Rush: Moving Pictures - Offending song = "Witch Hunt"

Rush: Hold your Fire - Offending song = "Turn the Page"

Steve Hackett: Spectral Mornings - Offending song = "The Ballad of the Decomposing Man"

Steve Hackett: To Watch the Storms - Offending song = "The Devil is an Englishman"

Supertramp: Even in the Quietest Moments - Offending song = "Babaji"

Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Angel Station - Offending song - "Resurrection"

Pink Floyd: The Division Bell - Offending song = "Lost for Words"

ELP: Brain Salad Surgery - Offending song = "Benny the Bouncer"

Barclay James Harvest: Ring of Changes - Offending song = "Just a Day Away"

Barclay James Harvest: Welcome to the Show - Offending song = "Psychedelic Child"

Marillion: Seasons End - Offending song = "After Me"

Led Zeppelin: In Through the Out Door - Offending song = "Hot Dog"

Queen: News of the World - Offending song = "Get Down Make Love"

Saga: The Security of Illusion - Offending song = "Alone Again Tonight"

Saga: Wildest Dreams - Offending song = "Don't Put Out the Fire"

Genesis: The Lamb lies down on Broadway - Offending song = "The Waiting Room"

Asia: Phoenix - Offending song = "I Will Remember You"

So what are yours?  

I don't really think it's a bad song per say, just my least favorite on the album. 

I love Selling England by the Pound, and have never had a problem with "More Fool Me". Like you said, it provides a quiet respite between the two sides. I've heard some people (including Genesis members) were not happy with "The Battle of Epping Forest" for being a little too "over the top".

That singing towards the end by David Byron is pretty atrocious. 

Kansas - Monolith - stay out of trouble 

I like most of this album but I think stay out of trouble is pretty much the text book definition of filler. 

Genesis - And then there were three - the ballad of big. Some say scenes from a night's dream or say it's alright Joe. However, for me it's this one. Not horrible but I don't get it. 

Genesis - Abacab - who dunnit OK, we all knew this one was coming

Yes - Drama - man  in a white car Rather pointless but not horrible

I think witch hunt is great. I love the synth parts on that. For me the weakest track is vital signs. Even that one has grown on me a bit over time though.

Since Led Zeppelin were mentioned I'll go with LZ 3 with "hats of to Harper" being the stinker on that album. I'm actually bored by since I've been loving you but HotH is the worst. 

These are the first I can think of:

The Police - Synchronicity: "Mother"

The Clash - Sandinista: "If Music Could Talk"

Sigur Rós - Ágætis byrjun: "Olsen Olsen"

Pink Floyd - Piper: "Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk"

Pink Floyd - Obscured By Clouds: "The Gold It's In the..."

Radiohead - The Bends: "Black Star"

The Beatles - The Beatles: "Obla di Obla da"

Genesis - Lamb: "The Colony of Slippermen"

The Who - By Numbers: "Squeeze Box"

The Who - Who Are You: "Had Enough"

Queen - A Day At the Races: "Drowse"

Interesting!  What did you not like about those two songs ? I can surmise for "The Gold It's in the... " but not for "Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk"

Obviously, it’s more a case of “albums I like with one song I don’t” more than “good albums with one bad song”, and it’s always interesting to see what people choose. I definitely like more the songs listed so far than not. I may have to think about what albums/songs I could add. 🤔

I agree. Plus Obla di Obla da is hardly the worst song on the White album. For me that album is sort of like the lamb lies down on broadway in that it would have been a very good single album. I still like it but there's definitely filler on it.

Again, very subjective. I’m not sure there is such a thing as filler. Again, just tracks or songs that some people don’t like (or don’t like as much). People rarely agree with what the filler is, so stating what is “filler” is not really any different from stating the “one bad song” on an album. It’s merely stating your preference (or, rather, lack of preference).

Steve Wyzard wrote: ... Genesis: The Lamb lies down on Broadway - Offending song = "The Waiting Room" ...

"The Waiting Room" is the best track on the album. seriously

Genesis "Selling England by the Pound" - "Awful Me" (that's my name for the song; you know which one I mean)

I'm going to say ... NONE.

Every artist has something or other that many of us might not like, but to say that something is crap as opposed to the rest of the work, to me, is sad. It is all a part of the artist, and sometimes many of them are doing it on purpose because folks take them way more seriously than they do themselves.

I have no issues hearing Roy taking a pee or throwing up ... or Kevin for that matter. It's really a part of their chemistry that makes them what they were and did. And I respect that, even if it is not exactly something I would want to show/share with my friends ... but in the two examples mentioned it's like (to me) a commentary on a lot of things, and this social media board is a perfect example ... it's no longer about the artist ... it's about the comments on the social media place!

