self-sabotage on the part of the artist

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How many acts have knowingly and intentionally made a crap record or single to get out of a contract? The only one I can think of is Nick Lowe, who recorded "Bay City Rollers We Love You," but that accidentally became a hit in Japan. So then he recorded "Let's Go to the Disco," and that did the trick.

But anyone else? Neil Young's Geffen years are I guess debatable.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Monday, 30 August 2004 20:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Prince to thread.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 30 August 2004 20:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Metal Machine Music?

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Didn't the Stones do "Cocksucker Blues" to get out of a contract?

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

self-portrait falls uncomfortably astride this category

― amateur!!st, Monday, 30 August 2004 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

BMG's Buddah imprint last year released domestically on CD for the first time Metal Machine Music, remastered by renowned engineer Bob Ludwig, who originally mastered the vinyl album for quad. Reed adds, "And yeah, after 25 years, to have that rereleased, mastered properly, that was wonderful vindication. I'm tired reading that I did that to get out of a contract." source

― Vic Funk, Monday, 30 August 2004 21:05 (twenty-one years ago)

ah....hence the "?" on my post

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:08 (twenty-one years ago)

but see also:
"Well, anyone that gets to side four is dumber than I am" - Lou Reed

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Van Morrison's "Payin' Dues" tapes (a reel of throwaway songs and covers delivered as his final record for Bang Records in '67)

― Doobie Keebler (Charles McCain), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Royal Trux - "Thank You" (as I was always led to believe)

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Marvin Gaye "Here (My Dear)"

(kind of)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 30 August 2004 21:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Thank You is the Trux's major label debut; Sweet Sixteen might be considered a deal breaker by the label, but it's too complicated to be a toss-off by the artists.

― sexyDancer, Monday, 30 August 2004 21:27 (twenty-one years ago)

The Blood Group did this.

(PS - mission accomplished).

― tinycreatures (roger adultery), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Bob Dylan's "Self Portrait."

― shookout (shookout), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:28 (twenty-one years ago)

that marvin gaye album may have been self-sabotage but it certainly as hell wasn't crap. it's a classic.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never heard it, so I can't comment on quality, I've just always understood it was made as part of a divorce settlement type of deal...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 30 August 2004 21:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Libertines new one?

― Jimmybommy JimmyK'KANG (Nick Southall), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Thank You is the Trux's major label debut; Sweet Sixteen might be considered a deal breaker by the label, but it's too complicated to be a toss-off by the artists.

um, yeah, I meant that

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Graham Parker's "The Parkerilla" was famously submitted as a deal-breaker to Mercury.

― briania (briania), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:43 (twenty-one years ago)

here, my dear was indeed the result of a divorce settlement, with the judge pretty much ordering a strapped-for-cash gaye to record an album and give his ex-wife the royalties. he responded with a pretty great concept album about, more or less, how she had ruined his life. if anything, it was her that he was sabotaging.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Teenage Fanclub "The King"

― Russ (Russ), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:52 (twenty-one years ago)

'Sandinista!' was a triple record because the Clash thought that it would end their contract. Unfortunately, it was by albums, not actual slabs of vinyl.

On the other side of self-sabotage (ie, making your music sound shittier deliberately), Mark E. Smith to thread.

― Sasha (sgh), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 00:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Blondie's "The Hunter" comes to mind.

― edward o (edwardo), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 00:14 (twenty-one years ago)

the hard-ons did this to get out of a US deal, but the recordings were thankfully never released.

also: butthole surfers "pioughd"

― purple patch (electricsound), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 00:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"Self Portrait"doesn't count, since Dylan was and still is on Columbia. And, one imagines, will be forever.

Did the Clash really envision "Sandanista!" as a contract breaker? Somehow I doubt it.

Prince OTM, at least partly. He did leave WB a lot of the studio dregs, though he hasn't had enough of a creative rebound since to make me believe he was truly sitting on his best stuff.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 00:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Not true about Sandanista, from anything I've ever read about it (quite a lot).

Also, Libertiunes new album is really fine. Better than their first. The power of the UK backlash never fails to amaze...

