Songs you've changed your mind on
Apr 13, 2014 5:15:20 GMT -5
Post by Ten Pound Hammer on Apr 13, 2014 5:15:20 GMT -5
Are there any songs that you used to like but can't stand, or vice versa? Here are some of mine:
For some reason, I went through a spell around 1998-2003 where I professed to hate just about 75% of what was on the radio. So when an amazing song came along that grabbed me right away, like "There Is No Arizona", it hit me. (I still think that's a stunner, and I'm glad it was a #1.)
Some of the 1998-2003 songs that I used to hate but don't anymore:
1998:
"I'll Go On Loving You" (I guess I just thought that "pleasures of the flesh" sounded icky, but I was 11…)
"Holes in the Floor of Heaven" (still think it's a tad sappy and overdone, but Steve is a man of taste and restraint who knows how to keep even a song like this from going TOO far)
"I Do (Cherish You)" and "Don't Laugh at Me" (not super-great or anything, but nothing bad about them)
"If You See Him/If You See Her" (still at a loss as to what I disliked about this)
1999:
"Amazed" (probably overplay just killed it for me, but I haven't heard it in YEARS now!)
"Best of Intentions" (guess I just didn't "get" it at the time)
"God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You" (the lyrics are banal, but I love those harmonies)
"I'm Already Taken" (the "mommy will you marry me?" line made me cringe, but a little kid's not gonna understand marriage!)
"When I Said I Do" (again not all that great, but the restraint and all-acoustic nature
2000:
"More" (No recollection of it. At all. Why? It's good!)
"There You Are" (guess I was already sick of Martina McBellow, but this is probably one of her better belt-fests since it's not about little girls with cancer and rainbows and puppies)
"This Woman Needs" (SHeDAISY's best song, and I don't remember it all?! The hell?!)
2001:
"Angry All the Time" (I really only disliked "twenty years have came and went", which seemed like bad grammar for the sake of bad grammar. But I can overlook that.)
"Burn" (Didn't get the title since I usually thought of "burn" in a negative context)
"Complicated" (didn't like that breathy style of singing, but it grew on me much later)
"Grown Men Don't Cry" (nah, this one's not sappy. Of course it's not, it's a Tom Douglas song!)
"Love of a Woman" (see my comments on "Best of Intentions")
"Six Pack Summer" (burned out, since WKJC still had it on power rotation in the dead of winter!)
"Two People Fell in Love" (decent story-song, but I found it unremarkable at the time)
"While You Loved Me" (This is the most recent Top 10 hit that I have no recollection of ever hearing on the radio. I remember hearing it ca. 2005 and not liking it. I've listened to it a few more times since then, and it's about as good as anything off RF's first two discs)
2002:
"American Child" (I thought the verse about the grandfather was out of place and gratuitously war-skewing in the post-9/11 world, but listening to it now, I think it makes sense)
"Bring On the Rain" (again, I didn't understand what the song was about. Why do you want rain anyway? Oh, 'cause it's about dealing with hardships. I get it now.)
"The Cowboy in Me" (yeah, I got nothing. This is one of Jeffrey Steele's best!)
"Good Morning Beautiful" (again a victim of overplay, but giving it a few years' time distances that pretty well. The production's still dated as hell though)
"The Good Stuff" (yet another one that I didn't "get" when it was out, but I now think it's amazing)
"I Breathe In, I Breathe Out" (I think this was just another overplay victim)
"I'm Movin' On" (yet another that I just didn't "get" the meaning of)
"The Impossible" (was happy to see Joe have a hit since I was one of the 14 people who bought his 1996 album. Didn't "get" this song's purpose either, but once I realized the lyrical intent and twist…)
"Long Time Gone" (again, just didn't "get" what it was trying to say)
"The One" (thought it was stupid — why would you walk in the shadows so she'll shine? Isn't that called being weak? Oh, okay, I get it now.)
"Tonight I Wanna Be Your Man" ("surrender to my patient hands" sounded icky to me at the time)
"When You Lie Next to Me (again, I hated that breathy singing, but it grew on me)
2003:
"Cowboys Like Us" (why make such a slow-ass song about riding your motorcycles? Oh, because it's introspective and reflective. Gotcha.)
"I Just Wanna Be Mad" (why would you wanna be mad at someone you love? I didn't get it until I heard it come on when mom was on the phone fighting with one of her male friends)
"I Believe" (why would you sing about believing in ghosts? Oh, I get it, because you're saying you still feel her presence in a metaphorical sense.)
