3 Times Classic Rock Musicians Called Out Their Own “Worst” Albums

In an industry where egos can certainly go unchecked, it’s rare for a famous musician or band to be direct about their own albums that missed the mark. That’s not the case for the following three musicians, each of which were pretty honest and mature about the albums that they weren’t totally happy with. Though, I wouldn’t say the albums they mention are the worst of the worst. In fact, there’s something to love about each of them. And it’s commendable that their makers were humble about them. Let’s take a look!

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Neil Young, ‘Time Fades Away’

Neil Young once said that Time Fades Away from 1973 was his “least favorite record.” For a musician who has put out as much work as he has, it says a lot that Young was able to pinpoint the one album he liked the least.

“I think it’s the worst record I ever made,” Young said in a radio interview in 1987. “But as a documentary of what was happening to me, it was a great record.”

This record is a live album made up of unreleased material at the time. It was recorded during his tour with The Stray Gators after he released Harvest. Young wasn’t happy with the tour and even went as far as not to release this live album until 2017. I think this is an excellent live album, but I get the impression it was a little bit too personal for Young at the time.

Mick Jagger, ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’ (The Rolling Stones)

This record seems to be a point of contention among Rolling Stones fans. Their Satanic Majesties Request appears to be the kind of record that fans either love or hate. For frontman Mick Jagger, though, his attitude towards the record leans negative. According to him, the album was “nonsense.”

“I probably started to take too many drugs,” Jagger once said. “Well, it’s not very good. It had interesting things on it, but I don’t think any of the songs are very good. […] There’s two good songs on it: ‘She’s A Rainbow’, which we didn’t do on the last tour, although we almost did, and ‘2000 Light Years From Home’, which we did do. The rest of them are nonsense.”

Elton John, ‘Leather Jackets’

Like most rock stars in the 20th century, Elton John fell victim to the inevitable era of doing too many substances. While putting together the 1986 record Leather Jackets, famously made without his songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, John felt that there was a total lack of direction. This isn’t one of the worst albums in the world, but I do understand what John meant by that.

“It was about as close to an unmitigated disaster as anything I’ve ever released,” John said in his autobiography, Me.

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