2 Well-Loved Songs I Don't Like, and Why
When I give it some thought, I wonder if I'm being irrational and reactionary. But, sorry, I have no love for:
- or -
Why such a hater of two perfectly decent, loved-by-the-people songs?
My Favorite Things is the Pollyanna kid who will not stop pointing out the silver lining. Yeah, I like a crisp apple strudel. Yesterday I even paused to appreciate a few snowflakes that stayed on my nose and eyelashes. But that melody just keeps jumping all over the place with it's gosh darn cheeriness.
No, I don't like the Coltrane version either. (And to offer a little perspective, this is coming from someone who at one time had The Sound of Music soundtrack - minus this song, of course - on her iPod). Remind me, why is it a Christmas song?
Pachabel's Canon strikes me as utterly pedestrian, like rolling a bowling ball down a lane padded with bumpers. If I were to hear it unencumbered by its legacy (a thousand boring, ill-fated walks down aisles, soft-lit jewelry commercials, grating midi files embedded in amateur webpages), perhaps I could appreciate its simple, elegant structure. But no. It just makes me think of everything mundane and middle-of-the-road.
Okay, I have a tiny bit of love for this version.