Music that just passed you by, but you now love

Teetonetal

Last year, I heard of Steven Wilson for the first time, mainly because Dave Kilminster was playing. now I can't get enough, of both his solo and porcupine tree records. I can't quite believe he's been around for so long and I hadn't heard of him at all.

Amazing really, there must be so music good music out there, that just passes you by.

ICBM

Wishbone Ash.

I'd been aware of them since the late 70s, seeing old albums (mostly Argus) in second-hand record shops, but for some reason they never excited me enough to buy one. Not quite sure what I expected them to sound like really.

A friend lent me most of the albums a few years ago, and they're now - especially on Argus, although some of the others are good too - one of my favourite bands of that era. Argus also contains probably my favourite recorded bass sound...

octatonic

Wishbone Ash as well.
Also Widespread Panic, Allman Brothers and Genesis.

Winny_Pooh

Little Feat, probably my favourite 70's band from the US, always slighlty under the critics radar. 

freakboy1610

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Having been vaguely aware of them for most of my adult life I "discovered" them a few months ago after watching the documentary, Runnin' Down a Dream, on Netflix when I was home alone and bored.
 Similar situation recently after watching another doc on Netflix, We Are Twisted Fucking Sister. There was a band that worked hard for it's success.

smigeon

30s jazz - started with a Billie Holiday sampler. Puts 'the music of my youth' (i.e. 70s rock/prog/punk) very much in the shade. 

EricTheWeary

Quite a lot really - the last few years have to some extent been about rediscovering 2Tone, punk and new wave. I heard most of it the first time around but I was either too young or too into Iron Maiden. I have also listened to loads of roots reggae and dub in the last five years or so. Some of it I knew but there was a lot I didn't. 

I knew the name Richard Thompson for a long time, I even liked some Fairport Convention but I wasn't really aware of his solo ( or with Linda) catalogue at all until about three years ago. Wow, he's simply blooming great, I'm about 40 years late catching on. 

freakboy1610 said:

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Having been vaguely aware of them for most of my adult life I "discovered" them a few months ago after watching the documentary, Runnin' Down a Dream, on Netflix when I was home alone and bored.
 Similar situation recently after watching another doc on Netflix, We Are Twisted Fucking Sister. There was a band that worked hard for it's success.

The Twisted Sister film is great, although I remembered them ( especially that appearance on The Tube) there was more to them than I ever knew.

octatonic

Steely Dan too.

proggy

Camel. Although I knew of them in the 70's I never bothered to check them out, when I was introduced to their music about 25 years ago I could have kicked myself for being blinkered.......what a great band.

SidNewton

Bjork. Dismissed her as nothing but a fruit cake. 20 years late to the party but now appreciate her for the huge talent she is.
Still a fruit cake though.

Placidcasual79

EricTheWeary said:

 I have also listened to loads of roots reggae and dub in the last five years or so. 

Please share @EricTheWeary - school me.....

I've been really getting into roots and especially dub in recent years - its almost all I listen to at the moment, but I don't really know anyone else whose into it so its a struggle to learn more - 

Some records I am particularly obsessed with - 

Heart of the Congos - the Congos
War ina Babylon - Max Romeo 
pick a dub - Keith Hudson
Super Ape - Lee Perry
Ghost of Marcus Garvey - Burning Spear (Which I think I actually got off you so thank you very much!!)
Best dressed chicken in town - Dr Alimantado 
I've also picked up some of the Soul Jazz records compilations and an utterly brilliant record called Drum sound by the revolutionaries at Studio One. 

I am I missing any seminal records? Is there anything you think I should be checking out?

kennedydream1980

10cc totally passed me by other than their obvious 'hits'. Then randomly went to see them in 2014, totally blew me away.

EricTheWeary

Placidcasual79 said:

EricTheWeary said:

 I have also listened to loads of roots reggae and dub in the last five years or so. 

Please share @EricTheWeary - school me.....

I've been really getting into roots and especially dub in recent years - its almost all I listen to at the moment, but I don't really know anyone else whose into it so its a struggle to learn more - 

Some records I am particularly obsessed with - 

Heart of the Congos - the Congos
War ina Babylon - Max Romeo 
pick a dub - Keith Hudson
Super Ape - Lee Perry
Ghost of Marcus Garvey - Burning Spear (Which I think I actually got off you so thank you very much!!)
Best dressed chicken in town - Dr Alimantado 
I've also picked up some of the Soul Jazz records compilations and an utterly brilliant record called Drum sound by the revolutionaries at Studio One. 

I am I missing any seminal records? Is there anything you think I should be checking out?

