Entertainment For Lively Minds
Artists who we can't believe that we once liked
I think the important thing here is not to go for the obvious embarassing childhood fancies but for artists that we really admired and thought to be great and then suddenly decided were really bad... and what made you change your mind.
In Julian Cope's excellent biography Head on / Reposessed he talks about the moment when he went from being the world's biggest Scott Walker fan to deciding that he never wanted to listen to him again. I seem to remember Cope was trying to get down with two younger members of his latest band and played them one of Scott Walker's records. The two young guns dismissed Walker with such vigour that Cope could no longer feel any allegance with his music (and lets not forget he had previously compiled a Scott Walker compiltaion and had been a very public advocate of his music). I think the criticism of Walker had been that his music was too mannered and square, which I guess is the antithesis of what Cope has gone on to...
Anyway, my entries are as follows...
Oasis: I remember even as late as their 2002 single "Hindu Times" being convinced that the Gallaghers had some kind of magic vibe to their music. Even when the tunes wained I still found an appeal in the grooves somewhere. Now (save for the absolute cream of their debut album), all I can hear is plodsmanship... I no longer get what I once did....
Razorlight: Okay I'll admit that very early on I held a bit of a candle to these key purveyors of "Landfill Indie"... I still think "Golden Touch" is a fine song. But as their albums grew increasingly bland I found myself going off the entire canon of work. And Word magazine's harsh treatment of them has completely cemented my disdain...
Queen: I think I can put this down to discovering David Bowie's 70s catalogue...
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Hair Metal
Motley Crue, Poison, Cinderella, Skid Row (mainly American bands). Although, I did (and still do) listen to Twisted Sister (I think Dee Snider was in on the joke)
Transvision Vamp is another band I look back on with confusion
And Huey Lewis & The News
Members Of Twisted Sister Now Willing To Take It
[the onion]
NEW YORK—In a stunning reversal of their long-stated reluctance to take it, members of heavy-metal band Twisted Sister announced Monday that, after 24 years of fervent refusal, they are now willing to take it. "I acknowledge that we promised not to take it anymore, but things change. The world is a different place today, and with that in mind, we would like to go on record as saying that, starting right now, we are going to take it," read a statement released by the band's lead singer, Dee Snider. "To clarify, we would still prefer not to take it, but as of now, taking it is an option that we would be open to. That is all." Bassist Mark "the Animal" Mendoza also stated that, in regards to what he wants to do with his life, he no longer solely wants to rock, but would instead prefer doing other things, such as raising a family and working as a claims adjuster in Rye, NY.
Genesis
Once a fervent passion - now an unlistenable, cringe-inducing embarrassment.
It's funny...
...because after probably 20 years of agreeing with the "embarrassment" school of Genesis thought, I recently downloaded "Invisible Touch" on a whim. It's ace.
It's Cyclical
There are bands who come in and out of fashion, we all remember when you wouldn't dare say you loved any of the above - punk killed off a lot of long-haired stuff; but in America it's different - Kurt Cobain was very honest about those old bands from the 70s - even the hardmen like Henry Rollins admit to liking Queen.
Now Queen, I love them, but I kept it zipped until Wayne's World, etc made it OK.
Most of the stuff I listened to when I was 16
Carter USM
Kingmaker
Pop Will Eat Itself
Neds Atomic Dustbin
Back to the Planet
Listened to some of this stuff on Spotify recently. Christ, what was I thinking? I think Andrew Harrison was right - 1992 was the worst year for music.
Carter USM
was listening again only the other week - still enjoy it
Can I add Senseless Things to the list - tried that again. It was not a great expereince
Never liked Carter much
Senseless Things' Postcard CV is still worth a spin, not sure about the rest, as are the early Mega City 4 singles. All were definitely crap by '92.
Yep, I too would like Carter USM striken from your list
They were marvellous.
Actually I was a bit hasty
I instantly thought of Carter because they remain resolutely critically un-reappraised. I haven't actually listened to them properly in about 15 years, and didn't check them out on Spotify as I did the others. But listening again to Only Living Boy In New Cross at full blast, it isn't half bad.
Some of the other bands though... crikey. I'd forgotten how thin and tinny early 90s production sounded.
1992
I'd agree with that as a low point. You could sense the hacks grasping for heroes.
1992 - not so bad....
In the year between "Nevermind" and "In Utero", I don't think we did too badly. Here's why...
- Carter... Okay those sequencers have dated quite badly but the words and spirit make them the Billy Bragg of their era
- Automatic For The People... Don't need to say much here
- Early Verve.... better than late (the) Verve
- Early Suede....
- Early Spiritualised
- Pulp's "Babies"
- Ice Cube's Predator album
- The very first single by the Auteurs
Okay so we're not talking the arrival of Hendrix but there was some real maverick spirit about.
... I also note with interest that Johnny Hates Jazz split up in this year...
As far as I'm concerned..
All items on Walker's list strengthen my argument.
Apart from the Ice Cube album. I've not heard that so I can't pass judgement.
Nooooooo
I loved (and love still) all of Suede's early singles
Oh, and Julian Cope rejecting Scott Walker because of his band?
