Im sure we must have done this before – but after reading the “Definitive masterpieces” thread, I feel I need to play “Humiliation” with you lot. As you probably know Humiliation is a game invented by David Lodge and described in his novel Changing Places, in which a player (English Lit academics in the novel) names a book they haven’t read and gets a point for everyone in the group who has read it – the purpose is to admit to not reading a classic that one would assume that everyone (in academic English Lit circles at any rate) has read. So as proud members of a music cognoscenti of sorts, I can assume with confidence that everyone here has heard Sgt Pepper, Who’s Next etc. My nomination though is – “Close to the Edge”. A definitive prog classic according to some here. Not only have I never heard it – I cant name a single track on it. I have heard Fragile several times, but cant stand Jon Anderson’s voice so never bothered with anything else. How about you? Surely somebody has not got around to Bryter Layter or Sticky Fingers or Automatic for the People.
Music Humiliation
by 151 Comments
Immediately straying slightly off topic.
I have not yet seen Spinal Tap. Yet so many of the gags are in my personal phrasebook.
I’d be happy to lend you the dvd.
As long as you promise to return it.
Oh I have one. I’ve never knowingly heard Joni Mitchell’s Blue. I don’t doubt it’s probably good, but just never got round to it.
It’s not a record you tend to hear by accident, is it? I cant think of any films her music is used in or anything. Has she just gone out of fashion?
Still current. If you watched last week’s episode of Billions, the song ‘River’ from Blue was featured in the final scenes.
Oh really? Maybe I’ve heard songs from it and just never realised.
I’m tempted to say here ‘i will go off and listen to Blue now and see what I think’, but in my experience that always seems to end in disappointment! I don’t know why, but I always feel I have discover music ‘naturally’ (‘organically’?) in my own time rather than because I feel I ‘should’.
There’s loads.
Also Blue. Although I’ve probably heard enough Pink Floyd to say I’ve heard their albums, I’ve never sat and listened to one. Same story with Led Zeppelin albums. Rumours. Any album by (the mighty) Jethro Tull, Nevermind, any Elton John albums, Born to Run, The Ramones first album. Loads of others
It’s a long list and maybe it’s just a generational thing although I find as I’m getting older (almost 50) my tastes are getting broader and I’m reaching back to the 60s and 70s more. But isn’t that the wonderful thing about music, all that brilliant stuff out there and you don’t have to know all of the “classics” straight away. You can just discover stuff at your own pace, and you have to because you’re limited by your amount of free time. I’ll get to them eventually..
All that said I’m probably going to get a proper shoeing for admitting to not knowing those accepted classics!
You can hand your pass in at the door.
Fair enough. Thanks!
You are youngster here, oldman. The music of the sixties and seventies can wait. It’s not going anywhere.
Here’s your coat @myoldman-says 😉
Just turned 41. When I read Best Albums Of The Year lists in Mojo, Uncut, Rolling Stone and whatever else, I recognise the names of the bands and artists, mostly from having read the magazines, but I have hardly ever knowingly heard the music.
I frequently listen to new music, but new as in new to me, rather than as in recently released.
@myoldman
Woah! I come here specifically to not feel old. To paraphrase Norman Rossington,* stop being younger than me.
(*before your time)
Stop being taller than me.
That’s Paul’s grandad! etc.
He’s very clean.
Give us a kiss.
Arthur.
I’ve never heard Norm and Phil’s albums together. I should have kept up with their post-Skynrd output, but The Rossington-Collins band sort of passed me by.
I’ve never made it to the end of a Pink Floyd album…..it’s like listening to paint dry.
I second that emulsion.
It’s been emulsional.
By the time I’d come out of my “Wish You Were Here” immersion, I reckon I was Floyded Out. Consequently, although I have heard “Animals” and “The Wall” a few times, I’d have trouble recognising which of the two albums some tracks are from. I have never knowingly heard “The Final Cut” or any of the subsequent albums. Nor do I have any great desire to do so.
