Worst Floyd songs

Stiggs · Post by **Stiggs** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 8:47 pm

If we call them the top ten worst songs, why not call them the bottom ten? I mean if a list of all the PF songs ever made were made and a vote were taken, the bottom 10 would be the top 10 worst songs.

David Smith · Post by **David Smith** » Sun Jun 15, 2003 12:01 pm

Just so we can say we have a list i looked back over this thread and a couple of others to make the 10 worst floyd songs, it looks something like this:

1) A New Machine part 1
2) A New Machine Part 2
3) A Spanish Piece
4) Seamus
5) It Would Be So Nice
6) Bring The Boys Back Home
7) Dogs Of War

Take Thy Stephescope And Walk
9) Corporal Clegg
10) Veira Lynne

Something along those lines, they are the most frequently slagged songs by this forum.

Dogs of war added later

Tommy · Post by **Tommy** » Sun Jun 15, 2003 5:20 pm

you forgot dogs of war

David Smith · Post by **David Smith** » Mon Jun 16, 2003 7:37 am

That's all been taken care of, i took the song behind it down a place each so Take It Back is of the top 10.

SaintCrest · Post by **SaintCrest** » Mon Jun 16, 2003 8:08 pm

*points at get your filthy hands off my desert*

bad, bad song

jasontag · Post by **jasontag** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 11:02 pm

Ten worst PF songs?

1. Seamus (Meddle) - and Floyd always thought they could play the blues?
2. A Spanish Piece (More) - the "drunken spaniard" bit is so embarrassing, I can't even tell if the guitar part is worthwhile.
3. The Grand Vizier's Garden Party (Ummagumma) - boring drum solos are still boring, no matter how many sound effects are used.
4. Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast (Atom Heart Mother) - as a piece of performance art, sort of fun, but as a studio piece, this "breakfast" wants to send me back to bed.
5. Coming Back To Life (The Division Bell) - I'll probably get flamed for this, but the beautiful opening is destroyed by the rest of this plodding, MOR yawner. It would be barely tolerable on a Gilmour solo album; it has no place being under the Pink Floyd banner. But that's my opinion.
6. Paranoid Eyes (The Final Cut) - no wonder the poor guy is drinking. Far too plodding musically, and by now I'm simply tired of Roger beating the same subject to death.
7. Two Suns In The Sunset (The Final Cut) - ditto.
8. See-Saw (Saucerful Of Secrets) - the working title reportedly was "The Most Boring Song I've Heard Save Two". Very perceptive. Nicely put together, but still pure filler.
9. Bring The Boys Back Home (The Wall) - Roger once called in the central piece of The Wall. Sorry, Roger. It's nothing.
10. A New Machine (Parts 1 & 2) (Momentary Lapse Of Reason) - a bit of a cheat to combine two into one, but they do go together. Dave uses a vocoder, and shows he can put a couple minutes of nothing on an album as well as Roger could.

Jeff

Dannydel · Post by **Dannydel** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 11:21 pm

Everything on Ummagumma Studio album is, as David so eloquently and repeatedly says, "pish". With the exception of "high hopes", most of the post-Waters songs are fair-to-middling. It's a shame that three of the best musicians ever born ended up making either sub-U2 stadium rock or ambient sludge. Dogs of War and Seamus are my two least favourite- what is it with Floyd and canines? Although "Dogs" from animals is superb.
Anyway, I know it's a wee bit late to add my tuppence worth to some of the heated arguments in this topic, but the way I see it, many people HAVE missed the point when it comes to songs like "paranoid eyes" and "Don't leave me now". Everyone seems to either be arguing that it's the poetry of Roger's words that is important, or that without a decent tune, the words are pointless and it's just wank. Sorry, but they're both bollocks. The music is important in Don't Leave Me Now BECAUSE it's such a bad tune. David finds it "nausiating" (sic). Well, surely that adds to the devastating emotional impact of the song? It's certainly not easy listening, but perhaps such a bleak song shouldn't be. Isn't that the point of music, to convey an emotion rather than just "have a tune"? If Waters had married the lyrics of DLMN to a catchy ABITWPt2-style pop tune, it would have been a joke.
Having said all that, I must admit I always skip the fucking thing an' all.
Also. BTBBH is nothing but a raw, angry scream at the injustice of war. I think of it as symphonic punk, and like a lot of punk it doesn't stand up musically.

David Smith · Post by **David Smith** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 11:32 am

I don't say pish a lot do i?

