10 songs that became tainted over time
There’s no real way of knowing how long trends will last in rock and roll. As much as something might be labelled as the coolest thing in the world right out of the gate, it only takes a few new tastemakers in town to make someone look like the dumbest artist to ever grace a stage in a matter of months. While it’s easy to laugh at some of them now, hearing tunes from artists like The Rolling Stones in a modern context is enough to make a few people cringe in embarrassment.
Then again, it’s hard to hold some of the records against the artists in question. Some of them were genuinely trying to break some new ground when crafting their signature tunes, but as time has gone on, it’s easy to look at some of their supposed “greatest” work and not see them as either desperate to have a hit or doing their best to fit themselves into a new context that doesn’t suit them.
On the other hand, some songs were somewhat despicable then and are even more frustrating trying to justify them today. Every artist is entitled to say what’s in their heart, but when some of their lyrics wouldn’t hold up in a court of law or are downright painful to listen to later, it starts to become a problem for anyone who tries to throw it on in the background while they’re doing work.
So, while some of them can be harmless fun that got out of hand, it’s never easy trying to look back and see where these songs ended up. All the pieces are there for a great song, but looking at the legacy that has been brought against it, you can’t help but look back on those innocent times and feel sad.
10 songs that became tainted over time:
10. ‘Teardrops’ – George Harrison
Most artists can only try to make the best record for their time. Even if not every one of their tracks hits the same way as they did in their prime, it’s always better to see them taking chances than recycling the same song over again. When George Harrison decided to cave into his record company, though, what could have been a surefire hit in 1985 became one of the greatest pieces of 1980s ephemera ever made.
Although Somewhere in England was supposed to be another look into Harrison’s spiritual mind, his label’s decision to reject it for not having hooks meant he had to go back to the drawing board. While I can appreciate that staunch middle finger that he wrote on ‘Blood From a Clone’, his attempt at a hit on ‘Teardrops’ only starts being funnier the further we get from the MTV generation, especially when the synths come screaming in that sound like they’re from a long-forgotten SEGA Genesis game.
It’s still a little bit funny to look back on, but you also can’t help but listen to it and feel sad. All Harrison wanted to do was make a record that was a reflection of his state of mind, and the last thing that anyone should be doing is telling a former member of The Beatles what a “real” hit is supposed to be.
9. ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ – The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones have never been strangers to controversy. The whole point behind their greatest tunes was making something to upset the parents of America and make every punk kid want to join a band of their own. As the violence of the 1960s raged on, though, ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ became too on the nose the minute the group performed it at the infamous Altamont Festival.
The tune itself is already one of the greatest groove-based tunes the band has ever made, but the minute that they kicked into the tune, things quickly descended into chaos, with the Hell’s Angels who were hired as security viciously beating fans and stabbing concertgoer Meredith Hunter. While a few rough patches are nothing new at a rock show, this may as well have been a funeral wake for the idealistic 1960s.
The whole point behind the era was about capturing the spirit of the times, and yet the era of peace and love was now infamous for being associated with the destruction at a celebration of music. For a generation that chose to celebrate life over the death going on in Vietnam, this was the first time that everyone realised the Summer of Love was gone, and that idealism was lost forever.
8. ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ – The Who
Some artists can only do so much once their records are out in the world. As much as they are looked at as creative children by everyone who was involved with them, there’s no telling what can be done with the song once it starts making the rounds in bars across the world and becomes a glorified anthem of rock and roll. So, while ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ by The Who certainly deserves a spot on this list, let me make it perfectly clear that it is not the fault of Pete Townshend or Roger Daltrey that it’s tainted.
The whole point behind the original is about overcoming anger, and Townshend and Daltrey sell every minute they have at the front. Once other artists started to make their rounds covering classic rock acts, Townshend was given an artistic slap in the face when Fred Durst realised that the best way to revamp the song for a new generation was to have Limp Bizkit do their own version.
Most people can get over a bad cover, but this is one of the few cases where the cover makes the original look worse, with all of the dramatic pauses in the middle of the song being interrupted by some random speak-and-spell-style vocoder saying random complaints about the world. We still have the original recording to look back on fondly, but the minute this was released, chances are the spirit of Keith Moon cried a single tear.