I kind of think trying something and not liking it is a slightly different question, isn’t it?
Like Rumours. I was going to list that here, but then I realised I HAVE tried it and just not been able to get through it. It’s just too soft, too polished. The Chain is pretty good, but that’s about it.
The only time I ever have is when DFB set me homework for an AW podcast. I borrowed Dark Side of the Moon. It was… alright.
I keep getting requests for it at the café, so I’m going to have to bite the bullet and listen to it again before long.
DSOTM is OK but basically it’s a Stereo Demonstration Record for potheads. Timed handily (but probably not intentionally) for when the hippies were junking their Dansettes and getting Music Centres.
My origin story. It’s early 1975. Im 13 years old and had joined the local drama group to be with my mate and maybe get to hang out with some girls. One evening the drama teacher made us do improv to the bell ringing and opening instrumental of “Time”. My young mind was blown. I never knew music could be so goddamn interesting. I bought the album as soon as I could raise the money and became an obsessive progger from that day forth, (which ironically pretty much killed my chances of hanging out with girls). I still love it (but not as much as Wish You Were Here).
I haven’t listened to about 90% of the albums mentioned regularly on here!
I’ve never listened to Wagner’s Ring.
But I have seen the Peter Jackson movie adaptations so maybe that doesn’t count?
This really made me laugh. I must be tired.
I listen to my own ring every day.
BTW, it snowed in the south of Sweden yesterday.
I’ve not listened to Wagner’s ring either and I’ve never (knowingly) listened to yours.
I’ve seen What’s Opera Doc? and that is a work of genius. I don’t feel I need to listen to the original.
While I have listened to many of the time honoured albums in my time I can’t say that I now “know” them. The ones you like deserve a second listen and more if you really like them enough. I was born in the year Sgt Pepper cane out – I love the record but I don’t have an inkling of why it was so remarkable because I don’t have the context.
Is this the moment to say, ‘You had to be there’?
No. Now is.
I’ve never heard any Bob Dylan album. Ditto Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, and Nirvana. Nothing against any of them, just never felt the need to spend an hour or so in their company.
I feel like I should be like Jack Black in High Fidelity- handing you a copy of Blonde on Blonde, ‘it’s going to be all right…’
I’m pretty sure there’d be no Damascene conversion. I’ve heard quite a few isolated Dylan tracks (mostly singles, but a few album tracks too), and found them… OK. Clever way with a lyric, but nothing dazzling. Just… OK.
The problem with Bob Dylan is that most Dylan cover versions are better than the original.
The problem with Bob Dylan is that the cover versions are better than the originals.
I preferred the original version.
Just like when Bob does a live version of something, in fact.
Paul – if you haven’t heard Blonde on Blonde or Highway 61 (or even Blood on the Tracks) you are probably the winner
It’s at least going to be a draw, I’ve never heard any of those either.
Don’t get me wrong, but haven’t you ever at least thought you ought to, just to see what al the fuss is about? You don’t have to like ’em. Or is that the fear you might like?
Mind you, perhaps no odder than me blanking the films of Harry Potter, the Star Wars franchise, Lord of the Rings ditto or anything derived from Marvel comics. (I would include James Bond and DC comics, but we had Bond films shown at school, and I quite liked Superman when it came out.)
This has been nagging at me today, as it’s a fair question that I wasn’t entirely sure of the answer to, so had a bit of think during the day.
Short answer is that I have a rough idea of what Dylan – to use this specific example – sounds like having heard “Blowin’ In The Wind” etc, and decided that he’s not for me. That’s the case with nearly all of the Classic Afterword Canon, I’ve heard enough individual tracks to determine that the chances of my getting anything out of listening to a full album are pretty low.
Despite that it has occurred to me now and then to catch up, as there’s no excuse with them available on Spotify (though that King Crimson album with the scary face isn’t on there, among other things, so not sure how I’d get to hear that?) and I do have folder in Spotify titled (extremely tongue in cheek) “Afterword: Music For Old Farts” that has a load of AW Canon things I’ve never heard (from a quick look, they include “Exile On Main Street”, “Forever Changes”, “Revolver”, “Tapestry”, “Music From Big Pink”, “Astral Weeks”, “Pretzel Logic”, “Hissing Of Summer Lawns”, “Nightfly”, “Rumours”, “I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight” etc) that I have half an idea that I “should” listen to so that I can at least know what you’re all banging on about! Looking at the “created” date for those playlists though, it’s been nearly 3 years and I still haven’t got around to listening to any…
I suppose another point is about there being “fuss” around these albums that might pique my curiosity. In other forums – online or otherwise – I frequent there really isn’t any fuss about the same set of albums. The “humiliation” from the original suggestion would be if I was to come out and admit to never having heard “Surfer Rosa”, “Daydream Nation”, “Loveless”, “Psychocandy”, “The Queen Is Dead”, “Power Corruption and Lies”, “Disintegration” (or “Pornography”), “Sea Monsters”, “Rid Of Me”, “Songs About F*cking” or any one of half-a-dozen albums by The Fall. I guess I’m saying I know that I’m out of step with the general consensus of the AW, and so there isn’t the same peer pressure (possibly not quite the right phrase) to see what I’m missing.
Well, Deviant, that makes two of us. Pretty much, anyway.
I’ve heard all of your Old Farts list but only enjoy three or four of them. I’ve heard lots of Dylan albums but the only one I enjoyed enough to actually buy was BOTT (and Live 1966). I seem to own Blonde On Blonde and Highway 61, despite not remembering how.
I own and enjoy all of your other list, bar half a dozen by The Fall. But then I’m in the AW Youth branch, at a mere 49.
Having – somehow – turned 51 a few weeks back (albeit with the knees and hips of an 85 year old!) the concept of being in the Youth branch of anything is a bit mind-blowing! 🙂
I sort of get that, influences often carved into the malleable soap of formative years, but doesn’t confine you to those corridors endlessly, does it? The example of @Tony-japanese , wetter behind the ears even than your only mildly grizzlednesses, is the proof, shamelessly going back and devouring times long gone, tunes oft forgotten (except by the rest of us).
When there isn’t so much to look forward to, looking back has oodles of unheard variety. The present offers the occasional bit of new that appeals, and I consider myself open, very, to the present crop of jazzers, folkers, and electronickers, ajar to the americaaners, it is just guitar based music that seems to pall more and more. Tho’ Badbea by that boy Edwyn Collins (59) has its moments, often, however, via brass than by (a strangely muted) James Walbourne on guitar.
Not confined, but in practice I restrict myself to only buying what I actually like of the old Afterword Canon. Otherwise my house would be full of records I will never play, in addition to the ones I hardly ever play. So…
Fabs, Kinks, Small Faces: yes.
Bob: BOTT, Live 1966: yes. Everything else: Best Of.
Floyd: no (excepting the DSOTM I bought cheap for the cafe).
Forever Changes, Nightfly, Hissing of Summer Lawns, Led Zep, etc: no.
I’ve tried some of them twice, and they just don’t do it for me. I can usually appreciate why others think they are good, though, even when I don’t much like them myself.
“no odder than me blanking the films of Harry Potter, the Star Wars franchise, Lord of the Rings ditto or anything derived from Marvel comics.”
Very different I would say. Those films are specifically made for children. I think it’s quite understandable for adults to have zero interest in them.
Your name will be on the list!
We live in an age when young boys watch adult films on their tablets while their Dads are out watching superhero films at the pictures.
Bullseye! You are a wag @MoosetheMooche.
Sounds to me as though young lads are doing what they have always been doing. In my day it was all Health and Efficiency nudist mags and hedge porn.
I’ve listened to lots of REM albums, but singles aside have never heard Automatic For The People.
