Most Overrated Musician/Band Ever

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We’ve done a few of these for film; thought I’d try a different medium.

So for me I think the most overrated musician is clearly Bob Dylan. I like Dylan for the most part. He’s solidly pretty good. His pseudo-beat poet blather is moderately amusing, at least in small doses, and his mercurial genius schtick doesn’t get in the way of some nice retro-folk music. But I much prefer Joni Mitchell, or Neil Young, or Donovan, or Richard Thompson, or Johnny Cash, or really any number of performers who sing better/don’t have such stupid lyrics/aren’t widely considered to be Jesus.

What about you? What musical performer do you think is the most overrated?
 

blonde on blonde cover

120 thoughts on “Most Overrated Musician/Band Ever”

  6. And one for the Doors….which I don’t really agree with. I quite like them, but they’re kind of a joke critically. (I guess you could feel they were overly popular.)

  9. Sorry Noah, Dylan’s in my top five with Zep, Hendricks, Joplin, Lou Reed. You have to have grown up with him like I did to really hear him. Same for the others. Many others though like Miles Davis, Trane, even the Stones, Ramones – currently a hugh Jack White fan. BTW, watched the flick CBGB last night. Recommend it to any punk lovers.

  15. Nirvana. Perfectly okay band deified out of all proportion.

    Interesting that this seems to be the pattern for musicians…”good but not THAT good.” As opposed to the much more negative tone of the movie post…

    Though I could get more negative. They aren’t as overrated as Nirvana just because of just how highy people regard Cobain, but man, I really don’t like Dire Straits. And I think Kanye West and Lady Gaga are both entertaining media personalities but christ, their music is dull as dishwater.

  17. I really like Nirvana, but I hear you. I haven’t heard a bunch of Kanye West, but I agree pretty much about Lady Gaga. She’s pretty enjoyable as a performance artist, but much as I’d like to enjoy her music, I can’t manage it.

  18. Except when the the Beatles were singing ” All you need is love” , Lou and the Velvets were singing Heroin and Sister Ray.

  22. And here’s why: I’ve only bought “Beautiful Dark Twisted…” and the most exciting parts are when guest stars pop up. I hear that on his latest album he states that he is God. This is apparently a big deal to some folks. Herm.

  23. Eagles and the Rolling Stones get a shout out. Also Foo Fighters, who I agree are godawful.

    One of the things about music discussions which makes it somewhat different than film is that the questions of gender and race are somewhat more up front. Film has been much more monolithically white and male in terms of directors at least, no doubt because up front costs are much higher.

    The most critically acclaimed performers (Beatles, Dylan, Rolling Stones) are almost invariably white guys. Which gets a little old.

  24. A couple years ago I visited a hip record shop in a hip town, and noticed that a flamboyantly Tribal/Goth young woman with magnificent blue mohawk and piercings and such in line to buy a CD. What, a wondered, would such a person listen to? Something underground and strange and new? I snuck a peak: it was Ten Summoner’s Tales by Sting. What a letdown. Sting was worshiped as a god by the honors students in my high school; I got the impression from forensics tournaments that kids at the better schools were into Morrissey, who’s also an overrated, repetitive, self-righteous drip, but still more rewarding than Sting.

  25. haha I miss participating in forensics tournaments.

    I think Kanyes a good choice because in addition to his music being over-rated he is also horrendously full of himself.

  31. Morrissey has iconic status in my life-vector as well, but I will say i saw him last year and he was phenomenal. I saw Dylan in the ’90s and he was great, although I remember a great moment from that recent documentary on him where some British hipster was talking about how terrible his harmonica playing was.

    If we’re mentioning Sting and Dire Straits, let’s please impale Tom Petty on some sharp protuberance of the Experience Music Project.

  32. OK Computer Radiohead is a bit overrated, but King of Limbs Radiohead is probably underrated.

    Surprised no one’s mentioned Bowie yet, but all in time… Won’t be me though.

  36. They’re both (Elvis and Beyonce) really uneven…but that’s the case for most folks over a career, I suppose. Dylan’s made a lot of flat out wretched music, for sure.

  38. Lady Gaga… Is it trolling if I’m serious, ’cause I’m totally serious. I don’t think she’s talentless or her music totally without merit, but I do think she’s seriously overrated.

  39. And I’m not trolling either, but I give credence to the theory that Nicki Minaj, who also was trained as a performance artist, is (relative to Lady Gaga at least) highly underrated.