I don't know the history well enough. I knew the Burning Spear stuff for years. The Congos stuff I knew via @Grunfeld on here. Super Ape  and War Ina Babylon are classics even I know that. I tend to just put on streaming stuff by Lee Scratch Perry, Mad Professor, King Tubby and Scientist. They made loads and loads of records,I've no idea which are the seminal ones. The Dr Alimantado one I know via you! 

I've been listening to (punk band) The Ruts recently and as The Ruts DC (after their singer died) they made a couple of reggae based albums with Mad Professor, funny where this stuff turns up. 

Who else? The Mighty Diamonds are really worth a listen - roots with lovely harmony vocals. Culture did some classic roots stuff ( their first album Two Sevens Clash is, I think. their classic), quite pretty melodies with Rastafarian lyrics. 

Bit less rootsy Black Uhuru were the band Sly and Robbie first produced so it's a more modern sound I guess. I love Peter Tosh's work ( I find him much more listenable than his old mate Bob Marley), probably the album Equal Rights but you can't go too far wrong with him. He was obviously going for a  pop reggae cross over appeal at times but there's more political/ religious content on the album tracks. Al Anderson played guitar for him having previously played live with the Wailers, he was an American blues guitarist and I saw him live with the Original Wailers (I think they were called) about twelve years ago and he blew my mind slightly.  

There are loads of early reggae compilations and I've got a few. The Don Letts ones are a good mix and I've got a cheap cd called Punky Reggae Selecta which I must dig out again, it's the tracks that inspired The Clash and I love a bit of punk-reggae crossover (The Clash, The Ruts, The Slits and then the 2Tone stuff and even The Police). 

Some great British reggae over the years as well - seeing Aswad twenty five years ago was a bit of a magical evening for me. But if you don't know the album Handsworth Revolution by Steel Pulse you should, its very much a seventies British version of reggae - almost prog reggae but much more bitter and political than that might imply. There's still a version of the band playing live, I watched their recent Glastonbury set on the TV and it was almost all from Handsworth Revolution. Misty in Roots are still doing the rounds after a few decades and worth a look ( The Ruts song Jah Wars is about one of Misty in Roots getting beaten up by the police at a National Front demo, I'm back to them again...). Prince Fatty is a British producer who does reggae influenced stuff like Lily Allen and The Selecter ( oh and Hollie Cook who I worship from afar; plus her dad was in the Sex Pistols y'know) but has made a couple of solo project albums which are dub influenced (try the album Supersize). 

I don't know much modern reggae,all the dancehall stuff. Chronixx was on Later tonight and him I knew of because he'd worked with Protoje who is a big star in Jamaica who mixes up modern dancehall styles with elements of classic reggae and even ska. There's a lot of hip hop influence in his work and my kids are 'really dad?' when I put that on. 

Must be loads more,I'll probably think of stuff at 3 am. 
No idea if any of that helps! 

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

Wishbone Ash.

I'd been aware of them since the late 70s, seeing old albums (mostly Argus) in second-hand record shops, but for some reason they never excited me enough to buy one. Not quite sure what I expected them to sound like really.

A friend lent me most of the albums a few years ago, and they're now - especially on Argus, although some of the others are good too - one of my favourite bands of that era. Argus also contains probably my favourite recorded bass sound...

Likewise.  I was always aware of them, I was familiar with Argus and I had an old cassette of Front Page News, but I never really got into them until about 10 years ago when I finally bought a copy of Just Testing (which was their "current" album when I first got into rock music).

At that point I became completely obsessed and bought everything they've ever released.  Which is quite a lot, few bands have as many live albums!

They're a very unusual band I think, almost entirely guitar based, definitely rock but they rarely venture into outright heavy territory.  So many changes over the years but I like nearly all of it.

tone1

Didn't you guys watch 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' when you were growing up?....

Winny_Pooh

@Placidcasual79 FWIW I like these in addition to what you have mentioned.

King Tubby - King dub
Peter Tosh - Equal Rights
Ernest Ranglin - Below the bassline (instrumental jazz basically, brilliant)
Patrice - Ancient Spirit (modern mixture of styles)

PM if you cant find these anywhere

Placidcasual79

Winny_Pooh said:

@Placidcasual79 FWIW I like these in addition to what you have mentioned.

King Tubby - King dub
Peter Tosh - Equal Rights
Ernest Ranglin - Below the bassline (instrumental jazz basically, brilliant)
Patrice - Ancient Spirit (modern mixture of styles)

PM if you cant find these anywhere

Much appreciated @Winny_Pooh I'll check those out. Haven't heard of Patrice before. Thanks. 

Placidcasual79

EricTheWeary said:

Placidcasual79 said:

EricTheWeary said:

 I have also listened to loads of roots reggae and dub in the last five years or so. 

