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What classic album have you only got round to hearing recently?

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When it comes so-called ‘classic’ albums I assume that they’ll find me eventually, perhaps via an article or a review, or maybe a chance discovery in a chazza, ye olde recorde shoppe or boot sale. Sometimes it’s a case of wondering what all the fuss was about, but every so often one will knock me little socks right off and I’ll wonder where it’s been all my life.

I write this because on Sunday I stumbled across a few such classics at a car boot, and over the last two evenings have been left reeling – REELING I tell you – by the wonder that is Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On, and aside from the well-known title track I’ve clearly been missing out; despite owning a couple of his other LPs, and being aware of its good standing, I never felt the need to seek it out.

Anyway, what classic album(s) have you only just discovered recently? And was it shit or not? Do tell.

N.B. It must be commonly thought of as a proper ‘classic’. Points will be deducted for wilful obscurity.

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Comments

  2. I love love LOVE Let’s Get It On.

    By happy coincidence, I’ve only recently lent a proper ear to Here My Dear.

    Always assumed it was unlistenable because of the back story. As it turns out, it’s actually bloody marvellous. He could sing a bit, could Marvin.

    Also lyrically wonderful – who can fault lines like “somebody tell me please… why do I have to pay attorney fees” and “magnets! Make the love rise”?

  8. I wrote in glowing terms here a few months ago about The Yes Album which I’d never heard before and really enjoyed. Sadly Close to the Edge didn’t repeat the trick…

    • I was trying to think of a recognised classic I don’t know. And there’s one right there. That’s going to be my listening at the beach tomorrow.

        • Actually, I listened to it on the beach. This made it sound as if they put a lot of wave sound effects on the record.

          On the whole I liked it, the title track was really good- you could hear how it influenced Wilco amongst others (particularly reminded of spiders kidsmoke). The writing was mature beyond their years and it was a well produced record. Also, it allowed enough time for the family to play in the sea whilst I got on with it. Sadly my next listen will have to be in the car on the way to work as I’m now sat in the airport waiting to fly home.

  11. Moondance and It’s Too Late To Stop Now. Van Morrison had just passed me by entirely because I never liked Astral Weeks much and assumed it’d all be more of that.

    It’s not.

  14. Nevermind
    Thriller
    As previously admitted, nothing by S Wonder
    Horses
    Purple Rain
    The Bends

    Not particularly proud of this…

    I have however listened to Holiday in Italy by Kurt Edelhagen und sein Tanzorchester.

  15. Earlier this year I heard “Chicago II” for the first time, following a recommendation from Bargepole.
    Does that count as a classic album?
    It should do, because it’s great – an absolute revelation, in fact.

    • Their debut, Chicago Transit Authority, stuffed with good material and even better. And Terry Kath, what a guitar hero.

      BTW the hit, I’m A Man, is quite funny as there was no internet back then to check lyrics so they just plough on with what they think they’re hearing. Hardly sounds like English in places.

  16. Exile on Main Street. Half shit, half quite good actually. The best bits seemed to be played by people who weren’t core (or long-term) members of the group.

  17. The Roches. I’d heard a couple of tracks on the radio around the time of release but despite loving “Hammond Song” I never bought it (hadn’t really started to buy many albums yet then due to a distinct lack of funds, and forgot all about them).
    Got it from a friend this year and really like it. Lovely harmonies and very funny and occasionally moving in a good mix. It also gives me some kind of Proustian rush when I listen to it, but I haven’t figured out quite why yet. Fleeting images and emotions diving under the surface again as soon as they’ve emerged. But the warm and fuzzy kind of just-out-of-reach memories, so that’s OK.

  19. I’m working my way through that 1001 albums to listen to before you die… I’m on 220 which was Tago Mago by Can so in the past 3 months I’ve listened to loads of so called classic albums for the first time.

    Ones I’ve enjoyed most on first listen are Liege and Lief, Bluesbreakers, Aqualung, Five Leaves Left, Songs of Leonard Cohen, Oar by Alex Spence but pretty much all the jazz albums I find unlistenable.

    • Agreed – the jazz albums are sometimes hard going. I got a bit fed up with the obvious American slant of the book, but now I’m in the 60’s and and in much more familiar territory for me. Few socks have been knocked off, but some of the early pre-rock stuff was totally unfamiliar and Sinatra’s In The Wee Small Hours and particularly Songs For Swingin’ Lovers (oh how language changes) were revelatory.

      • I started doing this about five years ago, but I keep finding other things to listen to. So far I’ve managed to get up to 1967 and (apart from the albums I already owned) I’ve been particularly impressed by the Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, A Date with the Everlys, Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, Songs For Swinging Lovers, Tragic Songs of Life, Freak Out, If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears and Sam Cooke’s Live at the Harlem Square Club.

