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'Uncool' Musicians That Have Had Very Cool Songs

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    #32
    noby
    Registered Users Posts: 2,114 ✭✭✭noby


    tech77 wrote: »
    3. Also who could forget Journey (generally "uncool" band): "Don't stop believing"

    Nobody could forget Journey. It's on the radio constantly since being used in the Sopranos. I'd like to forget it though.


    Kraftwerk are the coolest band of the last thirty years.


    I should add I'm using the '50s definition of cool. Perhaps the cats of today have a new meaning for it.


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    #33
    Rigsby
    Registered Users Posts: 4,452 ✭✭✭Rigsby


    BurnsCarpenter wrote: »
    If you were cool you'd understand. ;)

    I'm outdoors today and I'm freezing, but I still dont know what you mean. :p


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    #34
    Dudess
    Closed Accounts Posts: 37,214 ✭✭✭✭Dudess


    --amadeus-- wrote: »
    Aerosmith are really, really, really uncool...
    Apart from "Walk this way" with Run DMC Aerosmith are not cool.
    Oh I don't know - in fairness, they're not uncool in the Phil Collins sense. At least Aerosmith led a R&R lifestyle that was fairly Rolling Stones in its excesses... :)
    Back OT and another vote for Phil Collins, I grin every time I hear "Easy Lover". Not sure it's a cool song though...
    Not really a cool song but a bloody great one. Fuppin' quality!


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    #35
    RE*AC*TOR
    Registered Users Posts: 7,482 ✭✭✭RE*AC*TOR


    Dolly Parton - 9 to 5 / Jolene / Coat of Many Colors
    Supertramp - Logical Song / Goodbye Stranger


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    #36
    tech77
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,736 ✭✭✭tech77


    Dudess wrote: »
    Not uncool - some cheesy songs but their lifestyles of rock n roll excess ensured they would never occupy the "uncool" category (whereas, for instance, Mike and the Mechanics are really disciplined and goody-two-shoes). That's kind of a different thing - "songs you know are sh1t but you like". No way are Weezer uncool - they've got a "nerdy" image going on but it's kind of ironic. Perfect example. Goodnight Saigon is absolute quality. Absolutely no way are Talking Heads or Kraftwerk uncool - seriously. Geeky, but definitely not uncool. They were never uncool. They're not really "uncool" in the Billy Joel sense, they're just sh1t. But I'm sure they have the odd catchy song. The Big "O" is definitely not uncool. Not a hope is her early stuff uncool. I would say her recent stuff is. Not uncool - their stuff pre 1986 was sh1t (apart from New Life and Everything Counts) but they weren't uncool in the Billy Joel sense. Yes, perfect example. The Philster and Genesis have tons of great songs: The aforementioned In The Air Tonight, Mama, Turn it on Again, Land of Confusion, Invisible Touch, Take Me Home - quality. Very uncool band, but Don't Stop Believin' was recognised as a fantastic song long before all the hype last year. All the stuff that fits into the same category as Journey - late 70s/early 80s corporate rock like REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, Air Supply, the term "uncool" was invented specifically for those acts... I think a lot of power ballads rock. E.g. Alone and These Dreams by Heart.

    The Dudess has spoken... :D
    I agree with a lot of the above but saying LP are sh1t is very harsh imo.
    "Numb", "Breaking the Habit" etc- they have some decent tracks you have to admit.

    +1 for Extreme: "More than words", although many might say this was an "uncool" song by a hitherto "cool" band. I say bull.


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    #37
    Xavi6
    Registered Users Posts: 40,867 ✭✭✭✭Xavi6


    Mr. Big - To Be With You
    Spin Doctors - Two Princes


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    #38
    tech77
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,736 ✭✭✭tech77


    Rigsby wrote: »
    I'm outdoors today and I'm freezing, but I still dont know what you mean. :p

    :D


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    #39
    tech77
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,736 ✭✭✭tech77


    --amadeus-- wrote: »
    See that collaboration proves that even the great RR can't work his magic on everybody... Aerosmith are really, really, really uncool. Cool people are people that you just want to be. A cool person you would sell your mum to be for a week. A really cool person you would sell your kidney to be for 24 hours. So I'd sell Mum to be as cool as Johnny Cash was or my kidney to be as cool as Elvis in '56. Now I would happily sell any of my bodily organs NOT to be Billy Joel or Phil Collins (or Chris de Burgh for that matter). Apart from "Walk this way" with Run DMC Aerosmith are not cool. Back OT and another vote for Phil Collins, I grin every time I hear "Easy Lover". Not sure it's a cool song though...

    Not a bad description of the nature of "coolness".
    This thread reminds me of the Simpsons episode- (The Lollapolooza/Cannon-ball Homer one IIRC) :)


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    #40
    nice1franko
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,300 ✭✭✭nice1franko


    U2 have had a few


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    #41
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users Posts: 14,714 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    This thread needs to cool out, yo! :cool:

    I'm gonna go with Richard Marx - Hazard

    Though I don't know if the song itself counts as cool, just really, really good.


