The Beatles – ‘Revolution 9’

When John Lennon spoke about what he was thinking when he put together ‘Revolution 9’, he said that it was his interpretation of what he thinks music is going to sound like in the future. He put it together using tapes of old recordings and practice tests, and the result is an experimental, melodyless combination of sounds that feel incredibly out of place on the otherwise near-perfect White Album.

While John Lennon’s justification for the track sounds pretty interesting, it’s not one which a lot of listeners are willing to accept. Lennon was having problems with the band when he put together ‘Revolution 9’, as he felt as though they were churning out songs that were boring, bland and clutching desperately at the charts. This song is quite literally put together in revolt, and the result is that it’s hard to hear the track and think of it as anything other than bitter.

Bob Dylan – ‘Ballad in Plain D’

Bob Dylan is the kind of lyricist who can write about anything and everything. It doesn’t matter how personal or broad a topic may be, the folk phenomenon is capable of putting pen to paper and producing poetry. However, there are some subjects he covers which don’t need to be laid out for public consumption. For Bob Dylan, this came in the form of ‘Ballad in Plain D’, a track which covered the dissolution of his and Suze Rotolo’s relationship. The song didn’t need to exist, and it plagued his album Another Side Of Bob Dylan.

“I look back and say, ‘I must have been a real schmuck to write that’,” said Bob Dylan, admitting the song didn’t need to be released. “I look back at that particular one and say, of all the songs I’ve written, maybe I could have left that alone.”

Guns N’ Roses – ‘Anything Goes’

There are a lot of songs on Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction that feature lyrics which some would deem problematic, but for the most part, these words merely play into the venom that the band were trying to inject into their sound – they were actively trying to kill the hair metal scene in Los Angeles with their debut, and the best way to do that was to be confrontational.

For the most part, the album is a roaring success, often cited as a lot of rock lovers’ favourite record; however, there is one song where the band’s confrontational approach seems to go too far – the track ‘Anything Goes’, which talks of explicit sexual acts and hints at the way anything goes during sex, just doesn’t sit right. It’s a pretty gross song and one that would be better left off the album.

The Velvet Underground – ‘The Murder Mystery’

When David Byrne talked about the majesty of The Velvet Underground, he said it was the band’s unpredictability that really inspired him, with him saying, “The Velvet Underground were a big revelation, I realised, ‘Oh, look at the subject of their songs: There’s a tune and a melody, but the sound is either completely abrasive or really pretty, they swing from one extreme to the other – ‘White Light/White Heat’ is just this noise, and then ‘Candy Says’ is incredibly pretty but really kind of dark. As a young person, you go, What is this about?”

The unpredictability of The Velvet Underground is incredibly exciting, but they take it a little bit too far with the song ‘The Murder Mystery’ – the track is a nine-minute-long epic, made up of band members reciting different poems all at the same time, and while we all love a bit of experimentation here and there, this song is barely listenable, and it poisons what would otherwise be a fantastic record.

Genesis – ‘Illegal Alien’

This is just awful – the song is a satirical look at how frustrating it would be to be an illegal immigrant from Mexico attempting to enter the United States, and while this is a serious topic for many, Genesis decided to poke fun at the matter, making it a joke rather than giving the discussion the time that it deserves.

Not only is the song brushed aside in terms of the effort put into it, but Phil Collins also sings in an offensive Mexican accent, constantly repeating, “It’s not fun being an illegal alien”… One of the worst moments is when the immigrant in question offers up his sister in exchange for permission to cross the border – it’s just an awful song and one which completely ruined the band’s 1983 self-titled album.