Ten Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Songs That I Can Do Without
Here at Metal Odyssey, not every Hard Rock or Heavy Metal song ever created is going to be praised. There are those songs that give me an instant headache. Then, there are those songs that make me want to barf. Of course, there are songs that make me wonder… why? Here is a list of 10 songs that I honestly cannot listen to ever again. It’s all personal preference here and just because I may dislike the song listed does not mean I don’t like the band that recorded it.
There are bands and musicians on this list that are beyond legendary. Enjoy or become annoyed with this list, regardless, these songs are NOT going to ever “psyche out the party”. God forbid if these songs were to psyche out a party… then that party must be at the Lame-O Ranch At Rolling Hills.
01 – White Lion – When The Children Cry: Yeah, yeah, yeah… it’s a serious song about a sad and serious topic and I truly respect that aspect of this song. It’s just so damn sad that for years it made me want to scream every time I heard it. Now, one micro second of this song’s beginning is enough for me.
02 – Twisted Sister – Leader Of The Pack: Of course Twisted Sister is a legendary band. The only problem is this cover song they did way back in 1985 is not a crowning moment for this icon band. The silver lining about this cover song is it made me appreciate the albums Under The Blade and You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll all the more.
03 – Ozzy Osbourne & Lita Ford – Close My Eyes Forever: Just like When The Children Cry, I realize this is a serious song with a deep and somber meaning. However, this would be a much more tolerable song if the duet performing it was Celine Dion and Josh Groban… and then I still wouldn’t listen to it.
04 – Metallica – One: Back in 1989 I was the biggest Metallica fan on the Metal block. Upon my very first listen to One… I was clutching onto my Slayer, Overkill, Anthrax and Exodus albums and running for cover. My Mercyful Fate albums too. Oh, for the record, I was 0% impressed by the music video for One as well. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll always be a Metallica fan. Just realize there is no law that requires me to love everything that Metallica ever did.
05 – Honeymoon Suite – New Girl Now: Um, again… not every Hard Rock or Heavy Metal song is gonna get Stone psyched out. Two words of note here – bubble gum.
06 – Ozzy Osbourne – So Tired: Look, I revere Ozzy, he’s the Godfather of Heavy Metal for Metal sakes. Regardless, I grew tired of So Tired the very day I bought Bark At The Moon back in 1983. If I whined just like Ozzy does on this song… my wife would slug me in the head and boot me in the butt.
07 – Ace Frehley/Frehley’s Comet – Dolls: C’mon. The lyrics are just plain weird. Space Ace is another musician I have revered since the late ’70’s and I’m a KISS fan for life. I love every song Ace Frehley has ever played guitar and/or sung on. The exception is this song.
08 – Metallica – Turn The Page: This is one instance where nothing beats the original. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band never created this Classic Rock masterpiece for Metallica to improve on it. Sure, it’s a multi-million dollar seller for Metallica… and multi-millions of turtleneck wearing Bananarama fans bought it too.
09 – Styx – Mr. Roboto – I can vividly remember, like it was yesterday. Either WHCN or WCCC FM, (which FM station is not vivid), out of Hartford, Connecticut was announcing the “new” Styx single… Mr. Roboto. I was ecstatic. Bring on the “new” Styx is all I was saying. Then… this song played. Ouch. At the end of Mr. Roboto, the DJ asked listeners to call in and give their opinion on the song. Back then, (1983), my family and everyone else I knew had the clunky… rotary phones. The phones in which you had to “dial” by finger, one number at a time. Anyways… I was in a state of despair… too upset to call any damn DJ at that moment anyhow. All I do remember is clutching onto The Grand Illusion album, slowly rocking back and forth as I sat there on the floor, half crying, muttering this one lone word over and over… why?, why?, WHY?!
10 – Queen – Radio Ga Ga – I also remember too vividly this song being released as well. Queen is so enormously legendary, it’s just a shame there is a Queen song out there that I cannot listen to. Radio Ga Ga is that song. Look, I already took a beating in 1983 with Mr. Roboto… now only a year later, it’s another revered band of mine taking a stylistic music detour as well. I don’t care if this song’s meaning is about radio playing lousy songs and programming back in the day. This song was not the Queen I fell head over heals with as a young lad. To this day, I cannot figure out what the “Ga Ga” was suppose to mean. Maybe Lady Ga Ga figured it out.
Stone.
Metal Odyssey > Heavy Metal Music Blog 
August 26, 2010 at 12:50 am
Wow Stone, you and I were cut from the same cloth. I 100% agree with your list and song choices – no debate from me on any of these!! Thinking of some others that may fit in this list. How about when Kiss did “I was made for loving you” and went disco?I guess that wouldn’t fit on the list here since Kiss wasn’t hard rock at that point…There are probably a few choice Aerosmith songs we could probably add…
David
August 26, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Thanks David! Hey… how about Aerosmith – “Going Down/Love On An Elevator”. That song is INSTANT headache city for me. It starts off great, then it just becomes annoying all the way to the end.
Admittedly, I was an ecstatic kid who couldn’t stop listening to or staring at “Dynasty” back in ’79. As years have passed, “I Was Made For Loving You” lost it’s edge for me. (If it ever had an edge). I try my hardest to convince myself… that KISS was never attempting (gulp) Disco with this song. I just listened to the 2009 version of this song on the KISS Klassics CD from “Sonic Boom”. I actually was not psyched by it. Still, this song is better than anything ABBA ever did!
Stone
August 26, 2010 at 12:54 am
Ha ha – finally some BAD reviews = love it!
I can handle:
Styx – Mr. Roboto + Queen – Radio Ga Ga.
*I guess because I used to play them on a juke box (45 RPM folks) while playing some arcade games at a local pizza joint. 😉
All the rest in the list suck eggs.
