By this I mean - have you ever bought music by or heard an act that you thought were going to be totally different? In this age of YouTube I know that there’s no excuse, but I still get caught out. 20 years plus ago I was always buying records on hearsay rather than actual listening experience - sometimes it worked out. many times it didn’t.
The Grateful Dead - read so much about what a great player J Garcia was and how they used to do these long jams. Bought a couple of albums (at the same time) and ended up with some hippy styled country stuff. Not what I was expecting. My Chemical Romance... goth rock, thinks I. Guitar based pop as it turns out. Pleasant enough. I assumed The Killers were grungy alt rock. Turns out they sound like The Cure.
I appreciate that it isn’t the artist’s fault, just a consumer misunderstanding on my part.
Over to you and your examples...
Comments
He wasn't.
maybe 35 years ago the BBC showed a series of concerts broadcast live from Germany ( may have been in the Rockpalast series, dunno). Part of the idea, IIRC, was to demonstrate the technology that allowed them to do it. Anyway, due to the time difference it meant these things started at about midnight. So, waiting up on a school night , yawning, and watching the various shows until the early hours. One night this process was repeated for The Grateful Dead . I’d seen pictures - long hair, guitars, skulls; looked like my kind of ( rock) thang. Yep, hippie country noodling. Hated it.
On another forum a long time ago there were fervent admirers of Cardiacs, who I was convinced were a sort of Cramps-like punkabilly outfit, which isn't really my cup of snakebite. When I found out that this is not the case, I became one of the fervent admirers.
That said, I loved that show on the BBC. I was fascinated by the closeups of Garcia's guitar and just watching him playing, even though it wasn't my kind of music. A bit like jazz - I can't listen to it on record but I like watching it played live.
On the basis of three singles I heard on the radio I thought they were good.
On the basis of the two albums I bought I thought they were shit...
The only album I can remember buying without ever hearing the band was the first Tangerine Dream album I had - I'd always heard them mentioned in the same context as Kraftwerk, so it was quite a surprise to find there were no vocals at all. I loved the music though, and still do.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
All my mates raved over Kasabian when they first came out and never really got into them either.
I remember buying a ticket to see Thunderclap Newman back in the 70's, they had a big hit with "Something in the Air" in the 60's and I had seen footage of the band on TV so I thought better than just sitting in the pub. It was surreal, there was just two of them, a big hairy fat bloke sat at a piano and I can't remember what the other guy did. The highlight of the set was a version of "The Old Bazaar in Cairo".
The most boring hour and a half of my life was a concert by the ironically named band Renaissance who I had been persuaded to see by a mate whose judgement I trusted. I renamed them Loadanonssance thereafter.
I've also been hoodwinked by concert organisers many times. Back in the punk rock days it was quite something if the bands on stage actually matched the names on the poster/tickets. Sometimes this was a blessing and sometimes it was weird. I went to see Clayson and the Argonauts once and found myself listening to Alvin Lee. Nothing against Alvin lee but he's about as far from Alan Clayson as you can get.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
When I readjusted my expectations I grew to quite like KISS as that sort of gumball party rocknroll type thing.
Ted Nugent was another - expecting savage heavy metal and got sped up Chuck Berry licks. Again, I quite liked it in the end but the initial listening experience was one of wondering when the actual rock bit was going to start.
Even Led Zeppelin as the Godfathers of heavy metal and I had the dawning realisation that they did a lot of folk rock. By contrast Black Sabbath did exactly what it said on the tin.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I would guess they used an MXR fuzzbox there wasn't a lot of choice is those days was there.
Ironically I think it's better than the sound Justin Hayward in the real Moody Blues used, which was a rare Marshall stand-alone fuzz unit - slightly smaller than a 20W head with similar styling, although solid state not valve.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I know what you mean. The early Kiss albums do sound pretty feeble, not helped at all by the weedy production (without wishing to upset anyone, I've always had a similar problem with Thin Lizzy).
With Styx, the first song I heard was Renegade, which is actually pretty kick-ass... the albums are rather different, but there are some great songs and I do like the vocals (I watched some recent live clips on YouTube and Tommy Shaw still has one hell of a voice).
As for Ted... I think he's best when he's furthest away from that Chuck Berry stuff. He may be an utter dick but Stranglehold will always be an awesome track.
Everyone here knows that Spinal Tap was based on the Ted Nugent band don't they - have I just made myself look an utter dick..?
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein