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"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub" by Apollo 440

"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub" by Apollo 440
"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub" by Apollo 440

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.

1

EmeraldCity4Life said on October 17, 2007:

I don't really see any glaring problems with it. I can see your point in that it hasn't aged gracefully. With lyrics like "rocker to rocker and raver to raver" it doesn't say anything to me other than "let's party."

The jungle beat is decently catchy albeit generic. I wouldn't cast this song off compeltely. Maybe mark the song as average and listen when you NEED a pick me up. The better song from their catalog, which also hasn't aged as gracefully as I thought, is "Stop the Rock."

Here's the YouTube link for the song in question:

2

Erik Gonzalez said on October 17, 2007:

I guess what I hear in this song now is how unimaginative it was compared to some of the other jungle/dub types of the time like Spring Heel Jack, Underworld or Roni Size. Those folks seem to have weathered the ages with a little more grace.

3

cosby said on October 17, 2007:

i remember liking this song when it was on heavy rotation on mtv's amp around 1998 or so - i don't think i've heard it since. i never thought 'stop the rock' would stand the test of time, everything around the 'lost in space' theme was d.o.a. (van halen pun not intended) to me.

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