Being a LOVERBOY fan I thought you might like -Honeymoon Suite – New Girl Now. ;-)They had a couple of catchy 80’s pop rock GTR licks on that LP.
I’ll stick to my Coney Hatch or Head Pins LP’s (when it comes to Canadian popish/melodic rock).
August 26, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Yeah, I can understand the “imbedding thing” with “Mr. Roboto” and “Radio Ga Ga”. Still, that is the type of imbedding that comes back to haunt me.
It’s funny, I thought about Loverboy while putting together this list. Even Loverboy’s ballads don’t tick me off… probably due to the fact so many chicks dug this band back in the day and I HAD to make sure I never ripped apart one of their “love” songs at a party. Call that imbedding too! 😉
Coney Hatch and Head Pins… now were getting into some Hanson and Menudo territory!
August 26, 2010 at 9:56 am
I like White Lion, but I have always hated that song!!!! Love Twisted Sister and Metallica but these two songs are poor choices, and hell that “leader of the Pack’ cover was so horrid that Twisted Sister’s career started going down like an intern in the white house.
I do like the Metallica song ‘One’ even if I a bit sick of it, I never liked ‘So Tired’ but now I at least get an idea what Ozzy would sound like fronting Air Supply.
Styx I am sure have some wonderful songs but one of the first concerts I ever saw was Styx’s tour ‘Kilroy was Here’ and it was so horrid that til this day I cannot stand the band and I know , I know it is unfair but that show made such negative impact on me I have yet to recover.
I am such a Queen fanboy I even like ‘Radio Ga Ga’ which btw sounds well better live, that being said I do try the line at the ‘Hot Space’ album.
August 26, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Styx is touring once again, albeit without the “original” lineup. Maybe if you saw them live now it might patch things up for you? It’s too bad that concert and album tour did that to you… I can understand fully. I admire Styx and that band is one of my very first “tastes” into the realm of Hard Rock, same with Queen. Nonetheless, the moral of the Rockin’ story is not every album/song from any band is gonna be great.
I heard “Radio Ga Ga” a couple of times already, in the rotation of music that is played at my neighborhood grocery store. It troubled me to the point that I forgot to buy half of the stuff I needed!
I always thought the song “Flash” sounded unfinished… too many missing pieces? There are those seconds when this song is psyche-you-out, then everything subsides to a crawl.
Yes, “Hot Space” really had me frowning years ago.
August 26, 2010 at 11:07 pm
Let me chime in here….All the above would definately make my top 15-20 list. But let me add a few!! First and Foremost, “More than Words” by Extreme has to be the worst freakin’ song ever recorded! I gotta add Rod Stewart’s “Infatuation” And Come on fella’s KISS’s “Let’s put the X in Sex” Totally sucks!!!!! This list could go onand on, but the last song I want to add to this list is Ugly Kid Joe “Everything About You” Is just a dumb song!!! Thanks for letting me vent!! Queens “Flash Gordon” was a real winner too….
August 26, 2010 at 11:16 pm
Um, I really back Extreme and their #1 hit single “More Than Words” is just FINE with Stone. Plus… “Let’s Put The X In Sex” is a very, very, very, cool KISS song. Immature? Maybe. Still it’s a cool KISS song.
Rod Stewart’s “Infatuation” I would file under “Pop” Rock anyways. Good pick nonetheless there. Ugly Kid Joe was a cool band! I have to disagree with your choosing that song. However, music is subjective and personal, so you have a right to your Metal opinions.
Extreme ROCKS.
Stone
August 27, 2010 at 6:50 pm
I’m with you on all of those except Dolls. I think it works and added some much needed variations to a pretty good album.
Leader of the pack was a song that Twisted Sister had done frequently at shows years before. However it was a bad idea to do it on COAP and an even worse idea to make it their first single. They were on the brink of really becoming huge after Stay Hungry and that window of opportunity closed about 15 seconds into the first showing of the video for Leader of the pack.
August 27, 2010 at 9:14 pm
That Frehley’s Comet album I do like a great amount. It’s just that “Dolls” chugs along with such a pokey type of rhythm. I guess it’s the way in which this song was put together, from the lyrics to the music itself that makes me cringe.
Sometimes, being over zealous can overtake a good situation. Your so right about Twisted Sister and the release of “Leader Of The Pack” as a lead single. Those same fans that Twisted Sister wanted to cater to with this song are not even listening to Hard Rock or Metal music now. Those are the fair weather fans that are pulling out their ABBA Greatest Hits CD today and telling their kids… “this is what mommy and daddy used to listen to in high school”!
August 28, 2010 at 12:00 am
I love these debatable lists! Well done post. I wouldn’t argue with what you or anyone has added to this debate. There are so many tunes that could be added. so I would like to add my 2 cents. “Forever” By KISS is just a Dreadful Song, along with Twisted Sister’s “Be Crool to Your Sruel” Why does that song even exist!! And “Rough Boy” by ZZ Top.
August 28, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Wow… “Be Chrool To Your Scuel” is a disaster! It’s not as if I don’t LOVE Twisted Sister… I have called Dee Snider a “Heavy Metal Warrior” time and again. Dee’s battle vs. the snot-nosed PMRC was historic for America and the entire music industry/world. “Under The Blade” and “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll” are two AMAZING albums for me.
However… Twisted Sister made some bad songs and you called one of ’em out! This song you brought forth was Twisted Sister trying to gain elementary school fans.
“Rough Boy” is NOT the ZZ Top I have listened to with plenty O’ love in my Metal heart for. Another SOLID pick! Ahhhh! Now I’m gonna have this “Rough Boy” song in my head all day! Crap! 😦
Stone
December 15, 2010 at 7:37 am
White Lion – When The Children Cry and metallica are among my favorites too. They are so awesome!