Worst EC songs (originals only)

[wordnat]

Jeez.....this is a best pointless, at worst sacreligious. But you know you wanna do it. Instant (bad) karma!

Here's my "Hall o' Shame":
I'M NOT ANGRY
PLAYBOY TO A MAN
TKO (BOXING DAY)
15 PETALS
SOUR MILKCOW BLUES
GLITTER GULCH
HONEY, ARE YOU STRAIGHT OR ARE YOU BLIND?
CHEWING GUM
MY THREE SONS

[Harry Lime]

Dr Luther's Assistant
Broken
The Deportees Club
Stalin Malone

[Hawksmoor]

Never cared much for 'The Stamping Ground', and I have to be in the right mood (ie a bit pissed) for 'Broken'. Otherwise I think I love 'em all.

[littletriggers]

I don't think there's much wrong with any of the above , especially I'm not angry , from the very angry young man .
Il Sogna now were talking please don't do it again .

[Miclewis]

My Worst List:

Seconds of Pleasure
Drum and Bone
International Echo
Love Went Mad
Suffering Face
The Nameless One
When Did I Stop Dreaming

[wardo68]

Two words: Sunday's Best.

[bambooneedle]

After The Fall
The Long Honeymoon
Broken
From A Whisper To A Scream
American Gangster Time
My Mood Swings
The Long Division
Swine
Sour Milkcow Blues

[blooch]

Waiting For The End Of The World
Green Shirt
Pills And Soap
Hurry Down Doomsday
Glitter Gulch
Staline Malone

Just a few that spring to mind and straight out again.

[mood swung]

My Mood Swings

heresy!!

[blooch]

I agree. call ourselves true fans eh? We should be ashamed of ourselves.

[spooky girlfriend]

My Mood Swings

heresy!!

I adored watching Moody come to life when he played that with the Brodsky Quartet at the Ryman a few years ago. You should have seen her face!

[Emotional Toothpaste]

Big Nothing (A Town Called)
All of Il Sogno
American Gangster Time
Turpentine
1/3rd of Punch The Clock
1/3rd of Goodbye Cruel World
1/3rd of North

[oily slick]

You Left Me In The Dark
Someone Took The Words Away
When Did I Stop Dreaming
You Turned To Me
Fallen
When It Sings
Still
Let Me Tell You About Her
Can You Be True?
When Green Eyes Turn Blue
I'm In The Mood Again

[invisible Pole]

Half of The Delivery Man

[bambooneedle]

My Mood Swings

heresy!!

It just goes along, and... pffft, keeps going and doesn't do anything. He's getting horny for nothing.

I also don't like Boy With A Problem much if that's any consolation

[DeathWearsABigHat]

The Bridge I Burned
Days (I love the original but Elvis's version is too slow & gloomy)
Playboy to a Man
Daddy Can I Turn This
That one on My Flame Burns Blue with the "hope I wake up in time" line.

[bambooneedle]

What My Mood Swings needed was something, a great line, an image, right when he does that erotic you-know-what-I-mean suggestiveness in his voice, to make it more believable. Instead of on "in the eighties", "what your sign is", etc.

The Bridge I Burned

???? What is wrong with The Bridge I Burned?

Another one that doesn't work for me is Almost Ideal Eyes. It's like EC is just exercising his voice rather than connecting the words to feeling. And then with the change in speed from fast to slow going into the chorus each time, like some kind of summation of feeling is meant to happen, for me it evokes a "yaaaawnnn, here we go again. That is supposed to make me care?". So the net effect is: so what? Parts of it sound great - the syncopated beat, the piano - but it got screwed up.

[Miclewis]

I used to not care for "Almost Ideal Eyes", until I heard the live version on My Flame Burns Blue. It works so much better with the jazz orchestra.

I am still waiting for Elvis to release his original demo of this song from the early 90's; when he wrote it for David Crosby to cover. I can't imagine what this early version could have sounded like.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Astonished to see songs as brilliant as 'After The Fall' and 'The Long Honeymoon' in here. Some others just about merit it, but for me there's one that's in a class of its own for embarrassing unlistenability: 'Broken'.

[johnfoyle]

In that I have the affliction of seeing elements of positivity in anything Elvis does I can only suggest pieces that are less good than others. That would be most of For The Stars , some of Painted From Memory and the odd song . WIWC's Little Blue Window for instance ; incredibly annoying in it's repetition and then I spend the rest of the day humming it.

[bambooneedle]

Astonished? I pretended to be astonished about The Bridge I Burned just to try to provoke DeathWearsABigHat to say something about it. But that was just a tactic, I wasn't really astonished.

But anyway, I don't mind expounding a bit on my reasons, Otis. And yes, these choices are just relative to other EC songs, surely you have some you also don't care very much for at all... Pidgin English, if I recall right?

The Long Honeymoon sticks so solidly to one main idea right through and the music and vocal nuances also remain so predictable, that after very few initial listens the song has such obviousness about it. IMO. Very short shelf life for an EC song.

As for After The Fall, it's just too posh for my liking.

[blooch]

Sometimes its good to see EC putting out a simple song with lyrics that can be understood. Are there any songs of EC that members on here cannot understand the lyrics of then maybe others can help? Should this be a new thread? I dont know. Anyway i had better shut the hell up before im accused of waffling.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Too posh? Weird, eerie, moving, beautiful, yes, but posh? I just love the lyrics, the melodies and the superb guitar on ATF. As we've seen here endlessly, there's no accounting for taste, especially yours!!!

Pidgin English, yeah, kinda tedious. More a series of bits than a song, especially next to a thing of lasting and repeated listening deserving beauty such as Long Honeymoon. The World and His WIfe is a bit too forced. Elvis's average outdoes most other people's career best, so it's relatively pointless.