That’s nothing. I’ve never heard Appetite For Destruction, apart from Sweet Child Of Mine, which is impossible to avoid.
Same here….or anything else by G ‘n’ R….
Here you go fellas. Enjoy!
One of THE album of the eighties. Unlike Use Your Illusion it still sounds great.
Automatic for the People is pretty much all singles anyway I think!
Anyway, ssssh don’t tell an REM fan this but the best track from Automatic is the one with no singing, New Orleans Instrumental.
Find the River probably. It’s a completely wonderful album. If you haven’t heard it then do so immediately. Other glorious non single tracks are Sweetness Follows, Nightswimming, Try Not to Breathe, Monty Got a Raw Deal etc.
Surely Nightswimming was a single?
Not to my knowledge. But…Edit: It was released in 1993 as the fifth single from AFTP (Wiki)
I’d assumed it was, because it’s on the In Time compilation.
I like Peter Gabriel solo and Genesis from ATOTT onwards but I’ve never heard any album by PG era Genesis
Selling England by the Pound awaits then sir.
Maybe one day, Twang. “A pleasure deferred…” I hope.
Speaking of which – it was only this year that I listened to Songs In The Key Of Life. Excellent and maybe all the better for hearing it late – the younger me might not have appreciated it.
I also have Tapestry lined up – never heard that album even though I probably know most or all of the songs.
I don’t know loads of the def albums thread, some of which I won’t bother with as the genres are not my bag, but it’s a good check list of other stuff I am interested in.
There’s been a def albums thread? I know I mentioned the Beasties over there, but…
While I’ve heard all the songs, I’ve never listened to the Sgt Pepper’s album.
I’ve heard a couple of the songs from Bryter Layter.
Never heard anything by Nick Drake.
I have – I don’t think the legend and the substance match
Do they ever?
See also: Bobby Crush
I got into Nick Drake in the mid 80s when I were but a lad, and has no idea about the “legend”.
I loved Northern Sky, and when I could get hold of the albums I did. Listened to on their own merits, I think they’re great. Is he over eulogized? Yeah, a bit. If he were still alive, the legend nonsense wouldn’t be a factor. But there’s small Drake-industry that needs to be kept afloat.
It would be easier too do a list of albums I wish I’d never heard……
Not a prog person. Have heard quite a lot of Pink Floyd (early is better) and Genesis (Gabriel solo far superior), but the likes of Yes (awful voice, daft lyrics) and King Crimson (don’t think I have heard a single track) remain mysteries to me. Same goes for lots of folk acts mentioned here and I (generally) can’t abide Heavy Metal, ridiculous hair and grown men screeching in some desperate way about what they are going to do to a particular woman or something. Hideous.
This is why, with respect to those who do, I’ve no interest in the slog of pursuing the “1001 albums you need to hear” marathon. So much of it would be a chore and I wouldn’t get much joy out of (as I suspect) having my suspicions confirmed most of the time, even if the task might throw up the occasional pleasant surprise.
The good stuff tends to find me eventually (often after a nudge from my venerable comrades on this site..)
Also: I think there was a time in my life when I considered myself a music nerd and, as such, felt I was obliged to be, at least, familiar with the important acts, but, older and wiser, I’m happy to admit that my musical map has several parts which just say “here be monsters”…
I went through the 1001 Albums book precisely to ‘discover’ albums I’d probably never have listened to if I hadn’t made the effort. There were, admittedly, a number of bands that I’ll happily never listen to again (e.g. Rush) but the good far outweighed the bad.
If I had been alive when most of these albums had been initially released, perhaps I’d not have felt the need (or I’d have bought them/heard them at the time) Instead, I was fourteen at the turn of the millennium (i.e. when I started buying music) and whilst I already had my fair share of ‘definitive/classic/essential’ albums, I thought this was a good way to listen to the ones I’d not heard.
And fair play to you: I confess to using the same sort of book to brush up on the 50s and early 60s, picking up some grand stuff, tho’ the demise of zippy and mega sync will slow that down, I dare say.
