Some of here are old enough to remember The Ronettes and have appreciated the value of a great girl group ever since.

Girls Aloud are simply the latest instalment in the honourable pantheon of girl groups.

Inverted snobbery and the NME don't come into it!

Nothing sacred about John Peel. Most of what he played was rubbish. I find it hard to warm to a man who called his wife ‘The Pig’. A very poor man's Tommy Vance.

I agree that he is a sacred cow but I do wonder... His show may have unearthed a few gems, but that's probably it: a few. And of those successes (Undertones, Fall, Wedding Present, Joy Division), there are probably other people with a right to claim patronship. And boy did he not play some godawful shite.

Also, didn't he marry a particularly young woman, possibly in Bill Wyman territory?

Their next single is called Untouchable. It's nearly seven minutes of pure amazingness. It's their Paranoid Android.

Not everyone is in awe of their 'talent'. I being one. I can't stand them.

I now await the replies saying their records are pop genius... bollocks they are.

I am not having this 'Girls Aloud are good' shite! They. Are. Not. End of story!

as he made just a few records and they are beautifully written, played and recorded. They were made nearly 40 years ago but still sound incredibly fresh and interesting. John Wood must take a hell of a lot of credit for making Nick Drake sound as good as he does on those albums.

Johnny Cash? Some wonderful records, some OK, some total bollocks. Easy.

John Peel? I liked the idea of him more than I liked his programmes. 95% of what he played was garbage.

Man, he knew how to murder a classic and kept on singing about walking some kind of line, or shooting men in dusty Nevada towns... he's dead, his music sounded dead, and he should have stayed in Fulsom Prison instead of wheeling out horrible 'got god' gospel music in the late 70's/early 80's!!

Cool look though!

have been both criticised and lavishly praised on this site.
And liking pop music isn’t “inverted snobbery”. It’s liking pop music. Not a particularly perverse thing to do given that it is music which is carefully designed to be liked.

Not really a sacred cow cos there's lots of criticism of his output but can't help feeling that at this very juncture in his career, His Bobness could record a disc of throat clearing exercises and universal acclaim would follow.

but a disc of Dylan farting would be a considerably more interesting listen than most of Modern Times.

must be high on any list of untouchable acts, if only because of the iconic position occupied by 'The Last Waltz' and their current status as the well-spring of all things 'Americana'. And of course the Band are to Uncut as the Beatles are to Mojo (as RT is to Word, or at least to this website?).

Despite the sometimes acknowledged late 70s dross, this "behemoth" (regular Led Zep word) always seems to be free from much bashing.

There are definitely two sacred cows in Word circles neither of whom
have ever done anything for me : Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds. There
, I've said it now and await the backlash....

very rarely hear folks 'ave a go...so to speak.

A depressed bloke muttering tunelessly over amateurish and forgettable backing... hmmm, this is apparently one of the greatest bands that ever stood on a stage. I must get my ears checked...

My, the Floyd didn't half come on in leaps and bounds once they ditched old Sid and all the bloody songs about gnomes, scarecrows and bicycles, didn't they?

I don't think they are any sacred cows - I genuinely can't think of anyone who is liked by everyone.

Having said that, I can't off-hand think of any slaggings I've ever heard of Otis Redding or Sam Cooke, but then why would you?

(Hoping that someone will now come and tell me exactly why Otis Redding is shite).

I mean you do hear some criticism aimed her way, but it's usually to do with things in her personal life. Try to suggest that you could cram all of her good records (note 'good', not great) on one half of a C90 cassette tape and you're really in trouble...

sacred cows eh !
just on this blog i give you
Richard Thompson
Fairport Convention and anyone who has played with them.
Clive Gregson
Anyone named Thompson.
Nick Lowe
try saying anything remotely critical of the artists above and then stand well back.

Tom Waits is (in my view correctly) almost universally lauded. Isn't he?

I love a lot of his music, but it's also very overrated. Have you ever seen an article mention his name without saying he invented country rock? I don't get it myself, there's not much rock in there to my ears and it sounds similar to a lot that came before it.

