30 Day Song Challenge, Day 2: Your Least Favorite Song

Ok, so this is another hugely hard question. Like, we could talk what I hate on the Hot 100: anything ever by Adam Levine, Ed Sheeran, Hozier, Meghan Trainor; anything ever related to The Beatles, Mumford/Arcade/Muse/etc…but that’s boring. That’s a GENRE question. I think it’s more interesting to talk about least favorite songs by artists I otherwise like.

The Clash, Julie’s Been Working For The Drug Squad

So, Give ‘Em Enough Rope is maybe my favorite Clash album (perhaps bc it was released just before I was born?). I regularly listen to it, especially “Safe European Home” and “Tommy Gun” (I run to this song at least weekly). But “Julie”? I don’t know if it’s because I heard this song on 97X, a totally totally obscure album cut, as I was driving from Xenia to West Chester, OH on December 22, 2002, and then only to hear the DJ announce Joe Strummer’s death, or if it’s because it’s the only awful song on the album, but, this is my least favorite Clash song.”Julie” is a laid back song that doesn’t particularly go anywhere, and I definitely prefer songs that develop and climax. It is more traditionally bluesy and less punk or rock or hip hop in style, and that’s definitely one of the things I dislike about it. In this way, it anticipates a lot of what’s on London Calling–a record which rock dads seem to agree is the best Clash album, but which I find merely OK. I think Sandinista! and Combat Rock are clearly superior albums, especially with the forays into hip hop with Mag 7, Overpowered by Funk (featuring rapping by Futura 2000, a New York graffiti artist), etc. Or, what I’m saying is: I like the Clash best when they’re a pop band, and least when they’re a rock band, and even less when they’re doing blues. (In that vein: yes, Hard is at least as great an album as Entertainment!; the Tom Tom Club are better than the Talking Heads; late Human League is better than early Human League; Psychic TV is better than Throbbing Gristle….you get the idea. I wouldn’t say this is poptimism exactly; to be honest poptimism feels a lot like post-feminism to me. I think it may be as simple as I just don’t like rock that much except when it is pretty poppy.)