70s
Will anyone else name a band they do not like even though you might like many of their songs. I just start by saying it is the Eagles for me.
I like many of their songs ( One of these Nights, Desparado, etc. ) The only one I will turn off on Radio is Hotel California .
To this day , I find it strange that Joe Walsh ( Rocky Mountain Way, Lifes Been Good and many other great songs gave up his solo career to join this outfit.
So does anyone else feel this way about Eagles or some other band ?
Van Halen - For reasons similar to what some of you have expressed about the Eagles. They made incredible music, especially before 1985, but the brothers and DLR were complete douche bags.
I love VH's music prior to 1982 but they were not nice to people. Randy Rhoads told Eddie he was great and wanted to talk technique and Eddie blew him off. Probably drunk but that shouldn't have made him rude. They were jerks to the Clash at the US Festival. I know drugs & alcohol played a big part in their bad behavior but still...
I’ve seen footage of that California festival. Joe Strummer was in a particularly confrontational mood that day bless ‘im. When Van Halen were on, David Lee Roth started some clueless speech about The Clash not being very rock &roll and putting tea in their bottles of Jack Daniels. Something to that effect anyway. An embarrassing remark like that only served to highlight DLR’s ignorance and that those two bands were poles apart.
Is there a dvd or something of that festival ?
Nevermind , I found it on youtube.
Did not watch the part about arguments or whatever . Just watched Clash performance.
Joe Strummer was a very good frontman . Paul Simonon impressive too with the reggae bass.
Eddie was an innovative, technical master with amazing dexterity but I found no soul or emotional resonance, no depth of lyricism or soul to their music, just a lot of flash and jokey party rock. That said I like a few of their songs like unchained.
Joe Walsh released 3 solo albums before he joined the Eagles and 8 solo albums after he joined the Eagles so I don't see how you can say he gave up his solo career.
I saw The Eagles about 20 years ago with their full original line-up at the Forum headlining a benefit for Don Henley's music charity. As part of the show, the band backed up Joe Walsh on Funk #49, Rocky Mountain Way and Life's Been Good. Blew the roof off the place...
But Seriously Folks...is a classic, no bad songs on it. There Goes The Neighborhood and The Confessor have some great songs and are worth checking out too. The rest for me is hit or miss.
Aerosmith. Just looking at them makes me feel sweaty and dirty in a bad way, but hot damn if Dream On doesn't still give me goosebumps. They've got a couple other great ones.
guess who got the last laugh on that account? Aerosmith is generally laughed about, and Rush are icons, with arguably the greatest rock drummer in history
Your judgement in this matter is less than optimal. Not only has Aerosmith sold (iirc) about three times as many albums, they were at one point the sixth biggest entertainment draw in the world. Hold your quantity versus quality argument, because in general I agree with that. Not in Rush's case, however. I like about two of their songs, probably because of the singer's voice. Who cares if the drummer is great if you can't stand the vocals? Also, to me, Aerosmith's early stuff is just flat out better than anything Rush did.
Aerosmith is one of my favorite bands. That sweaty dirty feel is correct for vintage Aerosmith. Sitting in a garage with the door open drinking beers sweating with your buddies IS Aerosmith.
The 90s were a different time for the band. I think just as good, but instead of dirty and gross they became clean and gross. But on purpose so it was okay.
Great songs…seemingly douche level members (Henley).
Guess KISS fits that category for some, but I’m not a Gene hater as many are.
I will say it’s tough to be a Ryan Adams fan. He has a detailed history of being a great big asshole (for many reasons) but man his music can be absolutely brilliant.
Van Morrison is similar.
Wonder if a lot of folks in the US feel that way about artists who don’t share their political views and are outspoken about it, like Springsteen or Pearl Jam.
Not about politics for me. Can 't really see how someone can convince themselves or anyone else that someone isn't talented because that person has different politics.
P.S. I really like Kiss also. I actually used to try not to like them way back in 70's because I was already an Aerosmith fan and it seemed disloyal to also like Kiss. They won me over though . Still like Aerosmith also though
Being a huge Ryan Adams fan for years really did get exhausting. He may actually fall into OP's category for me now. I still adore a lot of Whiskeytown songs and earlier Adams stuff but wouldn't call myself an active fan.
