Illustration "The 'Silent Highway'-Man" from Cartoons from "Punch", 1906
Why are songs and albums that are supposed to be terrible so irresistible? Why do people cherish b-side collections and rarities that were never deemed fit for wide release? For instance, I've always been fascinated by a rare creature known as the "contractual obligation album". There are only a few famous (infamous?) ones like Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, Teenage Fanclub's The King, and Monty Python's Flying Circus's aptly named Contractual Obligation Album, but I have a strange compulsion to buy them all, even if they are by definition not worth hearing.
And then there are contractual obligation singles, like the set of songs that Nick Lowe decided to write to end his contract with United Artists, so that he could sign with Stiff Records. For reasons that remain shrouded in mystery, he wrote a set of singles about his love of the Bay City Rollers, the pop group known for "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night!" Nobody is sure if he was being sarcastic or sincere, but, like a lot of cases of phoning it in, Nick Lowe's attempt backfired - "Bay City Rollers We Love You" became a minor hit in Japan, and his stay on UA was prolonged for a while. The songs are great, though, and can be found on a Nick Lowe rarities collection called The Wilderness Years. Here's my favorite - "Rollers Show". (And, even though it should be obvious from the picture at the top of this post, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!)
"Rollers Show" by Nick Lowe
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