7. ‘American Dream’ – Crosby, Stills Nash and Young
Neil Young has never been known as someone who does what he’s told. He’s more likely to follow his own muse than anyone who sticks their opinions into what he’s supposed to play, and that also applied whenever his buddies in Crosby, Stills, and Nash wanted to collaborate with him. But while the American Dream sounded dated upon arrival, it was a bit tragic to know what had come before.
Young was always known to be critical of everyone around him, but the live version of the tune was far more interesting. Looking through the lyrics, the predominantly acoustic take on the song is a reflective track about greed that sounds like Young not only critiquing big businesses but also the people like him who have sold out for money and felt that they didn’t do right by their fans.
Coming back with a self-reflective tune would have been a great way to introduce CSNY to a new era, but all that they saw were dollar signs, leading to the acoustic guitars getting put away and replaced by the loudest snare drum you’ve ever heard and the kind of panflutes that make it sound like it’s being played on a camping trip. Maybe it’s meant to reflect the panflutes played during wartime, but considering how American Dream shaped up as an album, this is the sad cost of bringing the supergroup back together.
6. ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ – Rick Astley
There’s a certain amount of affection that comes with talking about 1980s music. Despite the first MTV generation being old enough to apply for senior citizenship, the nostalgia everyone has for the era of shoulder pads, synthesisers, and mile-high hair isn’t going away any time soon if Stranger Things still manages to get enough buzz. There are some corny moments across that decade, though, and Rick Astley will forever be looked at as one of the funniest pop stars of all time.
Granted, I almost want to be a little forgiving of Mr Astley. He was trying his best back in the day to make the best song he could, and while ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ is still one of the best pop tunes of that era, one can’t help but think of him in that tan jacket and the iconic drum roll that kicks off the song when someone sends you the meme of him dancing in the middle of the day.
While it’s easy to blame 2000s Internet culture for ruining this tune, it’s managed to actually come back around in some respects. Astley has been playing up himself as the walking meme for years now, and somewhere along the line, he went from being one of the most laughable pop stars to have ever lived to an endearing piece of the 1980s that we all still love having around.
5. ‘Get Her Back’ – Robin Thicke
It’s about time that most of us take a hard look at ourselves and ask why we let a song like ‘Blurred Lines’ become popular. The whole point behind the song already sounds like a sleazy dude oggling every chick that he lays eyes on at the bar, and considering the plagiarism that it came with, there’s a chance it’s done more harm to the music industry than good. But if that were the only crime that Robin Thicke committed during his time in the spotlight, we would be considered lucky. Instead, we have ‘Get Her Back’ to look back on in stunned amazement.
In the aftermath of ‘Blurred Lines,’ Thicke separated from his wife, and instead of writing the Blood on the Tracks-style album of heartache, Paula was a manipulative way of trying to win over his other half. And now, with some time removed from it, ‘Get Her Back’ is one of the cheapest ways anyone has tried to bring their personal life into their craft, practically making the audience participate in trying to win back her affection.
It was already a sleazy move at the time, but now that we know that Paula did not come back, this ends up looking both funny and tragic. Thicke had done what he could to become a better person, but who would have thought that bringing divorce proceedings into the public eye would have ended poorly?
4. ‘Family Matters’ – Drake
Every hip-hop fan for years to come is probably going to speak in hushed tones about the ‘Great Fuckening of 2024’ that Kendrick Lamar levelled against Drake. The odds were already stacked against Mr Graham when he started firing shots, but no one could have predicted how ugly things eventually became by the time that a song like ‘Not Like Us’ dropped. But out of all the songs that Drake lobbied against his opponent, ‘Family Matters’ is still the one that became the most tainted over time.
While ‘Pushups’ had some clever lines and ‘The Heart Pt 6’ was practically dead on arrival, seeing him try to pull out an expose on Lamar rings hollow now because of the body blow that happened directly afterwards. With no room to even breathe, ‘Meet the Grahams’ is still one of the most nauseating diss tracks ever made, from Lamar calling Drake a paedophile to telling every single person in his family about how much of a terrible person he is.