So what DID you discover? Give us a couple.
@neela : I’ll get back to you……
Far too many to mention @neela. However…
1. I discovered that even though I think ‘Astral Weeks’ is terrible and put me off Van Morrison for years, ‘Moondance’ is much better.
2. Sonic Youth were a band I’d heard of, but never heard. I now have six or seven of their albums because of this book.
3. Sly and The Family Stone’s ‘Stand’ was much more appealing than the more well known ‘There’s a Riot Goin On’.
4. I thought the 70s versions of Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits weren’t that good, but liked the suggested albums much better.
5. U2 aren’t as bad as I thought.
6. Slipknot are as bad as I thought.
Have you ever tried Sly Stone’s Fresh Tony? I think it’s miles better than Riot too.
I agree. Fresh Tony is a brilliant album… such a great companion piece to the later work, Stale Kenneth.
Almost as good a Overripe Moose…
Advertised with the slogan, “About to burst!”
“There’s a riot going on – in his head”
Thank you for letting me be Moose Elk again.
Dance to the Moose, hic!
@tony-japanese
1. Got in to Van’s back catalogue a couple of years ago. Don’t mind Astral Weeks, but don’t think of it as superior to a handful of others. Veedon Fleece is a favourite.
2. I never got Sonic Youth.
3. Yes! Agree. There’s A Riot Going On is considered the IMPORTANT album, not sure if it’s the one a prefer to listen to.
4. Tom Waits peaked starting with Mule Variations, though I like pretty much all his albums.
5. Agree.
6. Agree even more.
2. That’s probably the most important thing about this thread. If you don’t get a band, you’re unlikely to feel the need to buy any of their albums just because. On another day, I might not have got Sonic Youth either. On another day, I may understand why ‘Astral Weeks’ or ‘There’s a Riot Goin On’ or ‘Born To Run’ are loved by many.
I have no rapperty hipperty hop anywhere in the house.
I think a copy of the Beastie Boys album….the one with Fight for your right to Party may lurk in my son’s shed junk…no urge to check.
I also note a near total absence of Prog in the racks, a few Floyd discs bought as a job lot on a whim from a carboot….Comfortably Numb is the only thing i’ve aired.
I’ve also noted fretless bass leaves me feeling nauseous.
Rapperty Hipperty Hop – me neither, except the aforementioned Beastlie Boys (one copy each of Licensed to Ill and Paul’s Boutique)
I do own a couple of Bob Marley albums (including Legend (unsurprisingly), a few Trojan Records compilations and some other Reggae/Ska compilations, but that is as deep as it goes.
My Reggae knowledge primarily came from Madness, The Specials, The Clash and The Ruts
Back in the early 80s I lived in a brutal, concrete, council flat complex.
This building system was almost perfect for the unimpeded transmission of low bass….the sort much in evidence on Reggae tracks.
My future wife had just given birth to my son when the blues party crowd moved in a few flats along from ours.
Every weekend twas the same…..Drurr Drurr Drurr…Thwak Thwak etc.
How their mains stood the current draw I have no idea…there must have been a kilowatt+ amplification into some big, big bass bins.
Of course they paid no heed to other tenants….or the police.
When we finally called it quits and moved out I swore I would never play that music on my kit.
Or touch weed.
It’s posts like this that used to really benefit from you typing
FISH
At the end of them.
Yes. I miss that, too.
I’m sure I once owned one of those “Introduction To ..” compilations of John Martyn (I either dreamt it or it has been lost).
What have I missed?
He’s even better than Oasis!
I haven’t heard any ACDC or Guns’n’roses albums and I don’t intend to rectify that any time soon.
Now steady on. Bracketing AC/DC with Guns’n’Roses is like bracketing Jerry Sadowitz with Michael McIntyre.
Who are they?
You wouldn’t know them, they aren’t musicians. (Though Jerry has made records)
I meant all four of them.
