10 awful songs that sound amazing live
When The Beatles first skyrocketed to fame in America, it was in part because of their strong singles, but it was mainly the result of their excellent live show.
People were already fans of the music the band were putting out, but when they performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, that was really when the Fab Four proved that they were one of the best out there.
“There was no real future for a British band before The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964,” said The Rolling Stones’ manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, at the time, adding, “That was the turning point, after which there was an avalanche. It totally transformed the possibilities, and as usual, The Beatles were the frontrunners. In music, there is The Beatles, and then there is everybody else.”
Yes, the power of a good live song can never be understated, as it can make four young lads from Liverpool the biggest band in the world. Perhaps what’s even more amazing, though, is how a good live performance can convince you that a shit song is actually decent.
Don’t worry, The Beatles ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ isn’t included in this list, but you would be surprised just how many bad songs are confused for being good, purely based on the power of their live presence, so it begs the question, what are some terrible songs which are great to experience live?
10 truly awful tunes that are amazing live:
Reverend and the Makers – ‘Bassline’
There are certain club nights in Sheffield which you will be incapable of going to without hearing this Reverend and the Makers tune. When you experience it in that kind of setting, you wouldn’t be mistaken for thinking it’s one of the greatest songs ever written, as the chorus of vocalists singing along and the pounding bassline make for a pretty excellent live experience.
It’s when you listen to the song in isolation that you realise it’s not actually that good a tune. Granted, the band were most likely trying to write something that appealed to a live audience more than an isolated listen, but don’t let that detract from just how one-note and bland this offering is.
“All the people want is b-b-bassline,” the band proclaims; well, we’d like a little bit more than that if possible.
Limp Bizkit – ‘Hot Dog’
Using swear words in music is a fine art, where if you use them sparingly, you emphasise the meaning of that word; however, if you use them in excess, they lose their punch. Both of these approaches to the swear word can work, but Limp Bizkit miss the mark with ‘Hot Dog’, as they use it in excess but still intend on them being shocking. These two effects can’t happen simultaneously, and that lyrical faux pas is just one example of many of how ‘Hot Dog’ is a pretty poor offering.
That being said, there is no escaping it when you hear this song live, which makes it one of the most chaotic and entertaining tracks out there. The aggressive chorus of “you wanna fuck me like an animal” makes mosh pits form like dropping a brick into a puddle. If you like a heavy gig, one of sweat, moshing, and aggressive distorted guitars, there are few songs better to listen to than ‘Hot Dog’.
Kasabian – ‘Re-wired’
The first time I ever heard the song ‘Re-wired’ was during a live show, and I thought, ‘Damn, that’s a powerful track’. The chorus is infectious, as it consists of two massive chord hits, followed by the words, “HIT ME”, another two chords, “HARDER”, and another two, “I’M GETTING RE-WIRED!” That combination of music and lyrics, paired with the light show and a crowd singing along, makes for one hell of a live song.
That experience meant that when I returned to normality and heard the studio recording, I was horrendously disappointed. What is a large sounding anthem subsides into something a lot more stripped back, completely lacking in the punch it has live. It sometimes is difficult for bands to capture a live sound and bundle it onto a studio recording, and it seems this is exactly what happened when Kasabian tried recording ‘Re-wired’.
McFly – ‘All About You’
I’m not going to take the easy route and hate on McFly for no reason. Let’s face it, the band has some bangers, and I’ll be the first to admit that, as classics like ‘Five Colours in Her Hair’ and ‘Obviously’, as well as newer tracks like ‘Where Did All The Guitars Go?’, are pretty damn good. However, their song ‘All About You’ is a pretty lazy pop offering, one that appeals when you’re young and broken-hearted, but that falls flat as soon as your taste develops.
That being said, praise be the famous singalong, as it doesn’t matter how bad a song is, if you stick thousands of people in a field and have them sing to it at the same time, there is a euphoric feeling which is pretty impossible to ignore that comes with it. That’s what happens when you see McFly at any festival, as a song that would usually warrant a skip on a playlist becomes one of the highlights of the weekend.