  20. Something/Anything by Todd Rundgren. It’s an odd album; plenty of sublime power pop with rich chords and melodies, but tainted by a nasty misogynistic undertone in parts, and some obvious space fillers. I’ll definitely give it a few more goes.

    • Never really picked up on the nasty misogynistic undertones. As you say, the album has more gorgeous love songs than you could shake a stick at. Unless you’re talking about “S-L-U-T, she may be a slut, but she looks good to me!” But that’s obviously tongue in cheek, and an irresistible chorus to boot.

      Like most doubles, it’s a more expansive landscape. And if you know anything/something about Todd, you know he follows his own path.

      Where do you stand on Wizard?

      • I only just listened to Wizard (etc) and Hermit too. I really don’t know what to make of him.

        SLUT and You Left Me Sore are both nasty, and It Takes Two to Tango I’m also not sure about. I might just need to tune in to his ‘thing’, which seems to be a rather detached, almost autistic disregard for the listener. He’s got an album to fill.

        • Don’t even try Mavis. I’ve been listening to his music for 40 years and much as I love all the 70s stuff (though I won’t be listening to A Treatise on Cosmic Fire again probably ever) no other artist has irritated me more. Like I said, he follows his own path. You either go along or you don’t.
          You see, I don’t get the nasty that you hear, I just don’t. Maybe because I heard it in a different time and I’m just better tuned in to his sensibility. I don’t see how someone who could write with such sensitivity could really be nasty. He’s a young guy having some fun and indulging himself, and boy did he indulge himself. If you didn’t get on with Wizard and Hermit, then I suspect Todd is not for you. There’s a double CD best of called ‘Go Ahead, Ignore Me’ which I would recommend to anyone who wants to cherry pick his work.

      • I’m not agree. Pink Moon was my introduction to Nick and remains my favourite. I think unaccompanied acoustic guitar suits his voice and songs best.

        • Just to show that everyone’s got their own favourite, mine is Bryter Layter, followed by Pink Moon. Nick and his producers gave it their best shot with Bryter. Nick put so much faith in it and it’s failure caused him to retreat further into himself. What I still find astonishing about those records is the recording of his voice. It’s so intimate.

          • I’m imagining the surprise in the studio as Nick starts singing “Hey-hey mama said the way you move….”

            But seriously, the original fourth album was Time Of No Reply, which has the last three doom-laden songs he recorded as well as alt versions and rarities such as Robyn Frederick’s ‘Been Smoking Too Long’

    • It seems increasingly clear that John Martyn wasn’t a particularly nice man.
      But the music he made on Bless the Weather, Inside Out, Live at Leeds, Solid Air, One World and Grace and Danger had a terrible beauty, and was brilliantly played and sung.

      • I’d go a bit further than “not particularly nice”. Everyone’s complicated and difficult to a greater or lesser extent, but in JM’s case the “being an absolute cunt to everyone and specifically abusive to women” side did seem more ascendant than the side that had the sensitivity and appreciation of beauty that produced Solid Air.

        On the basis that it’s what we do (and especially how we treat others) that defines whether or not we’re good people, I think there’s very little case for John Martyn to be remembered as anything other than a supremely talented utter fucking bastard.

  25. A couple, actually.
    Astral Weeks. Mesmerising. I think I’ve been turned off by Van Morrison generally through Moondance’s ubiquity on the radio and Sunday arvo pub singers.
    Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. Have always loved the song but for what ever reason had never got around to the LP.
    Lat year was Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book.

    Much forehead-slapping in response to all three.

    • Bit short though, innit? Needs Keep Gettin’ It On refrain to drag it over the half hour.
      I thought cocaine was supposed to make people work harder and, for pop stars, to lend expansive bombast to their ideas (“Four minute intro, enormous guitar solo, lyrics about how we own the world now, ten – no – a dozen helicopters in the video” – that sort of thing..)

  27. Do the National count? and Radiohead? Altho’ I owned Boxer (tN) and OK Computer (RH) I hadn’t ever given either much thought and neither had left much imprint until I decided to try the last released from each, Moon Shaped Pool (RH) on release and Trouble will Find me (tN) a few weeks ago. Then some of the gaps inbetween. So no wonder I was waiting for Glastonbury with some remote excitement. On deliberation of both output and live televised showing, National 1, Radiohead Nil

  28. Abbey Road – loved it, although as is often the way with the Beatles, I had heard all the tracks, just not in album form – a bit miffed it took so long to get to it, tbh

    • I was relatively late to much of the Beatles catalogue, but like all of these so-called classics I’m in no great rush to hear them. In fact I quite like the idea of lots of fantastic albums lined up in my future like little musical land mines, just waiting to be stepped on, though of course I only want my socks blown off, not me legs.

  29. Earlier this year, because I had never bothered listening to any of the pre Rubber Soul Beatles albums, I actually listened to all of them from Please Please Me to Let It Be (which I also never bothered to listen to on the grounds that it looked shite).