Hmm, is that sarcassim there? You seem to be rewarding DLMN of having a bad tune to it, you seem to be saying "it's a bad song but because of the theme you have to forgive it" which ultimatly brings us back to a choice between music or lyrics

Personally i go for music every time, music and atmosphere, but i don't think this song does it well. It's just an album filler and i'm sure Roger could have sang a song of much the same content to a much better tune had he actually thought about it for a few minutes. There's no excusing a bad song IMO, no matter what it's themes are

....

Oh good, just finished reading your post again and you say you skip it to

Good for you. I will however leave that last part up incase another lyrics versus music debate comes from what you said

Flame-Sky Diver · Post by **Flame-Sky Diver** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 4:56 pm

The worst song? Probably A New Machine (only filling the precious time of a CD), Several Species (the same). No other songs come to my mind. Well - okay The Show Must Go On, Bring The Boys Back Home, Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert - all filler. I must say that I love Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast and like Paranoid Eyes.

Batchain115 · Post by **Batchain115** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 5:57 pm

Stiggs wrote:Those songs are not crap. They are crap because they're not good enough for your precious standards. You obviously haven't listened to them the way they're supposed to be listened to.
Paranoid Eyes takes place when the soldier is reflecting on war: this is a quiet, mellow song because the soldier is sitting by himself (in a bar presumably, I can tell by the background noises) and thinking about the promises of glory in war but is really scared of war.
"You believed in their stories of fame, fortune and glory.
Now you're lost in a haze of alcohol soft middle age
The pie in the sky turned out to be miles too high.
And you hide, hide, hide,
Behind brown and mild eyes."
He keeps his mouth shut and hides his feelings away...but his eyes are what tells the true emotions.
Way to go dave for completely missing the point behind some of Pink Floyd's music.

Probably one of Roger's most overlooked abilities is his "emotive" way of singing -- aware of his own vocal limitations. He's not an on-the-note vocalist but, when the song calls for it he compensates with his own "emotive" approach. Dave's much more straight-ahead with his voice which -- very strangely if not suspiciously -- improved with age.

(And, by the way, I'd like to point out I'm very fond of "Corporal Clegg" and "Take Up Thy Stethescope And Walk" and DETEST that gawdawful "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast". Damn! I'm always the one with the "minority opinion"!

)

ganaffe · Post by **ganaffe** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 2:26 am

David Smith wrote:i took the song behind it down a place each so Take It Back is of the top 10.

owwwwww... come on. You can't be saying that "take it back" is actually a beter song than "dogs of war"!!! Take it back is so much worse... i only have one thing to say about that song: TAKE IT BACK, SWALLOW IT & STUFF IT UP YOUR

God, I hate that song! Definitely #1 in my top 10 of worst PF songs.
Now you've got me started, i might as well give the other 9 (in no particular order):

Coming back to life
Lost for words
One slip
New machine 1 & 2
Bring the boys back home
Waiting for the worms
Free four
Grand viziers garden party
Corporal clegg
Bike

They all suck, no discussion possible! And for those of you who can count: yes my list contains 10 other songs, instead of 9, which is only an indication of how I dislike "Take it back". It's not even #1 on my "worst PF-song list" it's #0

And, come on, dogs of war isn't really that bad

Post by **mosespa** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 2:34 am

I consider this to be the final word on the importance of music versus lyrics...

Be honest now...

Would you be listening to Pink Floyd if they were an ALL INSTRUMENTAL band?

Would you be listening to Pink Floyd if all the albums were spoken word poetry?

It could be said, then, that neither is any more important than the other...however, I'm always going to vote for lyrics as being most important because of this fact alone...the first thing that attracted me to Pink Floyd was this:

HEY, TEACHER...Leave them kids alone

A lyric...a thought...a concept.

It wasn't the music...although it certainly didn't hurt things.

David Smith · Post by **David Smith** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 11:43 am

I go with music but i see exactly where you're coming from, one needs the other and they probably shouldn't be put in direct competition

In saying that i'd rather listen to songs with really good music and crap lyrics than the other way round

chip · Post by **chip** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 12:36 pm

i think it's hard to point out which songs are the worst, but i don't like many of the songs on the final cut and a momentary lapse...
but it's a long time since i've listened to those albums so i don't remember which songs sucked the most although a new machine (I&II) sucks big time. i think the final cut is a boring record and a momentary lapse has a lot of crap songs. it's easy to hear the record was made in the 80's.
i like the ummagumma studio album. not in the sense that i dig the songs and listen to them constantly, but they're wierd in a way i really like. and so is alans psykedelic breakfast.

Useful Idiot · Post by **Useful Idiot** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 6:57 pm

What's with all the hate Coming Back To Life is getting? It's one of my favorite Floyd songs. The solos are among Dave's best.