"Raining on Sunday" (again, didn't get the metaphor at the time)
"She's My Kind of Rain" (now a total guilty pleasure because of how WTF the lyrics are)
"Tough Little Boys" (this could be sappy, but give it to an amazing vocalist like Gary Allan and he eliminates about 90% of the sap right away)
====
Afterward:
* "Spend My Time": Again, wasn't paying attention to the lyrics. Some good ones in here.
* "My Give a Damn's Busted": I was so used to the Joe, Joe, Joe Diffie version, which WATZ actually plays now and then, so I hated this at first. Then I liked it. Then it got overplayed. Then I heard Jo Dee give the most ditzy, "like"-laden interview ever on American Country Countdown and that was the final straw. This one seems to get about zero recurrent airplay, so I've been able to put some distance between it and me, and like it again.
* "Like We Never Loved at All": Again, wasn't paying attention to the lyrics, so I thought it was just a rehash of "Let's Make Love". Then I listened to it again and went "oh, I get it".
* "What Hurts the Most": Hated it at first for the slick production. Liked it for the lyrics. Hated it again for the overplay. Liked it yet again once the overplay stopped a year later, and have considered it a pretty good song ever since.
* "My Little Girl": Thought it was boring and dumb at first, but again, there are some good lyrics in it (ohai Tom Douglas), and Tim's delivery is sincere enough to sell it.
* "My Old Friend": "They laugh and they cry me" grated on me, and I thought the song's theme of loss was far inferior to "If I Don't Make It Back". But that doesn't mean the song isn't without merit. I love this one's melancholy vibe.
* "When I Get Where I'm Going": Thought the lyrics were boring and banal, but the more I listened to it, the more I liked it.
* "Little Bit of Life": I still think he overdoes the twang — "a little bit of me and yeeeeeeoooooouuuwwww doin' all right" — but it's just fun and energetic enough for me to forgive that.
* "All American Girl" and "Last Name": I think it was because I was starting to read The 9513 and they absolutely hated Carrie, and thus gave all her singles a thumbs-down, and I was letting them shape my opinion too much.
* "Come On Over" by Jessica Simpson: Guess I hated the way she sang as if she were being strangled, and even then I knew about her serious lack of IQ points. But underneath all that, this is some pretty good ear candy.
* "I Will": Dear GOD is this overproduced. It makes Dann Huff's output from this era sound like Sugarland's "Stay". But I've never gotten the whole "Jimmy Wayne is totally emo" vibe that some critics have — he sounds sincere on it.
* "Indian Summer": Again, The 9513 hated it so I thought I had to, as well.
* "Nothin' to Die For": The 9513 hated it blah blah blah. Still not one of his best, and a tad preachy, but never overboard.
* "Gimmie That Girl": Still not a fan of the "Because poor literacy is kewl" title or the way his voice is Auto-Tuned straight into the uncanny valley, but there's nothing BAD about this song really. Also, yet again, The 9513 hated it. (My negative review of it on Roughstock is one of my biggest old shames there. Come to think of it, nearly my entire first year or so of review is an old shame now…)
* "Country Girl (Shake It for Me)": Oh good, another "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" clone. Wait, this one's really damn catchy, and it feels too playful to be sleazy. Thumbs up!
* "Got My Country On" and "Let There Be Cowgirls": Kinda average lyrics, but Cagle's enthusiastic performance and the Southern rock-tinged production save them.
====
And probably the only songs under 15 years old that I've gone the other way on, from like to dislike:
* "Who's Your Daddy?" by Toby Keith. I liked it when it was out, but when I listen to it now, my only thought is "egad, what did I ever like about this?!" * "I Love This Bar" is up there too — I liked it when it was out, but now I realize it's just a lazy, kinda boring list song.
* "Stand". I liked it the first five or six times since it wasn't an overwrought squeal-fest like RF was already starting to do, and the melody was pretty good. Then I realized that the lyrics are just a bunch of vague metaphors that go nowhere. "A candle in a hurricane" — what's that mean? "A novel with the end ripped out" — what does THAT mean? "When push comes to shove, you taste what you're made of" — I think that's a mixed metaphor.
* "Just a Kiss" and "Dancing Away with My Heart": Guess I was just stoked since I liked everything Lady A put out to that point, then didn't realize until later just how BORING a song these two are. (I still give "We Owned the Night" a pass since it at least has some more tempo to it.)