― paulhw (paulhw), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 00:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Fred Durst

― matt p., Tuesday, 31 August 2004 01:05 (twenty-one years ago)

not a deal breaker but a final fuck you - the stones delivering "cocksucker blues" as their final single for decca (i think it was decca anyway)

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 01:07 (twenty-one years ago)

that van morrison one is funny as hell

― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 01:18 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.keno.org/stones_lyrics/Cocksuckerblues.htm

Suddenly I admire the Stones

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 31 August 2004 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

also: butthole surfers "pioughd"

Really? I like that one!

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 01:39 (twenty-one years ago)

exactly how was "Pioughd" a deal breaker ?
it was their first for Rough Trade, they made a video for "Hurdy Gurdy Man", and subsequently played the first Lollapalooza.

I actually remember that being a pretty decent record.
certainly better then their last EP for Touch & Go ("Widowermaker" ?)

― Russ (Russ), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah pioughd rocks. It was the first Butthole Surfers record I ever bought.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 03:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I hope the last 4 or so Offspring albums were made to get out of contract.

― Anko (Anko), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 09:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Supposedly Alex Chilton "sabotaged" Big Star's Sister Lovers, but I don't think it was to get out of a contract.

― jedidiah (jedidiah), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 12:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Bad Religion, Into The Unknown.

― mike a, Tuesday, 31 August 2004 13:54 (twenty-one years ago)

The Bonzos - Let's Make Up and Be Friendly
Monty Python - Contractual Obligation Album

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 14:09 (twenty-one years ago)

"Self Portrait"doesn't count, since Dylan was and still is on Columbia. And, one imagines, will be forever.

"Self Portrait" wasn't a contract-ender, though Dylan did jump ship to David Geffen's Asylum Records for one album, "Planet Waves", during which time Columbia released an album of "Self-Portrait" out-takes called "Dylan", which was viewed as retalation.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 14:30 (twenty-one years ago)

retaliation

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

New Adventures in Hi-Fi

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

All Shook Down? Though I don't think that was meant as self-sabotage.

― mike a, Tuesday, 31 August 2004 18:17 (twenty-one years ago)

New Adventures in Hi-Fi?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 18:26 (twenty-one years ago)

RTX handed in Accelerator to Virgin, to complete their three-album deal, and Virgin turned it down. Also, since Sweet Sixteen is pretty much the greatest album evah, it doesn't belong anywhere near this thread.

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorta:

http://www.iamthebeatles.com/article1235.html

(Haha note the explanation ends "The lyrics and music are great, making it one of the more unusual of all The Beatles recordings" -- I'm not quite sure that's what intended!)

― OleM (OleM), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

(unwitting self-sabotage on the part of fanpage writer! oh the meta!)

― OleM (OleM), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

The grandaddy of them all is Phil Spector's "Let's Dance The Screw":

http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/spector.htm

This isn't exactly the same thing, but anyhow: One of the coolest moves was Frank Zappa's. He was in a major contract dispute with Warner Brothers, who were refusing to release his latest pet project. So he did a live show from a California radio station, playing the entire thing live on the air, all the time cheerfully encouraging listeners at home to tape the proceedings.

Can somebody explain exactly why Pioughed belongs here? I still don't get it...

The grandaddy of them all is Phil Spector's "Let's Dance The Screw":

http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/spector.htm

Can somebody explain exactly why Pioughed belongs here? I still don't get it...

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 04:59 (twenty-one years ago)

"Pay no attention to the man behind that curtain! And pay no attention to the redundant second half of that post above."

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 05:05 (twenty-one years ago)

One of the coolest moves was Frank Zappa's. He was in a major contract dispute with Warner Brothers, who were refusing to release his latest pet project.

that would be läther, which warner bros slashed into 4 separate cds (live in new york, studio tan, sleep dirt, and orchestral favorites). depending on whose version you believe, läther was (or was not) intended as a contract-breaker w/ warner bros.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 05:13 (twenty-one years ago)

and he hated the Gary Panter artwork, which is a shame.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 05:18 (twenty-one years ago)

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