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Guess my taste

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Inspired by a throwaway comment by Hedgey on the Who thread, here’s a wee game.

I’ll name three acts I like (somewhat in the same sphere, not totally disparate, just to give a fighting chance). And you have to name three acts you think I also like based on my taste.

Then anyone else can have a go as well.

Otherwise, just ignore and let this thread go to tumbleweed. Who knows. 🙂

My three:
– Tom Waits (late period)
– Bob Dylan (early period)
– Ralph McTell

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Comments

  4. I could just cheat and say Pink Floyd, cos I know you like them. But that’s just spoiling the game. So instead I cheated by looking at Amazon’s “People who bought this also bought…” thingy.
    Tom Waits’ last album brought up The End, So Far by Slipknot.
    Bob Dylan’s first brought up Barn by Neil Young and Crazy Horse.
    Ralph McTell’s Best Of brought up American Pie by Don McLean.
    Then I cheated again by typing your choices in here:
    https://www.gnoosic.com/
    and got Bob Fox. I don’t know if he exists or not.
    Now I’m going to think of my three. I might be a while. I might go for a swim instead.

  5. The thing is you probably wouldn’t want three more the same. I mean you need palate cleansers in music and changes of pace and style. I see a liking for proper grown-up rock music, folky. Maybe Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, The Singing Nun?

    • Joni – nah
      Lenny – one or two songs only, not really a fan
      Nun – yes, very funny

      I’m starting to realise how little music I actually like. I’ve either got niche tastes or I’m just a grump.

      • “I’ve either got niche tastes or I’m just a grump.”

        Please allow me to stride confidently downstage, take a long, lingering look to each corner of the room and, winningly, exclaim in a loud, booming voice (and for the first time)…

        ‘AFTERWORD T-SHIRT’

        That felt good. Now I shall bide my time until I see fit to venture another such intervention.

        Good day to you all.

      • That piece inspired me to dig out Jake in a Box (I’m playing the 4th and last CD now) but confirmed that Jake had a difficult and often unhappy life, which I might now want to know too much about.

        • You say that like it’s a bad thing.

          I’ve played about 5 hours of Jake today, and see where you get the Coward reference from though the more common comparisons are to French/Belgian chansonniers. Certainly literarily, and obviously guitar accompanied, if that’s what you mean.

      • Do you remember (why would you) my piece on Nick Cope, ex Candy Skins now singer of extraordinary children’s songs on CBeebies? I once likened one if his songs to Jake Thackray on Twitter and he was thrilled. If you know Jake, you know…

  12. Hmmmm… tough one.

    Obviously, the immediate instinct is to take it in a Folk direction. Perhaps some Fairport. Maybe something more contemporary – Unthanks? But then, as noted above, you’re probably already all topped up for that genre between McTell and Dylan.

    So, on reflection, the Waits aspect is what really interests me. What does it tell me about your record collection? About who you are as a man? I mean, it’s undoubtedly impressive that you listen to such music, but when we move past that, where does it leave us?

    I’ve given it a lot of thought, but here’s what I’ve come up with, based on your list;

    1. Simple acts of human kindness. Maybe the holding open or a door, or perhaps telling someone they’ve dropped their wallet.

    2. The act of thoughtful chin-stroking. Denoting, as it does, a gentleman capable of appraising the finer things in life, lost in a reverie as he strolls across the atrium of his Mind Palace of carefully constructed, always-on-point cultural artefacts.

    3. Frenzied, occasionally tearful self abuse. Ideally conducted to the accompaniment of the same incense the Stones used when recording Sticky Fingers, an audio recording of Greil Marcus reading aloud, and, in the absolute best case scenario, lingering eye contact with a passing neighbour.

  14. Answers for Arthur, with reasons
    Robert Plant (old croaky voice, ‘interesting’ instrumentation)
    Billy Bragg (bit of politics, gruff voice, guitar)
    Paul Simon (story songs)

  19. I’ve just noticed another recent thread of mine making a reappearance which also talks about “taste” in music. I must have some kind of obsession I haven’t admitted to myself. Or I’m secretly craving peer acceptance or something.

      • I used to keep an eye on a squat belonging to a friend of mine in Dublin back around 1986 while he was over in London. I moved to London in 1987. Anyway I used to wander over occasionally and help myself to his barrel of home brew. Anyway, long before I’d heard of them at all, he left me an instruction to allow Chumbawumba to stay there if they were in Ireland. Mad about trains he told me. I wasn’t to let the Animal Liberation Front stay as they had recently burned out two fur shops in Dublin. Crazy times.

      • If a response to mine, actually yes. By late JM I guess you mean late period rather than his overall state of well-being. I think I do prefer, say, Glasgow Walker to Solid Air.
        Imagined Village are a bit too Dave Spart: too much inclusiveness and right on spirit, hoping that will be sufficient glue to blend the voices of the great and the good with watered down ethnicelectronica. For cherrypicking.
        The pachydermatous ones have their strongest set yet out in a week or six.

        • yes, late period JM, was thinking of the vaguely triphoppy direction he went in towards the end.

          I was curious about your thoughts on IV – my own story is that I bought and enjoyed the first album, then barely thought about them for many a year but will be seeing them next week at Beautiful Days. No idea who is in the line up these days (although Billy Bragg and Eliza Carthy are both also appearing at the festival so wouldn’t be surprised to see either or both of those onstage), reckon it’s one of those that could equally be triumph or disaster.

          • I’m sure it will be OK. I have gone off Simon Emmerson, whose idea it was/is. I loved early Afro-Celts, say the first 4 albums, and then it all went a bit meh. And from a live act of some vibrancy, it all became a bit cheesy ethnographic-cabaret, with more eye for the spectacle than ear for the music.
            Never seen IV, tho’. I suspect a similar dilution will take place, “lets make folk woke”, the guests wheeled on, a bit like Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds. Worth it if Eliza brings along her dear old Dad, who will get a cheer merely for being there, a poor frail old soul since Norma died.

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