  40. Nicki Minaj has great flow but her singing voice is not the best. Good when she’s rapping.

  43. I think lots of brilliant bands are probably overrated just because of the sheer amount of praise at the expense of other bands.

    I got into Moody Blues recently and so far I really love their first album and am eager to hear more. They don’t get much talk and I think recent generations aren’t very familiar with them so I don’t know how they could be overrated by very much.

    When are we doing a most overrated comics list? Because I’d say probably every canon making comic I’ve read is extremely overrated, even the ones I liked.

    ========================

    Assuming that you will not have an underrated band list (which in my view is infinitely more important and interesting), my suggestions for most underrated bands are Art Zoyd, Devil Doll, Lycia, Trance To The Sun, Rise And Fall Of A Decade, Bongwater, Aghast, Alison’s Halo, The Veldt, LovesLiesCrushing, In The Nursery, Frost, Jacula/Antonius Rex (first 3 albums only though), Con Dolore/Polar, Sianspheric, Piano Magic and many more.

    Most of the prog rock canon has been reappraised and gets treated much better these days but I still think the best bands/albums are still underrated. Close To The Edge really is just as good as anything by Beatles, Beach Boys and probably anyone in the pop/rock canon; but I suppose my not having heard much about it beforehand made it more of a special shock.

  46. REM. I know a lot of people hate “Shiny Happy People” (even Michael Stipe once said that he hated it when he appeared on Space Ghost, but he may have been joking), but their other songs aren’t any better, and their cover of Aerosmith’s “Toys in the Attic” is the worst cover I’ve ever heard done by a group with a recording contract.

    About Dylan: I’d agree that he’s somewhat overrated, he’s not a great singer and his backing band is usually just so-so, but when you look at those three albums Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde, all done in ’65-66, and then you look at what people were doing afterward, he really laid down the template that the Beatles and the Stones (and by extension, 90% of everyone else) copied and built off from for the next 15 years or so. Neil Young (who I actually prefer to Dylan) has ripped off that half-acoustic/half-electric album concept from Bringing it All Back Home at least twice that I know of. Plus, when you hear live recordings of Dylan from that era, you can hear packed houses just booing and heckling him for having turned away from the pure folk music faith, and him and the band just plow on through it. That took some courage to do.

  48. I agree with Robert. This is like shooting fish in a barrel. Recording companies overhype bands the way Stan used to overhype Marvel, only less facetiously. We human beings tend to elevate any musicians that communicated how we felt or just provided a good soundtrack when we were experiencing strong emotions. Consequently, all good bands that are well-known have been overrated.

    I appreciate his underrated list, though. This site has introduced me to a lot of artists, musical and otherwise, about whom I knew nothing or next to nothing. And now, you’ve done it again!

  49. Pink Floyd and radiohead….

    Dylan’s historically very important for mainstream rock. I guess I’d argue that historical innovation isn’t necessarily the same thing as aesthetic worth, and that mainstream rock doesn’t have to be the most important thing in the universe, or even in music.

  51. See, I’d actually argue that Pink Floyd is underrated. I don’t think they have much critical standing at all; like the Doors, they’re mostly a critical joke. Whereas I’d argue they have at least a couple truly great albums.

    I guess it depends on how you look at it; they’re certainly popular. But I think they have significantly less cred than, say, Bob Seger or Tom Petty, both of whom are utter crap (Seger’s worse.)

  55. So…do you hate all folk rock? Or just Rod Stewart in particular?

    I remember you saying you hated Maggie May I think; it’s overplayed, but I still like it.

  56. No, just Rod Stewart. Love lots of folk rock.

    Love Dylan and Joni Mitchell. Like a lot of Ryan Adams. I like Buffalo Springfield and CSN&Y – even some Cat Stevens.

  58. I rarely hear anyone say anything about Tom Petty, positive or negative; I don’t even think I’ve heard anything by him. Maybe he’s bigger in America. Never heard any Seger.

    Been listening to Melt Banana’s newest album recently and although they seem to bring decent sized audiences to their shows, they are probably still underrated. The way they create such an immense sense of speed and excitement is incredible; I love all those sounds of travelling electricity. But the vocals will probably prevent them from getting a whole lot bigger (although there are some mainstream bands with vocals that are very eccentric; you never know what might gain acceptance somehow).

