10 Worst Songs On Classic Albums
5. Iron Gland - Alice in Chains
As grunge started to sweep the nation, many fans were getting treated to rock songs that were a lot more real. Compared to the fun-loving party tunes of the '80s, songs like Jeremy by Pearl Jam and Jesus Christ Pose by Soundgarden were much more thoughtful and dark than you may have realized on first glance. If you want to get pitch black though, Alice in Chains had you covered on Dirt.
Across this album, AOC managed to make some of the most gorgeous vocal harmony parts mesh over the darkest lyrics imaginable, with Layne Staley not mincing words about his fixation with narcotics. Though we do get one bit of levity in Iron Gland, it's not really the most pleasant to listen to. Recorded while the band was chilling out in Joshua Tree during the LA riots of 1992, the crux of this song is just a guitar riff Jerry Cantrell liked to play that drove the others crazy.
After annoying them day after day with this song, Cantrell agreed to put it on the record and then never play it again. Despite some ominous sounds from Tom Araya of Slayer, this is never going to be a Alice in Chains song that really speaks to people's deep-seated feelings. It might work as an interlude, but this is the kind of song that the skip button was made for.