Musical Pet Peves

[Barklessdog]

This is a musical pet peeve thread

With all the out of key singing you hear with bands on Myspace etc, why shouldn't most singers, be taking voice lessons. Of all the bands I was in, almost everyone was taking lessons at some point and continue to.

Or at least you would think most these bands can hear the singer is out of pitch?

[uwe]

I don't mind if a singer is occasionally a little off key (it sounds worse with high voices than in a lower register: Johnny Cash, Lee Marvin and Nick Cave were/are all not very pitch firm, but I don't mind), it can have charm.

But if it's constant, I find it grating.

Uwe

[gweimer]

My take is that singers who are slightly off key aren't trying to sing that way.  Greg Lake is another example.

There are far too many new singers that off key simply because they can't sing, and aren't trying to.

[Dave W]

String sections in rock songs.

Nope. You're allowed string bass, of course. You're allowed a fiddle, if you're Camper Van Beethoven. More than that, you can't call it rock. 

[Chris P.]

Dutch people are quite good in English. But the problem is everybody think they're talking and writing it perfect. Which they don't. English lyrics of Dutch bands are quite bad sometimes... I hate that more than a slightly off key singer.

[gweimer]

String sections in rock songs.

Nope. You're allowed string bass, of course. You're allowed a fiddle, if you're Camper Van Beethoven. More than that, you can't call it rock. 

Oh, I don't know about that.  David Cross fit into King Crimson really well.  As did Papa John Creach with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.

And "Eleanor Rigby" was a rock song in my book.  Or at least a beautifully written pop song.

[uwe]

String sections in rock songs.

Nope. You're allowed string bass, of course. You're allowed a fiddle, if you're Camper Van Beethoven. More than that, you can't call it rock. 

Oh, come on Dave, listen to this (and not just quip. "Like I said, not rock.")



That's a mellotron initially, but a string section takes at 3:25 over and then melts into one gorgeous terse Blackmore solo at 4.05.

That's not rock?

And if you say this ain't rock, Scott of Thunder will drop by your house and have a word with you:



T. Rex songs were simply loaded with strings, on a good day even you might qualify them as rock, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iChp8bipBVE&feature=related

And while this might not be rock, it's a darn good pop (?) song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a6hu6Z7Pkg&feature=related

I rest my case and will not mention Kashmir or Rainbow's Gates of Babylon ... 



Lest I forget: Macca's Live and let die and John Miles' Music:



The Promises get honorary mention too (man, those suspenders did hard work on her, errrm, upper register  ):

[Dave W]

Hey! My pet peeves, my rules! 

[MattK]

Seven string guitars, especially when played through Mesa Dual Recto amps. Ugh. 

[PWV]

Hip hop bass lines that never have a bridge (that statement is redundant in itself I guess).... 

[godofthunder]

Bass players in famous bands who can barley play. Uwe thanks for the Slade Clip ! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh those were the days. They were a great F'ng band. Can I change my user name to Slade ?

[Max Soren]

Bass players in famous bands who can barley play. Uwe thanks for the Slade Clip ! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh those were the days. They were a great F'ng band. Can I change my user name to Slade ?

Actually, I think you can change your user name on this site.  Unless, of course, you were just joking about that. 

[TBird1958]

Metal (in all its modern redactions).....and Hip-Hop. So formulaeic. 

[PWV]

One for the Church Musicians: Praise Songs from the 80's and 90's that HAVE TO modulate keys at least two times.  (We called those "Trinity" songs because the formula seemed to be to arrive at 3 keys = Father/Son/Holy Ghost)....

Also from that era:  Praise Songs that repeat the title of the song umpteen times.  We called those "7-11 Praise Songs" - Seven words repeated 11 times.

[TBird1958]

Dave,

I hope you were kidding about playing keys with The Nasty Habits......... It will get you sent to Ummmm
Hell.