Tim Page's Do Not PlayList

A couple weeks ago, the music critic Tim Page posted a shortlist on Facebook of “perfectly good music that I never need to hear again.” He included Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, acts 1, 2, and 4 of Puccini’s La Boheme, Dave Brubeck’s "Take Five," and the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band.

“I’m a guy in his late 50s,” Page tells Kurt Andersen, “and I’ve been listening to, say, Sgt. Pepper since I was 13 or 14,” Page explains. “I don’t need to hear it again.” It’s not that he doesn’t like the Beatles — quite the opposite. It’s just that he thinks the album has been played to death.

Aural fatigue is an occupational hazard for a music critic. “By the fourth or fifth time I covered Madame Butterfly,” Page says, “I’d said pretty much everything I had to say about it.” (He still ended up covering it another 25-30 times.) But everyone who loves music has some pieces — of good, even great music — that we just can’t bear to hear again.

→ What’s a song or piece you don’t ever want to hear again?
Tell us your pick — and why — in a comment below, and we’ll put together our Do Not PlayList.  Here's what we've got on it so far:

Music Playlist

  1. Astral Weeks

    Artist: Van Morrison
    Album: Astral Weeks
    Label: Warner Bros / Wea
  2. Take Five

    Artist: Dave Brubeck
    Album: Time Out
    Label: Sony
  3. A Horse with No Name

    Artist: America
    Album: Definitive Pop
    Label: Rhino
  4. Canon in D Major

    Artist: Pachelbel
    Album: Classical Classics
    Label: Big Eye Music
  5. Carmina Burana: I. "O Fortuna"

    Artist: London Symphony Orchestra
    Album: Orff: Carmina Burana
    Label: London Symphony Orchestra
  6. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

    Artist: The Beatles
    Album: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
    Label: EMI