I’ve stayed up to date and like a lot of his recently released music but it’s difficult to support his choices outside of the music itself. I try to stay out of it as much as possible.
I do understand why people don't like them, but I do think they deserve a lot of respect for how they constantly reinvented themselves over the course of their first 20 years. They began as post-punk, moved into "classic"/American roots rock with the Joshua Tree, done a complete 180 for the 90's with alternative, ambient and electronic sounds, and then changed it all up again for the 00's settling for a more pop-rock sound. Bono is also a fairly underrated lyricist in my opinion; underrated in that people often dismiss him, not underrated in terms of levels of success as U2 have certainly been successful. Their output since around 2004 has admittedly been rather stale and uninspiring, but I personally cannot fault their previous eras. I know I'm in the minority here, but I don't care ✌️😂!
I think a lot of their early fans enjoyed the rebellion of Sunday Bloody Sunday and the cool band status. Then they became the biggest band in the world and lost that cache.
As an older Gen X, U2 was the first big band the was “ours” as opposed to most of the other big acts that rose up with the boomers. They started as the cool college radio station band my older siblings didn’t know about. It was the first group I got to tell them about.
They were always a popular and critical success then it became cool to bash them, particularly after the Apple thing but also, imho, because Bono became more prominent as a Christian. I always hate the “well it’s popular so I’m to cool for it” attitude and that’s just me cling harder to them.
Agreed. They became so big and popular that it then became "cool" to dislike them. If for some reason they had decided to disband sometime after Zooropa in the mid-90's, public opinion on them would likely not be as harsh.
It's not bad. It's nowhere near being the peak of their creativity, but there's a few solid tracks on there. The thing is though, even if that album was an absolutely top tier record, 10 out of 10 masterpiece, on par with The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, everyone still would have complained because it was U2 who released it 🤷
Agree on this. They just come of as douchey to me. I see Bono how Matt and Trey from South Park do 😂😂😂😂…But damn War and The Joshua Tree are great albums….. and the song One… but man, everything this century 🤢
Styx has a Brand New Album out entitled Circling From Above, it's very WOODEN NICKEL ERA. Check out their new song and video on YouTube Build and Destroy.
I like about a half a dozen of their songs, but I hate the band. I hate Bono and his pretentious bullshit and I hate the fact that they put an album on my phone without my permission.
The first part was always a problem for them and the second was the nail in their coffin. However, they’re fine. For a little post punk band from Ireland, they did alright and none of them have to worry about retirement funds. I’m sure it stings a little that they became a bit of a joke but millions and millions of dollars probably eases that sting
Oh, I don’t think they consider themselves a little post punk band from Ireland or a joke. I think Bono still considers himself to be one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll men of all time and U2 to be a modern day Rolling Stones or even clash. Andy thinks he’s a humanitarian right up there with Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela.
At what point do you consider yourself as liking a band if liking many songs by one doesn’t do it?
I can’t think of an artist I feel similarly about. If I only like a few songs then I say “I like a few of their songs but that’s it”. If I like many of a bands songs I feel I like the band. Doesn’t mean I have to like everything they do though.
It’s just an image thing. “I’m too embarrassed to admit I like XYZ because it’s not cool.”
The Eagles are the classic example. Ever since The Big Lebowski came out everyone claims to hate them despite their songs actually being really popular. It’s like the famous Borscht Belt joke, “nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.”
Depends on the band. For example, my dad famously doesn't like Bob Seger.
But he loves Ramblin Gamblin Man, Travelin Man/Beautiful Loser, Katmandu, Roll Me Away, Her Strut, Come to Poppa, 2 + 2, East Side Story, Lucifer, Hollywood Nights, Feel like a number, and so on and so on.
What my dad doesn't like are ballads, and, post 1980 a big chunk of Bob Seger is just Against The Wind. Each album has rockers like he did in the 60s, but the singles and the other half were lame.
To some people, liking the band means liking almost every song. For someone like that, like my dad, my tastes would be like this:
Like, I like The Beatles. They only have a few bad tracks.
I don't like Elton John. I went to his farewell tour and knew all the words to every song, but he only has like 2 good tracks per album. He just has 275 albums.
Ted Nugent is probably diagnosably insane. However, he has got to be one of the greatest hard rock guitarists of all time. And his riffs are just absolutely legendary. Even simple ones like Free For All. It's just one power chord he does a slide up a fret for but he does it perfectly. And his best guitar work didn't show up until Fred Bear, much later.