Please share @EricTheWeary - school me.....

I've been really getting into roots and especially dub in recent years - its almost all I listen to at the moment, but I don't really know anyone else whose into it so its a struggle to learn more - 

Some records I am particularly obsessed with - 

Heart of the Congos - the Congos
War ina Babylon - Max Romeo 
pick a dub - Keith Hudson
Super Ape - Lee Perry
Ghost of Marcus Garvey - Burning Spear (Which I think I actually got off you so thank you very much!!)
Best dressed chicken in town - Dr Alimantado 
I've also picked up some of the Soul Jazz records compilations and an utterly brilliant record called Drum sound by the revolutionaries at Studio One. 

I am I missing any seminal records? Is there anything you think I should be checking out?

I don't know the history well enough. I knew the Burning Spear stuff for years. The Congos stuff I knew via @Grunfeld on here. Super Ape  and War Ina Babylon are classics even I know that. I tend to just put on streaming stuff by Lee Scratch Perry, Mad Professor, King Tubby and Scientist. They made loads and loads of records,I've no idea which are the seminal ones. The Dr Alimantado one I know via you! 

I've been listening to (punk band) The Ruts recently and as The Ruts DC (after their singer died) they made a couple of reggae based albums with Mad Professor, funny where this stuff turns up. 

Who else? The Mighty Diamonds are really worth a listen - roots with lovely harmony vocals. Culture did some classic roots stuff ( their first album Two Sevens Clash is, I think. their classic), quite pretty melodies with Rastafarian lyrics. 

Bit less rootsy Black Uhuru were the band Sly and Robbie first produced so it's a more modern sound I guess. I love Peter Tosh's work ( I find him much more listenable than his old mate Bob Marley), probably the album Equal Rights but you can't go too far wrong with him. He was obviously going for a  pop reggae cross over appeal at times but there's more political/ religious content on the album tracks. Al Anderson played guitar for him having previously played live with the Wailers, he was an American blues guitarist and I saw him live with the Original Wailers (I think they were called) about twelve years ago and he blew my mind slightly.  

There are loads of early reggae compilations and I've got a few. The Don Letts ones are a good mix and I've got a cheap cd called Punky Reggae Selecta which I must dig out again, it's the tracks that inspired The Clash and I love a bit of punk-reggae crossover (The Clash, The Ruts, The Slits and then the 2Tone stuff and even The Police). 

Some great British reggae over the years as well - seeing Aswad twenty five years ago was a bit of a magical evening for me. But if you don't know the album Handsworth Revolution by Steel Pulse you should, its very much a seventies British version of reggae - almost prog reggae but much more bitter and political than that might imply. There's still a version of the band playing live, I watched their recent Glastonbury set on the TV and it was almost all from Handsworth Revolution. Misty in Roots are still doing the rounds after a few decades and worth a look ( The Ruts song Jah Wars is about one of Misty in Roots getting beaten up by the police at a National Front demo, I'm back to them again...). Prince Fatty is a British producer who does reggae influenced stuff like Lily Allen and The Selecter ( oh and Hollie Cook who I worship from afar; plus her dad was in the Sex Pistols y'know) but has made a couple of solo project albums which are dub influenced (try the album Supersize). 

I don't know much modern reggae,all the dancehall stuff. Chronixx was on Later tonight and him I knew of because he'd worked with Protoje who is a big star in Jamaica who mixes up modern dancehall styles with elements of classic reggae and even ska. There's a lot of hip hop influence in his work and my kids are 'really dad?' when I put that on. 

Must be loads more,I'll probably think of stuff at 3 am. 
No idea if any of that helps! 

Thanks @EricTheWeary I saw Chronixx on Jools tonight too. Prince Fatty sounds interesting and I'll defiantly check out Black Uhuru, Peter Tosh and the mighty diamonds. I have a few albums by Scientist - they're really good. 

Also I can't resist 'prog reggae' - you may be the first to coin the term - it certainly warrants exploration. 

I appreciate you taking the time for such a full answer. Hopefully this good steer will put some karma in the bank for you! 

lasermonkey

I have many fond memories listening to Black Uhuru in the eighties, back when weed wasn't all weapons-grade. I saw them at one of the Glastonbury festivals, possibly '84 or '85. Steel Pulse were on the year after and I caught them as well.
If you like Two Sevens Clash, I'd recommend Harder Than The Rest. They're the only two Culture albums I have.

Teetonetal

tone1 said:

Didn't you guys watch 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' when you were growing up?....

Nope. Not that old!

proggy

tone1 said:

Didn't you guys watch 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' when you were growing up?....

I used to watch it all the time, I don't remember ever seeing Camel on there though. Obviously, I missed a few down the years.