Music

Guest Blog: Hit Me With Your Best Shot–Some of Rock’s Best Feuds

[Regular readers know that I post an awful lot of stuff on a daily basis.  Occassionally, though, I like to take a break and let someone else have a say about a music topic that’s near-and-dear to them.  This guest blog is by Tal Lavee. – AC]

The history of rock is chock full of well-documented, nasty and vitriolic feuds. After all, the music business is a pressure cooker and many of its denizens consider themselves to be musical geniuses. But there is a fine line between genius and madness, as the saying goes. And when these geniuses are challenged or confined by the limitations of a band, they often lash out.

It’s no surprise then that creative differences or personality clashes within a band have led to some mythical squabbling and infighting – sometimes as big a part of the folklore of rock music as the music itself! Some of the biggest names in rock music have also had some of the biggest battles: Jagger vs. Richards; Daltry vs. Townsend; Waters vs. Gilmour; David Lee Roth vs. Eddie Van Halen; Axl vs. Slash…and the list goes on and on.

But what happens when instead of clashing with each other, contempt is turned outwards towards other bands and/or artists? Since musicians are by nature music lovers themselves, most of them have strong opinions about what their contemporaries are doing. What’s more, the music business is inherently competitive – so it’s easy to see how jealousy, admiration and/or disdain can percolate between bands.

Most “beefs” between bands usually take the form of back-and-forth comments made to the press or on social media. Like in January 2012, when Black Keys’ drummer Patrick Carney took a shot at a common target, Nickelback: “Rock & roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world, so they became OK with the idea that the biggest rock band in the world is always going to be shit – therefore you should never try to be the biggest rock band in the world.” Nickelback took the high road by responding, “Thank you for calling us the biggest band in the world.” Carney would later apologize. In the end, they all made up and decided to play nice. No harm, no foul.

And normally, that’s the extent of it; an insulting, off-the-cuff remark posted on Twitter or made to a reporter in the heat of the moment. Often, there is a subsequent apology. A 2nd-degree verbal attack, if you will. But what about 1st-degree slights or offensives? A dislike or hatred so strong that the invective is thought out well in advance and saved for posterity in an actual song! Unlike an “on-the-spot” comment, you would really have to have a hate on for another artist to actually write lyrics about them. Fortunately, sometimes out of anger comes great art. The following are some of the more notable examples of rock musicians going to war with one another – using their most powerful weapon – their music.

 

THE MOTHER OF ALL “BEATLES”

John Lennon vs. Paul McCartney

The infighting and discord as The Beatles broke up in the late 60s is legendary. Creative differences, business disputes, John’s preoccupation with Yoko Ono, Paul’s perfectionism and growing apart were just some of the reasons given for the demise of the most important and influential band in rock music. But the disharmony between its two founding members didn’t end when the band officially dissolved in 1970. Paul McCartney began the feud in 1971 with ‘Too Many People’, off his second solo album ‘Ram’. In it, Paul takes subtle jabs at John’s role in The Beatles’ breakup and his and Ono’s bizarre political activism – manifested most publicly by their ‘Bed-ins’ in various cities around the world: “Too Many People Going Underground/ Too many reaching for a piece of cake/ Too many people pulled and pushed around/ Too many waiting for that lucky break/ That was your first mistake/ You took your lucky break and broke it in two/ Now what can be done for you/ You broke it in two.”

John’s retort wasn’t as subtle. Known for his mean streak and bad temper, Lennon’s no-holds-barred response to ‘Too Many People’ was the angry diatribe ‘How Do You Sleep’, also released in 1971. While the intended target of Paul’s song could be open to interpretation  (like fortune cookies or horoscopes), John left no question about who his song was about, particularly in the verses (the chorus – which is also the title of the song – is not included here): “So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise/ You better see right through that mother’s eyes/ Those freaks was right when they said you was dead/ The one mistake you made was in your head/ You live with straights who tell you, you was king/ Jump when your momma tell you anything/ The only thing you done was yesterday/ And since you’ve  gone you’re just another day/ A pretty face may last a year or two/ But pretty soon they’ll see what you can do/ The sound you make is muzak to my ears/ You must have learned something in all those years.”