And now that fans have the ‘Not Like Us’ music video to look at, you can’t help but laugh at how little ‘Family Matters’ holds any water, complete with Lamar namechecking the song in his final verse and featuring his wife and child in the video as if to negate Drake’s allegations that he had been violent towards his other half and that she had been cheating on him with creative director Dave Free. While Drake wanted ‘Family Matters’ to land with audiences, all most people can see now is someone breaking the world record for how quickly they got outmatched.
3. ‘With Arms Wide Open’ – Creed
The entire grunge movement was not going to be swept under the rug right after Kurt Cobain succumbed to his demons. The legitimacy of making any new music seemed pointless at that point, but for everyone who was making their livelihoods out of grunge music, there was still money to be made off of the younger demographic of Generation X. So that meant Creed getting thrown into the mix, which resulted in one of the single most divisive power ballads of all time in ‘With Arms Wide Open’.
Discounting the religious connotations that come with Creed these days, the basis of this tune actually has some merit. Scott Stapp had talked about wanting to show his son the world for the first time and all the beauty that comes with being alive, but when it’s through the lens of someone who thinks that he can do a half-decent Eddie Vedder impression, it gets more than a little bit funny.
The story of the song also doesn’t hold any water these days, thanks to the fact that Stapp’s son wanted nothing to do with him for years because of how much he preferred a life of hedonism over his family. While Stapp has tried to make the same kind of heartbreak song on his new track ‘Name’, it’s harsh to look back on the reality that he had to stare in the face for years after the song’s release.
2. ‘Goin’ Blind’ – Kiss
There are usually a handful of songs that come out every generation, and we all turn a blind eye to them. Whether it’s because it’s a catchy melody or something suspect going on in the background, it normally takes the public years until they look back on a song and wonder what the hell they were thinking, letting it become famous. And while some artists have put their hands up and claimed to be terrible people in the past, the fact that ‘Goin’ Blind’ is known as some perverted Kiss classic is still horrifying to think of.
While writing promiscuous songs about young lust was a bit of a twisted fantasy for most rock musicians in the early 1970s, having Gene Simmons sing about wanting to have his way with a 16-year-old while claiming that the character is 93 years old is nothing but disgusting to look back on. Paul Stanley wasn’t even that on board with it at the time, but now that Simmons has been open about his activities on the road, there are a lot of questionable parts of the tune as well.
Simmons has claimed to have bedded countless groupies in his time on the road and documented some of the proceedings, so, through sheer numbers alone, it’s not like he’s ashamed of all those hours chasing after women. If this is the kind of song that pops into his head when it comes to this kind of behaviour, it’s enough to make any arbiter of good taste throw up in their mouths a little bit.
1. ‘Born Free’ – Kid Rock
There’s already a bit of a nasty stench that came with half of Kid Rock’s material before he even became the supposed ‘Rock and Roll Badass’ he claims to be today. He may not have been the most original artist in the world and had a few questionable songs in his discography, but there seemed to be a place for it amongst the dad rock of the world. Ever since he started to prioritise his political beliefs in his songs, though, hearing his patriotic tunes like ‘Born Free’ is a lot more uncomfortable.
Because, really, it makes no sense to see someone like Kid Rock go political. He wasn’t an artist anyone needed to think about too hard, but hearing him hop on the Donald Trump bandwagon and start talking about how much “snowflakes” are ruining the world or how everyone’s telling him how to live his life makes a lot of people start looking at his songs in a different light, especially with all of the Confederate flags in his videos.
What’s even more hilarious is the fact that the man reps for Detroit, so a lot of the posturing and love that he has for a certain demographic of Americans is based on some suburban snot-nosed kid who found out early on how to cater to people’s beliefs rather than having any of his own. ‘Born Free’ is supposed to be a simple little song about being proud to be a part of the US of A, but whenever he sings this tune today, it’s impossible to listen to knowing that his version of freedom is people having the right to say homophobic slurs.
