Just a bit of fun.
Pick 5 albums that you missed, avoided or passed you by upon release, but are now right up there for you.
My picks:-
1. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
I was too young to appreciate first time around and had been a little put off Dylan by "trendy" English teachers with beards, bad breath and skid marks, belting out Blowin' in the Wind on cheap acoustics. Revisited (sorry) after Blood on the Tracks and discovered it's majesty.
2. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn - Pink Floyd
Loved the 1967 psychedelic era singles Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, but didn't hear the album. Was further alienated later by nerds in the 6th form subjecting us to turgid borefests like Atom Heart Mother and Ummagumma. Then I discovered Syd.
3. The Velvet Underground and Nico
Was completely unaware of them until David Bowie started name dropping them around the Hunky Dory era, as did writers like Nick Kent.
Then Bowie produced Transformer and Lou was reborn.
4. Take it from the man - The Brian Jonestown Massacre.
I was/am a massive fan of the Dandy Warhols "13 Tales.." album and somebody urged me to watch the film Dig, whereupon I became aware of BJM.
I am ambivalent about a lot of their music, but Anton Newcombe has a unique talent for capturing the essence of the music from the era I loved most (late 60's/early 70's) in his songs. Wish he'd never attempted to "do" Syd though. He doesn't have a clue.
5. Reality - David Bowie
Gave up on DB after the mainstream horror of Let's Dance. Somebody bought me Reality for xmas in 2003 (?). Took me 10 years to play it, only to discover a late period classic. Boy do I love this album.
2
Comments
2/ The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
3/ Paul Weller - Paul Weller
4/ Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys
5/ All Mod Cons- The Jam
Be a different 5 tomorrow
I listened to it 2 or 3 times when it came out, and wasn't impressed at all. Then a couple of years later I played it again and liked it more, and then it really grew on me until I now like it as much as Ok Computer
It'll have to be going some for me to rank it alongside OK Computer though.
2. Kate & Anna McGarrigle (1st album) - Kate & Anna McGarrigle
3. Chelsea Girl - Nico
4. For Everyone - Jackson Brown
5. Camembert Electrique - Gong
Took me a while to get used to Jackson Brownes voice. SAlways appreciated songs like 'These days' which were just great. Saw Nico at the Roundhouse. Sang (?) chanted really, a bit like a bloke. Very unique. Took me a while to get into Daevid Allen's weird vibe but worth it in the end. Thought 'Curved Air' was a bit boring at first but grew to love it. Ditto with the McGarrigles. Fell in love with Kate McGarrigle not so much with Anna. 'Mendocino' is just fantastic. I insisted on taking my family there once on a long drive up from San Diego. Well worth it...the fallen redwoods were washed up on the little beach, just perfect for sculptures.
I bought them one at a time in reserve order. At first couldn’t get into them, but after a while each one grew on me.
Really taught me how to listen to music and give things a chance.
2. Glorious Fool - John Martyn
3. Under the Red Sky - Bob Dylan
4. Whatever people say I am, that’s what I’m not - Arctic Monkeys
5. Do the Collapse - Guided by Voices
Oliver’s Army was the first single I bought, with Armed Forces the first LP. Then I got This Year’s Model and spent weeks trying to track down the Watching the Detectives single which had been deleted (remember that? - I never did get a copy). Those songs were so fiery and ferocious and so melodic and angry. I listened to them a lot. So when Get Happy came out which sounded like “EC goes soul”, I just didn’t get it. I picked up the New Amsterdam EP and enjoyed the lofi extras on that more than I did the Get Happy album. I listened to it a fair few times and it clearly didn’t put me off as I then bought Trust and Imperial Bedroom when those came out. I bailed at Punch The Clock. It was only when I bought those classic early albums again on CD (the marvellous Edsel 2 disc reissues) that I listened to Get Happy again. EC’s liner notes explained how he wanted to record a soul style album as penance for an unfortunate racist incident when drunk, and listening again some 30 years later, what a revelation! The fire, the anger, the ferocity, the melodicism. It had been there all along!!
