(Untitled)

[rochefort]

I'm emerging fleetingly from my RL-imposed holiday from lj just to share this gem that appeared in today's Guardian.

The embarrassments lurking in your music collection.Of course, I don't have any embarrassing vinyl or CDs. At least, none that are on public access

Comments

[miraminx]

What a great article. I was fascinated not just by the punk hijinks of Sid et.al, but by how time- and country-specific the Guilty Pleasures listed are. Aside from "Afternoon Delight" and the Captain and Tenille, I hadn't heard of these bands; I'm wondering what Americans or Canadians would list as their counterpart guilty pleasures. And while I remember songs like "Disco Duck" all too clearly, my own list, if I had one, would come from a bit later.

Finally, we can be snobby about Rowley's Big Star nod, because if he were really cool he wouldn't have their Greatest Hits but No. 1 Record/Radio City. And if he were really, really cool, he'd have Sister Lovers, made after Chris Bell left the band and Alex Chilton started taking way too many drugs. It's a fabulously uneven record, with flashes of genius and flashes of "what the HELL was he thinking?"; thankfully the former outnumber the latter.

And I must ask what "kipper ties" are. The mind boggles.

[rochefort]

I've heard pretty well all of those British cringe records they mention, and I can't believe some of them were anyone's guilty pleasure. Not even the world's biggest masochist. 'Bad' just doesn't begin to cover it. And while the idea of an entire collection of 'bad' songs is a great one, I suspect the reality of 12 or 20-odd of these things might be a bit different when you actually had to sit down and listen to them.

I remember the only time I accidentally 'came out' over my bad music tastes was when I was in a car and Madonna's Holiday came on the radio, and I asked the driver to turn it up because I couldn't hear it in the back. I got four very funny looks, but luckily the people I was with were reasonably cool and not very pass-remarkable. I appreciated how lightly I got off.

What would yours be, then? Duran Duran? No need to be embarrassed! They made some great pop songs. I can say that now, of course, because I've got no real cool left to lose.

Finally, we can be snobby about Rowley's Big Star nodWhereas you, clearly,

[miraminx]

And while the idea of an entire collection of 'bad' songs is a great one, I suspect the reality of 12 or 20-odd of these things might be a bit different when you actually had to sit down and listen to them.

It sounds like the kind of thing you'd buy and play once at a 70s-themed party.

As for my own guilty pleasures, yes, they'd be early 80s pop music, including Madonna, Duran Duran, Adam Ant, and ABC, among others. But didn't we decide that it's cool to like that kind of stuff again? It's not like we're admitting to liking Queensryche, for crying out loud! No, my real guilty pleasure would be, um, Def Leppard. I'll just skulk away now.

Maybe you shouldn't admit publicly to the Duran thing after all.

Too late. Dammit!

And thanks to that handy link, I can say that kipper ties flourished in the US as well, but they must have had a different name; kippers are not popular in the US. Can't imagine why; who wouldn't like tinned fish for breakfast? We're a nation of barbarians, I tell you.

[rochefort]

I could dredge up some 70s stuff, too. Doesn't everyone like at least one Abba song? And console yourself with the thought that I liked Bon Jovi long after I should have known better -- Def Leppard are better than them, aren't they?

Kippers are definitely one of those 'foreign muck' foods that remind you you're in another country: here, they come whole and you eat them with scrambled eggs for breakfast. Yum.