  59. If you’ve never heard anything by Bob Seger, the place to start would be the Bob Seger System, a band he led in the late sixties that is closer in sound and spirit to other bands from Michigan around the same, like the MC5 or the Stooges. “Mongrel” was probably their best album. Seger changed his sound significantly during the seventies, and its this more mellower style that he became well known for.

  61. Listened to both Petty and Seger’s most popular mp3 download clips. Neither really intrigued me (I had considered buying a Petty album before but priorities probably wont allow it unless it somehow becomes one) but I only recognised Petty’s “I wont Back Down”.

  62. I still stop the radio on Petty’s “Runnin’ Down a Dream” — but again, a song that was important to a particular time in my life, not the height of musical artistry.

  64. “See, I’d actually argue that Pink Floyd is underrated. I don’t think they have much critical standing at all… But I think they have significantly less cred than, say, Bob Seger or Tom Petty”

    You have no idea what you’re talking about.

  66. While we do love our blue collar singer/songwriters here in America, Pink Floyd probably has more critical cred than Tom Petty or Bob Seger – Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall all end up of lists of the best rock albums of all time. Does anybody talk about Seger at all beyond Silver Bullet Live?

    As far as PF goes, I think they’re probably properly rated overall. The Wall is an overrated album. Roger Waters got it right when he said the enduring popularity of The Wall is down to the fact that every year another bunch of 12 year old boys turn 13. Animals, The Final Cut and Meddle are all better than The Wall.

  67. I’d argue that post-Beatles McCartney is under-rated. Hey, ‘Live and let Die’ is the second-best Bond song, after ‘Goldfinger, of course. It continues to be played and covered.

  68. Alex, agree 100%, caught ‘Band on the Run’ on the way into work this AM. It holds up.

  71. Different strokes I suppose. I think The Final Cut is the best PF album. As for More, I know I cared so little for it I never bothered to pick it up on CD, I have the LP in a box somewhere, it’s certainly not as good as Meddle, it’s not even their best soundtrack. Obscured by Clouds is better.

  72. Nope; More is easily their best album. It’s weird and they haven’t figured out what they’re doing yet; they get slicker and more earnest as time goes on. The Final Cut is Roger Waters taking complete control of the band, which is really not ideal. 45 minutes of nattering on about the evils of Thatcher with not a tune or idea in sight. It’s the Wall, but worse.

    Wrote about More here, fwiw.

  73. Roger Waters taking complete control of the band is my ideal, and I don’t have any problem with slick or earnest. (How anybody who likes Beyonce can find “not slick” a positive critical criterium is beyond me). What you call nattering, I call heartfelt. It’s a plus for me that the album is dedicated to “the victims of monetarism” Fuck you, Milton Friedman.

    For what it’s worth, Dave Gilmour agrees with you. He never saw The Final Cut as anything but an album of Wall b-sides. While that may have been the original plan, it clearly came to mean more to Waters, even as he pushed the rest of the band away (if there’s a major misstep, it’s the number of sax solos on an album by a band with Gilmour at lead guitar).

    Kurt Loder’s review gets most of it right:

    http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/the-final-cut-19830414

    Your review of More is well done, and it does make me curious to hear More again, so I’ll probably download it soon.

    Curious about ” And I also enjoy the later Floyd, where the band was guided by Roger Waters’ bloated and embarrassing concept album profundities.” Which albums are those?

  74. That would be Dark Side of the Moon and the Wall. Which I do enjoy. (I have some residual affection for the Final Cut, too, though I don’t really ever want to listen to it again.)

    Slick isn’t necessarily bad. Slick and utterly lacking in gimmicks or invention is a problem, though.

  75. Captain Beefheart, Dylan, Sinatra, Clapton, Zappa, Metallica, Lou Reed, Henry Rollins…

    God, I could go on all day.

  76. Dylan, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones have always been my top three favorites, but it’s possible that I’ve been brainwashed by Jan Werner and the Aging Hippie Industrial Complex.

  79. Most overrated band? That’s easy. The Grateful Dead — by a country mile.

    I spent hours going through their music to find something to add to my playlist. I ended up with one song: “Truckin'”

  80. The Who is actually the worst band in music history. Every single manages to be memorable by irritating me on some deep cognitive level, like a jingle you still remember from childhood.

