The worst song in the world - really?

Subject: The worst song in the world - really?
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 05:42 AM

Reading through an old revived thread about the Kingston Trio, I was once again puzzled to encounter that old concept 'The worst song in the world'. Really?
On the one hand I am always impressed at the encyclopaedic knowledge the assessors display of the compositions of Alan Bush, Eric Von Schmit, Fadhali William, Big Mary Of The Songs and thousands more, let alone the unknown makers in the New Guinea forest, the camps of Lappland, and the Gobi Desert.
On the other hand, I guess they are just choosing an overly dramatic way of saying they particularly dislike a particular song, though seldom is any reason vouchsafed, so one must assume it is mostly a matter of personal taste.
Am I wrong to be irked?

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: GUEST,akenaton
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 05:46 AM

Political rabble rousing usually turns me off......much too simplistic.
Jim Mclean is of course exempt from criticism. :0)

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Jos
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 05:50 AM

Worst song in the world?
'Sunshine Mountain' must be high on the list. It's the accompanying bullying and refusal to accept dissent that, to me, is so horrible.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 06:18 AM

I can see that this thread will take me to places I may wish I had never been. I Googled Sunshine Mountain and found two remarkable YouTube videos. Clearly a candidate for'The most tuneless song in the world'. No explanation of the song yet, but it seems to have to doin some way with one of those body contact sports.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Johnny J
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 06:46 AM

Most of us have never heard "The Worst Songs in The World".

Some are so bad that they won't even see the light of day in gigs, recordings, or even at Folk Club/Open Mic song competitions. :-))

So even those songs we hate with passion are usually generally popular or, at least, are widely circulated. Often we just tire of them because the are over sung or, in the case of recordings, over played. Or it may just be the subject content which irritates us.

Of course, many songs are badly constructed and/or "sound tuneless" but the majority of people don't usually sit down and analyse them to the nth degree like some of us here might.

Personally, those I like the least are parody songs especially in relation to current/political events. It's such a lazy way to compose music, as far as I'm concerned, and the results usually speak for themselves.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 07:33 AM

I should think that a few of those football songs, recorded tunelessly by hordes of supporters or by the actual teams, come pretty close.

On a related note, I'm somewhat distressed to have noticed that Fields of Athenry has been adopted by the Kop, though I'm not sure what words they sing to the tune. That song was already a candidate even before that...

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Bob Hitchcock
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 08:16 AM

Dave Barry once wrote that "Having my Baby" by Paul Anka was responsible for 90% of all violent crime committed in the U.S. I am inclined to agree with him.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 09:02 AM

Paul Anka seems to have been superseded:

My Way killings

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Johnny J
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 09:11 AM

Compare and Contrast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e9gZ9fyoZg

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKleTa94dC8

Actually both songs sound OK by the original artists. It's the cover versions I can't stand.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 10:00 AM

"Auld Lang Syne" is a beautiful song, but when bawled out by a drunken party crowd at New Year, it becomes a pain.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: GUEST,akenaton
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 10:12 AM

Sorry, that was me.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 11:00 AM

Dunno why, Jack, but somehow when I saw you'd posted to this thread I thought you were going to nominate Bright Blue Rose... :-)

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Vic Smith
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 01:24 PM

In my opinion this is no contest. The worst song ever, along with everything about its performance, sentiment and accompaniment is Toni Fisher singing "West of the Wall". This was a hit in 1962 and I can remember hating it at the time and the loathing stays with me still. At the time this smug American propaganda was being peddled as entertainment, the CIA were doing their secret best to undermine democracy in countries in four continents.
The lyrics are trite lies, the melody has nought to recommend it apart from its ability to become an irritating earworm.
Then there is the performance.... The lead singer's irritatatingly bothersome quality is not helped by the fact she does not always hit the note full on, the accompaniment is trite in the extreme and just when you think it cannot get any worse, we get to the middle eight which is handled by the declamatory grumbling male ensemble.
Nothing, no nothing in music can ever be so bad again,

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 01:49 PM

Yeah, that's pretty dreadful, alright.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: BobL
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 06:46 PM

"I Like Traffic Lights" is a possible candidate, having the dubious distinction of being banned from the Anchor Middle Bar at Sidmouth (even Wild Rover never sank to such an indignity, it merely incurred a heavy fine). Understandable, perhaps, when you consider the words:

I like traffic lights,
I like traffic lights,
I like traffic lights,
That is what I said.
I like traffic lights,
I like traffic lights,
I like traffic lights,
Even when they're red.

Chorus:
He likes traffic lights
etc.

The number of verses is unknown, no-one ever got beyond the start of v5.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 24 Jun 18 - 06:54 AM

My personal pet hate no. 1 is Happy Birthday, for several reasons. It is over-repetitious. It has little in the way of a tune. Often it is sung in several keys at once. Often when it gets to the name of the person whose birthday it is, many of the people who have joined in up till then realise that they have no idea who that is so they leave the name out. Sometimes it is even sung after the relevant birthday has passed, when the sentiment "happy birthday" can logically only refer to the next one that is nearly a year away.

When I had a big party for my 60th birthday (actually a few days early), I gave notice that if anyone sang that song I would leave my own party.