For some reason, I went through a spell around 1998-2003 where I professed to hate just about 75% of what was on the radio. So when an amazing song came along that grabbed me right away, like "There Is No Arizona", it hit me. (I still think that's a stunner, and I'm glad it was a #1.)
Some of the 1998-2003 songs that I used to hate but don't anymore:
1998:
"I'll Go On Loving You" (I guess I just thought that "pleasures of the flesh" sounded icky, but I was 11…)
"Holes in the Floor of Heaven" (still think it's a tad sappy and overdone, but Steve is a man of taste and restraint who knows how to keep even a song like this from going TOO far)
"I Do (Cherish You)" and "Don't Laugh at Me" (not super-great or anything, but nothing bad about them)
"If You See Him/If You See Her" (still at a loss as to what I disliked about this)
1999:
"Amazed" (probably overplay just killed it for me, but I haven't heard it in YEARS now!)
"Best of Intentions" (guess I just didn't "get" it at the time)
"God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You" (the lyrics are banal, but I love those harmonies)
"I'm Already Taken" (the "mommy will you marry me?" line made me cringe, but a little kid's not gonna understand marriage!)
"When I Said I Do" (again not all that great, but the restraint and all-acoustic nature
2000:
"More" (No recollection of it. At all. Why? It's good!)
"There You Are" (guess I was already sick of Martina McBellow, but this is probably one of her better belt-fests since it's not about little girls with cancer and rainbows and puppies)
"This Woman Needs" (SHeDAISY's best song, and I don't remember it all?! The hell?!)
2001:
"Angry All the Time" (I really only disliked "twenty years have came and went", which seemed like bad grammar for the sake of bad grammar. But I can overlook that.)
"Burn" (Didn't get the title since I usually thought of "burn" in a negative context)
"Complicated" (didn't like that breathy style of singing, but it grew on me much later)
"Grown Men Don't Cry" (nah, this one's not sappy. Of course it's not, it's a Tom Douglas song!)
"Love of a Woman" (see my comments on "Best of Intentions")
"Six Pack Summer" (burned out, since WKJC still had it on power rotation in the dead of winter!)
"Two People Fell in Love" (decent story-song, but I found it unremarkable at the time)
"While You Loved Me" (This is the most recent Top 10 hit that I have no recollection of ever hearing on the radio. I remember hearing it ca. 2005 and not liking it. I've listened to it a few more times since then, and it's about as good as anything off RF's first two discs)
2002:
"American Child" (I thought the verse about the grandfather was out of place and gratuitously war-skewing in the post-9/11 world, but listening to it now, I think it makes sense)
"Bring On the Rain" (again, I didn't understand what the song was about. Why do you want rain anyway? Oh, 'cause it's about dealing with hardships. I get it now.)
"The Cowboy in Me" (yeah, I got nothing. This is one of Jeffrey Steele's best!)
"Good Morning Beautiful" (again a victim of overplay, but giving it a few years' time distances that pretty well. The production's still dated as hell though)
"The Good Stuff" (yet another one that I didn't "get" when it was out, but I now think it's amazing)
"I Breathe In, I Breathe Out" (I think this was just another overplay victim)
"I'm Movin' On" (yet another that I just didn't "get" the meaning of)
"The Impossible" (was happy to see Joe have a hit since I was one of the 14 people who bought his 1996 album. Didn't "get" this song's purpose either, but once I realized the lyrical intent and twist…)
"Long Time Gone" (again, just didn't "get" what it was trying to say)
"The One" (thought it was stupid — why would you walk in the shadows so she'll shine? Isn't that called being weak? Oh, okay, I get it now.)
"Tonight I Wanna Be Your Man" ("surrender to my patient hands" sounded icky to me at the time)
"When You Lie Next to Me (again, I hated that breathy singing, but it grew on me)
2003:
"Cowboys Like Us" (why make such a slow-ass song about riding your motorcycles? Oh, because it's introspective and reflective. Gotcha.)
"I Just Wanna Be Mad" (why would you wanna be mad at someone you love? I didn't get it until I heard it come on when mom was on the phone fighting with one of her male friends)
"I Believe" (why would you sing about believing in ghosts? Oh, I get it, because you're saying you still feel her presence in a metaphorical sense.)
