The Police: Synchronicity - “Mother”
The question is whether “Mother,” written by Andy Summers, is a madcap genius or a rubbish song. It’s quite bizarre and out of step with most of The Police classics. Quirky vocals and a weird rhythm make for quite a jagged and uncomfortable listen as the song plays out to an odd and manic ending.
That answers the question for me: it’s not a good song in my book. It’s just an annoyance on the band's final studio album. By this stage, they’d cut back considerably on the reggae-tinged songs. “Mother” is a step too far in trying something different and apart from a novelty value in hearing such an unusual track from a great band, I'd class it as unlistenable, by their standards anyway.
Guns N Roses: Use Your Illusion II - “My World”
Well, it’s no illusion; the song “My World” is a real track on this Guns N Roses album. Quite why or how it got there is hard to say. One story suggests that a somewhat high Axel Rose sneaked it on without telling the rest of the band. It’s plausible, for sure.
The song is an assault on your ears. Rose doesn't need to rap, it’s not a good sound. The song has, at times, a grunge sound and, at other points, Industrial. Overall, it is just weird. There are a couple of good points, though. It is only just over one minute long and it is placed as the final track on the album, making it so much earlier to avoid playing it.
The Beatles: Abbey Road - “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”
As the Beatles matured and developed their music styles, there were often a few slightly unusual tracks on albums. They were, of course, exploring new boundaries in many ways. So it’s fair to allow them plenty of leeway, especially with so many great songs in their enormous catalog. But “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” may just be one step too far.
No doubt there will be Beatles stalwarts who will defend it to the end of the earth, but when you think that there were many much better songs that could have replaced it on the album, it’s hard to understand why they persevered with it.
And persevered they did; it wasn't quick in the studio, lay it down and move on the song. This one took months to get to the version on the album. Perhaps it was another sign of Paul McCartney's quirky and almost whimsical nature on some songs as it was he who persisted most to get them included.