Are you into the art of it all or just another person that can not say anything about the art of it all?

ELP - ELP - Tank. One of the very few instances in ELP's music where I can see where the "self-indulgence" and "w**kery" criticisms come from. 

Yes - Fragile - Five Percent for Nothing- They could've just titled it "Nothing". 

King Crimson - Red - Providence. Not much going on and sounds out of place. 

The Police - Outlandos D'amour - Be My Girl. Ruins one of the best debuts ever. 

 

Nah, but I will offer up ELP: Tarkus - Offending song = "Are You Ready Eddy"

 

 

Other examples I have in mind are:

 

Hawkwind: Warrior On The Edge Of Time - "Kings Of Speed", which seems out of place on the album.

 

Van der Graaf Generator: World Record - "Wondering" (although the ending of "Meurglys III (The Songwriters Guild)" does linger on a bit too long)

 

Univers Zero: Uzed - the ending of "Emmanations" is way too long.

 

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: Polygondwanaland - "The Fourth Colour"

 

 

Actually, while Pedro often can be quite rude, I don’t think he was here at all. Your response, on the other hand, is rather rude, and while I found no element of displeasure in what Pedro wrote, your response really rubs me up the wrong way. Oh wow! It’s almost like we all experience things differently! 

I agree with Pedro here, and I don’t think it’s taking things too seriously - so much as pointing out the choice of words is pretty rubbish for this post. This post is not identifying bad songs. It is identifying only songs that people don’t like. That’s not the same thing. Are there any bad songs? Well, ultimately the answer is no. As Pedro says, there is none.

There is no one objective criteria by which you can identify whether a song is good or bad. There are several ways that you could decide whether a song is good or bad, but you’d first have to put up the criteria by which you are judging the song. But change the criteria, and that can change the judgement. A song could be bad according to one way of measuring what is good, and good by another.

Now, if this post was about songs people don’t like, on albums they do, and Pedro came in and said what he just said (and I’ll be the first to admit, I suspect he would do just that), then you might have more of a reason to be upset. But I think a lot of people here get upset over what Pedro says unnecessarily. When he’s rude (and he can be), then I can understand replying in kind. But most of the time, it’s surely easier to ignore what he says, if it upsets you. In this case, it is you who appears rude, and not Pedro. (From my point of view….)

Yes. Yes it is. 👍🏻

Song For America - Lonely Street

Islands - Prelude (Song of the Gulls)

Breathless - Rainbows End (others will disagree )

Rain Dances - Highways of the Sun

The Light (Spock's Beard) - The Water

Return to Forever - What Game Shall We Play Today

Burn - What's Goin' On Here

The Mountain - As Death Embraces

I was thinking of mentioning Polygondwanaland. However, none of the songs are bad in my opinion, but by the time I reach Tetrachromacy and to a slightly lesser degree, Searching, it feels just a little too samey to some of the previous tracks. I actually dig the Fourth Colour quite a bit, especially the main riff, but I don't think it's one of the best songs on the album. Not huge on the fake fadeout it does, I think they could've wrapped the album a little better. But I still love me some Polygondwanaland, a must hear for any modern prog fan despite a few blips.

Agree

Off the top of my head, I'd say "Don't Kill the Whale" from Tormato.  I find the studio version uninspired and insipid. 

However, they always picked it up in concert, and "Whale" became one of my favorite live Yes tunes!

Here, dig it!! 

"The Gold It's In the..." sounds to me like a rather clumsy attempt at making a straight forward rock song, and I don't think their sound really fits that style. "Stethoscope": I find the composition pretty unimaginative compared to those written by Syd Barrett. Roger Waters would improve a lot as a songwriter on the next albums.

I thought similar about "The Gold it's in the ....". However, I always thought that Piper was 100% perfect so just surprised to see the Stethescope was picked and wondered why. After listening to the album today if i had to pick the "one" inferior song it would probably be that song too, so i ended up agreeing with both those PF picks of yours 

It's a good song as such, but in a very wrong place at the end a perfectly good ambient album. 

"Moonchild" is the best track on the album in question. I am totally serious about this. what the band is doing in the instrumental section is trying to put the lyrics into music. not necessarily in the order of appearance though; this is dream logic.

you can clearly hear this in several passages; the "playing hide and seek with the ghosts of dawn", "dropping circle stones on a sundial" and "waiting for a smile from a sunchild" passages are the most obvious ones to spot. the last line I mentioned is a metaphor for the sunrise, and what does the band play at the end of the track? a C-Major chord. in classical music the C-Major chord is always used when a composer tries to depict sunrise. examples are Haydn's "Die Schöpfung", Strauss' "Also sprach Zarathustra" or Grieg's "Peer Gynt suite"

They should have listened to Rush and not been a prog band.