"Raining on Sunday" (again, didn't get the metaphor at the time)
"She's My Kind of Rain" (now a total guilty pleasure because of how WTF the lyrics are)
"Tough Little Boys" (this could be sappy, but give it to an amazing vocalist like Gary Allan and he eliminates about 90% of the sap right away)
====
Afterward:
* "Spend My Time": Again, wasn't paying attention to the lyrics. Some good ones in here.
* "My Give a Damn's Busted": I was so used to the Joe, Joe, Joe Diffie version, which WATZ actually plays now and then, so I hated this at first. Then I liked it. Then it got overplayed. Then I heard Jo Dee give the most ditzy, "like"-laden interview ever on American Country Countdown and that was the final straw. This one seems to get about zero recurrent airplay, so I've been able to put some distance between it and me, and like it again.
* "Like We Never Loved at All": Again, wasn't paying attention to the lyrics, so I thought it was just a rehash of "Let's Make Love". Then I listened to it again and went "oh, I get it".
* "What Hurts the Most": Hated it at first for the slick production. Liked it for the lyrics. Hated it again for the overplay. Liked it yet again once the overplay stopped a year later, and have considered it a pretty good song ever since.
* "My Little Girl": Thought it was boring and dumb at first, but again, there are some good lyrics in it (ohai Tom Douglas), and Tim's delivery is sincere enough to sell it.
* "My Old Friend": "They laugh and they cry me" grated on me, and I thought the song's theme of loss was far inferior to "If I Don't Make It Back". But that doesn't mean the song isn't without merit. I love this one's melancholy vibe.
* "When I Get Where I'm Going": Thought the lyrics were boring and banal, but the more I listened to it, the more I liked it.
* "Little Bit of Life": I still think he overdoes the twang — "a little bit of me and yeeeeeeoooooouuuwwww doin' all right" — but it's just fun and energetic enough for me to forgive that.
* "All American Girl" and "Last Name": I think it was because I was starting to read The 9513 and they absolutely hated Carrie, and thus gave all her singles a thumbs-down, and I was letting them shape my opinion too much.
* "Come On Over" by Jessica Simpson: Guess I hated the way she sang as if she were being strangled, and even then I knew about her serious lack of IQ points. But underneath all that, this is some pretty good ear candy.
* "I Will": Dear GOD is this overproduced. It makes Dann Huff's output from this era sound like Sugarland's "Stay". But I've never gotten the whole "Jimmy Wayne is totally emo" vibe that some critics have — he sounds sincere on it.
* "Indian Summer": Again, The 9513 hated it so I thought I had to, as well.
* "Nothin' to Die For": The 9513 hated it blah blah blah. Still not one of his best, and a tad preachy, but never overboard.
* "Gimmie That Girl": Still not a fan of the "Because poor literacy is kewl" title or the way his voice is Auto-Tuned straight into the uncanny valley, but there's nothing BAD about this song really. Also, yet again, The 9513 hated it. (My negative review of it on Roughstock is one of my biggest old shames there. Come to think of it, nearly my entire first year or so of review is an old shame now…)
* "Country Girl (Shake It for Me)": Oh good, another "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" clone. Wait, this one's really damn catchy, and it feels too playful to be sleazy. Thumbs up!
* "Got My Country On" and "Let There Be Cowgirls": Kinda average lyrics, but Cagle's enthusiastic performance and the Southern rock-tinged production save them.
====
And probably the only songs under 15 years old that I've gone the other way on, from like to dislike:
* "Who's Your Daddy?" by Toby Keith. I liked it when it was out, but when I listen to it now, my only thought is "egad, what did I ever like about this?!" * "I Love This Bar" is up there too — I liked it when it was out, but now I realize it's just a lazy, kinda boring list song.
* "Stand". I liked it the first five or six times since it wasn't an overwrought squeal-fest like RF was already starting to do, and the melody was pretty good. Then I realized that the lyrics are just a bunch of vague metaphors that go nowhere. "A candle in a hurricane" — what's that mean? "A novel with the end ripped out" — what does THAT mean? "When push comes to shove, you taste what you're made of" — I think that's a mixed metaphor.
* "Just a Kiss" and "Dancing Away with My Heart": Guess I was just stoked since I liked everything Lady A put out to that point, then didn't realize until later just how BORING a song these two are. (I still give "We Owned the Night" a pass since it at least has some more tempo to it.)
I am with you that it was not my favorite when the album came out, but now I am starting to like it more every time I hear it. That is exactly the type of neo-traditional style where her voice shines the brightest, imo.
