Monday, August 10, 2009

Number 372 - Crash Test Dummies


Number 372

Crash Test Dummies

"Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm"

(1993)
.
.
................Genre: Alt Rock...............
What is the difference between good music and bad, god awful music? Well, I guess you could say, it comes down to a matter of taste to the individual, or, in a more scientific crowbarred way .... [bad = noboby will buy the shit]. So after doing extensive background work on this song by Crash Test Dummies "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" for Definitive, I discovered to my surprise that this song is regarded as one of the worst/annoying songs ever made known to man and animal kind .... hell, even muted reggae loving budgies! What? How can this be so? Was this song not Number One in Australia, Germany, Norway? Number 2 in UK? Number 4 in USA and New Zealand? and, oddly enough Number 14 in Canada? Harrooooo? Did Hans Blix decide 15 years later it would become one of the most viled songs in the world?
Now, i can understand the stupid "Crazy Frog Song" to be classed as vile, but did it make Number One in any country that has any civilised, sane citizen?
Hang on a sec, i have just been passed a note .... Number 1 in UK, OZ, NZL, IRE, GER, FRA & BEL. Well what do you know, 7 countries [including my own] just made me contradict [look like a plonker, nay, twat you mean?] myself. Gee thanks guys.
art by Sonya Lingard [space]
With their clever, smug lyrics and cloying folk-tinged melodies, the Crash Test Dummies were a perfect rock band for affluent '90s college students and yuppies. Their first album was a huge hit in their native Canada, but only gained a small cult following in other parts of the world. Thanks to former Talking Head Jerry Harrison's clean, radio-friendly production, the follow-up, God Shuffled His Feet (1993), broke big in the States and, in turn, Europe. The first single from the album, "MMM MMM MMM MMM," became a worldwide Top Ten hit, making the group a minor sensation with their self-consciously bizarre lyrics and singer/songwriter Brad Roberts' deep baritone. A Worm's Life followed in 1996, and three years later the Crash Test Dummies resurfaced with Give Yourself a Hand. Frontman Brad Roberts resurfaced in fall 2000 with a solo album, Crash Test Dude, a collection of acoustic hits from the Crash Test Dummies and eclectic covers. It was also during this time that Roberts suffered a serious car crash, almost losing his arm.
God shuffled .... very very slowly
Seven months later, however, Roberts returned to the Crash Test Dummies circuit to issue I Don't Care That You Don't Mind, a brand-new batch of songs written with lobster fishermen/musicians whom Roberts met during his rehabilitation. Late 2001 and early 2002 saw more solo albums from members (Ellen Reid's Cinderellen and Mitch Dorge's As Trees Walking) and the Dummies became more Brad Roberts' project than a traditional band. A new three-piece unit with Reid, Brad Roberts and original bassist Dan Roberts released the Christmas album Jingle All the Way in late 2002 but limited distribution made the album hard to find. The album was reissued in late 2003 along with a new album, Puss 'n' Boots, with Reid and Dan Roberts adding to what was originally planned as a Brad Roberts solo album. ~ [Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide]
Once, I Knew This Girl Who .....
I am an anagram of GOD! STFU
Each verse describes the isolation and suffering of a child, each of which have wild-sounding stories: a boy whose hair has prematurely whitened from shock, a girl covered in birthmarks, and a boy whose family belongs to a peculiar religious sect. An alternate version sometimes performed at live concerts replaced the third verse with one concerning a boy whose mother disposed of his tonsils after a tonsilectomy, thus depriving him of the possibility of bringing them to show and tell. The associated music video sets the song's lyrics as the script for a series of one-act plays performed by school children. Throughout, the scenes of the performance are intercut with scenes of the Crash Test Dummies performing the song at stage side. The first act, set at a city intersection, tells the story of a young boy who was involved in a car crash. His hair turned white due to the force of the crash. The second act tells the story of a girl that never used to "change with the girls in the change room", until one day the other girls (portrayed in the act as three inquisitive detectives) force her to change with them, only to discover that her body was covered in birthmarks. The final act tells of a boy that lives under the strict discipline of his austere parents and how his family attends a church, where church-goers shake and lurch during the services.
GTFO!!!!!
and the bad news???? Although highly successful when it was released, "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" has since been frequently included on lists of bad songs. The song was number 15 on VH1's 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever, named by Rolling Stone the "15th Most Annoying Song", and ranked #31 on Blender's list of the "50 Worst Songs Ever". and even more worse ..... In a 1994 essay in which he makes the case that modern life is better than life in the past, humorist P.J. O'Rourke wrote "Even the bad things are better than they used to be. Bad music, for instance, has gotten much briefer. Wagner's Ring Cycle takes four days to perform while "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by the Crash Test Dummies lasts little more than three minutes." ~ [Source: Wikipedia]
Synopsis: Well, there it is. If you agree, you can vote the song off and i will admit i got it wrong. Personally [and obviously] i thought the song was powerfull enough, after all it was Number 1 to 10 in most places in the world and honestly, i had no idea the song was that hated. For Christ's sake .... it's not even Nickelback or Creed! [or is it a Canadian thing with people?]
For Talking Heads see Number 488, #533
For Nickelback see MM Vol 1 #034, #057
For Creed see MM Vol 1 #003, #048
I'm afraid to ask Rolling Stone ..... but
Thats right, Rolling Stone have no view of CTD! [but you knew that]. Canadian alterna-artists hit the big time with "Superman's Song" in 1993, a radio-polished hybrid of R.E.M.-inspired folk-rock and David Byrne-inspired absurdism. The 1999 single "Keep a Lid on Things" found them moving away from their previous sound and taking a more experimental approach, with Tom Waits-esque funkiness and murky atmospheres beefing up their countrified acoustic song structures and vocalist Brad Roberts' subhuman baritone. ~ [Source: Rhapsody.com ~ Mike McGuirk]
For REM see Number 597, #712
Rolling Stone magazine deemed their '372nd Song of all Time' was "Marquee Moon" by Television. Television has not appeared in The Definitive 1000 of All Time.
Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number (You must be out of your mind!!!) and the Album ranked at (We voted thgis the 15th MOST annoying song of all time!)
This song has a Definitive rating of 80 out of 108


Search Artist here:1-2-3-A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z

crowbarred.net, greatest songs in the world, best 1000 songs of all time, top 1000 songs of all time, best 1000 songs, alltime 1000 songs, the best songs of all time, worlds best songs, greatest songs of all time, the all time greatest songs, 1000 top songs of all time, best 1000 songs, top 1000 pop songs, best rock songs of all time, 1000 classic rock songs,

Labels:

posted by crowbarred at 6:22 pm

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home