Ask and you shall receive

Charlie D wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 11:46 am

chexmixbreath wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 11:36 am... ex-roommate/partner/friend/etc. grievances that are tied to a certain band/album/song.

Should be a thread.

EDIT: this started here: http://premierrockforum.com/viewtopic.p ... 2&start=70

Pretty sure I’ve ruined GBV for a person or two.

I had a girlfriend who listened to PJ Harvey obsessively during the last couple of months of our relationship. I couldn’t listen to Rid Of Me for several years.

I can’t listen to Radiohead or Morphine due to their association with an acquaintance who turned out to be one of the biggest assholes I’ve ever met in my life.

I’ve ruined things for myself. I have a hard time listening to the first two Calexico records because they’re the soundtrack to my own folly during a particularly rough time in Tucson.

^ That’s an interesting angle.

Feel free to also mention music you all think you may have ruined for others.

Radiohead was ruined by a dear group of friends in my early twenties spanning about 3 years, who I don't even hate at all. Every time I came by one of their apartments where we'd all meet up and hang, a fucking Radiohead album was always playing. Walk right in the front door, and "oh, you guys are listening to OK Computer AGAIN?". As soon as it was over, one of them would immediately grab the iPod and now we're all listening Hail to the Thief or Amnesiac or whatever for the hundredth time again and I'm the only one who's objecting. Loved my friends to death, but I couldn't get down with their weird constant fucking fixation on Radiohead during this period. I would try to show them the badass stuff that Radiohead were influenced by, like Can or Kraftwerk, to change it up, and to maybe broaden their horizons. Nah, not having it, let's put on "baby's got the bends, oh noo" again instead.

All that being said, listening to that recent Smile record made me miss hanging out with these dorks.

I have one.

My wife used to love the song “With or Without You” by U2. (whether or not the song wasn’t already ruined is a valid question, but I will continue…)

When I was in high school choir, my director hammered into our brains that any time you sing a word ending in “t”, followed by the word “you”, effort MUST be made to separately pronounce the words so you don’t end up inadvertently singing “chew”.

As a result, I have a tendency to notice when folks sing “chew”. I often point this out to those around me, particularly if I’ve had a beer or two, by singing along with the song in an exaggerated and I imagine very annoying fashion.

Being one of her favorite songs, and with us spending a lot of time with each other (often not sober), it was inevitable..

“With or Without CHEWwwwwwWWWW…”

“What are you doing?”

“Fucking Bono doesn’t know if he can live with chew.”

“You’re a dick.”

She can’t listen to the song any more.

For a while, I couldn’t enjoy Our Time in Eden by 10,000 Maniacs because my ex-girlfriend played it when we were in bed together. Then she dumped me and I associated it with her and heartbreak.

But time heals all wounds, and now I can listen to it and say, “The album as a whole is too slick and overproduced.” To myself, that is: 10,000 Maniacs is one of those bands whose cultural influence fell off a cliff pretty rapidly after the early Nineties, and people don’t really talk about them anymore. Which I find vaguely interesting, but now I’m getting way off topic.

I can't listen to a record by a former band of mine because one of the members is no longer with us. My partner has music she won't let me put on because it brings back bad memories of serious assholes. I don't have anything like that. I knew assholes that liked some of the stuff I do, but I can separate the music from the rancor.

Had a very intense, whirlwind-type romance with somebody for four months in 2015. She loved St. Vincent, particularly 'Strange Mercy', and to this day, I still haven't revisited that entire record (even though it's fucking great) because of how often we put it on while getting it on. I have zero qualms listening to other St. Vincent records, but that one I'm still not ready to. I've greatly matured and learned how to be emotionally available and to have real actually healthy relationships since then, but I'd be lying if I said that I'm not still processing deep feelings of guilt and shame from how shitty I was to her. So in this case, the music I associate with this person was ruined by my own shitty actions.

Anonymous37 wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 5:46 pm For a while, I couldn’t enjoy Our Time in Eden by 10,000 Maniacs because my ex-girlfriend played it when we were in bed together. Then she dumped me and I associated it with her and heartbreak.

This happened to me in high school in late 1994. I was listening to Bee Thousand nearly on repeat when I started dating my first girlfriend. I was totally infatuated, but we didn't last long. When she broke up with me a few weeks later, I couldn't listen to that album for a while.

The day I bought She Hangs Brightly and was giving it the first spin in my bedroom, my roommate knocks on the door and asks if it’s the new Mazzy Star and can she borrow it sometime. Sure, I said.

A few days later I hear the album playing on her stereo in the living room and think, wait…did she buy it? She didn’t just waltz into my room and take it from the shelves when I wasn’t around. That’s exactly what she did and then she taped it and played it every day for weeks. I never listened to my copy again and sold it.