    But almost just as bad, while also being most overrated on the credibility / authenticity level, is undoubtedly The Clash. Fuck, they’re terrible, but their fans believe they’re scoring points for liking them, which isn’t so much true of The Who. Give my vote to The Clash.

    The most overrated acts which I like stuff from are Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.

    The most overrated current act on the internet (the mass pick) is Beyonce. She’s awful, but no more so than just about everything else like her, I guess … which is just about everything popular, so who cares?

    And, among my group of friends, I’d say Thin Lizzy and Sonic Youth.

  82. Eh,you just don’t like pop. That’s okay. Beyonce is a great singer and writes a lot of great music. She’s still overrated, though. People think she’s god.

    The Who and the Clash are both great choices. I like both those bands with caveats, but worship of them is noxious.

    I love Neil Young best albums. He’s made a lot of shit, though.

  84. It comes naturally. I’ve really tried to like Stevie Wonder. Marvin Gaye is another one. The lyrics to What’s Going On are so goddamn insipid, but earnestly trying to say something significant, resting on sounds that would later become staples of smooth jazz … I’ve never understood how people can stand to listen to that album. And it gets ranked so highly. Gaye’s a better singer than Wonder, though. The latter seems to make no connection between his emphases and what he’s singing. You can hear the same stochastic warbling in the majority of R&B singers from the past 30 years or so.

    I like pop, just not so much the current type that sounds like an unending bitstream.

  85. Well, I would say that if you don’t like Wonder or Gaye, the issue is that you don’t like the black pop tradition — which is what has currently taken over the airwaves (Beyonce is hugely indebted to Wonder and Gaye, I’m sure.)

  89. And I’m not so sure I’d call it a “tradition” when it doesn’t stretch back any further than the 60s. I love Al Green and other soul singers from that period, but that’s not the way the most popular music went …

  94. I only recently started getting into Stevie Wonder, and as a long time Yes nerd, I found albums like Innervision were a closer match for my long established proggy tastes than I could have anticipated. This may or may not be a great endorsement.

    Russ, I totally see your point on the Dead, but aren’t they another act that only their fans take seriously? Kind of like Cannibal Corpse; only people who want to listen to that want to listen to that. Phish might get more love outside their core fanbase.

  96. Aaron — I used to think that it was just the Dead fans who took the band seriously, but over the years I’ve seen more and more instances where the Dead were name-dropped in reverential terms by people other than die-hard Deadheads.

  97. I was listening to that Gaye album a few months ago and as with many things, the social/political element is immensely exaggerated and misleadingly sold on that basis. But the songs are lovely and heartfelt.

    On a music forum recently I was talking about my bafflement about how people hate some music so much, because I feel that music in general is far better and more effective than other mediums and deserves more love and respect for that.
    There are songs I dislike but no bands/artists I hate all the time.
    I only hate music when I cant escape it and feel I have no choice but to endure it. If I listened to these radio songs voluntarily 3 or 4 times I’d probably just not enjoy most of them but not hate them.
    It’s unlikely to ever happen but I wish people would take seriously how miserable the radio can make people, it can be like torture (even if you like the songs, or even especially if you used to feel the songs were special).

    I’ve been wondering if when people hate music, films etc, how much of it is out of a sort of confrontational fun. I often think that it is baggage that some people dont realise they can let go of (although I admit some things will be hated for more serious and philosophical reasons); for me it feels very nice to realise you dont really hate a lot of things you used to feel obliged to hate. It’s like a burden to carry.

    More underrated stuff: I think videogame musicians have produced a few handfuls of the best albums in the last 20 years. I used to (and many people do) compartmentalize them apart from regular music, but when I considered them a part of the music world, I realised how good some of them were. Nobuo Uematsu in particular.

  98. “I used to think that it was just the Dead fans who took the band seriously, but over the years I’ve seen more and more instances where the Dead were name-dropped in reverential terms by people other than die-hard Deadheads.”

    That’s just sad. My college roommate went to lots of Dead shows, wore the tie dyes, etc., but, I never once heard him play the music.

    FWIW the only Dead song on my phone is Friend of the Devil.

  99. Robert Adam Gilmour, you may be on to something. I knew a guy who didn’t like that Cher song about believing in life after love, but he was on a trip through Sicily and that song was inescapably popular. He took a long bus ride, the radio was on, and he knew he’d have to hear the song at least three times. As he tells it, he said “Okay, Cher, I am going to enjoy your song.” And it worked. He’s liked it ever since.