I have a similar story involving me, my band and the music of Dodgy.
The loved them until they released an album syndrome
All these were my great hopes for new exciting alternative music, until they released their first albums and went from promising underground act to immediate superstar headline Reading status and it all hits a creative dead-end. Or they were just crap...
Kings Of Leon
Franz Ferdinand
Green Day
Maximo Park
Rakes
Gene
Garbage
Strokes
Razorlight (cough...)
Republica
There are many from my youth, but that's part of growing up isn't it?
Some bands I just cannot listen to nowadays that I absolutely loved were Anti-Nowhere League, Virgin Prunes, The Cockney Rejects, The Adicts, Subhumans, Crass, The Exploited, Spear Of Destiny...oh dear!
The 18-year-old me
would have beaten the shit out of the 16-year-old me (quantum physics permitting) for owning all the Queen albums up to Jazz.
This made it hard for 18YOM to go into any of the record shops in my home town and convincingly buy Clash albums.
Chris de Burgh...
released some cracking good albums in his early days, like Crusader and Eastern Wind, but then he started writing about Red Frocks and got popular..for a while...then got worse, lots worse.
Another one here for...
Chris de Burgh.
A man whose later offerings rendered his earlier work unlistenable. Not that I begrudge him that - I might even be thankful.
And - I'm not sure I can even bring myself to write this - I had a brief flirtation with Al Jarreau when he released "L Is For Lover".
I used to be crazy for Lenny Kravitz in my early teens...
Yeah. Still living that one down.
I remember...
... trying to live down the fact that I refused to leave the dance floor of my local indie disco even when "Are You Gonna Go My Way" played... this was seen as an act of great shamelessness by my friends. But even worse I still refused to head to the bar even when The Spin Doctors came on!!!!
Now there WAS a band???
Oh I LOVED that song....!!!
Aw, I'm all nostalgic for the indie discos of my student days now...
Non...
Je ne regrette rien...
I had to think about this.
When I was in my teens.. I did like the theatricals of live Metal but I did recognise most of it to be complete toss. Dio did sneak under the radar, though. Cringeworthy now. The odd track turns up on Planet Rock and it's like having someone hitting your toes with a lump-hammer. One toe at a time.
Further crimes..
The Alan Parsons Project. I still listen every now and then but.. ooh.. MOR syrup.
Barclay James Harvest and The Enid. Have to own up there.
Early Eloy. German prog. Terrible. I still like their later stuff, though.
Wishbone Ash other than Argus. Half a dozen albums of bilge.
And so to the 90's.
Ruby Blue. Celtic whimsy care of David Mamet's future wife. Toss. Four CD's worth.
Grand Drive. I still try to like them. They did try so hard.
There must be more. I'm just not man enough to own up yet.
Thank god I'm not alone on BJH
*shudder* Sent packing along with the Feargal Sharkey and Midge Ure solo ablums that used to get plenty of play. USe dto be a huge Alarm fan, but some of that still holds up in a nostalgic way.
Alan Parsons Project
I came to them late after I married the niece of one of the band. I subsequently bought 'I Robot' and 'Eye In the Sky' to see what they were about. MOR syrup? Agreed. Either that or unlistenable over-produced bombast. Of course I was too polite to tell this to my uncle-in-law.
Crusty Rave!
I've generally chosen my bands pretty well over the years
but went through a, mercifully, very brief phase of liking the truly appalling Back to the Planet. BTP had an anti-war song called "Please Don't Fight" (They could have done the 'Keep Britain Tidy' anti litter song suggested on the podcast a while back)
They had T-Shirts that read: "Who's Fucking Planet" and their guitarist was called 'Fraggle'.
Ozric Tentacles were in this category too, although they actually were not half bad, pretty good Hawkwind style space rock and dub workouts. Great light show...
I also used to like the Scots psychedelic techno-rockers The Shamen, and thought they were the future of Music.. until gold-topped rapper 'Mr C' arrived (pre-dating Eminem by a decade)..."Love, Sex, Intelligence....Coming on Like A Seventh Sense" Oh dear oh dear.
The early Syd Barrett influenced stuff might get revisited some day, and 'Jesus Loves Amerika' is probably worth a spin but..."Eezer Good Eezer Good"? Oh how we laughed.
.. I had some crusty friends...
..and the wierd thing is that, although I never had the balls to take on the looks or the lifestyle, at the time it really felt like they might be on to something (other than cheap cider and avoiding both soap AND work with equal vigour).
So I was subjected to many a stoned evening curled up on a bean bag with the Ozrics wailing through my frazzled head... and was subjected to at least three live appearances by Back to The Planet. I remember thinking they were a bit like a crusty take on The Selecter and the gigs weren't actually too bad (notably their appearance at a free crust-fest in Deptford...proabably '93). But when they finally got round to releasing a single (the godawful "Teenage Turtles") I think it was clear that the train had ground to a halt..
Please forgive me
I remember the heady days of 1987 when, as an 8 year old child just forming the opinion that girls weren't all that bad, I used to think the way to woo a girl's heart was by having a formidable Michael Bolton collection. The fact that he shares a birthday with me also meant that I thought that we were some kind of kindred spirits. The shame, the shame.