Neal Morse Band - The Grand Experiment: Agenda

Yes - The Yes Album: The Clap

Camel - Moonmadness: Aristellus

That's actually one of my favorite songs on that album. To me the only song even approaching being weak on that is My Iron Lung. I know most will disagree and it's all subjective, but yeah I like Black Star a lot.

This is certainly an odd choice.

I agree

that's barely a song, it's just an intro... 

I definitely disagree about the last one; I love that track.

The two highlighted ones for sure. 

And it's TBOEF for me that lets down the (brilliant) rest of SEBTP....

I adore "Vital Signs," "Providence" and "Tank." Seeing them called out for being "throwaways" on Moving Pictures, Red and ELP's eponymous debut (which I consider perfect records) is hilarious! 

HYF isn't perfect but "Turn the Page" is and has always been a highlight. 

How could I forget "Mother" on Synchronicity? And I say this as a huge Andy Summers fan!

That album also could do without "Murder by Numbers", which, while I understand the sentiment behind it, just doesn't fit in with all the rest (sans "Mother"). Even the up-tempo songs on Synchronicity have a haunted, ethereal atmosphere that is promptly destroyed by including it at the end. One of the harshest juxtapositions in recorded music is the one between "Tea in the Sahara" and "Murder by Numbers". 

Thanks for reminding me, and for your contribution to a thread that has exceeded my wildest expectations!

"Revolution 9", anybody?

I have owned and loved the Spectral Mornings album for 35 years, but I have never listened to "The Ballad of the Decomposing Man" since the first (and only) time I heard it. I mostly enjoy Steve's sense of humor and oddball songs, but "TBotDM" absolutely destroys the "spectral" atmosphere the envelops the rest of the album. I realize it's there to bring the album in over the 35-minute mark, but absolutely anything else would have been better.

I am a Thomas Dolby fan (his first album is a masterpiece), and Steve's cover of "The Devil is an Englishman" fits in somewhat better on To Watch the Storms than the previously mentioned song. Still, this comes from one of Dolby's "bad-boy" periods, and is really rather embarrassing. It can "sort of" be justified as a lead-up to "Mechanical Bride", but I always skip over it. 

I don't count "Murder by Numbers". It does not appear on the original vinyl release, at least not on my copy (original UK or NL release). The album ends with "Tea in the Sahara".

I agree that "Murder by Numbers" is technically a bonus track because it did not appear on the album's original release. The only problem is, EVERY release since then has included it, to where now most people who own the album are unaware of the sublime ending/closure that "Tea in the Sahara" provides. This could lead to an entirely different thread: Context Is Everything!

I feel like at some point, every one of these threads devolves into embarrassing dorm room level philosophy about abstracts, actuals, and objectivity. I suppose this is a logical fate for proggers, lol.

Glad I'm not the only one who loves "Moonchild". I find the instrumental passage very poetic. And unique too. Don't know what people have against it, I'd say it's the most progressive part of the whole album.

I also love "The Waiting Room" for the matter. Contains a really interesting soundscape.

I admit I struggle with "moonchild" but I've learned to just see it as something to just kind of tune out to or relax to rather than be actively angry with it. I admit it's possible there is some kind of purpose or point to it but I haven't figured out what it is yet. I also don't hate it though. The first two minutes are fine and even for a bit after that but I think if it was a bit more composed and went into a different direction it could have been more interesting. 

As for who dunnit, the only way for me to kind of enjoy it is to view it as a joke song and not take it too seriously. 

AlanB wrote: Wishbone Ash - Pilgrimage: Where Were You Tomorrow..

Definitely. I think they must have run out of songs to put on their sophomore album and thought, hey, let's throw in this long live recorded track to fill up side 2!

Funnily enough at around that time they did have a track that would have been ideal and it was called "Roads Of Day To Day", but it didn't see the light of day until it was released on CD in 2007 on the album "First Light" All tracks from this album were taken from a ~1970 acetate pressing and recorded prior to WA getting a record deal.

I know that I am in the minority, but I think "Blowin' Free" is out of place on Argus. It has always felt like a southern US rock tune and completely against the Tolkien feel of all the other tracks. I skip it every time I listen to Argus.

My alternative Pilgrimage:

Side 1

Vas Dis

Alone (the full version with vocals)

Jailbait

Lullaby

Side 2

The Pilgrim

Valediction

Roads of Day To Day

I'd pick Down On The Farm myself, I quite like Rainbow's End.

