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Neil Patrick Harris on Britney

Posted May 7th 2008 4:30PM by Kim Davis
Filed under: The Hit List

"She wore big sunglasses the whole time. She seems like a very fragile, kind of complicated person ..."

- Neil Patrick Harris, April 2008

Rockin' Gay Moments: Dusty Springfield

Posted May 5th 2008 7:00PM by Spinner Staff
Filed under: The Hit List

Dusty Digs 'Em Both

During an interview with the London Evening Standard in 1970, the "White Queen of Soul" bravely revealed, "I'm perfectly as capable of being swayed by a girl as by a boy." The beehived bisexual, with a penchant for gowns and heavy eyeliner, forever solidified herself not only as a gay icon but also as a fashion inspiration to drag queens everywhere.

Rockin' Gay Moments: Rob Halford

Posted May 5th 2008 7:00PM by Spinner Staff
Filed under: The Hit List

Halford Hails Homosexuality

After years of speculation, the Judas Priest frontman became the first heavy metal star to publicly declare his homosexuality during an interview with MTV in 1998. "I think that most people know that I've been a gay man all of my life," Halford said. "It's something that I've been comfortable with forever, something that I feel has a moment, and this is the moment to discuss it and to go into the reasons, and the whys and the wherefores as to the statement, the so-called coming-out phase." Now that's punk rock.

Rockin' Gay Moments: Pete Wentz

Posted May 5th 2008 7:00PM by Spinner Staff
Filed under: The Hit List

Pete Wentz Wants It All

For most of his career as one of the most ubiquitous celebrities to ever give Paris Hilton a run for her money, it has been unclear what the Fall Out Boy bassist wants in a partner. In March, 2007, he told Blender, "I'll kiss anybody ... I have [kissed boys]. Anybody above the waist is totally fair game." Later the same year, Wentz denied being 100% gay but insisted, "there's part of me that wishes I was gay." At least his engagement to Ashlee Simspon helped clear things up ... right?

Rockin' Gay Moments: Bradford Cox

Posted May 5th 2008 7:00PM by Spinner Staff
Filed under: The Hit List

Cox Credits Cobain for Clarity

In addition to admitting his love for guitarist Lockett Pundt (to whom he dedicated his solo project Atlas Sound's first CD) and being publicly, uh, "serviced" at a concert in 2007 by another of his bandmates, Deerhunter's frontman confided to Spin in April 2008, "I'm a 26-year-old virgin who eats barbecue and watches Braves games. Krist Novoselic and Kurt Cobain kissed, and Kurt wore dresses," he said. "There's no way to overestimate the influence [Nirvana] had on me."

Rockin' Gay Moments: Alanis Morissette

Posted May 5th 2008 7:00PM by Spinner Staff
Filed under: The Hit List

Rock 'n' roll has always been a great way to get girls -- or boys, regardless of your gender. Here are rock's most out-loud-and-proudest moments.

Alanis Smooches 'Sex' Star

In 2004, Morissette locked lips with the sharpest-dressed sexual icon this side of the millennium, Carrie Bradshaw, on an episode of 'Sex and the City,' popularizing the girl crush among straight women 'round the world. "It was fun," Morissette, who has described herself as bisexual, said. "I loosely call it acting, 'cause I feel like I was just in this environment privileged to see how these three people work together and interacted."

Bad Songs by Good Bands: No. 20

Posted May 5th 2008 5:00PM by Spinner Staff
Filed under: The Hit List

If a performer sticks around long enough, even the truly great ones can't help but crank out a serious clunker, leaving fans in despair. What follows is the musical moments those otherwise capable artists should have kept to themselves, for our sake.

'Rapture'
--Blondie (1980)

For shame that it took a statuesque blonde to break rap music into the American mainstream. Whatever the hell Debbie Harry was "rapping" about -- a man from Mars, eating cars, don't strain your brain -- by rights her rhyming dictionaries should've been confiscated. 'Rapture' was doubly cursed when it reappeared in a 2005 mash-up with the Doors' bloated 'Riders on the Storm.'

