shock Me. You really this is the band to pick to do a concept album, that's supposed to prove to "the critics" they could be more than that?! Especially in 1980, who thought a concept album was going to accomplish anything. Yeah, I know, The Wall, but Pink Floyd and Kiss were not just two different bands, but two different types of bands.

In his autobiography, Ace Frehley noted that Ezrin would subsequently claim that his judgement was clouded by the "suspicious looking white powdery substances" (a they're frequently described in police reports) that were going up his nose. Ace says that he too had a cocaine problem, but it didn't stop him from realizing this had "bad idea" written all over it.

Still, I kinda like the record. It's got some solid songs, notably A World Without Heroes, Dark Light, Escape From The Island, I, Just A Boy and Odyssey. I just wish they had made the heavy album they had been promising in interviews before they started working on it.

It's a decent record, but I don't think it really tapped the potential of the Ace/Gene/Paul/Eric C. lineup. I mean, listen to the next record, Creatures Of The Night, and think how cool it might have been if they could have done something like that, when Ace was still in the band. I just sometimes wondered what would have if Music From The Elder had been the album they made after Destroyer. Maybe Ace would have left sooner (he apparently didn't like Ezrin's "boot camp" approach to record production).

[Progbear]

Still, I kinda like the record. It's got some solid songs, notably A World Without Heroes, Dark Light, Escape From The Island, I, Just A Boy and Odyssey. I just wish they had made the heavy album they had been promising in interviews before they started working on it.

It’s impossible not to think of it as a bomb but yeah, I kind of like it too. That said, there is one aspect of the album which does not work at all, and that’s the concept. It’s so half-baked. It’s like they had the sketch of an outline, [BOY] joins [SECRET SOCIETY] to fight [EVIL], yet forgot to fill in the blanks. And they were going to make a movie out of this? That must have been some grade A coke!

The reimagined, SCA-inspired costume designs were also a complete misfire. But musically, I think it’s a good album, better than Dynasty or Unmasked at least.

And while we’re on the subject of the Casablanca-label stable of artists, and ill-conceived costume changes, I have to bring up the Village People’s totally risible Renaissance: