I'm pleased to see that enough bands I like are on the list that I remain resolutely un-hip. (Why yes, I do like Japan, but Oil on Canvas is plenty, thanks.)

On the other hand, it was worth the price of entry to see them skewer Oingo Boingo, a band that I have always thought was overrated.

Funny you mention this today. While I was home for lunch today, I heard something on CNBC about a sneak preview of the worst 50 songs of all time -- as opposed to the worst bands -- and the "bottom 10" was listed there. (The worst, they said, was Starship's We Built This City.)

That list I saw was way too heavy on music of the last 15-20 years or so. No Bottom Ten list that doesn't have stinkers like Paul Anka's Having My Baby is suspect to me. Yes, there some good picks in their bottom 10 like Don't Worry, Be Happy and "Ice Ice Baby", but some of the worst of the worst weren't there. Hope to at least find them in the bottom 50, or else their ratings suck!

This bottom 10 list can be found here: http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/0/008153485761920480256E7100668C7E?opendocument

Re: the "bottom 10" - it'll be interesting to see how it compares to Dave Barry's original Bad Song Survey. That list was heavy on the "oldies" stuff that Barry (and probably much of his readership) grew up on..

And dammit, I like "Heart of Rock and Roll". Though I admit the rest of the list is pretty accurate.

Folks, just listen to any of the Golden Throats or Party Killers (Rhino - who else) collections to appreicate the worst of Rock.

One of my wild card picks, however, would be Johnny Cash's version of What'd I Say. This is recorded proof that he did every imaginable drug known to man.

Pre 1980's ELP isn't horrible. On the other hand, I happen to like Bad Company and Grand Funk Railroad. What about Motorhead, which was referred to as sounding like a cat in a blender? Janis Joplin with or without Big Brother is the closest I've heard to a recording of a chicken. REO Speedwagon and Styx are interchangably bad. I'm surprised Europe wasn't on the list simply because of The Final Countdown.

Mick Jagger as a solo artist proves that Keith Richards is far more talented. (This is from a Stones fan who happens to consider Charlie Watts the most gifted member of the band).

Finally, does Leo Sayer qualify as a man or woman? Listening to "More Than I Can Say" made me confused.

I'm glad to see someone finally write a worst list that includes The Doors and that God-awful Creed...but where's New Kid's On the Block? What about The Spice Girls? Or The Monkees, The Guess Who, or Damn Yankees?

And why extend the limits of "Rock" to include The Gipsy Kings? Leave them outta this.

Someone on that article sure doesn't like 1970s Pretentious Art Rock. It's an artform unto itself. And what do they have against drum solos?

I'm disappointed they neglected Journey. Or The Smiths. I mean, really. Morrissey is so bad as a singer that all the other members of The Smiths quit. His entire band left him. And then there was the Mr. Floppy song 100,000 Morrisseys about how horrible Morrissey is:

What shall we do when 100,000 Morrisseys come marching over the hill?

Maybe the choices of what's "rock" come down to who's gotten Top 40 radio exposure in the rock era? Celine and Greenwood definitely have had pop hits in the period, while someone like Chesney (while awful) has been pretty much confined to country radio. (Which is now so dreadful that I can't even try it occasionally for the random good song, but that's something else entirely.)

There were some songs in the Bad Song Survey that were pretty recent at the time. But that was like ten years ago. On the other hand, the last ten years in pop music pretty much run completely together for me.

As proof of my lack of readership, I'll point out that I wrote about his back in August.

http://www.whiterose.org/pete/blog/archives/004065.html

Oh, and actually I like Howard Jones. Then again, I'm a huge dork.

Mac, you've inspired me to come out of the closet...I like Toad the Wet Sprocket and Crash Test Dummies. I, too, am a dork.

And I humbly ask the Whitesnake considered to replace this unfarily maligned pair on the list. That would give them 3 entries which I feel is just about right. There I said it. I feel better now.

Now waaaaaiiiiittt a minute. There were 2 cool songs done by the Monkeys written by Mike Nesmith: Papa Gene's Blues and What Am I Doin' Hangin' Round.

I think you have to give some sort of credit to sentimental favorites. I learned how to smoke weed while listening to Grand Funk.

My earlier post of Mick Jagger as a solo artist reminded me of his duet with Michael Jackson from 1984, "State of Shock". The first time I heard this travesty, I was in a state of shock.

The Doors win my vote for "Most Overrated Band of All Time".

Man, either I'm very old or I haven't listened to AM music in a very long time. Or both. I only recognized about eight names on that list.

The Doors???? WTF?!!!

Hit albums, popular songs, years in the spotlight, several books and movies, continuing fame, political controversy, and loads of rumors, legends, and bad-boy antics--if that doesn't make a great rock band, what the hell does?

Also, I have to second the nominations of Styx and REO Speedwagon. Come on, even if you're not a Doors fan, you'd have to admit Styx and REO suck in way that puts them far below the Doors. "Domo Arigato, Mr Roboto" alone earned Styx a place in Rock N Rol Hell.

I also don't get why so many bands that aren't even remotely "rock" got put on the list. Clearly, Blender is all mixed up.

Yup, even I can't believe i wrote that one down.

Celine Dion is on a list of rock and roll singers?

Even bad ones. My lord, how could anyone be worse than Celine Dion?

I would say that even if I didn't always picture her husband's exwife driving her four kids around when that hideous voice starts squawking "don't give up on your faith" out of the car radio.

I know that my lunch will go on.

Just wanted to point out that the article doesn't specify that it's for rock; it says the 50 worst artists in music history. Even so, they actually mean mid-to-late-20th-century recorded popular music history. Otherwise we'd be seeing Florence Foster Jenkins and such.

Obviously, missing REO ForeignJourneyWagon is just a mistake. The problem is that REOForeignJourneyWagon is a style of bad music (yes, it obviously includes Styx), rather than an individual band. Be honest. You can't tell them apart, either.

Also, I think it's largely a case of someone too hip writing the list. He wants you to read the list and say, "Wait, I own one of that band's records!" So he has to take shots at everyone. Can't have too many of any one sort (I think we can probably come up with 50 hair metal/REO etc. bands all of whom were worse than ELP, but that would defeat the purpose) or too many of the obvious novelty disasters (The Archies, Sha Na Na, etc.) or too many pop singers (Bobby Darrin, Rickey Nelson, down to Paul Anka, Neal Sedaka, to Britney and 'N Sync).

Look, there's no way you can tell me that anyone considers ELP a WORSE band than Captain and Tenille. That's not the role of a list like this.

Having said that, how is it even conceivable that neither Rush (the most pretensious of all) nor the Backstreet Boys (the most offensive of the talentless boy bands) made the list?