[dave]

I think there is a lot of genuinely brilliant stuff in the beatles's back catalogue, but also some utter dogshit. I mean most of their earlier stuff was only popular because it was new, but now sounds like just as dismal as most manufactured pop these days. Most of it has got no lyrical or musical interest at all. paperback writer anyone? eight days a week? day tripper? the fuck.

[Jaspersharpe]

Suppose it's the fact that The Beatles are still talked about with such awe and have this air of untouchability to so many that makes em prime targets for the sniper rifle of overratedness. Yes, what they did a long time ago was ground breaking in some ways but most of their records sound dated and bland now. As JB says. There's plenty of music from the same era that still sounds great and doesn't get the same kind of mass adoration.

However, a much more deserving band for spanking with the birch of overrated crapness is The White Stripes. I don't think there's ever been a bigger case of Emporer's New Clothes than this pair of talentless chancers. Some out of tune guitar playing that sounds like Mark & Lard taking the piss backed by "drumming" so poor my 10 month old son does a better job when banging a wooden spoon against his high chair tray all topped off with "quirky" lyrics screamed over the "minimalist" shit to create a cacophony of utter wankness. The NME love them of course. Please fuck off. 

[SA Chris]

I think there is a lot of genuinely brilliant stuff in the beatles's back catalogue, but also some utter dogshit. I mean most of their earlier stuff was only popular because it was new, but now sounds like just as dismal as most manufactured pop these days.

True. The beatles stuff that gets (and got) played the most should be heard the least. The disposable poppy crap that made them their fame and fortune is no better than current poppy crap and poor compared to some of the other astoundingly good stuff on the albums.

[Johnny Brown]

paperback writer anyone? eight days a week? day tripper? the fuck.

Amen to that. The nadir being, of course, Ob-la-di, oh-blah-daaaah. As far as I'm concerned, any songwriting team throwing this one up have forfeited any claim to genius.

[dave]

on a vaguely related note, upon passing through the foyer of liverpool's john lennon airport recently we noted with amusement the 7foot tall bronze statue of the man himself - specifially the fact that the trademark round spectacles had been stolen (no doubt by some moustachioed shellsuit wearer called "Ba", or "Ga").

[Pantontino]

Pet Sounds...


...is utterly angelic, and in no way deserves to be disrespected. Not ever.


Whilst, by way of a contrast, Eric Clapton's various musical output has always confused me - I mean, why all the fuss about some basic pub rock blues nonsense?

[Houdini]

Dylan.

[BenF]

liverpool's john lennon airport

Don't get me started...  Who the hell decided that it would be a geat idea to rename Liverpool airport after him?  I'm sure Lennon wouldn't have liked the idea, nobody I know here likes the idea.  Typical of the culture that seems to feel the need to tag "Beatles" or "Lennon" onto anything Liverpool related.

[Johnny Brown]

Dylan

I'm not sure its actually possible to rate Dylan higher than he deserves? I agree with Clapton though, two or three classic radio songs and a bunch of blues rock arse. He can sustain though. Don't forget that.

[AndiT]

Always thought the Mona Lisa was disappointing, too small, but then I know nowt about painting, so maybe, like all the above it's just a matter of opinion.

JB: can you count the Beatles as a Masterpiece, maybe a particular album, but not a group as a whole....

[SA Chris]

I think that enigmatic smile from Mona Lisa is the "I just farted" look.

[andy popp]

Dylan.

Everything?

[Houdini]

Everything bar Desire & Nashville Skyline, and being generous Highway 61 Revisited.




Very very patchy and under scrutiny occasionally suspect, petulant.

[Fiend]

Catcher In The Rye
Teenager is pissed at world and fucks about is not a fucking story. Potential novelists note a story has guns and bitches and dragons and wizards and bad guys and good guys and war and love and drugs and sex and loss and gain and this and that in it. Unlike this bag of shit wrapped in shit put in a pool of shit covered with a roof of shit and called a lot of shit.

Top quality ranting!! You should post stuff on internet forums nik, just the thing that's needed

[Bubba]

I think Dylan forgot that to be a great singer you actually have to have a small degree of vocal talent, and not an out of tune nasal whine...but hey, I like him in small doses now and again.

