I love listening to All Songs Considered and their “Worst Songs Ever” episode is excellent. Click here to listen to it. Here is my response.
Dearest All Songs,
Long time listener, first time emailer here. I can’t express how much I love All Songs and how many amazing bands you have helped me find and while I’ve been meaning to send you some love before, I’ve never been motivated enough until now.
I’m only 20 minutes into the Worst Songs Ever episode and I am extremely conflicted. While I understand Paul McCartney, Blind Melon, and “It’s a Small World,” I take offense to Hall and Oates making the list. Yes, “I can’t go for that” is catchy and it’s not perfect, but it is far from the worst. Darryl Hall’s sexy voice and the breakdown is funky enough (well, “blue-eyed soul” funky, I guess) to keep this song out of the same depths of awfulness as “We Built This City.” And then, to say that “Maneater” is a worse song is just absurd.
But then, I’m a Hall and Oates fan and celebrate most of their catalog (though, not all) so I’m biased. The least you could have done was put “Family Man” on the list because it really IS awful.
What I’d really like to discuss is Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas”? Yes, “We Are the World” is an awful song – no doubt about it – but I would submit that Band Aid is a far worse song because of the ethnocentric nature of the song. Yes, conditions in the general continent of Africa are horrible from what I’ve been told, but to think one crummy song would somehow change years of oppression and authoritarian governments is absurd. And then lyrics like:
“Where nothing ever grows, no rain nor rivers flow
Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?”
First: “where nothing ever grows” is a rather broad statement for an entire continent. There are rain forests in Africa and jungles. The statement is just wrong.
Then, “no rain nor rivers flow” is wrong because of the aforementioned rainforests and I guess the Nile and the Amazon rivers are no longer in Africa.
Finally, “do they know it’s Christmas time” is an easy answer: “probably not” if the Africans in question are not Christian, but that’s okay because we shouldn’t presume that a Christian belief system is better than anyone else’s beliefs.
“We Are the World” is bad and musically just comes across as cheesier, but “Do They Know It’s Christmas” is worse because it is more offensive and because it has been remade a number of times (one remake had a rapper on it).
Anyway, I just wanted to chime in. I still love your show and I would like to submit a few more possibilities to the list (Note: you may get to these in the episode, but I haven’t gotten through the whole thing yet. I will finish it on my drive home from work).
“Accidental Racist” by Brad Paisley and LL Cool J
“Who let the dogs out?” by the Baha Men
“I want to sex you up” by Color Me Badd – It seems like it’s written by a 14 year old virgin who thinks he knows what sex is like.
“Dope Nose” by Weezer which may have some great hooks, but features the following verse:
“Cheese smells so good on a burnt piece of lamb
Fag of the year who can beat up your man”
“Bad Touch” by the Bloodhound Gang
“Christmas Shoes” by New Song
“Follow Me” by Uncle Kracker
“Angel” by Shaggy ft. Rayvon
Any song from the Barenaked Ladies
Anyway, keep up the great work and I hope we get more “Worst Songs” some time in the future.
-Cody