The Swedes have one with much more substance but I am sorry to say I don't know that one.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Jos
Date: 24 Jun 18 - 07:50 AM

Google came up with this:

Ja, må han leva!

The following information is given in another site:

"The Swedish birthday song is actually a very old one, the melody dating back to the 18 century when Mozart and Haydn’s tunes were known by most. That is why the song is actually very well known in Austria as well. Bellman, a man of disgrace during his lifetime but a well renowned poet after his death wrote the lyrics to the birthday song. The song was originally a drinking song and appeared in writing for the first time in 1914 in a students notebook. Almost 30 years later it had turned into a well known birthday song."

It also supplies these words:

Ja, må han leva!

Ja, må hon leva!

Ja, må hon leva!

Ja, må hon leva uti hundrade år!

Javisst ska hon leva!

Javisst ska hon leva!

Javisst ska hon leva uti hundrade år!

Och när hon har levat

Och när hon har levat

Och när hon har levat uti hundrade år!

Ja, då ska hon skjutas.

Ja, då ska hon skjutas

Ja, då ska hon skjutas på en skottkärra fram!

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 24 Jun 18 - 07:58 AM

That is still very repetitious. I think there's a different Swedish one.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Jos
Date: 24 Jun 18 - 09:48 AM

I thought so too, Richard, but that was the only one I found.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: GUEST,Ebor Fiddler
Date: 24 Jun 18 - 02:37 PM

Has anybody looked at the Pop charts recently?

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Jun 18 - 01:40 AM

I one had a "superlative song" thread group for threads on the best and worst songs. But there were too many "worst song" threads and the thread group got overloaded, so now I have a "worst song" crosslink group.
But everybody knows that it will always be a tie for worst song: "West of the Wall" and "You're Having My Baby."
I should recommend Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs. It was written in 1997, so it's a little out of date. But then, none of us old folkies has ever heard a song written more recently than 1997, so it's OK.....

-Joe-

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: The Sandman
Date: 25 Jun 18 - 01:55 AM

The Last Goodbye https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us8esS0I4Bk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us8esS0I4Bk
Dick Miles the country singer not to be confused with DickMules the English folk singer

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 25 Jun 18 - 09:54 AM

Yep, that's saccharin.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Bugsy
Date: 25 Jun 18 - 11:44 AM

Anything by the Shaggs.

Cheers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: robomatic
Date: 25 Jun 18 - 03:27 PM

There is truly some horrible stuff out there in the world. I'm wondering how far back the 'worst song' concept goes. And of course, it is usually impossible to separate the song from a particularly grievous performance/ version/; singer of it. Top example for me:

Britney Spears vs. Richard Thompson

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Jun 18 - 05:38 PM

"Havin' MY HAMSTER!!! (He's got beady little eyes and he came from the guys at Petsmart...) Havin' MY HAMSTER!!! (He's got little pink feet and he rides shotgun on my golf cart...)"

- Paul Cankah, Mellifluous Music, 1974.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 25 Jun 18 - 07:29 PM

Yes, there have been some really dire songs over the generations, and that's fine if everyone agrees that they are awful.
But I think that what Ewan was getting at (correct me if I'm wrong, Ewan), is when some people use very hyperbolic or expletive language in their condemnation of a particular song they don't happen to like (but maybe many others do) - and furthermore, go on to condemn those who do profess to like said song, as being mad, tasteless or otherwise deficient.
It IS down to personal taste at the end of the day, isn't it, even with those songs that "cross boundaries" or use intense black humour which may offend some?

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: GUEST,Ripov
Date: 25 Jun 18 - 07:41 PM

It has to be said tho' that the ability to play Danny Boy, Fields of Athenry, Happy Birthday, or a Maze in Greys, when requested, changes the punters perception of you from queer folky nerds to Brilliant Musicians.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 25 Jun 18 - 07:54 PM

Ha-ha Ripov! Yes, I can do all of those, AND Local Hero and Galway Girl! ( oh, but they are good!) Brilliant? Yes, please.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 26 Jun 18 - 03:54 AM

"Traffic Lights" Written by Terry Jones for Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album. That version ends with
"I like traffic lights
I -- oh, God..."

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Johnny J
Date: 26 Jun 18 - 07:28 AM

How about "The Worst Band in The World"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sraKulMHZw

Actually, one of the better bands at the time even although they weren't folkies....

From around the same time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb63PdPweDc

Strong contenders for both the worst band and worst song although I was singing it at The Royal Highland Show last week. ;-))

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: clueless don
Date: 26 Jun 18 - 11:32 AM

When The Sandman posted a YouTube link to "The Final Goodbye", I thought for a moment that it might be a link to this song:

Another candidate for worst song?

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Jun 18 - 11:53 AM

Mmm, yes...Roger Whittaker. While the man is clearly a very fine singer in the technical sense, many of his songs sound trite and cloying to those who've grown up listening to folk music, blues, etc. I find "Last Farewell" quite annoying to listen to, although there are no doubt many people out there who love his style. Olive Whatnoll thinks he's wonderful.

Subject: RE: The worst song in the world - really?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Jun 18 - 12:03 PM

Come to think of it, that song begs for a parody to fit these enlightened political times, along this line...

"for I have loved you queerly...more queerly than the spoken word can tell"

I think there's a market out there for a new version.