3 decent songs. And one of the most annoying voices in pop.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned XTC yet.

well at least on this blog

Seem to bypass the usual hatred most bands receive eventually.
Not that I'm suggesting that they deserve a kicking.

we hate the bands you love to love and vice versa. Remember what happened to that Sacred Cow in the welsh ashram they made all the fuss about? No, me neither, just the fuss before he faded into obscurity, or death.
(Mind you, if he could sing and is now dead, probably ripe about now for re-evaluation, our 2nd favourite sport.)

It seems when we don't get music, we often assume that those who say it's great must either be deluded or pretending they like it to appear cool in some way. I do try to consider the possibility that people do genuinely believe stuff to be good even though it does nothing for me, and I try to remain open to the possibility that I may change my mind. Of course there is plenty that is truly rubbish, but if enough seemingly knowledgeable or otherwise reliable folk say something's of value I am not inclined to assume crapness just because I'm not getting it.

Then again if we were all to be so reasonable and thoughtful perhaps the lively and amusing rowing, sorry, debating, would suffer. Mind you, the adulation given to Elbow will forever remain a mystery to me, I am sure.

I personally do not wish for there ever to be a consensus on one act in any case and tend toward scepticism when it appears to be developing.

I just don´t get the point of all that whining. How about doing something about all his hang ups instead of singing about how lonely he is. Well, try to meet some people then.

Oh, the complaining is the whole point? Sorry, can´t help you there.

I understand that a lot of people grew up feeling isolated from their peers (me being one) but then we sort of leave our teenage years, don´t we?

From regularly perusing various music message boards, dominated by dad rock types and indie hipster types the sacred cows for both types are:

Nick Cave
Leonard Cohen
Bruce Springsteen
Tom Waits
Girls Aloud
Radiohead

You will rarely get a positive response if you criticise any of them. They can do no wrong.

Don't get me wrong, I love The Walker Brothers and his 60's/70's solo output, he has a voice to make an angel weep, but the ever-more-'challenging'recent stuff is, frankly, painful. I admire him for sticking to his artistic vision, but it does absolutely sod all for me. There is more profundity in 'The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore' and 'Montague Terrace', for example, than in anything he has done in the last 25 years. What's more irritating is that on every new release, the critics all stroke their chins, nod sagely, and declare these works 'the new Scott masterpiece'. Call me a philistine, but I don't buy into this myth.

...Edwyn Collins?

For those who only know Girl Like You, they love him (for that), for those of us who know from You Can't Hide Your Love Forever to Home Again, or at least a fair chunk, surely they/we know he's pretty damn good? Then there's the added bonus of his recent recovery from a brain hemorrhage. That's nigh on untouchable surely?

Not funny.
Shouting.
No ...
timing

..sorry if he's been mentioned already but I've just scrolled down from the top.

Yes he has a certain appeal as a Class Clown and he's been intermittently depressed / overweight / addicted, etc - all of which seems to buy him some sort or credibility as an 'artist', if not exactly a sacred cow. If I went to Butlin's I'd be happy to see him in a red coat performing for the kids, but surely that's the extent of his talents?

Case closed I think..

I think these guys say it best with regard to Sacred Cows:

..that Gram Parsons did wrong was to spawn the dreafull Eagles.
For that crime he should be taken to the desert and.. Oh wait....

...Kate Bush seems to fit the bill?

Lowell George era only please.

is pretty marvellous but also seems beyond criticism. He appears to be a very bright fellow and he's certainly done a lot of extremely good work but his reputation seems to trump any negative appraisal. I'm basically a fan but I think the recent "Everything That Has Happened..." is very ordinary. (Although Eno albums have a habit of doing that to me and then revealing themselves 10 years later, which maybe explains his critical status!)

In today's Independent Jessica Duchen has a go at Handel. This questioning of sacred cows has spread. She says he was the Andrew Lloyd Webber of his day. Both businessmen who knew their market.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/hande...

