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Fri 12 Nov, 2004 09:49 pm
Have you ever read or heard about an album or song and really wanted to hear it because it sounded like it would be seminal, then bought it and thought 'Gee, what was all the fuss about?'
Here's two of mine.
1)
Seemed like every time I read a respected rock critic's list of all time classics Love's 'Forever Changes' got a mention. So it went on my wishlist. Then I bought it in the mid 80s, sound unheard (the aural equivalent of sight unseen) and put it on the turn table. Trite, pompous and overwrought are the words that spring immediately to mind. Not an album that looks good out of the context (ie time) in which it was created.
2)
I loved a couple of Hawkwind albums, 'Quark, Strangeness and Charm' and 'Warrior On The Edge Of Time' and poring over my chart books I'd see that their only UK hit song was 'The Silver Machine' which actually managed to chart twice years apart. Must be a classic thought I. Onto the list it went.
I bought a live Hawkwind album with a version on it, but it didn't sound good, but the songs I knew didn't sound good either so I assumed it was just a cr*p live album and gave the song the benefit of the doubt. Finally I got to a point on my wishlist where I bought a Hawkwind greatest hits album and finally I got the original studio version of 'Silver Machine'. Turns out to be a very turgid 4x4 rock thing with no discernable hook. Lacks the humour of the Rob Calvert era, and has none of the prog rock inventiveness of Warrior on the Edge.
So what were you sucked into thinking would be good and now you want your money back?
Re: Biggest disappointments
hingehead wrote:
So what were you sucked into thinking would be good and now you want your money back?
Sergeant pepper, biggest pile of crap in the history of music, if I met the guy that took a months pocket money off me for that turkey I'd knock his teeth out.
Oh my. Ill listen a while. I'm curious how old you are hingehead and Don1.
Hi Swimpy,
I'm 56 today as it happens
Jesus I dont like being old, just to elaborate a bit I think most of the beatles music is brilliant but sgt. pepper I feckin hated it.
Dark Side of the Moon. I was kind of expecting the entire "Money", rather than the shortened versios.
Hi Roger - There's an 'entire' Money that's not on DSOTM? Where is it?
The latest Prince album. "Musicology". Didn't move me. And I adore that little man.
I do not know, hingehead. I've looked. There was definately a version with about a two minute instrumental lead in, accompanied by the various sounds of coin and currency. It clearly didn't make it to the CD world. Let me know if you ever find it. I can still do LPs and 45s.
Hi Roger
My copy is vinyl and it has the cash register/coin intro, can't believe they'd take it out of the CD, maybe you got a factory second?
Maybe so. I ordered from Amazon, by the way, but what the heck.
Neil Young's Greendale album. Ugh! I don't mind self indulgence, just don't make me pay my hard earned money for it.
Don1~ Thanks for the confession (and I hope your birthday was happy!) I'm 52 myself. I expected you to have been much younger. Sargent Pepper is a seminal album IMHO although not so much for the songs. Rubber Soul was much more of a turning point for the "psychedelic" introduction. SP represents more firsts with respect to the concept of the album and how it was recorded. I'll stop now lest Igive the impression that I think I know what I'm talking about
hinghead ~ I love Love and Forever Changes
Hi Swimpy - you've got 10 years on me and I think the context in which you hear music is pretty important. I guess that's why Forever Changes means nothing to me.
As far as SP goes it was my first Beatles album, and I wasn't musically aware until 3-4 years after they broke up, so I used to think it was their best. Nowadays I prefer the big medley on side 2 of Abbey Road and while I admire their songcraft I don't think I'd pull out an album of theirs to sit down and listen to (and I've got them all).
I think it's pretty hard for pop music to stand the test of time. We all listen to music through our particular prism.
Yeah but there is old stuff I love, like: Louis Armstrong's Mack The Knife, Kingsmens Louie, Louie, some Chuck Berry, lots of 60s Brit pop. Beach Boys Good vibrations, Tex Beneke's 'I've got a girl in Kalamazoo, As time goes by from Casablanca...
Hmmm. I have weird taste.
Not weird at all. Those songs are all gems. I love the standardds from the 40s and 50s. Tony Bennet still delivers.
"Fly or Die" by N.E.R.D., especially since "In Search of..." was a pretty fun listen.
hingehead wrote:Yeah but there is old stuff I love, like: Louis Armstrong's Mack The Knife, Kingsmens Louie, Louie, some Chuck Berry, lots of 60s Brit pop. Beach Boys Good vibrations, Tex Beneke's 'I've got a girl in Kalamazoo, As time goes by from Casablanca...
Hmmm. I have weird taste.
As time goes by is one othe most beautiful, and for me poignant pieces of music ever. I would say part of your taste was impeccable, not sure about Louie Louie, I get a picture in my mind of a very drunk John Belushi when I think of that
Me too Don, part of it's appeal ;^) oddly enough no version of Louie Louie has ever been a hit in Australia. So as far as I can remember my first exposure to it was in Animal House.
When I was a teen, every local band did a cover of Louie Louie and Gloria. Gotta love em.
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