[Johnny Brown]

Dylan has a huge vocal talent, he gets more character into that flat nasal whine than any other pitch perfect 'incredible voice' on the planet. Well he did, its been crap fot he last fifteen years or so I admit.
Yeah his oeuvre is so vast it contains weak areas, but the songwriting throughout is outstanding. I can't think of any other writer who has produced so many quality songs over such a long period.

[Houdini]

Lady Lay Lay cuts me up yet moments like this are so very few and far between.  I'm not convinced he's the poet-seer he's has often been made out to be.  To be precise I believe he is, at times, spiritually misguided.  He will always appeal to the romantantic optimist.  I don't dig that.

I can't think of any other writer who has produced so many quality songs over such a long period.

Neil Young.

John Cage. 

To lesser expents:

Terry Stamp.

Roky Ericson (? reaching now)

David Bowie (Stretching full to the max)

Springsteen.  (breaking point)

[lagerstarfish]

In irreverent reply to both JB, Houdini and the thread title...
Jim Steinman

[Falling Down]

Neil Young - I used to think the sun shone out of his arse but now I think he's a whiny, fake, overrated, sentimental sack of shit (apart from Cinammon Girl).

Primal Scream - Screamadelica.  It must have been the E's 'cos this and the rest of their entire catalogue is just absolute f*cking rubbish.

Star Wars - When you compare this to Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind you want to weep.

Stone Roses - Fools Gold - What went wrong after the album? 

(We had a thread like this a few years back where I nicked a metaphor from Bruce Sterling or someone and described U2 as effectively the event horizon of overratedness, beyond which its impossibly to pass without violating the laws of the universe)

[SA Chris]

To be precise I believe he is, at times, spiritually misguided.

He must be, he bought a house in Nethy Bridge.

[Johnny Brown]

Terry Stamp.

Roky Ericson (? reaching now)

Don't know these two, John Cage yes but hardly mainstream, none of your others have been going as long as Dylan, and only Neil Young rivals his productivity.

Stone Roses - Fools Gold - What went wrong after the album?

I'm clearly a huge fan, but I think its hard to overrate the Roses. For ratio of songs recorded to real quality they knock every other band clean out of the water.

[Pantontino]

Everything bar Desire & Nashville Skyline, and being generous Highway 61 Revisited.




Very very patchy and under scrutiny occasionally suspect, petulant.

What, no Blonde on Blonde or the ultimate broken heart album: Blood on the Tracks? Surely you can see the value of these?

Falling Down - Can't agree about Neil Young. IMO the genius of the man is the deft way in which he imbues the simplest, almost childlike of lyrics with such soul stirring depth. I also happen to love the way he plays guitar. He is a giant talent; without doubt one of the greatest.

Agree about Primal Scream - the only thing left to admire is their staying power.

I don't think Queen have ever been particularly lauded for producing masterpieces (Bohemian Rhapsody is surely a comedy record?), but I've always detested them. A crass pantomime version of Led Zep (who were already pretty close to the edge of acceptable pantomime).

[Yossarian]

i would be happy to defend warhol. and hemmingway. when i wake up a bit...

my suggestions...
the architecture of terry farrell. it's all awful anyway, but some people seem to rate it.
the architecture of frank gehry - a one trick pony if ever there was one.
the balzac chair - a 90s cliche, and shittily made. sorry sheridan...
opus one - pure californian hype.
the beatles - the best thing that ever happened to them was dj dangermouse.
eminem - i laughed the first time, but these days i would rather listen to a man with diarrhoea. keep taking the vicodin.
fatboy slim - a pantomime horse.
restaurant sat bains - a nest of egos masquerading as a restaurant (i can and did go on...)
can't think of any fiction cos i haven't read anything bad for a while...

[lagerstarfish]

Herman Hesse, The Glass Bead Game / Magister Ludi.

[fatdoc]

Bringing it down to my cultural level:

Any Sonic the Hedgehog game after 3rd one on the megadrive.

Any Gran Turismo - all shite, just nice light effects, give me Colin Mrcae series anyday

Never really got the concept behind final fantasy either - though I've tried for many an hr...