Oh sorry, I got the punctuation wrong Mr Stationtostation.
*sits on naughty step*
Oh AC/DC are great. They did some serious filler but a best of is your friend.
Wheras G’n’R are ProTooled 80s parody crap.
An unfunny New York Dolls.
I think you had to be there. I like the odd single but much of it sounds harsh and tuneless to me, though Slash is great.
Slash is like a Saturday morning cartoon version of a rock star.
“Oh look at me, I’m smoking a CIGARETTE. Aren’t you terrified?
PLEASE??”
Yes it’s typically needy 80s rock star but can actually play which is good.
I like to imagine Slash isn’t anybody in particular, just whoever happens to be available at the time to hid behind a top hat, some dark sunglasses and a corkscrew wig.
Ah! The old “isn’t it funny the way Daft Punk (who do all their publicity behelmeted) started up the same year Little & Large’s tv show got cancelled by the BBC?” conspiracy theory…
Behelmeted!
What a time to be alive.
Littler Larger Faster Stronger.
Of course it’s tuneless, it has Axl Rose on it…
Sorry Moose but wrongity wrong wrong. I get that GnR have few fans here but Appetite is a blinding album and Slash is a first class guitarist. I’m afriad this thread is just veering into “if I don’t like it, it’s shit”.
One can really go off a chap.
Oh, how many times have I heard this?
“I can take the endless farting and general pervy obnoxiousness, but your aversion to Guns’n’Roses really takes the biscuit”
*PAAAAAAAAAARRRP!*
That’s what you mean by going off…?
Thriller by Michael Jackson.
Yes I have heard the singles, but there was something like six of the eight tracks released as singles so I never felt the urge to own the album. As a result I have never actually played it from beginning to end.
And that was before the pedo stuff, which is somewhat off putting now.
A friend of mine had a thing about being right on trend and bought the MJ albums as soon as they came out (not something that’s ever bothered me in the slightest) and he might have played it to me but I have never knowingly listened to it, nor do I have any desire to. I know the singles of course.
Don’t think I’ve ever heard any of his albums. Maybe a best of, but that’s it.
I own a Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits but have never heard any of his classic albums from start to finish and don’t feel the need. I’ve only heard one Richard Thompson album in full and despite several goes it refused to grow on me.
There is a huge list of so called “classic albums” that I’ve not listened to. Never sat through a whole album of Led Zep, Joni, Bruce, R.E.M, Van, Zappa, ACDC etc – I might get around to them but what’s the rush? I’ve probably read more about the ‘classics’ in Mojo etc than I have listened to this supposed ‘canon’ of ‘stone cold classics’ that we are all supposed to genuflect in front of and revere. It’s fine to have these tablets of stone (they’re revered for a reason), and occasionally I’ll catch one of them in the right time and place and I finally get it – for instance I didn’t understand ‘Liege and Lief’ when I first heard it but played it again recently and I dig it.
I’d rather navigate my own way through music, and I’m a great believer that the music you really love will find you eventually -my tastes veer around and I just pick up on things as I go along – I’m always happy to take recommendations and catch things by chance (which often happens on The Afterword) – but I never feel obliged to listen to “the classics” or follow those ‘1,000 albums you must hear’ lists. Too much music and too little time – chase down the stuff that really moves you and forget trying to appreciate stuff that doesn’t.
I’m with you Doc. I look through those lists and they are either things I know and like, things I’ve heard and didn’t like, or things I’m not interested in. Very occasionally there’s something where I think “that looks interesting” then forget before I get around to listening to it.
I’m listening to a podcast (occasionally) of a bloke with a guest going through the Rolling Stone top 500 albums and commenting on them. It’s good fun, but guess what, I only listen to the ones where I already like the album.
@Twang What’s the podcast?
Hi @Dai. Not sure how well this will paste but it’s
Check out this podcast: The 500 with Josh Adam Meyers
http://feeds.podtrac.com/f0WGLu_FrDd_ via @PodcastAddict
@Twang Cheers!
