Comments on: Discussion: When Bad Things Happen to Good Songs

By: Hollerin' Ben

Hollerin' Ben — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:09:27 +0000

this is painfully bad. like, earsplitting bad. This is so bad that good singers who watch this might actually get worse, just for having seen this.

Shame on country music for not being like “Taylor, you’re very cute, and we like your songs, but you can’t perform live, you’re embarrassing all of us”

of course, as has been established time and time and time and time again for the past oh, 15 years or so, Country Music has absolutely no shame.

Even the one big collective decision country music made, “There will be no more Billy Ray Cyrus, that was a regrettable mistake and we’re sorry”, has been overturned recently.

bummer.

By: Leeann Ward

Leeann Ward — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:57:19 +0000

I don’t even like the original of the ACDC song, but B&R really did do bad things to the Beastie Boys song. They made an otherwise fun song both boring and dumb.

By: Erik North

Erik North — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:56:42 +0000

I’ll probably take heat for this, but I really didn’t think much of Terri Clark’s version of “Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me.” That twang of hers was absolutely inappropriate for this grisly Warren Zevon-penned tale of urban madness, rape, and suicide that had been done far better, and with a certain amount of nastiness, by Linda Ronstadt back in 1977.

By: Gail

Gail — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:22:37 +0000

Yes they did Hard Times! I was going to listen and give them another chance and they messed it up again. Sorry, but it’s evident, Gary cannot sing live!

By: Santa

Santa — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 05:09:35 +0000

Aaron, Kellie’s Santa Baby is the best vocal of the song ever recorded in the 55 year history of the song and it’s been covered countless times. She totally blows Madonna’s version and all others away. You hear it every day because it’s one of the most played Christmas songs on all radio because it’s one of the best, and flawless! All the DJs said they love it and she nailed it. This live audience loved it too!

By: Hard Times

Hard Times — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:02:04 +0000

Rascal Flatts murdered another Christmas carol on the “Live from Rockefeller Center” NBC special a couple of weeks ago. It was a very bad night for country music.

By: dudley

dudley — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:00:11 +0000

What I want to know is who thought it was a good idea for Taylor Swift to sing “I’m Sorry”? She comes off as completely emotionally unequipped for it. It’s not simply because of her voice that I don’t think Taylor is a good singer; it’s actually more because I don’t think she is a good interpretive singer, either. To Taylor’s credit, the studio version of “White Horse” is probably the first good interpretive job I think that Taylor has done. But I’ve found her two live performances of that song to be colorless and (surprisingly) personality-free.

Anyway, to answer the question, here is one from an artist I don’t care for, and one from an artist that I otherwise adore.

Rascal Flatts’ version of “Revolution” was every kind of sanitized, glib wrong imaginable. No character in the vocal whatsoever and they made it sing-songy.

I love the Dixie Chicks and am repeating myself here, but feel they completely overcooked the simple poignancy of “Landslide” with their cover. The “uh-uh”s are completely unjustifiable from an interpretive standpoint, in my view, and the harmonies destroy the delicacy of the lyric. I was shocked at how much I hated their cover of this song…the original (or rather, the more recently popularized live version of it) ranks as one of my favorite songs ever.

By: Gail

Gail — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:13:39 +0000

I’ll have to agree on all the TS songs I’ve heard her sing live!! Not just live, I forgot about the Christmas songs they are playing on radio….OMG..talk about fingers down a chalkboard! And what’s so sad…Billboard just named her Top Country Artist of 2008!! Now that is pretty sad too!!

By: Zach

Zach — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:58:01 +0000

yeah, I guess we all make mistakes. :)

By: steve

steve — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 04:06:39 +0000

i think this one kind of takes the cake. ahah