Unlike ‘Too Many People’, John’s scathing rebuke makes very direct and personal attacks at Paul:

  • Belittling the importance of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (considered by many to be The Beatles finest album), whose concept was primarily Paul’s
  • Harkening back to rumours that Paul had died in 1966 and was replaced by a doppelganger, he suggests that Paul is indeed dead (at least figuratively)
  • Referencing and diminishing the merit of two of Paul’s more memorable songs – The Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’ and his solo track ‘Another Day’
  • Referring to Paul’s “pretty face”, he makes light of Paul’s moniker as the “Cute Beatle” and suggests he is all style without substance or staying power
  • Calling Paul’s solo work “muzak”, he echoes some critics’ sentiments at the time that Paul’s post-Beatles work was inferior and fluffy
  • The final line is clear enough – based on his two solo albums up to that point, he wonders how it is that Paul didn’t pick up a thing or two from him during “all those years” of writing songs together.

If Paul’s ‘Too Many People’ was a playful jab at John, Lennon wasn’t amused. He came back and delivered a knockout punch of biblical proportions to McCartney with ‘How Do You Sleep’ – even if it was a really low blow.

 

SOUTHERN-FRIED “FUROR”

Lynyrd Skynyrd vs. Neil Young

Neil Young was already well known to American audiences by the time Lynyrd Skynyrd made him the focal point of their 1974 hit ‘Sweet Home Alabama’. Young had been a member of iconic 60s groups Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – bands that were at the forefront of the peace & love hippie movement. But he gained more notoriety – and critical acclaim – in the early 70s as he solidified his solo career. 1970s ‘After The Gold Rush’ featured a scathing attack – both musically and lyrically – on racism and the segregationist history of the southern United States in the aptly titled ‘Southern Man’: “Southern Man better keep your head/ Don’t forget what your good book said/ Southern change gonna come at last/ Now your crosses are burning fast/ I saw cotton and I saw black/ Tall white mansions and little shacks/ Southern Man when will you pay them back?” In the liner notes for his greatest hits album ‘Decade’, Young glibly states: “This song could have been written on a civil rights march after stopping off to watch Gone With The Wind at a local theatre.”

Young continued his commentary on race relations and the shameful history of slavery in the American South with 1972’s ‘Alabama’, from his ‘Harvest’ album: “Oh Alabama/ Banjos playing/ Through the broken glass/ Windows down in Alabama/ See the old folks/ Tied in white ropes/ Hear the banjo/ Don’t it take you down home?/ Alabama, you got/ The weight on your shoulders/ That’s breaking your back / Your Cadillac/ Has got a wheel in the ditch/ And a wheel on the track.”

Both of these songs were the inspiration for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s southern rock classic ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, from the album ‘Second Helping’. Lead singer Ronnie Van Zandt didn’t like Young painting all southerners with the same slave-owning, lynching brush and stood up for all of the good, decent people south of the Mason-Dixon line: “Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her/ Well I heard ol’ Neil put her down/ Well I hope Neil Young will remember/ A southern man don’t need him around anyhow.” Some lyrics later on in the song pay homage to the all-white studio band of Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama: “In Muscle Shoals they got The Swampers.” The Swampers proved Skynyrd’s assertion that not all southern whites were racists, as they played on hits for black artists like Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin. In fact, Skynyrd recorded in Muscle Shoals themselves between 1970-1972.

Truth be told, Neil Young and Lynyrd Skynyrd didn’t really hate each other. ‘Southern Man’ and ‘Alabama’ versus ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ was more of a spirited debate than anything else. The “feud” between Skynyrd and Young was always good-natured fun; they were actually big fans of each other. Ronnie Van Zandt often wore Neil Young T-shirts on stage and is shown wearing one on the cover of ‘Street Survivors’, the last Skynyrd album before his death. And Young even performed ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ once – at a memorial to the three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd who died in a plane crash in 1977.

 

WHEN THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD

Pavement vs. Smashing Pumpkins

Sometimes making untoward remarks about other bands can be costly. That’s what happened in 1994 when popular Indie band Pavement released a controversial country-tinged ballad called ‘Range Life’, from the album ‘Crooked Rain’. In it, Pavement takes shots at both The Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots – mocking their leadership of the alt-rock movement at the time. STP was too busy dealing with Scott Weiland’s heroin addiction to really pay attention. The Smashing Pumpkins, however, weren’t impressed. “I think it’s rooted in jealousy,” Pumpkins’ leader Billy Corgan said. “There’s always been flak we’ve gotten from certain bands that somehow we cheated our way to the top.”