Better link!
https://the500podcast.blubrry.net/
This is getting beyond the pale. And I thought I was amongst friends.
I bet none of these buggers have ever heard The Rockin’ Style of John D Loudermilk. Tchah, amateurs.
I’ve deliberately never listened to….
Never Mind The Bollocks
Any Clash album
Any AC/DC album
Any hair metally stuff
Actually…any metal at all really
Paranoid
Nevermind
In Utero
Anything remotely rap or hip-hop
Any Ed Sheeran album
AC/DC’s Powerage features both AC and DC. It’s great.
There are whole areas of dance and hip hop which I know absolutely nothing about. My most Afterword blind spot is that I have never listened to a Steely Dan album and from the little I know have desire to.
Though i know what they are, I’ve got this far without
The Velvet Underground
The Incredible String Band
Eric Clapton
Bruce Springsteen
Bob Marley
Fairport Convention and Richard Thompson
Americana
‘Laid Back’ California – Jackson Browne etc
JJ Cale
Beyonce
Any American rock band after about Nirvana
– friends buy me these albums, I politely listen to them then they go back on the shelf, having had no effect in showing what I have been missing. I go to the gigs. The gig might even be OK. But would I ever listen to them again or buy a CD. Nope – just doesn’t sink in.
I do listen to music that was made after my adolescence: St Vincent, the comet is coming, and pigs pigs pigs have all been amusing me recently.
I also find best of albums are enough for
Van Morrison
Nirvana
Nick Drake (if he looked like Charlie Drake, nobody would listen to him)
The Fall
Recognised the name of 2 acts at this year’s Coachella
I have easily a thousand albums and seen hundreds of bands. Just not the ones everyone else has, obviously.
I’ll get me coat.
Mick Hucknall has done quite a lot better than Nick Drake ever did. Just sayin’….
I picked up a vinyl copy of Stars in a charity shop recently, paid money for it and everything. An absolutely cracking album, and a really great-sounding one too.
My dear, we will again have to agree to differ. I don’t like his voice and he’s a pillock.
However, he gets a free pass for those reggae remasters he oversaw in the 90s.
Oh yes, he gets a free pass for life for Blood and Fire Records.
And for being anti-Tory and anti-Brexit.
And for writing (as a teenager) Holding Back The Years.
He’s definitely a pillock, and my hopes for the album weren’t at all high, but I was happy to have my prejudices demolished.
I picked up A New Flame at the same time, and it’s nowhere near as good, in terms of songs and production.
A New Flame was the big Manchester record of 1989 in the real world outside of the music press.
I seem to remember Britannia Music Club were very fond of it.
Ah, the excitement of getting home to find that some random album had arrived because you’d forgotten to return the Album Of The Month form.
I was terrified of having to either pay for an album I didn’t want, or paying to post it back, so I never forgot to send off the form.
I quite liked the lady in the post office so it held no terrors for me.
I’m agree with mini. Stars is great. The rest not.
I have to wade in to defend A New Flame. A fine album and a fine song too. And as above, if Mick Hucknall had done nothing other than Holding Back The Years, that would be enough.
Commercially, certainly. Artistically, certainly not.
“Mick Hucknall has done quite a lot better than Nick Drake ever did. Just sayin’….” Mostly by not dying.
I have all the early U2 albums; I like them, will happily spend an hour or two- but I just don’t need to… and so around the time of The Joshua Tree I knew I’d withdrawn. U2 though, took off without me- and their subsequent success/critical acclaim- whether it’s deserved or not, I haven’t a clue.
On the subject of not “getting” bands. When he wasn’t an old clueless fool, Morrissey described music played by DJ’s as saying nothing to him about his life. I felt that too – a band singing about American things in an American accent particularly if they’re British – really makes me want to give them a wide berth. Might be why I can’t really be doing with Elton.