I guess Green Day. Like a few songs but have never liked them as a band . Maybe I just haven’t given them a fair shot for some odd reason even though I liked early hits of theirs. Who knows
I like them both, but the Peter Green era was by far the best. It’s sad that they aren’t more well known here in the states, and REALLY sad that most people think Black Magic Woman is a Santana song😒
It’s amazing, plenty of live performances on YouTube. A million miles from where they ended up. Latter days Mac is ok, but Green Blues years are incredible.
One of my favorites along with Good Day in Hell , Bitter Creek , Out of Control , Outlaw Man , Saturday Night , James Dean , On The Border , Chug All Night , Certain Kind of Fool....
Which is weird to me because I loved Walsh before he joined the eagles. He had already been a member of the James Gang, and had songs like Rocky Mountain Way and funk #49. I always loved the way he bended so much on the guitar to make it sound really fluid.
Same here. I really don't like him in general but love the song Radio Nowhere. I like Glory Days and the Ghost of Tom Joad, too.
Born to Run is one of the ones I really don't care for at all, lol. He's got a lot of songs I can't stand, so I think I just never gave him a real chance.
I had the Eagles greatest hits record on this morning and was like “I like this but I don’t like this” and I couldn’t figure out why. I think maybe because so many elements they used were also used by subsequent generations country pop musicians that it sorta retroactively killed their vibe (not a bit modern country fan).
They have some absolute bangers, but if you listen to greatest hits volume 1 and 2 you get a bit tired of it and feel like you’re in some cheesy country themed bar.
I put the record on to listen to One of These Nights which absolutely slaps but it’s actually kinda different from the rest of their vibe. Hotel California obviously crushes but again, feels pretty different.
Are they cheesy? Corny? Overplayed? Somehow underrated? I dont know.
But I listen to the Eagles in small doses and could never quite figure out why given I dig so many of their songs.
Probably said a thousand times, but Bob Dylan. Adore bands like The Byrds and their covers of his songs, but can't stand Dylan's voice. A shame too, because I think he's a genius songwriter. Might just be one of those musicians that has to sit with me more.
No, you the first here on this post and of course everybody knows his voice not the best. I would not be surprised if he sings bad on purpose sometimes.
I liked that album,too ! The younger sister of a former bandmate of mine had an affair/groupie fling with the singer, which resulted in a child and, eventually, the breakup of the band....
You'd have to see that chick ,though ! She used to come to our rehearsals ,and she was one of those precocious kids that looked like a stacked 22 year old when she was like 13...
It definitely was ! As an aside to my true tale ,their mother ,Cathy ,was a restaurateur who turned an old Tannery into a going concern in the 80s in Buford,Georgia, and one customer who always came in when they(Led Zeppelin)were touring the area was an Englishman by the name of Peter Grant ! My buddy always got comped concert tickets ,and once got to tour the legendary Swan Song private jet !
Just kidding I love them. Eagles for me were overplayed on the radio. Similar to Zep, but I still do enjoy their music. So overplaying isn’t enough to sour on them. I will say KISS is band I could never get into. Appreciate others do, but just not for me.
Metallica. Can't stand em, never have, never will. I really only like the covers they did, Turn The Page, Whiskey In the Jar, Veteran of the Psychic Wars. Other than that, Fuck Metallica!
u/palpontiac89 -- Check out the Live 1977 version of "Hotel California" -- it might change your mind. It is more raw than the album version we've all heard a thousand times ...
I almost fell off my chair when I read this. Me too! When the Eagles were big, back when I was young, I hated Hotel California and as you can imagine it was played constantly. I've definitely mellowed over the years with it and and I heard it recently and it brought back great memories.
I'm with your list until CCR. Cosmo's Factory is the best album of 1970. John Fogerty is an all-timer on the same level as Buddy Holly, Mick Jagger or Paul McCartney
Two words: Ramble Tamble. 3 more words: Keep on Chooglin'. It was a b-side so it's not as played out as Proud Mary or Fortunate Son, but Born on the Bayou is an all-timer.