Frank Zappa - Hot Rats: "Willy The Pimp"

Bjork - Homogenic: "Pluto"

King Crimson - ITCOCK: "Moonchild"

I have to admit I really don't get all the hate I've been hearing lately for Obla Di Obla Da. No, it's not one of the Beatles best songs but I don't think it ruins the album and I don't think it's the weakest track on the white album either. As for out of place I would think that would be "revolution 9."

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Tarkus - Jeremy Bender

Genesis - ...And Then There Were Three... - Follow You Follow Me

Gentle Giant - Octopus - Knots

Angra - Holy Land - Lullaby For Lucifer

The Pineapple Thief - Your Widerness - Dawn Again

I'm mildly confused. Partly how APOLK could be someone's least favorite from that album (though that's entirely subjective I admit), but moreso how one can say Pawn Hearts is a good album and simultaneously call half of it bad.

Really? 

Oh I disagree with so much of this! That's the internet I suppose. I will ask one question though... concerning Hold Your Fire, how is it you don't like Turn The Page but like Tai Shan and High Water? The vast majority of Rush fans I've encountered have quite the opposite opinion!

More Fool Me would be easy enough to skip if it was the problem track. However The Battle Of Epping Forest has always stuck me as the real missing of the mark on that record, and really in the entire classic Genesis run.

Rush - Hold Your Fire: High Water (I find Tai Shan tame and inoffensive)

Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind: Quest For Fire

Genesis - Invisible Touch: The Brazilian

King Crimson - In The Wake Of Poseidon: The Devil's Triangle (I mean compared to all their other classic material... come on)

Pink Floyd - Meddle: Seamus

The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta: Behind My Camel

Yes - Fragile - 5 per cent for nothing

Thanks to you I've just remembered that wretched abomination exists...*shudders*

You're very correct here.

Oo I love them both. For me the weakest link on The Bends is probably... Sulk, I guess? It's a really great record through and through. Not one I would ever think of for a thread like this.

I can stand Octopus' Garden, but one of Paul's numerous granny songs? No thanks, can't even stomach listening to it. 

I'm aware both "Tai Shan" and "High Water" are very much hated by both the band and the fanbase, but I've never had a major problem with either song. They are FAR from Rush's greatest moments, but to me they show the band actually trying something different, in this case, atmospheric mood pieces (even if "High Water" borrows the guitar riff from "Bacchus Plateau").

"Turn the Page", on the other hand, is an entire song written around that tricky bass pattern that opens the performance. Peart's lyrics have by this period become forced and self-regarding. Not only that, but this song is a virtual repeat of "Force Ten" from the same album!

Interesting take!

Umeda wrote: ....... Gentle Giant - Octopus - Knots .......

At last, someone has the balls to call out Knots. I have always hated it ever since i first heard it back in the '70s. I always skip it when listening to the other magnificent tracks from Octopus. It just grates and gives me the sh***s. Sorry, but it's one of those tracks that I cannot stomach.

Knots is definitely a love it or hate it track, no way around it.

Grates on me too….. The BBC Christmas 1979 Special suffered by its inclusion. Everything else was wonderful

Rick’s church organ intro, Chris’s wonderful melodic bass and Steve’s soaring guitar…. 

one of my favorite Yes songs 

I agree. However, that was strictly a CD bonus track, so I have a hard time really counting it. Plus, its not stuck right in the middle of the album.

As far as Genesis goes... I keep seeing More Fool Me mentioned. Its not great, but its not that bad. And its bloody Heart of the Sunrise compared to the abominable You're own Special Way that sinks the otherwise fantastic Wind and Wuthering.

Its very rare that I don't accept every piece as part of the whole. But there are a couple.

PFM - Is My Face on Straight (L'Isola di Niente). I find the lyrical theme sophomoric and the musical theme disjointed. What's worse is Peter Sinfield gets so much credit for his contribution to PFM. 

Iron Maiden - Quest for Fire (Piece of Mind). Maiden usually gets praise for being well-read and researching their lyrical themes. But a song about the "quest for fire" when "dinosaurs walked the earth"? Bad, just bad. The music is not up to Maiden's standard either.

   

  Thanks for that!!  I always loved W&W, but that song made me cringe!  However, I think it was the opening shot of the long slide to AM-Friendly Genesis.  

While I don't hate "Your Own Special Way" (it sort of fits in with the album's "haunted pastoral" theme), I've so often wished that "Inside and Out" (from the Spot the Pigeon ep) was in its place on the album!

Hot Space  -  Body Language

Sheer Heart Attack -  Killer Queen

Clutching at Straws - Going Under 

I love Marillion's The Party, what's wrong with it? 

Nothing. I wonder do people bother with the lyrics?

Body Language, yeah it's not great.

Killer Queen though???