  100. This is one of my favorite sites to read – comics or otherwise – but I haven’t commented before; it’s not something I’m often compelled to do, anywhere. But. I can’t sit idly by as a list like this has gone so far and I can’t find the word “U2” no matter how many times search for it. So. U2. U2! Good God, U2!

    I like Dylan. He is both one of the greats and overrated.

  102. I don’t know, I think The Joshua Tree was pretty good. In the late 90s, Peter Bagge did an issue of Hate in which Buddy Bradley’s uptight new girlfriend surprises him with tickets to a U2 concert during a date at a restaurant. Buddy responds by excusing himself to use the bathroom, vomiting, and fleeing from her out the bathroom window. That was my first inkling that some people see U2 as one of the shittiest bands ever.

  103. I am glad someone finally mentioned U2. I like them fine, but they are so incredibly overrated, it hurts when people deify them.

    I have a hard time with nearly every popular “college” radio band for the past 20 years or so. Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Dave Matthews Band, Radiohead, REM, etc. I am sorry, but they suck and for some reason so many college age kids think they are the most amazing groups ever. There are a couple of gems amongst the group, but “Crash,” “Disarm” and “Yellow” are just drivel.

  104. Noah: I don’t necessarily think Cannibal Corpse is overrated. If anything they’re the most passe death metal band ever. I’ve never found anyone who specifically identifies as a death metal fan who’s willing to admit to liking to them.

  105. Oh and how did I miss the Who? Perhaps the only time I agree with Charles on anything? Cheers.

    /////////

    Ain’t no WAY Zappa is over-rated. Maybe if your sample size is only record store owners and his diminutive fanatical cult (I might be one of them, even though I’m not totally sold on plenty of his work/cult of personality). His contemporary critics generally either hated him or didn’t know what to do with him or both, though.

  107. Sonic Youth blows all of these out of the water.

    btw – i actually think Dylan is quite overlooked, at least amongst my peers. i’ve met so few people who actually know his (50 year) catalog well enough to call him a huckster.

  108. Nudd is in my opinion overly anti-emo toward Sonic Youth, but sure, they might be overrated. Changed my life, but perhaps for the worse, who knows. A friend did compare them to the Dead once, which hit home somewhat.

    I love the comic in the music issue of The Comics Journal from around 2002 where a lad remembers his Irish boyhood, where the family had to share a leather strap for ass-wipery. Dad used one side, Mum used the other, and the lad, fatefully, made use of.. The Edge.

  109. I would happily ditto Henry Rollins– even Black Flag in general, even though they were pretty great before Henry (cf. Everything Went Black archives).

    I have been starting to like the Eagles more, as part of the Beach Boys meets Skynyrd or something.

    I kind of want to mention Johnny Cash, just to get Noah riled up.

  110. Johnny Cash, huh? I think people kind of often appreciate him as an authentic avatar of darkness, rather than enjoying his willingness to make himself look ridiculous.

  111. To keep my emotions in check, I went to the source of the problem. Rolling Stone Magazine; http://m.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-artists-of-all-time-19691231 They list The Beatles as #1. I have a hard time arguing this. Bob Dylan (who culturally and musically is significant) is their #2 I would start there I guess, with the accusations of “overhype.” Which you did.

    My father would kick me out of the family (with reason) for suggesting Neil Young is over hyped…so let’s move on…nothing to see here. Michael Jackson, Rolling Stones, Kanye, Springsteen, Tupac, RHCP, Who, U2, Dave Mathews Band (it’s OK to hate…really), Oasis, Jay-Z, Joplin, Pink Floyd, REM, Lady Gag, Pearl Jam, Eagles, Foo Fighters, The Clash, Phish, Smashing Pumpkins, Marvin Gaye, Radiohead, Guns ‘N Roses, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, White Stripes & Sting are fine suggestions for also being most overrated. Any of these have been accepted broadly without question and really have produced a small number of actually great songs…a few have only created shit.

    However, my choice has to be Rolling Stones Magazine #3 on their best of all time, ELVIS! I come to this choice, having had a recent resurgence in my own enjoyment of his work. But the fact is he is still credited by some to invent a genre he did not, his home is promoted as an attraction of the highest order, he lived an excessive indulgent life and has the label King; apologies to Jack Kirby. He had a smattering of enjoyable songs through his career and his first album remains listenable and important. However, all of this is a house of cards for what is essentially a rip off artist enabled by racism.