I'm typing this just after Duchen appeared on Today on Radio4 so you can hear a debate on Listen Again. This item appears around 8:20.

Had to scroll through the list again to make sure I hadn't missed it.

The Fall - fawned over by 'slumming it' Oxbridge types like Stewart Lee. Still unlistenable.

i used to do a piece called sacred cows for my zine...the list included...

john peel - over-indulged public school enthusiast
bob marley - jibbed black radicalism and paved the way for aswad
robert de niro - most over-rated actor of all time - plays the same part (unconvincingly) in every film apart from mean streets and king of comedy
pele - scored about 10 good goals in a career spanning 4 decades
the beatles - only the band the hollies could've been (eh?)
stephen fry - oxbridge comedy mafia bore - not remotely funny or interesting and that's a scientific fact!
nelson mandela - biggest uncle tom since barack obama
barack obama - biggest uncle tom since charlie williams
charlie williams - biggest uncle tom since stephen k amos

Quote from recent Times interview http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/... by Bryan Appleyard:

"...If you like someone, they can say horrendous things because you know it’s coming from a good place. There’s no place for machismo or genuine cruelty in comedy. It either comes from a good place or a bad place. You can’t be rolling in the aisles with a stand-up and you hate him. Why I like Laurel and Hardy is they are precarious and they pick themselves up and dust themselves off."

While his analysis of the wellspring of Laurel and Hardy's comedy is spot-on, I don't agree that this is where his comedy is rooted. I am a fan of The Office and much of Extras, but I fear the source of his comedy, and that of Jimmy Carr, is simply schoolboy 'getting away with it' humour rather than anything more profound. At heart, it's legitimising laughing at minorities more than puncturing liberal pomposity like its American counterparts like Curb Your Enthusiasm.

apols if already mentioned, but does anyone have anything other than love for the Go-Betweens? Perhaps they were never big enough to be considered for sacred status and I appreciate we aren't all going to agree on one act or artist but I can't recall reading anything negative about them for -well - forever.

Not sure about the original comment on Girls Aloud. Initially they weren't rated particularly, the opposite mostly, no doubt due to understandable low opinion of usual reality TV show originated music. I recall Alexis Petridis of Guardian as first one I read giving praise. I think they gained approval grudgingly as records were seen to have quality against expectations. Eventually a certain positive, critical consensus emerged. People who didn't get it then started saying the acclaim was some inverted snobbery, contrived, perverse, cool pose thing. Success (critical and commercial) breeding contempt in this case, as so often it does - especially as many incredulous that anyone could seriously rate this stuff. So not really a sacred cow for me.

Bit late for this now, I know.

Robert Johnson?

I recently discovered a box of old Agfa cassettes, many containing Peel shows from the late 70's which I'd recorded.
Picking one up at random, I played it for ten minutes during which time he played a couple of indie singles, "Waikiki Beach Refugees" by The Flys and something by The Saints.
There then followed an ad trail for some programme which heavily featured the music and personalities of Chic, then enjoying their peerless run of classy disco hits.
Back to Peelie, who sniffily says: "Well this programme follows the one just advertised, and one thing I can guarantee you is you certainly won't be hearing any Chic.
"Now here are Dire Straits...."
In later years I was amused to see Peelie hitch his wagon to any old dance/electronica shite once it became fashionable and I am sure a lot of the stuff he professed to be flying the flag for owed something of a nod of the hat to the mighty Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards.

about my teenage years. In the sixth form rec room a bunch of about four or five of us would alienate and horrify just about everyone else by playing Metal Machine Music, Little Johnny Jewel or a Fripp-Eno album or something equally unpalatable as we listened earnestly and nodded sagely to one another, pleased with how hip we were .
How we would mock the girls and the disco boys who wanted to listen to "Oh What A Night (December '63)" or Northern Soul records.
Of course the girls were the ones who had it right, as is ever the case! I hear 70's disco classics now and they sound far more exciting than Kevin Ayers or Phil Manzanera's 801 ever did.