4M views · May 1, 2009 · 2:36 · 0 HN recommenders · 3 mentions · discussed 2015–2022
A clip of "My Pal Foot Foot" by The Shaggs, the 1960s sisters band famous for their off-kilter amateur sound. The uploader credits a Frank Zappa quote claiming they are better than the Beatles.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN links it as the canonical example of music considered terrible, usually with affection or as a joke.
“If you want to listen to The Shaggs”
If you want to listen to The Shaggs: this video Also, someone figured out all of the least generally desirable aspects of songs and made a song featuring those, calling it The Most Unwanted Song: link
“the only mentoring the Shaggs needed was about how to tune a guitar”
It's a strange balance. On the one hand, if you don't start with guidance from a mentor, you'll likely hit a bunch of obstacles because you don't have the knowledge to avoid them. And it's orders of magnitude more difficult to adjust a bad habit than to not form it in the first place (at least for physical habits). So before doing the "chores" one ought to do a sanity check with a trusted mentor. On the other hand, the only mentoring the Shaggs needed was about how to tune a guitar: this video If they had started with a music teacher, there is a 99.9999% chance they would have all ended up playing a tune in 4/4 in the same tempo instead of the asynchronous rhythmic cycles that they came up with. Edit: clarification
“it's amazing how much awful can be packed into such a small space.”
On this one, I gotta disagree with Zappa. It's great in the same way that Captain Beefheart is; which is to say, it's amazing how much awful can be packed into such a small space. "My Pal Foot Foot" never ceases to amaze me, with the depths of fail it accomplishes. For those who have not yet had the pleasure: this video
