The truth is that sometimes, when you look back, you realize how incredibly terrible a song you liked back in the day actually is. First you see the title come up and think "I remember liking that song!" Then, you hear the opening chords for the first time, oh, 10 years. Finally, shocked, humiliated, defeated, it dawns on you… this song is absolute rubbish. Total, utter trash.
That is the reaction I had this morning to Apollo 440's appalling (no pun intended, really, the song is appalling) "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub." For those of you who have lead long, healthy lives so far without hearing it, I'll give you the synopsis: DJs decide it would be great to take the killer riff from Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love," rip it out of the original song like so much bone out of a dead fish, fuse it unnaturally to a dub-like beat with chinsy bass, and call it good. I think at the time I was still being impressed with any DJ sampling anything identifiable and rockin', so I listened to the song more than I wish to admit and even attempted to convince others of its merits (which, in retrospect, don't exist).
So, I'm left with the memory of bad musical decisions on my iPod… and I'm sure there are many more where that came from, the skeletons in the the dark, dusty closets of musical decisions.