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    #42
    Rustar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,217 ✭✭✭Rustar


    mike65 wrote: »
    I think this matches the thread defintion

    Warning: Link Contains 100% Osmonds

    Dig that Moog :)

    Mike.

    Hahaaa! My sister was an Osmonds freak when I was a lad, and I picked that out as the only listenable song in her entire collection! :)


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    #43
    Nightwish
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,129 ✭✭✭Nightwish


    Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
    Linkin Park - One Step Closer
    Madonna - Frozen
    Pet Shop Boys - It's A Sin
    Sum 41 - Pain for Pleasure
    Alexz Johnson - Skin


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    #44
    Kintarō Hattori
    Registered Users Posts: 14,993 ✭✭✭✭Kintarō Hattori


    mike65 wrote: »
    I think this matches the thread defintion

    Warning: Link Contains 100% Osmonds

    Dig that Moog :)

    Mike.

    Good choice Mike, I think this is more in vain with the idea of the thread than some of the other's mentioned.


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    #45
    tech77
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,736 ✭✭✭tech77


    eo980 wrote: »
    Good choice Mike, I think this more in vain with the idea of the thread than some of the other's mentioned.
    OK as eo980 said, to keep the thread from straying into "guilty pleasure" territory, how about:
    1. The Carpenters: Superstar (especially the Sonic Youth cover).
    2. The temptations: Build me up, Buttercup (love its use in "Something about Mary")
    3. Elvis: Suspicious Minds (absolute genius)
    Three typical cool songs from kinda uncool artists imo. And it's a posthumous, retrospective kinda cool, the best kind :p
    Not guilty pleasures either mind you. :)
    Also: Johnny Cash: "Hurt", "One". (NB. despite their current coolness, Cash and Elvis were not always universally regarded as cool I would say, hence i've included them).


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    #46
    --amadeus--
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,096 ✭✭✭--amadeus--


    RE*AC*TOR wrote: »
    Dolly Parton - 9 to 5 / Jolene / Coat of Many Colors
    Supertramp - Logical Song / Goodbye Stranger

    Ohhh, bad c&w - Tammy Wynette, "Stand by your man". Blues Brothers made that super cool...


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    #47
    callaway92
    Registered Users Posts: 14,784 ✭✭✭✭callaway92


    Pete Burns - you spin me round ...But id kinda say hes just a freak..Not uncool,i dunno


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    #48
    Jay P
    Registered Users Posts: 4,944 ✭✭✭Jay P


    Round these parts, arctic monkeys are pretty uncool. I still love them though, especially D is for Dangerous, class song


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    #49
    tech77
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,736 ✭✭✭tech77


    Jay P wrote: »
    Round these parts, arctic monkeys are pretty uncool. I still love them though, especially D is for Dangerous, class song

    Arctic Monkeys are in no way "uncool".


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    #50
    tech77
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,736 ✭✭✭tech77


    Great article here .
    It's about the difference between:
    1. Liking uncool music ironically (thereby both indulging and salving a "guilty pleasure") and
    2. Liking uncool music because it's actually good (the theme of this thread)

    The guy rightly castigates the indier-than-thou music-snobs who enjoy so-called Yacht-Rock:
    ie liking an old song ironically because it's "so-bad-it's-good" (and hence conferring even more coolness on themselves in the process :rolleyes:).
    As opposed to just genuinely liking an uncool old song because it's actually good.
    He's dead-right IMO.

    He references stuff like The Doobie Brothers: Reeling in the years.
    OK song, not my cup of tea, but i can definitely see what he's getting at.

    Other songs that are cool (ish):
    Don Henley/Patti Smyth: Sometimes Love just ain't enough
    Fleetwood Mac: Dreams, Albatross, Go your own way
    The Eagles: Hotel California
    And tbh the more i think of it a lot of The Carpenters stuff isn't bad at all: Close to you, Yesterday, Superstar etc.


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    #51
    Makaveli
    Registered Users Posts: 8,503 ✭✭✭Makaveli


    tech77 wrote: »
    2. The temptations: Build me up, Buttercup (love its use in "Something about Mary")

    Fail on two counts. The first being it's The Foundations not The Temptations and the second being any group with David Ruffin in it had to be cool so The Tempts were cool.


