I think the song mentioned in the posting on 1st October 1999 by Charles Kratz (as you can see I am a little slow to react sometimes) was "Ode To Billie Joe", not "Ballad of Billy Joe". I was also of the opinion that Billie Joe (McAllister) was a girl who thew herself over the bridge with the unspellable/unpronounceable name. The song was performed by Bobbie Gentry (also female) - whatever happened to her? Actually I don't think it was a bad song, and if you listen to any song dozens of times (at least in a short space of time)you will probably get very tired of it and start finding fault.

Actually it is probably better to write a really bad song than just a mediocre one as at least people remember it. As Oscar Wilde said "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about". Perhaps someone should start up a workshop "How to write excruciatingly bad songs". It is also interesting that some of the people who have written or performed bad songs are highly respected, eg Eric Bogle, Don Maclean, etc.

I was trying to think of a song that I really hated but couldn't quite come up with the goods; indeed am somewhat embarrassed to say that I actually like some of the songs mentioned above, eg The Birdie Song (though as an Instrumental). I am sure the remedy for hearing bad songs is to listen to some good ones. Probably 90-95% of songs (books, poems, etc) are indeed rubbish, but as so much has been published over the years, you are never going to run out of good material. If you can't find anything good in the contemporary field (an invariable complaint of the over 40s) then look at some older stuff (perhaps especially the once popular but now neglected performers, eg Stephen Foster, etc).