    Led Zeppelin, like the Beatles holds up to scrutiny and enjoyment over time. Each album, almost every song has something remarkable and influential happening. I have many bands before and after I like more, but their work is hard to over hype. Most of Rolling Stones Mags Top 100 are worth considering as overrated. Only Hendrix, Beatles, Zeppelin, Nirvana, Neil Young, David Bowie, The Kinks, Al Green, Cream, Frank Zappa, Hank Williams, Beastie Boys & Black Sabbath seem to be appropriately placed on their list, because the body of work supports it.

    Now suggestions like Melt Bannana, who I like, but don’t love (a wonder in person), Husker Du, who I have been enjoying this week, Bob Seger, who is not forced on me much…and I actually like when it is, Marvin Gaye & Curtis Mayfield, are not hyped as much as many in their genre, Thin Lizzy, they are not any better then rumored…just that good or Sonic Youth, an acquired taste worth acquiring…ALL of these strike me as being hyped at appropriate levels.

    There are a few others above which either strike me as not hyped at all or hyped, but by an industry less interested in music then eroding the mind in favor of a buck. Therefor, I choose to ignore their hype with willful indignation.

    OK objectivity went out the window as soon as I thought about the question.

    Down with the King! MIKE PATTON IS GOD!

  112. Nirvana were decent (unless we’re talking the 60s band of the same name) but I really think there was 300 bands of the time that were just as good or better.

    A lot of these bands have accumulated lots of stereotypical fans which kind of spoil peoples opinions of the bands. I also think Sonic Youth are great, but I think you get pieces of a backlash due to their being so accepted as gods with the new generation of old farts.

    Again, sorry to say that I think this thread hasn’t raised much interesting points. The films threads had some interesting interpretations and reasons, but this is just really “I’m sick of that band and their hype”; even if I understand why people might think so, I’m not convinced most of these are bad bands. At worst I’d call some bland.

    Overrated writers, visual artists and comics might be more interesting. But I think venting is boring and people honestly confronting/searching their own reasons and prejudices is interesting.

  114. Any further threads planned?

    Underrated bands/artists?

    Underrated/Overrated…
    Comics?
    Writers (shorts, novels, poems)?
    Artists (drawing, painting sculpture and beyond)?
    Feminists?
    Philosophers?

  116. How on earth is Frank Zappa overrated? People mostly just didn’t get the point–they heard Sheikh Yerbouti, took it too seriously/marked him as a comedy musician and didn’t listen to Just Another Band From LA or any of his other albums.

    A$AP Mob is overrated: rich white hipster kids just like having ironic swag and pretending to be poor and ghetto. So is OFWGKTA, although Tyler The Creator has a huuuuge body of work that’s definitely worth looking at. Almost anything Hot Topic has pushed hard is trash like Mac Miller. Speaking of Mac Miller, the shitty white rapper trend is really getting old and is an obvious marketing ploy. Macklemore is HUGELY overrated, but to his credit, he did write an apology to Lamar Kendrick for beating him out for best album of the year.

    Nicki Minaj is very, very overrated. She writes none of her own material, and is essentially the black response to Lady Gaga.

  117. Underrated feminist: Sarah Palin. Argue me, then compare her to Hillary Clinton and see my point.

    Meanwhile, music…

  118. The Ramones. Now don’t get me wrong, there are certain aspects of them I really like, for example; The stripped down instrumentation at a time when musical experimentation had become ridiculous. The inspirational nods to surf rock and 60’s girl groups (added balls for penning and performing tunes inspired by them). The namesake being inspired by the Beatles. However, there is something dubious about how there are bands out there today who are infinitely more advanced both musically and lyrically who get shot down in flames by the critics, and yet for some reason, a bunch of power chords and the words ‘I dont wanna walk around with you, so why d’ya wanna walk around with me ooh ooh ooh’ was all it took for the Ramones to achieve instant immortality and a level of praise that when compared to some bands (Radiohead for example) seems rather unbalanced. I do remain convinced that had they not of spearheaded punk, they wouldn’t have been regarded as highly as they’ve subsequently been.

  119. Pingback: I don’t get the Ramones | fynm

  120. There are several overrated musicians: Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, U2, REM…none of them were any good, so why does anyone care?

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