Bad Songs by Good Bands: No. 19

Posted May 5th 2008 5:00PM by Spinner Staff
Filed under: The Hit List

'Who Are You?'
--The Who (1978)

No, a flock of barn owls didn't escape into a recording studio. This title track was evidently hatched when Pete Townshend was double-dared into seeing how many times he can make Roger Daltrey say the band's name in the song's 6 minutes and 16 seconds. Let's just say it reaches triple digits. And those of you who thought you'd get off easy with the single-version "edit" -- that goes on for 5:06.

Bad Songs by Good Bands: No. 18

Posted May 5th 2008 5:00PM by Spinner Staff
Filed under: The Hit List

'Stand'
--R.E.M. (1988)

The beloved Athens, Ga. band really stopped giving it the old college try with this inane dance instructional. Pop music being what it is, these melancholy babies had one of their first big hits with this self-consciously annoying, frivolous song. "Think about direction, wonder why you haven't before," Michael Stipe sings. Ironically, this was the moment his band began to lose its way.

Bad Songs by Good Bands: No. 17

Posted May 5th 2008 5:00PM by Spinner Staff
Filed under: The Hit List

'November Rain'
--Guns N' Roses (1991)

Nearly nine minutes long, this overstuffed bag of cliches holds the dubious distinction of being the longest song to make the Billboard Top 20. Talk about prolonging the agony: Axl plays piano! Axl with strings! Axl gets married! Axl gets wet! The ratio of bad ideas to ideas in general is a perfect 1:1.

Bad Songs by Good Bands: No. 16

Posted May 5th 2008 5:00PM by Spinner Staff
Filed under: The Hit List

'Beverly Hills'
--Weezer (2005)

Rivers Cuomo swears he was being sincere when he wrote this ode to the celebrity lifestyle. All those movie stars – so beautiful and clean! The white-guy rap, the talk box, the suck-up to the stars: Fans of regular-guy rockers haven't felt so betrayed since the Boss moved to, uh, Beverly Hills.


Bad Songs by Good Bands: No. 15

Posted May 5th 2008 5:00PM by Spinner Staff
Filed under: The Hit List

'I Don't Want to Miss a Thing'
--Aerosmith (1998)

Hard rock bands can usually be forgiven when they power up the old power ballad. Hey, dudes do like the ladies. But Aerosmith really got their lady on when they teamed with shameless song peddler Diane Warren, who once admitted the song was originally intended for Celine Dion.

Bad Songs by Good Bands: No. 14

Posted May 5th 2008 5:00PM by Spinner Staff
Filed under: The Hit List

'Just Can't Get Enough'
--Depeche Mode (1982)

The difference between simple and simplistic is spelled out in this electropop bauble, which couples lyrical platitudes with an incessant duh-duh-duh-dit-di-di-di-dit synthesizer riff that turns out to be Morse Code for "Save Our Song." Vince Clarke, who wrote 'Enough,' soon left the group, saying he didn't like the direction it was going in -- namely toward well-written, commercially and critically successful music.

Bad Songs by Good Bands: No. 13

Posted May 5th 2008 5:00PM by Spinner Staff
Filed under: The Hit List

'Rape Me'
--Nirvana (1993)

With its look-at-me outrageous title begging to be misinterpreted, Kurt Cobain and his unhelpfully obtuse lyrics managed to alienate the women he claimed to write this song in solidarity of. The big box stores refused to stock 'In Utero' on its shelves until Cobain agreed to change the track's name to 'Waif Me.' It says a lot when Wal-Mart's censorious meddling actually improves a song.

Bad Songs by Good Bands: No. 12

Posted May 5th 2008 5:00PM by Spinner Staff
Filed under: The Hit List

'50 Ways to Leave Your Lover'
--Paul Simon (1975)

More than 30 years after the fact, we still can't believe Paul Simon -- he of ye olde 'Scarborough Fair' -- deigned to bring the funk. And what weak, watery funk it was, with that insipid, jive-talkin' litany of breakup ploys: Slip out the back, Jack. Make a new plan, Stan. Hop off the bus, Gus ... Drives us up the wall, Paul!

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