Everybody has those songs that they used to love but just can’t stand to hear anymore. A painful reminder of a previous relationship, an inextricable association with a life-changing event, the simple passage of time — it could be any reason, really. In honor of Creative Loafing’s Music Issue, here’s a brief list of a few tunes that now mean something totally different to me than they did when I originally enjoyed them.
Song: “Opiate,” Tool
Ruined By: My band Smack, and its fans
Method of Ruination: I fronted a grungy-ass band in the early ’90s that covered this marvelous tune, and, obviously, it was better than a lot of our originals. Tool was still pretty obscure at the time, and a lot of folks assumed the song was ours; it became an oft-requested favorite, bruising my fragile ego, cracking my already angst-overloaded youthful artist’s heart and contributing indirectly to the band’s breakup.
What I Feel When I Hear It Now: Wistful nostalgia quickly strangled by flaring embers of bitterness.
This article appears in Dec 9-15, 2010.