The WORST Corporate Rock Song. EVER.

There are quite a few songs that could vie for this title.

One nominee would certainly be "WE BUILT THIS CITY" by the folks of Jefferson Airplane-then Jefferson Starship -then just Starship. Picked by VH1 as the worst song of all-time, citing among the reasons, the fact that the chorus proclaims, "We built this city on rock and roll..." in a song completely devoid of anything resembling rock or roll. It's stupefying to believe that song was co-written by none other than Bernie Taupin, Elton John's legendary co-writer of such poetic songs as TINY DANCER and YOUR SONG.

But we are offering up another choice as the offender of corporate rock sloth and assembly-line music making.

In 1970, Eric Clapton, as part of Derek and the Dominos, put out a song that would become one of the seminal rock and roll depictions of love and longing - LAYLA. This epic track was really two parts, the song LAYLA, written by Clapton and suped up with parts by guitarist Duane Allman, and the piano-based coda, written by drummer Jim Gordon. Clapton heard Gordon playing the piece on the piano and thought it would make an excellent addition to the track, and he was right. LAYLA consistently winds up in the top ten on every annual classic rock countdown.

So, in 1988 or so, when three titans of classic rock, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins(drummer/vocalist from Genesis) and Mick Jones(founder/guitarist from Foreigner) got together to write a song for Eric's upcoming record, we wonder what went wrong. We clearly weren't present, but if we were a fly on the wall, we'd wager a conversation happened that somewhat resembles the following...

"Hey Eric, you know that huge hit you had, Layla?"

"Yeah...?"

"Wouldn't it be great to have another one like that?"

"Sure...but how?"

"Well, why don't we just duplicate that song, I mean, it worked once, no one will notice, right?" "Umm, okay."

And so, one of rock's great compositions was diluted down and recreated in the most blatant example of corporate imagination deficit ever in rock history - and it was called BAD LOVE.

If you examine the structure of LAYLA, which was not the typical pop/rock song layout, it would look like this (we apologize in advance for the technical, music-speak about to commence...):

Instrumental intro with signature musical figure, in one octave then a higher one.

Key Change to Verse I

Pre-Chorus

Back to original key for Chorus

Key Change to Verse II

Pre-Chorus

Back to original key for Chorus

Key Change to Verse III

Pre-Chorus

Back to original key for Double Chorus (dizzy yet?)

Guitar Solo

Repeat Instrumental Figure

Coda in a third Key

Extended solos over Coda music

With the exception of the third verse, which in the late 80's would have made a radio-friendly single way too long; and the return to the chorus at the end, which would be a conceit to the pop music ethos of the day - hammer the hook whenever possible and leave 'em humming; the structure is EXACTLY the same, right down to the tacked-on coda in a different key.

Eric Clapton is one of rock's royalty, and his catalog is a treasure trove of great songs. All of which makes this black eye all the more noticeable as a blatant attempt to capture lightning in a bottle for a second time without any creativity or originality.

What do you think? Is there a worse offender than BAD LOVE? Let us know!

#corporaterock #ericclapton #badlove #layla #webuiltthiscity #starship