by Alexandra Pollard | Photos by WENN
22 massive songs and albums hated by the band who wrote them
It seems it's true what they say about being your own worst critic
The Killers - Hot Fuss: Brandon Flowers recently revealed that he "can't stand" to listen to the band's debut album anymore. "It's not uncommon for people to hear things about their voice they don't like, or the recordings," he explained. "If you ask me, The Strokes' debut is better. Guns N' Roses' debut is better."
Oasis - Be Here Now: Here's the best review of Be Here Now you'll ever read, from Noel Gallagher himself: "The sound of a bunch of guys, on coke, in the studio, not giving a fuck. All the songs are really long and all the lyrics are shit and for every millisecond Liam is not saying a word, there's a fucking guitar riff in there in a Wayne's World stylie." Tell us how you really feel, Noel.
The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request: "There's a lot of rubbish on ... Satanic Majesties," said Mick Jagger of the band's 1967 album. "Just too much time on our hands, too many drugs, no producer to tell us, 'Enough already, thank you very much, now can we get just get on with this song?'"
Lady Gaga - ‘Telephone’: Whilst Lady Gaga doesn't dislike her Beyonce collaboration itself, she sure hates the video. “I can’t even watch the ‘Telephone’ video, I hate it so much,” she said in 2011. "There are so many fucking ideas in that video and all I see in that video is my brain throbbing with ideas and I wish I had edited myself a little bit more.”
The Who - It’s Hard: Not only does Roger Daltrey not like It's Hard, he thinks it should never have been released. "I had huge rows with Pete [Townshend]. I said, 'Pete, this is just a complete piece of shit and it should never come out!'"
David Bowie - Never Let Me Down: Speaking of his 1987 album, Bowie once said, "Never Let Me Down had good songs that I mistreated. I didn't really apply myself. I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to be doing." Even geniuses get it wrong sometimes.
Lykke Li - Youth Novels: Speaking of her debut album, the singer said simply, "I cannot stand my first album. It is so bad. I sucked." A little harsh.
Weezer - Pinkerton: The album was critically panned upon its release, but has since gained a huge cult following. Rivers Cuomo, though is on the side of those initial critics. "The most painful thing in my life these days is the cult around Pinkerton," he said. "It's just a sick album, sick in a diseased sort of way."
Eminem - Relapse: The rapper voiced his disdain for Relapse in its follow-up, Recovery. “In fact let’s be honest, that last Relapse CD was ‘eh’," he admitted in 'Not Afraid'. "Perhaps I ran them accents into the ground.”
Neil Young - ‘Heart Of Gold’: Though it's one of his most successful songs, Young doesn't think 'Heart Of Gold' is anything special. “This song put me in the middle of the road,” he once said. “Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch.”
Radiohead - 'Creep': After the song catapulted Radiohead to mainstream success, Thom Yorke swiftly began a campaign of self hate - viewing the band as sell-outs for recording the radio-friendly version, which replaced "fucking special" with "very special," and proclaiming that they had "sucked Satan's cock" to gain success. When a fan requested the song - which Yorke had nicknamed 'Crap' - at a gig, he shouted back, "Fuck off, we're tired of it." They seldom play it live these days.
Beastie Boys - 'Fight For Your Right (To Party)': The song was intended as an ironic parody of the laddy, party-obsessed themes of other music, but the irony part was almost entirely lost as the song's success grew. "We might have reinforced certain values of some people in our audience, when our own values were actually totally different", said Mike D. "There were tons of guys singing along to 'Fight for Your Right' who were oblivious to the fact it was a total goof on them." In the liner notes to The Sounds Of Sciene, they wrote that the song "sucks."
The Beatles - 'Let It Be': For someone who preached so much about world peace, John Lennon was a bit of a cantankerous young man. There are at least 18 Beatles songs that he's bad-mouthed, many of which were written by Paul McCartney - but the most famous example is surely 'Let It Be'. "It has nothing to do with The Beatles," he said in a 1980 interview. "It could've been Wings. I don't know what [Paul's] thinking when he writes 'Let It Be'."
Pulp - 'Common People': Pulp's drummer Nick Banks was asked by BBC 5Live if he knew, at the time, that the band had recorded something special with 'Common People'. "Not particularly, no" he answered, plainly. "It sounded a bit of a tuneless dirge at first, to be honest."
The Who - 'Pinball Wizard': This one was somewhat shoe-horned into The Who's rock opera concept album Tommy, which tells the story of a deaf, dumb and blind boy. Despite the fact that it went on to become arguably the most famous song from the album, Pete Townshend described it as,"the most clumsy piece of writing I've ever done."
R.E.M. - 'Shiny Happy People': If the oft-told anecdote is to be believed, R.E.M. wrote 'Shiny Happy People' as a sarcastic answer to their label's request for more happy, upbeat songs for radio. Unfortunately, the label, and much of the general public, loved it. It was one of their few Warner-released singles left out of the greatest hits album, and in an interview with animated talk show Space Ghost, Michael Stipe said, "I hate that song, Space Ghost."
Led Zeppelin - 'Stairway To Heaven': If Lorde hates her biggest song now, we can only imagine how she'll feel when it's 45 years old. Led Zeppelin don't have to imagine. Speaking of their 1971 hit, Robert Plant said, "It's just not for me. I'd break out in hives if I had to sing that song in every show." He also referred to it as "that bloody wedding song."
Lorde - 'Royals': Despite only having had to put up with this song for a few years, it seems Lorde is already kicking off the backlash against her own early music. "It sounds horrible!" she insisted in an interview. "It sounds like a ringtone from a 2006 Nokia! None of the melodies are cool or good. It's disastrous. Awful."
The Smiths - 'What Difference Does It Make?': Morrissey doesn't hate the entirety of this song, but he's made no secret of his contempt for its lyrics. "I find the lyrics facile and mildly embarrassing," he explained. "Had the lyrics indeed been penned by Simon Le Bon, I would probably cover it! As it is, I'd feel too ashamed."
Coldplay - 'Speed Of Sound': The song was developed after the band had been listening to a lot of Kate Bush, and it's suspiciously similar to 'Running Up That Hill' - but perhaps they should have left that particular sound to Bush. "We just didn't get it right," Chris Martin told Howard Stern. He went on to describe it as one of his least favourite songs - reason enough for the fact that Coldplay rarely play it live.
Oasis - 'Wonderwall': It might be essentially all on one note, but 'Wonderwall' remains one of Oasis' most enduringly popular songs - particularly in America. Liam Gallagher is not happy about it. "I can't fucking stand that fucking song," he told MTV. "Every time I have to sing it I want to gag. You got to America, and they're like, 'Are you Mr. Wonderwall? You want to chin someone."
Nirvana - 'Smells like Teen Spirit': When asked in a 1993 interview why he'd left stage without playing 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', Kurt Cobain said, "That would have made everything twice as worse." He added, "It's almost an embarrassment to play it. The reason it gets a big reaction is people have seen it on MTV a million times. It's been pounded into their brains. I literally want to throw my guitar down and walk away. I can't pretend to have a good time playing it."
Despite the fact that it's gone down as one of the best debut albums in recent years, Brandon Flowers recently revealed that he "can't stand" listening to The Killers' Hot Fuss.
He's not alone. Like cringing at an old diary entry, except that diary entry is out in the public for millions to consume, listening to old music isn't always fun. Especially when said music is universally popular.
Here's 22 massive songs and albums hated by the band who wrote them.