    I’d say that With The Beatles and Let It be were the two I came closest to disliking (although both have their moments).

    Help was the nicest surprise, genuinely thought that was ace.

    A minor observation. They certainly front loaded those early ones didn’t they? Took them a while to figure out how to end those things…

  30. Loads, always loads. Recently heard Wind + Wuthering and it was better than expected, also a couple of Steve Hacketts, very enjoyable. Less pleased with Atomic Rooster and Budgie stuff. Still trying to discover Springsteen and a few were excellent, Nebraska and 18 Tracks but The River didn’t do anything for me. And hearing Jagged Little Pill as an album was strange as so many tracks were familiar from the radio. There are still Floyd/Stones/Dylan/Van albums waiting to be heard.

  31. Well, thanks to stopping working a couple of years ago I have had a lot of time on my hands. I set about my hip hop odyssey in January last year, when it was safe to say I’d never heard around 90 of the albums that would make an average top 100 hip hop albums list, but now I’ve heard the lot and wish I’d got round to it a long time ago. I’d never even heard of Nas, for example, never mind not knowing Illmatic.

    But having come close to exhausting most avenues looking for more new hip hop albums I have been branching out in all kinds of directions and have been seeing what else I had been missing by listening to too many identikit guitar bands (it is funny that most of the music that I have cast aside to make way for my new tastes has been guitar based music since 1997 – with very few exceptions I really don’t think I’ll ever go back to them). I’ve been using things like the books 1001 albums you must hear… And 263 best albums since punk and there are some absolute gems that I had ignored.

    Two recent ones are Baduism and the first Soul II Soul album (the recent TV documentary by Jazzy Jeff led me to that one, as you couldn’t help to be enthused by his passion and love for music). Both those albums are great and quickly led to me buying a boxed set of Soul II Soul CDs and downloading more Erykah Badu. To continue the soul thread I am at this very moment listening to Diana Ross’ 1980 album ‘Diana’ for the first time, having read loads of great things about it and that it was basically a Chic album with Diana Ross as the vocalist. A year or so ago I would have sniffed at it, knowing a couple of singles and dismissing them as chart pop rubbish, in much the same way that Back To Life had put me off Soul II Soul. And like that one I am pleased to find once again that I was wrong, as it’s great.

  32. Here Comes Shuggie Otis.
    Ok maybe not a classic in the truest sense but I do remember the buzz about this guy when the album was released in 1970 mainly due to the fact that he was 14 years old when he recorded it. Co-wrote all the tracks and played a variety of instruments as well as the guitar. Dude could’ve been Prince before Prince was invented but drugs (of course) and an obsession for perfection in the studio really pissed off the record label and it all fell away. He’s been trying to make a comeback in recent years. Here’s the opening track of the album. An instrumental.

  33. So I have started listening to some more of the 1001 albums I must listen to before I die (I’ve prolonged it to keep me alive) and recently I have heard the following for the first time:

    Buffalo Springfield – Buffalo Springfield Again
    Moby Grape – Moby Grape (which is probably my favourite of the latest bunch, but is apparently unavailable on CD)
    Captain Beefheart – Safe as Milk
    The Monkees – Headquarters.

    • Safe As Milk is one of my favourite albums of all time. My babysitting aunt had a sailor friend for a short while. He changed my life.

      Most Moby Grape greatest hits include all of their debut album, which didn’t last much longer than half an hour. On release, as a gimmick, the record company issued every track on a single as well. It didn’t work. The last CD was on Sundazed in 2007 but it was withdrawn because the Grape’s manager claimed he owns the rights to the cover image and he threatened to sue. Moby Grape were always self-destructive. You’d have thought they didn’t want to make any money.

      • I prefer MG’s Wow! Bought it on release (couldn’t resist the cover art) and played it to death. Most of the tracks are on the greatest hits (which is a good investment) though there was a countryish song that didn’t make it. Can’t recall the title now but it was a favourite at the time. The Grape had everything going for them – 3 great vocalists, a great guitarist and a bunch of fine songs. One of the band, Peter Lewis, was the son of 50’s Hollywood star Loretta Young.

  34. Bitches Brew for me.
    I bought the 40th anniversary deluxe wotsit for peanuts recently.
    Pretty odd as I consider my self a Miles fan, but have only really explored the work of the Quintet(s) in real depth. I have heard it before many times but I have never really ‘listened’ to it ( maan!), having bracketed it as druggy noodling coupled with truly yuck cover art.
    The cover art (to my mind) hasn’t improved & it still seems very ‘stoned’, but there are loads of brilliant spooky grooves on it & plenty of real depth.
    On balance I think it is bloody brilliant (maybe not for dinner party background music at high volume).
    The sleeve notes & the ‘exclusive essay’ that come with the package do however rank up with some of the most Pseuds Corner guff I’ve ever read.

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