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    #52
    Basq
    Registered Users Posts: 43,931 ✭✭✭✭Basq


    Bubs101 wrote: »
    Semisonic - Secret Smile

    They couldn't even qualify as geek chic but that song is phenomenal
    Nay speak ill about the excellent Semisonic! :eek:


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    #53
    Dudess
    Closed Accounts Posts: 37,214 ✭✭✭✭Dudess


    tech77 wrote: »
    Great article here .
    It's about the difference between:
    1. Liking uncool music ironically (thereby both indulging and salving a "guilty pleasure") and
    2. Liking uncool music because it's actually good (the theme of this thread)

    The guy rightly castigates the indier-than-thou music-snobs who enjoy so-called Yacht-Rock:
    ie liking an old song ironically because it's "so-bad-it's-good" (and hence conferring even more coolness on themselves in the process :rolleyes:).
    As opposed to just genuinely liking an uncool old song because it's actually good.
    He's dead-right IMO.
    Yep. There's a huge difference between liking Bucks Fizz's Making Your Mind up but sniggering at yourself simultaneously, and actually just enjoying Philo's Easy Lover.
    The Doobie Brothers: Reeling in the years.
    That was actually Steely Dan - and they had some quality songs. Do It Again is superb.
    Don Henley/Patti Smyth: Sometimes Love just ain't enough
    Don't like it but actually Boys of Summer and New York Minute by Don Henley are fantastic. Incidentally, Patti Smyth must never EVER be mixed up with Patti Smith.
    Fleetwood Mac: Dreams, Albatross, Go your own way
    I don't know if the Mac are considered that uncool. Certainly not their earlier incarnation (they were the ones behind Albatross). The Chain, by the later Fleetwood Mac, is absolute class.


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    #54
    IanCurtis
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,004 ✭✭✭IanCurtis


    tech77 wrote: »
    Alison Krauss (not exactly hip, Robert Plant association notwithstanding): "Baby, now that i've found you" (i think it's "cool" anyway)

    Wow, I agree 100% - it's a beautiful heartbreaking cover of that song.

    I've got loads of these though:

    "Biology" - Girls Aloud
    "Prayer For The Dying" - Seal
    "Romeo and Juliet" - Dire Straits
    "She's out of my life" - Michael Jackson
    "Temptation" - Wet Wet Wet

    so many more


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    #55
    Dudess
    Closed Accounts Posts: 37,214 ✭✭✭✭Dudess


    Oh yeah, Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms. Excellent song.


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    #56
    tech77
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,736 ✭✭✭tech77


    Makaveli wrote: »
    Fail on two counts. The first being it's The Foundations not The Temptations and the second being any group with David Ruffin in it had to be cool so The Tempts were cool.



    Ah, close enough :p:o
    Harsh crowd tonight..
    All i know is i like the song (fairly unironically as well).
    Other than that, i freely admit i know little else about it.

    To my eternal shame i suppose i never honoured that interest in the song by knowing anything about the group that sang it. Maybe some day you'll find it in your heart to forgive me :)

    FWIW i did actually know it was one of the "ations" that sang it (half-marks i suppose), quickly googled it and got a result saying the temptations sang it. What can you do?

    Anyway i like the song which is what matters.
    Also isn't that a fail on just one count, unless the Foundations were also cool? :)


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    #57
    tech77
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,736 ✭✭✭tech77


    That was actually Steely Dan - and they had some quality songs. Do It Again is superb.
    Yeah sorry, as i said not exactly my cup of tea but still you get the sentiment he's driving at.
    Doobie brothers and Steely Dan do have a similar sound though.
    Don't like it but actually Boys of Summer and New York Minute by Don Henley are fantastic.
    Yeah Boys of Summer is decent as well.


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    #58
    tech77
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,736 ✭✭✭tech77


    Dudess wrote: »
    Oh yeah, Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms. Excellent song.
    +1


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    #59
    stovelid
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,252 ✭✭✭✭stovelid


    tech77 wrote: »
    Yeah Boys of Summer is decent as well.

    ++

    Cliff Richard - Wired for Sound
    Billy Joel - You May Be Right
    Andrew Gold - Lonely boy
    Heart - Alone
    Orson - No tomorrow
    Hall and Oates - fcuk it, pretty much all the hits.... ;)

    Disclaimer: not an ironic approriation of 'sh^t' songs: I actually do like them all.


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    #60
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    Doobie brothers and Steely Dan do have a similar sound though.

    Early Dan featured future Doobie vocalist Michael McDonald and basist Jeff Baxter hence that feeling. The Dan became iconicly cool whereas the Doobies became progressively less cool.

    Mike.


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    #61
    Makaveli
    Registered Users Posts: 8,503 ✭✭✭Makaveli


    tech77 wrote: »
    FWIW i did actually know it was one of the "ations" that sang it (half-marks i suppose), quickly googled it and got a result saying the temptations sang it. What can you do?

    Yeah, doesn't surprise me. All you have to do is look at The Temptations page on last.fm to see the amount of people with the song tagged as theirs.
    tech77 wrote: »
    Anyway i like the song which is what matters.
    Also isn't that a fail on just one count, unless the Foundations were also cool? :)

    No, because you thought it was The Temptations therefore thinking they were uncool. :p


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