Specifically, he took umbrage with the following lyrics: “Out on tour with the Smashing Pumpkins/ Nature kids, they don’t have no function/ I don’t understand what they mean/ And I could really give a fuck.” Lead singer Steve Malkmus would later claim that he contemplated removing the lines – but friends in the studio said it wasn’t really an insult – so he kept it in.

Ironically, Pavement had never been on tour with Smashing Pumpkins before. And Corgan made sure it would stay that way and had Pavement kicked off of that summer’s Lollapalooza tour – which the Pumpkins were headlining. He was still angry about it 16 years later; in 2010 he tweeted, “They represent the death of the alternative dream.”

 

ELEGANTLY STATED

INXS vs. Oasis

It could be argued that 90s retro band Oasis were known as much for their music as for their rancor – both internal and external. Brothers and founders Noel and Liam Gallagher were a volatile duo; when they weren’t verbally and/or physically assaulting each other, they were usually in the midst of a mix-up with another group. The most infamous of these sparring matches was with fellow English group Blur. Although largely built-up by the press as ‘The Battle of Britpop’, the Gallaghers were never ones to shy away from both contrived and genuine rivalries alike. When both groups released singles on the same day in August 1995, Blur outsold Oasis. This prompted Noel to hope the members of Blur would “catch AIDS and die”. He would later apologize, although the comment was indicative of the Oasis aesthetic – profane and always teetering on the verge imploding or exploding.

While the Gallaghers were never at a loss for words, they didn’t actually include any trash-talk in their music. But that’s exactly what Australian band INXS did in 1997. In April of that year, they released their 10th and last studio album with charismatic front-man Michael Hutchence. ‘Elegantly Wasted’ – part of which was recorded in Vancouver  – spawned a single of the same name. Officially, the chorus of the song is “I’m Elegantly Wasted”. However, you can also clearly hear the band singing “I’m Better than Oasis” intermittently – instead of the song title – throughout the track.

The story goes that this was a result of an altercation between Hutchence and the Gallagher brothers at the 1996 BRIT Awards. At the show, Noel collected an award from Hutchence and proclaimed “Has-beens should not be presenting awards to gonna-be’s.” To make matters worse, it was also reported that Liam and Hutchence went at it backstage, with the INXS lead singer throwing a fire extinguisher at Liam after the Oasis front-man made disparaging remarks about Hutchence’s girlfriend, Paula Yates.

Uncharacteristically, Oasis never really responded to the barb in ‘Elegantly Wasted’ – probably in part due to Michael Hutchence’s tragic suicide in November 1997.

 

RADICAL REVELATION

The New Radicals vs. Beck, Hanson, Courtney Love, Marilyn Manson

Talk about trying to take on the world. That’s what it appeared The New Radicals were attempting to do with their 1998 single ‘You Get What You Give’, from the album ‘Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too’. Singer/Songwriter Gregg Alexander takes a cynical look at the power of celebrity and the lengths people will go to for fame. In the process, he takes shots at a wide array of popular acts from the late 90s with the lyrics: “Fashion shoots with Beck and Hanson/ Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson/ You’re all fakes, run to your mansions/ Come around, we’ll kick your ass in.”

While the song was a fairly big hit – making it to number five on the British charts and number one in Canada – some of those mentioned in it didn’t appreciate being mocked. Predictably, Courtney Love issued an angry, incoherent response. Meanwhile, Marilyn Manson expressed his annoyance at being talked about in the same sentence as Love. Alexander would later apologize to Beck and even collaborate with Hanson.

In the end, The New Radicals got what they gave – a one-hit wonder that’s remembered more for attacking more popular and successful bands than anything else. 

 

ANGERED ARTISTRY

Rock songwriters get their inspiration from many sources. But when it comes from a distinct dislike of a contemporary, we get some great music – as well as the added entertainment value of a good ol’ fashioned catfight.

Sources:

http://www.complexmag.ca/music/2012/09/the-50-greatest-beefs-in-rock-music-history

http://rulefortytwo.com/secret-rock-knowledge/chapter-8/smashing-pumpkins-vs-pavement

http://www.songfacts.com

[I’d like to add a couple of suggestions:  Treble Charger’s “American Psycho” is rumoured to be a swipe at Courtney Love and there might be a one or two Foo Fighters songs that do the same thing.  Any others come to mind?]

Juliette Jagger

Juliette Jagger is a Canadian music journalist. She is on Twitter @juliettejagger.

Juliette Jagger has 562 posts and counting. See all posts by Juliette Jagger

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