Scouting For Girls – ‘This Ain’t a Love Song’
Let me paint you a picture: Sheffield, traipsing through Hillsborough Park, avoiding passers-by and trying not to spill a beer as my friend drags me to see Scouting For Girls. His music taste hasn’t aged in over a decade, and it means his musical opinions are reasonably outdated and few and far between. However, given at festivals the list of bands he wants to go see continues to grow shorter and shorter, when there’s a set he’s adamant about catching, it’s my duty as a friend to go with him. In this instance, that set was Scouting For Girls.
I thought it would be a bit of fun, enjoying a slight throwback, giddy in a crowd of punters reliving their youth, but it was a lot more than that. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m pleased to say Scouting For Girls have very much still got it. Every song was played perfectly, and the highlight was their 2010 offering, ‘This Ain’t a Love Song’. We can’t throw the word “timeless” around sparingly, but damn, that gig seems to fit the bill.
Arctic Monkeys – ‘Body Paint’
Anyone who says they love the album The Car is lying to both you and themselves. While the desperate desire to continue adoring Arctic Monkeys is real, the condescending and half-arsed music they insist on pumping out makes that adoration hard to come by, and ‘Body Paint’ was one lazy grasp at a ballad on an album full of lazy grasps at ballads.
That said, while it might not be the greatest track that Arctic Monkeys have to offer, the elongated outro and use of an extravagant guitar solo towards the end of the live version mean that it makes for an excellent listen in the flesh. By layering the outro continuously, adding some shredding and then a mix of pained and longing vocals from Alex Turner, what is a lacklustre offering on the album becomes one of the highlights of Arctic Monkeys’ live shows.
Electric Six – ‘Dance Commander’
We could have included a lot of Electric Six songs on this list, as they’re a band that you need to see live above anything else. Silly tracks like ‘Dance Commander’, which revolve around the listener being ordered to drop what they’re doing and start dancing, aren’t exactly the kind of song you would take the time to listen to in your everyday life, but they make for a great addition to a live show.
“I wrote ‘Dance Commander’ as a fictional story about how I wanted to withdraw like $3,000 and go to a club,” said the band’s lead singer, Dick Valentine, “But I was in a studio apartment at I-10, Overland, just sitting there. I had nowhere to go and didn’t have any friends and was just dreaming it.”
The Enemy – ‘This Song Is About You’
Once again, we fall into the trap of being seduced by a sing-along. Pop yourself in a field or a small venue and surround yourself with pissed-up punters preaching every single syllable of this song and you’ll no doubt think it’s a banger. However, listen to it in isolation, and it’s a very different experience.
The chords are poorly put together, the lyrics are lacking and the way this track builds leaves a lot to the imagination. In a live setting, you could convince yourself that this is one of the greatest pieces of music of all time, but strip back the euphoria of a gig and you’ll hear it for what it is.
The Last Shadow Puppets – ‘Bad Habits’
When The Last Shadow Puppets announced that they were getting back together, there was a real sense of anticipation in the air, as fans of the band gathered around radios in a bid to hear Miles Kane and Alex Turner’s first song together in years. What those fans wound up hearing was ‘Bad Habits’, and to this day I’ll never know why the duo led with this number, given it’s easily the worst song on the entire album.
It’s an incredibly irritating listen, with disjointed lyrics screamed over a pretty bog-standard bassline. Compared to the wonder and complexity of other songs on the album, ‘Bad Habits’ falls completely by the wayside, but those irritating elements make for a pretty exciting track in a live setting, as the bassline and yelling make audiences stand to attention and gaze in wonderment.
Yard Act – ‘We Make Hits’
Once again, a fair few Yard Act songs could wind up on this list. Their music was charming at first, but it had a pretty short life span, as the witty spoken word, in a world littered with witty spoken word, outstays its welcome pretty quickly. When they announced their second album and released the track ‘We Make Hits’, it was clear they were going down the same route that had previously led to prosperity, and the result was a lacklustre album that could be mistaken for B-sides from their debut.
However, I’ll concede that Yard Act’s live shows are pretty damn good, and songs like ‘We Make Hits’, despite not sounding great on the studio album, are good fun to dance to in a live setting. I wouldn’t quite describe such an experience as utopia, but it’s certainly on its way.
