top ten overrated prog songs

thehallway wrote: Anything popular that one person doesn't like is overrated (to them). How is anything objectively overrated?          Answer: it isn't. If all people agreed that a particular song wasn't good enough to live up to its hype, then there couldn't have been any hype in the first place, because nobody liked the tune. QED. 'Overrated' and 'Underrated' are purely subjective terms. Ergo, there cannot be a top ten unless they are ranked by how many people find them overrated. In this case, the song with the highest number of people that dislike it would become the most overrated song....... but hang on, if the highest number of people dislike that song, how on earth is it overrated?? Thus, this list is a logical impossibility. / Thread.

I believe that one can use the term overrated in a resoanably objective manner when providing certain frameworks of anlaysis.  It is possible to argue for something being overrated in an objective manner (commonly held in too high esteem) from a particular perspective when working within a specific evaluatory framework.  For instance, let's imagine that a band releases a song that is widely hailed as brilliantly original, then let's say that it becomes known that the band lifted the music from another composer. One could say that it was overrated from the perspective of it being original.  The assessment was inaccurate, and those people gave it too much praise.  Commonly the word overrated is used in a purely subjective manner, but it doesn't have to be.  Or, to use a work example that hits me close to home: Say a certain someone does all (or almost all) of the work and preperation in preparing for an audit, and it goes really well, if not perfectly.  Now let's say that someone who did nothing gets the credit from the CEO and CFO for it while the one who did all (or almost all) the work gets no credit, but instead is blamed for anything that went wrong.  One person is overrated, while another is underrated (and not just for that particular job, either, but this happens again and again).  And I'm not talking about myself....

Slaughternalia wrote: dr prog wrote: genesis-musical box jethro tull-my god pink floyd-any colour you like camel-lady fantasy gentle giant-a cry for everyone magma-mdk yes-awaken van der graaf-lighthouse keepers king crimson-easy money king crimson-fracture I agree with all of these except Plague of Lighthouse Keepers and The Musical Box. I hate Awaken, never got into Magma, and Cry For Everyone is average (for Gentle Giant)

Edited by dr prog - June 30 2011 at 18:42

I think overrated is usually the most popular song(s) of a popular band.  Since not everyone drills down to the back catalogue or to other less popular artists, these songs get disproportionate attention.  And the problem starts when people take these few songs to represent the best of the band or the genre they are playing in.  Anyway:

1. Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb/ABITW...maybe not technically prog songs but anyway the most popular and overrated songs of this band.  A lot of people have heard only these two songs of Pink Floyd and tend to pronounce them as the best Floyd songs. 

2. Porcupine Tree - Sound of Muzak.  Okay, what's so special about this song? I am not a huge fan of PT, admittedly, but off the same album, I think Trains is a much better song. This is so generic and so typical of alt.

3. Rush - 2112. Not their best and pretty patchy, but hey, it's their longest track, you know.

4. King Crimson - Epitaph:  I would not underestimate the influence of the track or the album being that it was released in 1969. But standalone, as a composition, it is not all that amazing but for some reason, it's frequently called one of the best KC songs. 

5. ELP - Karn Evil 9:  Great performance by the musicians, as always, and very interesting in many parts but I am afraid its reputation precedes it.

6. Genesis - Watcher of the skies: It IS a great song but also not quite the equal of Supper's Ready, Musical Box, Salmacis, Dancing, Firth or Cinema Show.  Ultimately, it's a bit too repetitive even if the main refrain is very infectious.

7.  Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick:  Great track and album, one of the prog essentials for sure but I feel too much weightage is accorded to the fact that it's 40-odd minutes in toto.  That is a commendable achievement indeed but it loses steam halfway through before picking up and there's too much reinforcement overall and these aspects are glossed over. 

8.   Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond (1-6):  Oh, how could I forget this one!  More than half the song is a pedestrian buildup moving at a snail's pace leading to weak Waters vocal delivery (which Gilmour improved upon in PULSE) and a saxophone section which, while good, is nowhere near as amazing as it's frequently made out to be.  This is actually one of the very typical examples of overrating as per what I said in the first para and should really be at no.1 or 2.  I do respect Barrett's contribution to the band but don't find it reason enough to endure such an overkill of sappiness. 

9. Dream Theater - Change of Seasons:  Has impressive ideas and, as usual, very impressive playing but overall lacks cohesion and direction.   Sometimes, it sounds almost if as they are trying to accommodate both Petrucci and Derek's strengths somehow (I fail to see what that fusion-like keyboard section really achieves, for instance).

10. Camel - Lady Fantasy: Another great song but feels a tad pale up against the best prog long pieces and epics, a pedestal on which it is frequently put.  Its influences are also a bit too easy to pick up and the overall feeling is of an excellent composition in a somewhat generic style.

Horizons wrote: rogerthat wrote: 2. Porcupine Tree - Sound of Muzak.  Okay, what's so special about this song? I am not a huge fan of PT, admittedly, but off the same album, I think Trains is a much better song. This is so generic and so typical of alt. I'm pretty sure the only thing that makes that song really stand out, atleast to me, is the drumming.

I do like the drumming very much, as with most of the stuff Harrison does.

Horizons wrote: rogerthat wrote: 2. Porcupine Tree - Sound of Muzak.  Okay, what's so special about this song? I am not a huge fan of PT, admittedly, but off the same album, I think Trains is a much better song. This is so generic and so typical of alt. I'm pretty sure the only thing that makes that song really stand out, atleast to me, is the drumming.

Slaughternalia wrote: ExittheLemming wrote: Here's a list of songs/pieces that I believe are very highly regarded by many prog fans but leave me completely cold (I guess it's my loss c/f nacrissistic w***kery) 1 - Close to the Edge Yes - the string of pearls that dreamed of being a diamond tiara 2 - Thick As a Brick Tull - the parody that came to represent what is being parodied 3 - Arrow VDGG - the tortured artist bites the hand that feeds him 4 - Moonchild  Crimson - stoned hippy amateurish noodling 5 - Echoes Floyd - stoned hippy professional noodling 6 - Lizard Crimson - how to stretch going from straight to swung time in 20 minutes 7 - In My Time of Dying Zep - gives 'interminable dirges' a bad name 8 - Interstellar Overdrive Floyd - good loving home required for affectionate little orphan riff 9 - Formentera Lady Crimson - stoned hippy semi pro noodling 10 - Elektrolurch Mutation Guru Guru - smug hippy garbage If anyone feels sufficiently narcissistic today, head over to the Rogues Gallery thread and indulge yourselves. Get the hand lotion ready fellas.... Nobody likes Moonchild

Actaully my fave off the album, so there!

The_Jester wrote: Fly From Here Fly From Here Fly From Here Fly From Here Fly From Here Fly From Here Fly From Here

That album hasn't even been officially released in the US yet. How can it possibly qualify for this list? Nobody's heralding it as a masterpiece.

Moogtron III wrote: Slaughternalia wrote: Nobody likes Moonchild     It's like Odysseus and the cyclops.    There are more Nobody's on this site that you might think

  

Moogtron III wrote: Slaughternalia wrote: Nobody likes Moonchild     It's like Odysseus and the cyclops.    There are more Nobody's on this site that you might think

I love Moonchild. It's my least favourite off of the album, but I think it's great.

with painful honesty, i must say i don't think any of the songs on King Crimson's Red album are all that special at all