I started listening to John Martyn in early 1981. A friend lent me the albums chronologically and I loved the acoustic jazzy flavours of Inside Out and One World. Even Grace and Danger with its heavier sound was not that different from some of the more fuzzed up songs on albums like Solid Air and Sunday’s Child. Glorious Fool was the first new JM LP to come out since I’d become a fan. Martyn had just left Island Records and moved to WEA, so there was a big push from his new label to make him a rock star, with ads and interviews in the music press. Phil Collins was on drums and production duties, and even Eric Clapton played on one track. First few times I listened to Glorious Fool I was pretty horrified. Collins’ drumming, so sensitive and appropriate on Grace and Danger, seemed clattery and loud, and the raucous nature of some of the tracks disappointed me. There was even a salsa sounding number (Perfect Hustler). It was only when I listened more closely to the earlier albums and then came back to Glorious Fool that I really could appreciate the calibre of
the songs, the raw emotion and sexual urgency, and would now say it may be my favourite JM album.
By 1989, Bob Dylan has been in the doldrums for some time. Empire Burlesque in 1985 had some good songs but terrible production. The less said about Knocked out Loaded and Down In The Groove, the better. So when Oh Mercy came out in 1989, expectations were suitably low. Thankfully Daniel Lanois on production had managed to bring out the best in Dylan, with BD coming up with some great songs and DL a wonderful sonic ambience. So there was some excitement when Dylan dropped Under the Red Sky in 1990. But oh dear, the LP was trashed by the critics and the first few times I heard it I thought it was awful. It was only when I persevered and listened to it again and again that I did a complete 360 and found it to be a fantastic and fun album. The closing three tracks - God Knows, Handy Dandy and Cats in the well - might be my favourite conclusion to any Dylan album. But it really showed me that you can’t judge music on one listen.
Remember all the hype about the Arctic Monkeys with the fastest selling debut album ever - even Gordon Brown felt he had to name drop them. Urgent, hyper, punk flavoured music is right up my street but I didn’t like what I heard (which admittedly was not much) and was determined not to like them. So I never got the album. It was a couple of years later, when I eventually did pick it up and oh my god, my mind was blown. Punky and poetic, tuneful and funky, I had another massive reappraisal, swiftly picking up Favourite Worse Nightmare too which I also loved. I’ve gone on to get Humbug, Suck it and See and AM but I don’t think anything really compares to the thrill of Whatever People Say…..
I borrowed Do The Collapse from the record library (remember those?) in 1999. It was GBV’s major label debut (on Creation in the UK) and their 11th album so there was a fair bit of hype, with the crushed car front cover image being seen all over the place. I liked the first song, Teenage FBI, but the second track (Zoo Pie) just baffled me completely. I don’t think I listened to the rest of the album. Fast forward to 2009 and I had started listening to albums by Robert Pollard (GBV songwriter and singer). RP just blew me away and I began picking up GBV albums, solo albums and side project stuff like a man possessed. Pollard, a primary school teacher for a decade who chucked it all in for rock n roll, has released well over 100 albums - in March this year GBV are to release their 35th album. So imagine my surprise when I finally got back to Do The Collapse and found that it made sense after all. While the album is considerably more polished than some of the lofi and scratchy stuff in his back catalogue it still showcases Pollard’s remarkable song writing talent. Even Glen Campbell covered a song from it (Hold On Hope) on one of his final albums (Ghost on the Canvas).
You've inspired me to check out some of your selections.
I got into Elvis Costello via Watching the Detectives, still have my vinyl 45 in the loft.
Loved This Years Model and Armed Forces but lost interest in him after that.
I call myself a Dylan fan but only have about a dozen of his albums.
Lost interest after Desire, but did get and enjoy Oh Mercy later.
With Dylan - Street Legal, Under the Red Sky, and Time out of Mind are essential. The two folk blues covers albums from the 1990s - Good as I been to you and World Gone Wrong - are also excellent. But don’t believe the hype about his post Time Out of Mind albums. Love and Theft has maybe 4 good songs, but it was then he started doing albums that retread and pastiche 1950s music with a large dose of plagiarism thrown in. Rough and Rowdy Ways is atrocious.