I tried, I really tried !

grimtraveller

grimtraveller

If only for a moment.....
So who are those artists or what are those albums or songs that you've spent a while trying to get into, given a good chance, perhaps over many years, but just don't like, no matter what ?
I'm going to kick off with "Revolution #9" by the Beatles. I tried from 1977 till the early 2000s. I listened to it hundreds of times and sorry folks, but it's a load of shit to me ! I like avant-garde stuff, I like free jazz, I like off-the-wall, quirky pieces, but that piece is beyond the pale.
 
Need drugs to understand that song. Or......
Maybe you need drugs to make that song
 
grimtraveller said:
So who are those artists or what are those albums or songs that you've spent a while trying to get into, given a good chance, perhaps over many years, but just don't like, no matter what ?
I'm going to kick off with "Revolution #9" by the Beatles. I tried from 1977 till the early 2000s. I listened to it hundreds of times and sorry folks, but it's a load of shit to me ! I like avant-garde stuff, I like free jazz, I like off-the-wall, quirky pieces, but that piece is beyond the pale.
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grimtraveller said:
So who are those artists or what are those albums or songs that you've spent a while trying to get into, given a good chance, perhaps over many years, but just don't like, no matter what ?
I'm going to kick off with "Revolution #9" by the Beatles. I tried from 1977 till the early 2000s. I listened to it hundreds of times and sorry folks, but it's a load of shit to me ! I like avant-garde stuff, I like free jazz, I like off-the-wall, quirky pieces, but that piece is beyond the pale.
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Kind of Blue got me into Jazz. It was a groundbreaking album and changed the whole ballmark of Jazz playing using modal theory instead of trad jazz. Miles moved it on to another level.
 
grimtraveller said:
So who are those artists or what are those albums or songs that you've spent a while trying to get into, given a good chance, perhaps over many years, but just don't like, no matter what ?
I'm going to kick off with "Revolution #9" by the Beatles. I tried from 1977 till the early 2000s. I listened to it hundreds of times and sorry folks, but it's a load of shit to me ! I like avant-garde stuff, I like free jazz, I like off-the-wall, quirky pieces, but that piece is beyond the pale.
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And this also...

Teentown
 
Little Feet; The Grateful Dead; Christopher Cross; ABBA; Phil Collins; The Police/Sting
 
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David Bowie. I've even had several unsolicited comparisons to some of the songs I've made/cowrote being "very Bowie", and yet I can never really get more than a song or two into an album before genuine disinterest sets in. I'm into prog, and would see Zappa as a slightly weirder comparable, and can listen to and enjoy Frank all day.

Speaking of Zappa, Captain Beefheart is horrible. Objectively, just shit music. I don't care what the average music snob thinks. Again, something I should at least enjoy at an academic level, and have friends who can tolerate it. Big cup a Nope over here. And I'm really not that picky. haha

Taylor Swift doesn't really do anything for me, I heard a song and despite their pop notoriety thought "maybe I need to give her a chance, that was pretty good". But she's a one hit wonder for me, nothing I've heard since clicked. I don't even remember what song it was, I think it was on the 1980-something album.
 
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As for Revolution 9, I never saw it as a musical cut on the album. . . more like an intermission. A similar experience can be had with the opening sequence to the movie Contact.

 
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Years ago I was in a band with a guy that was a total Zappa fan and he had every album. Do you know how many official Zappa albums there are? That would be 62 official albums and he had every one so I was hearing Zappa all the time. I do like a lot of the music and I think Uncle Frank is a really decent guitar player but I could never get past most of the lyrical content or Zappa's vocal style. I had a few Zappa albums on vinyl at one time but I gave them away.
 
Birds sing different songs, different songs for different birds. Not all birds like all bird songs.

It's only birds
but birds are all I have
to make you want to play.

If it sounds good (to you) , it's good (to you)

If music be the food of love, play on!

with regards to #9 it is a tortuous, arduous listen but the fun begins when you start saying #9 and everyone knows what you're speaking of and smiles..Yep we all know that one. we're beatles fans.

Listening to the Nagra tapes in my latest "Almost Beatles" gig is very similar...sometimes it is like fingernails on a chalkboard. But there are those little gems hidden within that make the "work" of listening through worth the effort.

On Zappa 200 motels was a effort to listen through what a bunch of baloney...the takeaway penis dimension

I love One Size Fits All and lots of what's on Freakout

Beefheart Never got it

#9 happened because they could...it isn't anything as a whole but there are many cool musical parts within it...just a blend of bits n pieces...not melodic, no groove...just a mish mosh of odd sounds and words blended with some nice musical bits.
 
I totally agree with the comments about Beefheart. I remember when he got some glowing review about his avant-garde approach to music. He was on a Warner Bros record that had a bunch of their artists. My impression was "this is crap". A friend bought Trout Mask Replica, and was pissed because he had spent good money for it. It wasn't even good for comic relief! $4 down the drain, at a time when $4 would buy you a full tank of gas and leave change for burgers at McDonalds.
 
Wait. . . Wait. . . I'm squeezing out another one . . .

YES - Tales From Topographic Oceans

I bought this album fully expecting to hear some really nice material produced for the commercial market, then. . . nothing.
I listened through completely the day I purchased it, put them back in their sleeves and never touched it after that. That was the most UN-enjoyable album experience I've ever had. That flipped my YES switch off.
 
spantini said:
Wait. . . Wait. . . I'm squeezing out another one . . .

YES - Tales From Topographic Oceans

I bought this album fully expecting to hear some really nice material produced for the commercial market, then. . . nothing.
I listened through completely the day I purchased it, put them back in their sleeves and never touched it after that. That was the most UN-enjoyable album experience I've ever had. That flipped my YES switch off.
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One of my least favorite Yes albums. I don't even have the surround release, and I obsessively collect surround discs whenever they're available.
 
markmann said:
Years ago I was in a band with a guy that was a total Zappa fan and he had every album. Do you know how many official Zappa albums there are? That would be 62 official albums and he had every one so I was hearing Zappa all the time. I do like a lot of the music and I think Uncle Frank is a really decent guitar player but I could never get past most of the lyrical content or Zappa's vocal style. I had a few Zappa albums on vinyl at one time but I gave them away.
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As TAE said, certain Zappa albums fire on all cylinders for me. His '70s recordings seem to be the sweet spot for my tastes, One Size Fits All being hands down my favorite. Over-nite Sensation, Apostrophe, etc have some great songs as well. I'm off to head to the living room to hear the just release Waka/Wazoo surround bluray (very early '70s). Not albums I've heard much of, but sampling songs on the internet peaked my interest. They're likely going to be releasing any of the albums there's functional masters from Zappa's 'golden era' in surround in the coming years, so I'm going to be revising Frank a lot.
 
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