During my Camden drinking period, I used to quite enjoy listening to Menswear.
Actually, I'm not sure which is worse.
At least...
being 8, I guess you weren't allowed to try and emulate his hair do.
So be grateful for small mercies.
PS You're not alone in the Menswear thing. I had their album and everything. Shh.
The Levellers
May God forgive me.
T'Pau
It was just I had a thing for girls with red hair...
I had bloody everything they ever released; promos, foreign releases, white labels, even the hard to find pre-T'Pau stuff. Saw them live, 3 times in one week. Watched them film the video for Sex Talk, met them and got to autograph everything I had. Fortunately I grew out of them and moved onto an artist more deserving of my stalking, er I mean collecting.
Tori Amos. AAARRRGGGHHH!!
Excuse me. I have loads of worthless junk to sell on eBay. Any takers?
Generally most of mine
would be 80's stuff and i think mainly because the production values then are now sounding very dated. In particular;-
Deacon Blue
Prefab Sprout (songs are okay but production is dire)
Spandau Ballet
Utlravox
Madonna (her early stuff was only ever ok but unbearable now)
Gary Numan
Didn't Deacon Blue release...
..."When the World Knows You've Bought A Shit Album"?
Yeah they did
I think I have it (much to my embarrassment).
I still like Raintown
It all went rapidly downhill after that though.
I bought the first two Phil Collins albums which has embarrassed me for years but he seems to be going through some sort of critical reappraisal around here, so maybe I should listen to them again.
Don't
bother mate
Sound advice
Upon reflection, I think I'll take it.
Brooce?
Just not sure anymore. Somehow, time seems to have diminished his work. Was Paddy Mac right all along? Or meringue?
UB40
The genuine (and innovative) social voice of the Midlands for the first 4 albums. Hit paydirt with Labour of Love and the noses never came back out of the trough.
Led Zeppelin
Like the original poster said above, not really an obvious embarrassment, but a band I look back at with fond bewilderment over why I went so ga-ga over them in the first place.
I have an interesting story here. Bear with me, it's a bit embarrassing. Ok, so flash back to 1990 and I got into Led Zeppelin when they brought out their big box set. Song after song, I was completely blown away, and in my mind at the time they took pole position over even my beloved Beatles and Kinks.
When I reached the song "In The Light", it was just too much. I thought this song was just the most perfect sound I had ever heard, a truly life affirming experience. So, in an effort to preserve that perfection in a kind of Proustian time capsule, I vowed (wait for it) to never listen to the song again. Yes, realising that at some point in the future there was a possibility that life would take over and I would tire of Led Zeppelin, I vowed to wait until that moment (and no sooner) to actually listen to the song for a second time. I believed that if that moment ever came then I would need to be kicked back into life again. I believed that I could recreate the thrill of hearing it again for the first time, and I would be reminded all over again why Led Zeppelin were the best band in the world.
Okay, six or seven years later... I had grown up a little (as you do) and I had finally tired of the mighty Led Zeppelin. And, yes, I realised this was the time I had been waiting for.
You can imagine the rest: when I listened to "In The Light" again for only the second time I heard not the apocalyptic fusion of eastern mysticism and rock power (that my 18 year old self had loved so much) but a turgid and pretentious mess of soggy proggy synth and out of tune guitar. And I never looked at Led Zeppelin in the same way again.
I've never told that story to anyone until now. Feels cathartic and pathetic in equal measure...
Turin Brakes - Remember when they were the future?
I was totally convinced they were going to define the Noughties (the very idea!). Even went around telling freshers week pals of my 'discovery'. The Door EP seemed to genuinely have something, looking back now, everything else.....didn't. I think the second album earned about 3 spins all told. Are they even still going, anyone?
Strange times, they were, when the same band would be the new Radiohead one week and then press-ganged into the "New Acoustic Movement" the next, was involved. This was when I started to realise that you couldn't believe everything you read in the Holy Scriptures (NME & Melody Maker).
Haven? 'New Radiohead', you say? Hmmm.
Starsailor? Purveyors of 'heartstopping beauty'? Pardon?
...I remember...
... the desperate attempts made by the NME to create a scene during the era between Britpop and the arrival of The Strokes. The New Acoustic Movement was possible the most feeble excuse for a scene since Romo.
I myself was briefly taken in when having spend an evening watching Alfie, Starsailor and JJ72 at an NME new bands evening, I was convinced that I had seen the future of rock'n'roll... and like you I haven't really taken the NME seriously since.
Mugs game, innit. Can you
Mugs game, innit.
Can you imagine someone, somewhere contributing to a thread like this saying "I was a hardcore Kings of Convenience fan until they released that f*'#%*g Quiet is the New Loud... it only had t£^%$^g electric instrumentation on it! F&*#^g Judases!"
I remeber those shows at the time. Whoever thought anyone would buy those three being part of the same so- called 'movement'? Beats me.
The 'Brakes..
Still very partial to them, myself.
Starsailor, however, were wank of the very first and finest water.