I do not get Pearl Jam. They were number 4 of the Big Five Grunge acts to me, with Nirvana 5th. Their albums got progressively worse, with their first album Ten, being their best/most interesting album. I heard a more recent song from them yesterday, and it sounded like a Rolling Stones ripoff. Do we need more of that? And why do they have a Sirius XM channel, while Van Halen, a much more influential band, does not?
And I think Nirvana was a time slot hit. Sure, they get credit for “killing hair metal”, but hair metal had Xeroxed itself into a self-parody that was on its fifth liver and had one foot in the grave when Nirvana showed up, hyped daily on MTV by Kurt Loder. 🤷🏻♂️
It's definitely the Eagles for me as well. When I was a child, I actually liked them a lot. In later years, I was pretty indifferent to them. Then one summer, I worked in an environment in which our boss played the Eagles Greatest Hits on continuous repeat. I have probably heard that album more times than any other album. By the end of that summer, I hated the Eagles. That was over 30 years ago and I still hate them.
Not many, just one. REO Speedwagon has one song I like, especially a live version. That's Riding the Storm Out. Mostly the version that's from a 1976 concert. The rest of their songs make me want to sing along like a wounded dog because that's how they sound to me.
Well I can see that. Axle always came off as kind of a brat I think.
They also ruined some of their best songs to with various recorded sound effects ( like phones ringing and other stuff like that )
Civil War is my favorite of theirs though.
I have a soft spot for November Rain, for personal reasons. And I do like Slash's guitar work. But yeah, Axel grates on my nerves and I really don't care for his voice either.
They have a few bangers, but generally their music gets too far up its own ass for me. A lot of it comes off as pretentious pseudo-intellectual bullshit.
Walter Becker and Donald Fagan were amazing musicians and songwriters with some really great hits like Peg, Hey Nineteen, My Old School, and especially Kid Charlemagne. Some of the best music of the latter part of the last century.
Other than those, the band inexplicably never really grabbed me.
It's not a band so much as a couple of antisocial, counterculture nerds with crazy talent, whose perfectionist ways require a carousel of other geniuses.
I'm addicted to their music, but they probably are/were insufferable to be around. Hard to tell, they hated giving interviews, maybe they only came across that way.
"I'm addicted to their music, but they probably are/were insufferable to be around"
I can understand why people can be addicted to it, and I think insufferable is the word that pretty much sums it up, lol. An amazing duo, close but just short of not quite doing it for me.
Fagan is clearly passionate about music, though, as was Becker. Fagan might be on the spectrum, or very introverted (developed a drug habit to cope with stage fright early on.) Regardless, I remain a fan!
Yup, the Eagles, U2, R.E.M, Joy Division. To name a few.
Edit: you gotta figure for Joe Walsh the Eagles are a nice easy gig he doesn’t have to do too much for, and he can always go out on his own when they’re not touring.
I'm sorry, but The Beach Boys, people rave about them and I just think they sound too much like barbershop quartet. There's a couple of songs I like but overall, no.
Of course there is the famous back and forth between Skynyrd and Neil Young. Turns out Ronnie Van Zant was really a great admirer of Young's talent although he took exception to a couple songs Young wrote criticizing Southern attitudes. Young also admired Skynrd and even did tribute for them after the plane crash that killed Van Zant and others.
Yeah the Stones never caught my ear. Love some of their tracks. Gimme Shelter is a tune that gets me fired up. Never thought their music was that good. Haven’t bought any of their albums, because they were always on the FM radio shows. To me they’re a live band concert act.
Talking Heads. I like many of their songs and acknowledge they are a great and important band, but I just don’t like them. I think David Byrne seems so pretentious. I like plenty of other pretentious artists, it’s just a gut reaction to him I’ve never gotten over.
Fountains of Wayne. I've got all of their albums on my machine, and I usually have it on random play all songs. I love it when any of their songs come up, but I absolutely cannot listen to an entire album...at least not without a shot of insulin first.
I do not own any Tom Petty. Albums, CDs or Downloads. I do not hate them, just have never quite gotten into them. That being said I saw the Heartbreakers here in Austin 20 or more years ago. GREAT concert and I left saying "wow, I like so many of their songs". May have to make some additions after reflecting on this!
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u/Psalm_143 May 29 '25
Van Halen - For reasons similar to what some of you have expressed about the Eagles. They made incredible music, especially before 1985, but the brothers and DLR were complete douche bags.